Instructions for
Equinox
Mikro-Gen, 1986
Written by Chris Owen, HTML'd by Arnt Gulbrandsen.
Controls
Keyboard, Kempston
Aim of the game
A mining asteroid, Suri Ani VII, becomes contaminated with highly
radioactive waste after an accident with its disposal. The miners have
fled for their lives, leaving behind their equipment and much valuable
ore. This has obviously cost the owners of the asteroid a lot of money
and hoping to cut their losses, they've sent in a Dedicated Disposal
Droid to get rid of the waste and decontaminate the mines. You're the
person with the job of remotely piloting the droid...
Game play
Nothing is ever as simple as it might seem, and such is the
case in EQUINOX too - the fleeing miners forgot to shut down the
asteroid's security systems, as a result of which the place is now
difficut and dangerous to penetrate. Security Droids materialise next
to any intruder detected and attempt to destroy them. Since only three
lives are provided, you'll need to make good use of the DDD's onboard
laser system to destroy the Security Droids. Unfortunately they tend
not to stay destroyed and rematerialise shortly afterwards.
The radioactive canisters at the root of the problem must be collected
and disposed of by dropping them down a disposal chute into the lead-
lined storage room below. There are eight levels on Suri Ani VII, and
each one must be cleared of the canisters contaminating it. A time
limit is imposed on each level due to the creeping meltdown of some of
the canisters - take too long and they'll explode.
The DDD has a retro-thrust unit fitted which can be activated in an
emergency to make an escape from materialising Security Droids. This
demands a large amount of fuel, and if the DDD runs out of fuel it will
explode. Batteries can be collected to replenish the fuel supply, though.
Quicker movement between certain locations is possible via teleporters,
for which you'll need to pay a toll of one droid life. This is exchanged
for a cyan teleport credit which can be obtained from the credit
dispensers. The trans-level transporter ensures safe passage between
levels, but numbered level passes have to be collected before inter-level
transport is permitted. Access will only be granted if the DDD has a pass
with a number less than or equal to the number of the level you want to
travel to.
At the top of the screen are a number of status windows. The leftmost
one shows the inventory; the next one shows lives remaining; the centre
one shows the score and the time remaining (the coloured squares); and
the right-hand one shows two bars indicating respectively fuel and laser
energy supplies.
Comments
"A very well produced shoot-em-up adventure".
Rating
87% (CRASH #30, July 1986)
Now
Quite a neat game, and somewhat reminiscent of the excellent
STARQUAKE. The author, Raf Cecco, was later to go on to do EXOLON, the
CYBERNOID games and the STORMLORD games - all of which are likewise very
good.
Keys
Left - O
Right - P
Thrust - Q
Fire - M
Use - A
Pause - 3
Nettverksgruppa, 10/9-94, sinclair@nvg.ntnu.no