THE SPECTRUM GAME DATABASE



EXOLON



PUBLISHER

Hewson



AUTHOR

Rafaelle Cecco



YEAR

1987



DESCRIPTION

An arcade platform game with exceptionally good graphics.



CONTROLS

The keyboard controls are redefinable, and you can also use a

variety of joysticks.



Left - Walk left

Right - Walk right

Up - Jump

Down - Use

Fire and release - Laser

Fire and hold - Rocket



INSTRUCTIONS

The aim of each level is to get from one side to the other. 

There are 125 screens in all, divided into 5 levels of 25.



You can move your man (Vitorc) left and right using the

appropriate keys, and up will make him jump.  Pressing the fire

button down and then quickly releasing it will fire one shot of

the laser.  Pressing and holding the fire button will launch one

of your rockets, which will arc through the sky and shoot

forward, destroying any scenery in the way.



At a certain point through each of the levels, there is placed

a cubicle allowing you to select the exo-skeleton.  This will

give you greater protection, and double your rate of fire, but

it does mean that you will not get the score bonus at the end.



There are also teleporters spread around certain screens. 

Walking into one of these and presing down will teleport you to

the other teleporter located on the screen.



To replenish you rockets and laser, simply walk into the power

packs that are spread around the levels.  Their colour determines

which item they will replenish.



When you get to the end of a level, there is a small skill test. 

An arrow will quickly switch between several scores, and you must

press the fire button at the right time to select the highest.





CHEATS

If you redefine the keys as Z, O, R, B, and A, you will get

infinite lives.  You can then re-redefine the keys back to what

you actually want.





SEQUELS/PREQUELS

Exolon was followed up with Cybernoid, by the same author.



There was also a very similar game published by Starlight, called

Yeti.



INLAY CARD TEXT



SCORES RECEIVED

Received a Sinclair User Classic award.



URL

ftp://ftp.dcc.uchile.cl/pub/OS/sinclair/snapshots/e/exolon.zip



GENERAL FACTS

Exolon was re-released as part of a four-game compilation from

Hewson, along with Zynaps, Ranarama and Uridium.



NOTES

Although the graphics for this game were excellent, and it was

executed almost perfectly (the reason for many of the high

scores), it is never-the-less a very simple walk-and-shoot game.

