Micronaut One

Nexus, 1987

Controls

Aim of the game

As a member of the Guild of Equalizers, the biotechnicians responsible for maintaining the huge, asteroid-based Biocomputers, it's your job to keep these fragile organic machines from damage inflicted by parasites and simple entropy. The parasites in question are the Scrim, the mutated descendants of fruit flies which were accidentally introduced centuries ago. Now the tunnels of your Biocomputer are infested with Scrim eggs, larvae and their ultimate product, the Jellyfly...

Game play

You have two main problems: the Scrim, obviously, and the energy levels of the computer. Being parasites, the Scrim feed off the energy of the biomachine, which tends to cause serious energy imbalances in the circuits. Your craft is equipped with an accumulator which allows you to drain off surplus energy or otherwise top up the computer. You do this at one of the Energy Transfer Units (ETUs), which look rather like large winking eyes behind transparent sliding doors. The levels of the four ETUs (including the one at which you're currently at) are shown when you stop in front of the eye. Red is danger; green is safe. If the level of the current ETU is too low or too high, you can increase or reduce it. If the ETU level gets too low or too high, the computer will explode. You can only alter the level of the ETU at which you're currently "docked".

Your craft is equipped with an anti-Scrim weapon, a sort of giant Van der Graaf generator which spits out tendrils of energy. This, naturally, uses up a good deal of energy (which could leave you with too little to top up an ETU). However, you can recover this loss either by draining an ETU (not recommended) or catching one of the sparkling clouds of energy particles that coalesce in the corridors. Your weapon's power level is shown on the console of your skimmer (the second of the three bars), while above it is the craft's speed and below it a scrolling message bar gives information about the Biocomputer.

Your main enemy, the Scrim, have a three-stage lifecycle. (You can get more information on this in the INFO menu - having started the game, it's a good idea to explore the menu system a little. VIEW will take you to the action). The three stages, plus the accompanying webs, are as follows:

• Egg - Small but growing ovoids, impervious to your fire. There's nothing you can do about these. Laid by Jellyfly.
• Larvae - Huge and disgusting grubs that mulch their way along the corridors. Can be destroyed but they need a lot of energy to zap. It's best to kill them before they turn into the next stage:
• Jellyfly - The adult Scrim. Looks rather like a high-speed umbrella. Zooms up and down the corridors looking for an open section of tunnel, and then lays a couple of eggs and an energy-gathering web which permanently blocks the tunnel (_not_ good news). Kill, kill, kill.
• Web - A secreted organic structure which spans a tunnel and blocks it. Can be destroyed if you get to it before it's completed.

There's a built-in bonus game - a series of races against a computer- controlled robot (actually a maintenance droid, quite harmless, in the "real" game). To get to this, tick the RACE option on the SETUP menu (off the main menu) and go to PLAY. You'll get the chance to choose a track, pacer and speed, and race against the clock.

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