THE SPECTRUM GAME DATABASE



ESCAPE FROM KRAKATOA



PUBLISHER

Abbex



AUTHOR

Paul W. Reynolds



YEAR

1984



DESCRIPTION

Escape from Krakatoa is a scrolling arcade game, with strategy

overtones, similar to Choplifter (in the same way that Turbo

Esprit is similar to Chase HQ).



CONTROLS

You must use the keyboard for this game.  The controls are also

given in the game.



Forwards

Up

Down

Turn around

Rope up

Rope down

Machine gun

Mine



INSTRUCTIONS

There are several thing you must do in this game.  Your general

objective is to keep everybody and everything safe from the

volcano and the periodical air strikes.  And the submarine.



Starting on the left hand side of the playing area, the first

island is your base.  This is where you start from, and if your

helicopter gets damaged, landing here will repair it.  You can

also refuel from here as well.  Should you also rescue any

people, this is where you must drop them of to gain the points. 

Rescuing is done by lowering the rope and flying the end of it

into the men.  Depending on how much rope you lower, you can

carry up to 5 people at once.  When dropping them off, be careful

that you just lower the bottom person on the rope to level with

the ground - they will automatically climb off.  If you go down

too low you will kill them.



Next along the map is the tanker.  This can substain quite a lot

of damage, but everytime it is hit, another person will jump of

the ship and into the water, waiting to be rescued.  Once the

tanker has been damaged too much it wil sink.  Should the tanker

sink then it is game over.



In the same stretch of water as the tanker is the yellow

submarine.  This appears periodically, shooting torpedo's through

the water which may or may not hit the tanker.  The only way to

destroy this is to hit it with a mine.



Next along the map is the island of Krakatoa itself.  The first

big hill is the actual volcano, which erupts periodically (or

when/if you drop any mines into it) sending debris everywhere. 

When it does so, people will appear outside the three houses

demanding to be rescued.  You must run the gauntlet of flying

lava and try and rescue them and take them back to base before

they are hit.  Getting hit by the lava will damage your

helicopter.



There is nothing else on the map of note, except from the far

right (off the map), which is where the air strikes appear from. 

They appear in groups periodically, and depending on where they

land, they will either crash into the sea or into the tanker,

damaging it even more.  You must shoot these down using your

machine gun.



Should the helicopter become damaged, it will be affected in

various ways, depending on which sections have been hit

(indicated on the dashboard).  The control panel, including

radar, may start to flicker, the helicopter may start to act

erratically, or it may just crash altogether.



THE SCREEN DISPLAY

The two graphs on either side of the screen are your fuel and

ammo.  The pairs of letters are your damage warning lights.  In

the centre of the control panel is your scanner which shows all

major features in the map.



CHEATS



SEQUELS/PREQUELS

None.



INLAY CARD TEXT



SCORES RECEIVED



URL



GENERAL FACTS

In case you did not know, this game is based on a real-life

Krakatoa island complete with active volcano.



NOTES

One of the great things about this game is the amount of things

you can do.  As well as the normal objectives, you can also drop

mines into the volcano to try and set it of.  You can play a

simple game of Defender with the air strikes.  It is a challenge

to juggle all the objectives and can get quite frenetic.

