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