THE SPECTRUM GAME DATABASE

MICRONAUT ONE

PUBLISHER
Nexus

YEAR
1987

CATEGORY
Arcade Adventure

DESCRIPTION
Micronaught One is a 3D flying game, with some strategy thrown
in.

CONTROLS
Keyboard, Kempston.  Keyboard controls are redefinable.

INSTRUCTIONS
Welcome to the Guild. Long live His Imperial Majesty Georgius IX.
Now hear this: the Emperor has decreed that you, a member of our
glorious Guild of Equalizers, shall do your utmost to maintain
the Empire's Biocomputers and perform all the duties befitting
a member of this, our Guild.  (Imperial Decree LXXVII, dated
24.5.1290 A.O.)
 
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...

Your craft is a sort of bidirectional skimmer which can zoom up
and down the winding corridors of the Biocomputer. You've got a
map to help you, and you can set up markers on it to act as
homing points for your craft's Navigational Locking System. You
can't actually turn round (not enough room in the tunnel);
instead, slow to a halt and press down to switch to the rear view
(or rather, the front view now).  You can then go on as normal.
Note though that you can _only_ switch direction if you stop
first!

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:

1) Egg
          - Small but growing ovoids, impervious to your fire. 
          There's nothing you can do about these. Laid by
          Jellyfly.
2) 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:
3) 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.
4) Web         - A secreted organic structure which spans a
           tunnel and blocks it. Can be destroyed if you get to
           it before it's completed.

Too many webs can be fatal - you can be blocked in, or equally
badly an ETU entrance can be sealed off. Either way, you'll be
unable to correct the computer's energy imbalances. It's possible
to get rid of a web if you can get to it before it's complete,
but afterwards it's impervious to your efforts. You'll be
informed of where a web has been strung - make a note of it on
the built-in pad and program your NLS to guide you there before
it's too late. The game is thus a constant race against the ETUs'
energy fluctuations and the Scrims' lifecycle. To complete a
level, you have to clear out all the Scrim on that level.

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.

SCORES RECEIVED:
Crash: "Original, visually stunning, very playable and addictive".
92% (CRASH #43, August 1987)