Secret Service 56b/SSERVCD_56B.bin/Sinclair/Games/information/PyramidThe.txt

Text File | 1998-02-02 | 16KB | 391 lines

THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABASE

THE PYRAMID

PUBLISHER
Fantasy

AUTHOR
Bob Hamilton with Darren and Ian Hamilton

YEAR
1983

DESCRIPTION
A simple, fun arcade game with large, amusing aliens. Attempted
to introduce a character, Ziggy, with a "Hitch-Hiker's Guide to
the Galaxy"-style plot.

CONTROLS
Fuller, Kempston, Mikro-Gen and cursor joysticks supported, plus
3 keyboard options, listed on opening screen.

INSTRUCTIONS
The action all takes place within one screen. Shoot sufficient
aliens to release a crystal; protect it from the aliens, pick it
up when it turns blue and drop it above an exit. Repeat until the
exit is clear, then leave that screen.

INLAY CARD TEXT
[back cover - picture of Ziggy within a triangle]
THE PYRAMID is an arcade style game which has a very adventurous
feel to it.  The Pyramid contains 120 chambers on 15 levels. In
order to get from one chamber to another you must fight off the
indigenous aliens to collect an energised crystal which will
neutralize the force field guarding the two exits.  The Pyramid
is inhabited by a total of 60 wierd and exotic alien types, all
of which are beautifully animated. You will meet a whole variety
of demons, droids, insects and monsters, with a sprinkling of the
more unusual, the extra-terrestrial tweezers, galactic
strawberry, cosmic claw, mutant eye, plus a whole host of
entities that defy rational description. You will no doubt invent
your own nicknames.  You proced to explore the pyramid from top
to bottom with the difficulty generally increasing with the depth
of level. Depending on the choice of exit from each chamber you
are likely to have a different game every time you play.  Apart
from the challenge of trying to achieve the highest score
possible the pyramid contains a number puzzle to solve. The more
chambers you  successfully visit the more information is gathered
to enable you to discover the secret numbers of the pyramid.  The
puzzle won't take you days to solve, it will probably take you
a few months.  The manned craft shown in the pyramid above is
your exploratory capusle and is a true representation of the on
screen graphics.

Compatible with all leading joysticks

[leaflet text]
THE PYRAMID: THE SCENE

WARNING! This is probably quite the silliest scenario ever
written for any video game and we make no excuses for it. The
more sober minded of you should turn over for the instructions.

The original answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the
universe and everything was 42 but many aeons have now passed
since Deep Thought produced that magical number. Ever greater and
greater mega-computers have come and gone since then with no
further advances being made - that is, until Ziggy came along.

Ziggy was both very inquisitive and very ambitious from birth.
At the age of three months he decided that his life's quest would
be to solve the puzzle once and for all. Instead of turning to
the much tried computer, Ziggy decided to search for clues back
in history and spent his 200 years of adolescence plugged into
the memory banks at the offices of the Encyclopedia Galactica.

At the age of 218 Ziggy obtained his Cosmonaut's licence and was
free to fly the Universe on his great mission armed with just one
clue from all his years of research. This concerned two amazing
coincidences in connection with a small microcomputer known as
the Spectrum. The Spectrum originated on a seemingly
insignificant planet known curiously as 'The Earth' and when that
planet was destroyed in a galactic highway clearance scheme some
enterprising cosmic salvage expert recovered one of these
machines and claimed universal patent rights. Within a matter of
years the Spectrum became the universally biggest selling
microcomputer of all time.

The first amazing coincidence occurred on the planet of Imagit
where 99% of the population were involved in the production of
games for the Spectrum. On one fateful day, each of the 15,217
Software Houses of Imagit revealed their latest and greatest game
to the realisation that they were all exactly identical, down to
the very last byte. The resulting bitter conflict over rights was
solely responsible for the outbreak of Cosmic War V.

This game, The Pyramid, simultaneously created independently by
15,217 Software Houses became an all-time best seller once Cosmic
War V was over and played a major part in the second amazing
coincidence.

The people of the planet of Sunder were games nuts and at this
particular time were all nuts on 'The Pyramid'. In a moment of
unparalleled frustration the entire population of 8,000 million,
while playing the game, began leaping up and down in perfect
synchrony and at a devastatingly destructive resonant frequency.
The shock wave created sparked off a series of massive
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions which tore the planet Sunder
asunder.

The Pyramid was subsequently banned from sale resulting in the
creation of the most lucrative black market in history.

For Ziggy, the odds against these two events occurring by chance
were so ginormously ginormous that he reasoned there must be some
fundamental significance in them. Ziggy got hold of a Spectrum
at a space museum in a nearby galaxy and started conducting
tests. For many years he toiled away searching for some vital
clue to point the way on his quest until one day when the
Spectrum was routinely churning out its pseudo-random number
sequence he noticed a familiar pattern - the Spectrum has
produced an Astral Co-ordinate.  A computer check revealed that
the co-ordinate belonged to the remote and largely unknown planet
of Zargon, and in the centre of a large desert area.

You now join as Ziggy arrives after a long journey to discover
that at the precise astral co-ordinate produced by the Spectrum
lies (yes...you've guessed) a PYRAMID. This third coincidence
confirms Ziggy in his belief that he is  close to the Ultimate
Answer.

We can reveal that as Ziggy you must battle your way through the
Pyramid, chamber by chamber, to slowly discover its secret
numbers. Once a chamber has been successfully negotiated its Key
Number may be revealed to you - but not always. The guardians of
the Pyramid have not made it easy so you will have to puzzle out
the missing secret numbers from the relationship to the other
numbers on that level (or possibly the ones above). The Ultimate
Answer is the number for the inner sanctum chamber, the centre
chamber on the lowest level. This number will have to be puzzled
out and the techniques learnt from the puzzles of higher levels
may well be of good use to you.

This program may not be copied, hired out, lent, printed or
broadcast by any means without prior written permission of
Fantasy Software Ltd.

COPYRIGHT (C) FANTASY SOFTWARE LTD 1983.
The Pyramid was designed and written by Bob Hamilton. Graphics
for chambers 5,6,7,11,12,16,20,21,22,34,39,45,60 and opening
titles by Darren Hamilton.  Graphics for chambers
2,18,26,29,40,48,53 and 61 by Ian Hamilton.

(C) FANTASY SOFTWARE 1983.

THE PYRAMID: THE GAME

To explore the Pyramid you have an exploratory capsule with great
defensive shield power and a highly effective phased plasmic
laser to atomize the aliens. The Pyramid contains 120 chambers
on 15 levels with the principal object of the game being to reach
the base level (level 15) as quickly as possible.

Each chamber is inhabited by one of a variety of 60 wierd and
exotic aliens. Contact with these aliens is deadly but your
shield power will protect you. Your shield energy is ued to
atomize the unfortunate aliens on contact but this repeated
action will deplete your supply of energy. When no power is left
in your shield you become totally vulnerable to attack which will
result in you (poor Ziggy) being splatted all over the screen on
being hit. You will be pleased to know that your total shield
power is fully replenished to 100 units every time you enter a
new chamber. Your current level of shield power is indicated
against 'P' on the scoreline. As you descend deeper into the
Pyramid the aliens generally require more energy to atomize so
you'll have to keep out of their way as much as you can.

There are two exits from each chamber, both of which are guarded
by a force field. The force field has to be neutralized in order
to leave the chamber.  This is achieved by means of an energised
crystal which will descend from the top of the screen after a
certain number of aliens have been atomized. The number of aliens
to be destroyed before the next crystal is released is indicated
on the scoreline against 'A'.

The crystal has 3 energy states. In its highest energy state
(white), the crystal will destroy any aliens that come into
contact with it and has too much energy to enable you to pick it
up.

Any contact with the crystal in this state will result in loss
of shield power. In its intermediate energy state (yellow) it is
still not possible to pick the crystal up but it is now
vulnerable to destruction by the aliens.  In its lowest energy
state (cyan) the crystal can be picked up and this is achieved
simply by moving into it with your capsule. When you are carrying
the crystal your capsule changes colour to cyan, however the
crystal remains vulnerable to the aliens and is lost if the
capsule is hit.

The force fields guarding the two exits also have different
energy states, four of them, indicated by yellow (highest), cyan,
green through to magenta (lowest). Dropping a crystal through a
force field decreases the energy state by one level or if in its
lowest state will neutralize the field, allowing you to exit.
Release of the crystal takes place automatically as the capsule
passes over either of the exits although it can be picked up
again in an emergency.

Scoring for the game is a little unusual in that points are
awarded for the speed with which you negotiate each chamber. As
you enter a chamber the available points starts at 9999 and
inexorably decreases as time goes on. You can still enter the
next chamber even if the points have dropped to zero, your score
will simply stay as it is. The points can be seen ticking away
against 'S' on the scoreline. For each person there will probably
be an optimum route through the Pyramid which you will have to
gradually discover with experience. If you score more than 30,000
your high score will be coded.  Send your score and its code to
us and you may earn a place in our ranking list of the top 1000
scorers published every 6 months.

After successfully negotiating a chamber the entire pyramid will
be displayed showing your route so far and the next chamber to
be entered (flashing). The key number for the previous chamber
will also be displayed and this should be noted down. If a line
of question marks is displayed then the key number for this
chamber is missing and will have to be puzzled out.  Watch our
for details of a competition connected with the number puzzles
in the Fantasy Micro Club newsletter.

The following four joystick options are available:
1. FULLER  2. KEMPSTON  3. AGF/PROTEK  4. MIKROGEN
There are three keyboard options available (and additionally the
cursor keys can be used by selecting the AGF (Protek option).
These are detailed on the opening page when the game starts.
Keyboard use is very subjective and we hope to have covered
everybody's tastes - let us know if we haven't!  The required
option is selected on the opening page and stays in force for the
duration of the game.

We hope you have a lot of fun playing 'The Pyramid' and that you
enjoy meeting all the aliens invented to do battle with you. We
strongly urge you to send back the reply slip and join the
Fantasy Micro Club which has a regular newsletter with member's
offers on both software and hardware, news on games, scores and
member correspondence.

One last point, the game can be held at any time by pressing
"ENTER" on the keyboard. It can be restarted in the same way.

CHEATS
44685,0 gives, effectively, infinite energy, though you still
lose the crystal if an alien hits you while you're carrying it.

SEQUELS/PREQUELS
Sequels: Doomsday Castle and Backpackers Guide To The Universe
(part 1).  Not particularly similar to The Pyramid but also
featuring Ziggy.

SCORES RECEIVED

URLs

GENERAL FACTS

NOTES
The aim is to deduce the Key No. for Chamber 113.

Chamber              Key No.
001                  000001
002                  000002
003                  000003
004                  000005
005                  ??????
006                  000011
007                  088841
008                  103041
009                  035721
010                  017689
011                  000017
012                  000013
013                  000027
014                  ??????
015                  000019
016                  000211
017                  000223
018                  ??????
019                  000229
020                  000233
021                  000239
022                  000003
023                  000007
024                  000031
025                  ??????
026                  008191
027                  131071
028                  524287
029                  000210
030                  000090
031                  000084
032                  000378
033                  000567
034                  000042
035                  000128
036                  000384
037                  000027
038                  000035
039                  000061
040                  000072
041                  000093
042                  ??????
043                  000012
044                  000088
045                  000023
046                  148877
047                  205379
048                  226981
049                  300763
050                  357911
051                  ??????
052                  493039
053                  571787
054                  704969
055                  912673
056                  000101
057                  000131
058                  000151
059                  000181
060                  000313
061                  000353
062                  ??????
063                  000757
064                  000787
065                  000797
066                  000919
067                  000723
068                  000180
069                  000357
070                  000289
071                  000209
072                  000317
073                  000489
074                  ??????
075                  000557
076                  000995
077                  000414
078                  000486
079                  002240
080                  001344
081                  000936
082                  000936
083                  001128
084                  ??????
085                  001147
086                  001258
087                  001598
088                  001316
089                  000868
090                  001302
091                  001470
092                  007854
093                  041990
094                  000520
095                  015015
096                  001750
097                  010868
098                  003267
099                  018865
100                  006050
101                  057967
102                  002310
103                  013851
104                  002584
105                  004004
106                  236313
107                  000033
108                  000217
109                  000146
110                  000015
111                  032850
112                  034839
113                  ??????
114                  000711
115                  000641
116                  000026
117                  433316
118                  348816
119                  000052
120                  000129