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