THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABASE



ZAXXON



PUBLISHER

US Gold



AUTHOR



YEAR



CATEGORY

Arcade



INSTRUCTIONS

The Object of the Game

Zaxxon is a classic space encounter in which you find youself at

the controls of an attack space shuttle spacecraft.  You must

strafe the enemy Asteroid City in an attempt to destroy fuel

tanks, gun emplacements, missles and enemy aircraft.  With the

aid of an altimeter you must barnstorm your way through narrow

wall openings, lethal electronic barriers, and deadly rocket

fire.  A successful attack run across the Asteroid City leads you

to a deep space dogfight with squadrons of enemy planes. 

Surviving the perils of outer space brings you to another

Asteroid City and a showdown with the Insidious robot, ZAXXON.

Successfully destroying the evil ZAXXON allows further play but

with increased difficultly.  The game continues until all of your

ships have crashed or been lost to enemy fire.



How to Play



Using the Menu



The menu screen displays four status boxes:  one for the present

number of players; one for the skill level; one displaying

whether keyboard or joystick is selected; and finally, the

largest box thich displays the current keyboard selectio for

movement, fire, etc.  Further to this is a list of keys to press

which perform various functions.



'S' to start;

'I' to go to the instruction pages;

'P' to change the number of players (this is a toggle putting 1

to 2 or 2 to 1);

'L' to change skill level (this loops through "easy", "fair", and

"hard");

'K' to define the game keys - you are asked to press your key

selections with the option to reselect should you make an error;

'J' to make a joystick selection (keep pressing to loop through

selections).



If the machine is loaded and left unattended the game will

self-demonstrate.



When you press 'S' to start the game you are aked to Input your

name, which can be up to eight charaters.  This input routine has

an erase facility using the normal Spectrum 'Delete' keys.  When

you are finished inputting your name press 'Enter' to start the

game itself.  From now on the program will refer to each player

be name - a unique feature of this game.



Shuttle Craft



Your ship is controlled in the normal aircraft manner.  Pull back

on the stick to climb, push forward to dive.  Left and right

turns are made by moving the stick to the left or right, and the

trigger button fires your laser cannons.  An altimeter on the

left hand side of the screen helps you determine your altitude. 

This is especially helpful when navigating through the wall

openings and electronic barriers, as well as in deep space

dogfights.  The fuel gauge indicated fuel remaining, which is

repluntished by destroying the fuel depots in the Asteroid

Cities.



Electronic Barriers



In the early levels of play, you must fly over the walls and

under or over the deadly electronic barriers erected to protect

the Asteroid City.  As play progresses, the walls become more

inpenetrable, leaving only small openings to pass through.  These

openings are also protected by electronic barriers, so your task

is doubly difficult.  Fire your lasers at the electronic barriers

to gauge your position in relation to the openings.



The Asteroid Cities



At the beginning of your mission you enter the first Asteroid

City.  You must successfully make your way through the city and

destroy as many enemy aircraft as possible.  The higher your

tally here, the fewer aircraft you will encounter in deep space. 

You should also destroy the fuel depots to increase your own

supply of fuel and also score points.  Finally, you should

destroy as many radar towers, gun emplacements, and base missles

for the highest possible score.



Deep Space



Successfully negotiating the perils of the Asteroid City leads

to deep space and encounters with those enemy aircraft that

survived your earlier onslaught, as well as enemy tracing

satellites.  The size of the aircraft indicates their altitude. 

(Smaller planes are not as high.)  The number of enemy (EP)

remaining is displayed in the upper right hand corner of the

screen.  When all enemy planes have been destroyed a bonus

of 1000 points is awarded.



The Confrontation



Your flight through the perils of deep space will, if successful,

bring you to yet another Asteroid City.  But this one is

different, it is the fortress of ZAXXON, the deadly robot who

will appear launching seeker-missles.  Destruction of the robot

requires three direct hits on its missle launcher.  After you

couquer ZAXXON, the round advances and the difficulty increases. 

If you lose your ship inside an Asteroid City your next ship will

be launched at the beginning of that city.  The gameplay ends

with the loss of your last ship.  An additional ship is awarded

for scoring 20,000 points.



Scoring



Radar Towers............................1000

Fuel Tanks...............................300

Gun Emplacements.........................200 or 500

                                         random

Base Missles.............................150

Enemy Planes.............................100

                                         (increases by 50 each

round)

Satellites...............................300

Robot Missles............................200

ZAXXON..................................1000

