ASTRO-CLONE
Hewson Consultants

* Briefing sheet
* Instructions sheet


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ASTRO-CLONE BRIEFING

The Seiddab Space Wars

The year was 2005 AD, the tenth year of the great asteroid
rush. Rare metals had been discovered in large quantities
amongst the Trojan asteroids herded around the sun by
Jupiter. The initial missions had returned laden with
precious cargo. Soon every ship that could escape Earth's
gravity was heading for the Trojan asteroids. Obsolete craft
were pressed into service including several ageing NASA
space shuttles fitted with uprated side boosters. The exodus
from the three huge satellite cities was even bigger. With
no need to escape the imprisoning force of Earth's gravity
anything from a Luna freighter to a customized escape pod
was used to make the dangerous trek across the solar system.

The tiny ships set out in great fleets, some of them strung
behind freighters like a string of pearls. Unscrupulous
captains were prepared to tow anything as long as they were
paid. Many pioneers perished on the long voyage.

Soon a whole space industry flowered. The first regular
commercial flights flew all who could afford it to the high
frontier. Shuttle craft were built in thousands. Rugged and
simple and with no need to operate in conditions of
atmosphere or gravity they were extremely cheap. Artenis,
the first outer system station was built and was soon
bursting to capacity with prospectors.

Life at man's remote frontier was tough. Only a few
successful prospectors returned with a fortune. But such are
men's dreams that the tide could not be stopped.

Callaghan was one of the first to return with gold. With the
gold fever in his blood he spent every dollar on the latest
Y class mining vessel. Equipped with its own mining lasers
and grabs, it was the envy of the average prospector. Soon
Callaghan was amongst the asteroids again. After long months
searching he was returning to Artenis when his magnetometer
registered a strong magnetic field. "That rock must be solid
iron", he gasped as he watched the digital read- out reach
maximum. Instinctively he checked the density. The gauge
suggested an abundance of heavy metals. He whooped as he
wheeled his craft to its new course.

The planetoid soon loomed large before him. It seemed
regular in shape, "Almost built", he thought as a hundred
lights flicked on illuminating strange structures. Slowly a
large metal door slid open. A craft crept forward, revealing
its forbidding alien shape metre by metre.

Something flashed. Callaghan recognised the colour. An Argon
laser. Instinctively he threw the ship upwards in a violent
manoeuvre as the deadly beam landed. His craft shook
violently as one of the cargo pods discharged its
pressurised contents. His trembling fingers flew to the
cover protecting the laser arm switch. He tore it off and
pushed the button. The craft filled with the electrical
whine of the lasers charging. Already a second shot streaked
towards him but his change in direction caused it to snake
underneath the craft, blistering the paintwork. Switching
the engines on full vectored thrust he leap- frogged
backwards over the alien craft until it was dead in his
sights. He thumbed the fire button, once, twice. Suddenly
his craft was thrown backward as the alien ship exploded.
The Seiddab Space Wars had begun.

Flying his ship on full thrust he headed for Artenis. He
yelled his garbled story into the communicator. The flight
operators smiled as they picked up his frantic voice.
"Callaghan's been at the whisky again", one remarked, but
his words fell to a gaping silence as one by one small blips
appeared in formation on his radar scope.

Making the jump across 25 light years the automated defences
of a dead civilisation responded to the first contact with
life for a millennia. Eight deep space cruisers piloted by
alien machines prepared for war. All systems activated,
battle droids whirred to life at their stations. Generators
screamed as the battle lasers charged up with deadly
efficiency. A few minutes later Artenis ceased to exist. The
debris spun in every direction as Callaghan desperately
turned his craft to a computer course for Earth.

The eight huge cruisers were in no hurry. With mechanical
accuracy they monitored the immense stream of radio signals
coming from the inner system. Battle computers requested
support. Fleet after fleet of the Seiddab made ready and
crossed the Stargate.

The Terran governments rejected the first reports that came
flooding in as radio messages reached Earth but soon their
radio telescopes confirmed the worst. Earth was facing its
greatest ever threat and had only months to prepare before
the alien fleet would reach the stricken planet.

Many attempts were made to communicate with the fleet as it
stormed through the void every day closing on the Earth.
There was no response. An emergency resolution was passed at
the United Nations creating the Terran Space Force.
Immediately the whole capacity of the orbiting factories was
turned to converting existing ships and to building a fleet
of small hunter killer fighters based on the sleek vessels
of the U.N. Space Police.

The plan was simple. Get everything and anything that could
carry a laser between Earth and the aliens while the new
hunter killers were being completed. The aliens decimated
the rag taggle in a desperate series of hit and run battles.
Soon all that stood between Earth and destruction was the
newly built fleet. With their speed and maneuverability the
small ships wrought havoc with the unwieldy battle cruisers
of the Seiddab but they were not good enough.

The Seiddab suffered severe losses but they pressed forward.
The Seiddab Attack on Earth cities began. Where the Earth
had lacked a Space Fleet it was not short of ground forces.
Soon the technology of destruction stockpiled by the super
nations was unleashed. After a fierce struggle the invaders
were falling back on all fronts. The grim decision to use
nuclear weapons was never made. The Seiddab Forces were
repulsed. Unable to take the Earth they established a large
force on the moon and waited.

The Terran Lunattack came a year later. With the legendary
Z5 Luna hover fighter bearing the brunt of the battle the
Seiddab were annihilated.

Space Technology increased enormously. Every day expecting
another invasion of the Solar System the Earth rebuilt its
Space Fleet and monitored the planetoid which Callaghan had
discovered. No attack materialised. The aliens were clearly
on the defensive.

An Earth attack on the planetoid was planned and launched.
After a fierce battle the planetoid was neutralised and
teams of scientists sent to unravel the alien technology and
discover who the Seiddab were and where they came from.

..................................................

Twenty years had passed since the start of the Seiddab Space
Wars. With the planetoid sealed off in strict security the
Seiddab were mostly forgotten but the teams investigating it
made startling discoveries.

Far below the surface of the planetoid the Earth scientists
had slowly pieced together the remains of the Seiddab
Station. The task was great but they managed to reconstruct
the databanks. They were astounded by the age of the alien
structure estimated at over a thousand years. They were even
more amazed to find the Seiddab were the automated defences
of a civilisation, highly advanced, spanning a galactic
empire. The Sei had conquered the space-time continuum and
constructed Stargates linking the far reaches of the galaxy.
Utilising the incredible force of gravity in a neutron star
they had changed the fabric of space itself.

The empire had come to a swift and disastrous end. A
malevolent alien lifeform had been the cause. Using their
own robots against them the lifeform quickly spread like a
virus through the Starsystems.

The Sei had found that a rare crystal could be used to kill
the aliens by causing a very high electromagnetic pulse in
the ultra light frequency range. The Sei hurriedly tried to
create the crystals deep below their planetoids with rare
success. The Galactic Quadrant was isolated in an attempt to
contain the aliens.

The final 24 Stargates were never shut down. The force
assigned to this task had been decimated before they could
reach Stargate Control. They were to use the Graviton
Device, a bomb capable of tearing the space-time continuum
apart to undo the power of the Stargates. The device was
disassembled and the parts hidden. lest the alien lifeform
learn how to use it to establish a gate into the remaining
Sei Quadrants. When the last of the Sei in the Quadrant
perished the alien lifeform became dormant.

Unable to make the jump to systems many light years apart
the lifeform waited until with Callaghan's help they found a
new civilisation to conquer. The scientists found evidence
that even as they worked the Seiddab were preparing to
retake the Sol planetoid. After much experimenting it was
found that Clone Images of a space fighter could be
projected through the Stargates, but all attempts to
physically pass the gate failed. It was discovered that
linking the computers with the Stargates' energy field
allowed the Clone Image to be operated by computer as if it
were real. Soon the scientists were trying to Clone people
by way of the Stargate field. Not only could they project a
Clone Image of a living person inside the fighter they could
combine abilities of several people in a single superclone.
So the incredible plan to attack the Seiddab with an
Astro-Clone came into being.



(c) Hewson Consultants Ltd. 1985


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ASTRO-Clone

for the

48K Spectrum and Spectrum+

(c) Hewson Consultants Ltd 1985


A team of crack pilots, soldiers and technicians were
assembled to form a group known as the Clone Warriors. For
months they trained for an unknown mission. At the end the
Space Commander himself arrived for their final briefing.

The Clone Warriors were led to a large chamber resembling a
hospital ward with rows of couches fronted by monitor
screens. The cloning device lowered and the room lights
dimmed. The advanced Sei computers combined the data from
each of the Clone Warriors to produce the master image of
the Astro-Clone.

The monitors flickered to life to show the static image of
the 24 Star-sectors. The combined mind of the Clone Warriors
recognised Sol in the top left corner where 15 Clone Ships
were ready to battle the Seiddab.

Simultaneously the combined minds operated the control
panels. A ship left the Sol sector and moved into Seiddab
territory. The Astro-Clone invasion was underway.


			INTRODUCTION

Loading the Game
If you have a joystick then plug it into the edge connector
at the rear of your Spectrum. Connect your cassette player
to the Spectrum in the usual way. Place the cassette in the
cassette player, rewind it if necessary and press the PLAY
button. Type LOAD "" on the Spectrum keyboard and press the
enter button. Wait a few minutes for the game to load and
the keyboard/joystick selection menu to be displayed.

Astro-Clone is controlled with UP/DOWN/RIGHT/LEFT/FIRE from
either joystick or keyboard. You select the control method
at the beginning of the game.


Control Panel
On the lower part of the screen a control panel is
displayed. On the left is an icon display panel used to show
you what effect the joystick has at any time in the game. At
the start of the game LEFT/RIGHT and UP/DOWN arrows are shown.

Next to this is a large message display screen. Various
prompts and messages are displayed during the game with your
readouts of energy, oxygen, etc. depending on which phase of
the game you are in. Your score is displayed at the bottom
of this area.

To the right of the message screen are two square alert
lights. The top flashes red if there is an urgent message on
the display screen. The bottom glows yellow if the Seiddabs
are in the next room, red if they are in the same room
(Ground Combat Phase only).


Phases of the Game
The game is divided into three phases - Strategic Phase,
Space Combat Phase and Ground Combat Phase. To be successful
you must master all three.


Getting Started
The game opens with your Astro-Clone in his two room
spacecraft. On the floor is a square energy point. On the
right hand wall is an oxygen cylinder and a triangular
computer console. You must take off using the computer
console (passing into the Space Combat Phase) and enter a
Stargate to reach the Strategic Phase. Move the Astro-Clone
to the console and you will take off.

The Stargate is shown as a diamond at the top of the main
display but it may lie off the screen to the left or to the
right. Fly your spacecraft towards and upwards until the
Stargate appears and then pass over it. You will now be in
the Strategic Phase.


			STRATEGIC PHASE

The strategic map is the key to the overall progress of the
game. It shows the location and strength of your forces and
the Seiddab forces around each Star-sector. Sectors with
your ships are coloured yellow. The current sector is white.
Seiddab controlled sectors are green.

In each box there may be one or more numbers. The top number
next to a spaceship symbol shows the number of your ships in
that sector. The bottom number next to a skull symbol shows
the number of Seiddab cruisers in the sector.


Moving a Ship
You can move any number of ships during the Strategic Phase,
except those in a sector with the Seiddab. The message area
gives prompts to help you. To move a ship, lock onto it by
placing the white highlight over the sector and press fire.
The ship can be moved any number of sectors joined by
Stargates. Once moved into a sector with Seiddab it can no
longer move. To end the ship's movement unlock the highlight
from the ship by pressing fire.

Before the Strategic Phase begins the Seiddabs move and may
launch more ships. You can block their movements by ensuring
that you maintain a majority of ships in each contested
sector. This prevents them from spreading into other territory.


Reinforcements
Each time you score 1000 points a new ship appears at Sol up
to a maximum of 25 new ships.


Ending the Phase
You can end the phase on a sector with both Seiddab and your
ships present by placing the white highlight over it and
pressing fire. Alternatively you may wish to move into a
sector with your forces only in it enabling you to locate
and enter a Seiddab Starbase that may be there. To do this
select the sector by highlighting and pressing fire but do
not move any ships. Press fire a second time.

In either case you move into the Space Combat Phase.


			SPACE COMBAT PHASE

The message screen displays the number of your ships and
Seiddab Cruisers in the sector. You have UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT
control of your spacefighter. FIRE controls your laser. If
the sector contains a Seiddab Starbase you will see a small
satellite that fires at you. Docking with this will enable
you to attack the base with the Astro- Clone. You cannot
dock until all Seiddab Cruisers have been destroyed and the
satellites defences put out of action.

The Stargate is a pulsing diamond shape at the top of the
screen. It can only be entered once any Seiddab Cruisers
present have been destroyed. Entering a Stargate returns you
to the Strategic Phase. You also return to the Strategic
Phase if all your ships in the sector are destroyed.

Each Seiddab cruiser will be preceded by an attack wave. The
strength of the wave depends on how many adjacent sectors
are also occupied by Seiddabs and therefore able to give
support. Isolated sectors are easier to win.

When you have destroyed all the Seiddab in a sector and
located a Starbase satellite (if any) you may dock with it
and enter the Ground Combat Phase.


			GROUND COMBAT PHASE

Your Clone is displayed in his two room spaceship. In the
right hand room is the console allowing him to take off
again. In the other is a beam down point which places you in
the Seiddab base. There are various modes of control as
shown on the Icon display at the lower left of the screen.


Selection Mode
When FIRE is depressed (except in Laser Mode) you can select
UP = Movement Mode, RIGHT/LEFT = Arm Mode, DOWN = Laser
Mode. The selected ICON will light up until FIRE is released.


Movement Mode
LEFT/RIGHT/UP/DOWN move your Clone. You can pick objects up
by walking over them.


Arm Mode
This mode allows you to manipulate objects in your pocket.
To put an object in your pocket or take another out bring
the arm fully DOWN. To drop an object lift the arm until it
is fully raised. To throw an object move LEFT or RIGHT and
move the arm fully UP.


Laser Mode
UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT control a cursor. You can fire towards
the cursor until the weapon runs out. The message display
shows what charge is left.

To return to movement mode quickly place the cursor over the
Clone. Note that to get back into fire mode you need only
press fire again with the joystick centred.


Doors and Objects
Most doors open automatically although sometimes you may be
required to do something or to hold a passcard. The Clone
may carry up to three objects in his pocket plus one in his
hand. Objects may affect other objects or doors, or they may
have an affect on you or the Seiddab forces.


Clones
Each ship can create five Clones. If one dies it loses the
objects which it was carrying and another clone is generated
in the ship. If a ship runs out of Clones and there is
another ship in the same sector then the second ship comes
into use. If not then you return to the Strategic Phase.

To return to a ship you must find a beam up point. Objects
returned to a ship are available to every ship in the fleet
by the cloning process. They are never lost if a ship is
destroyed.


			OVERALL STRATEGY

The location of seven of the Starbases changes every time
the game is played. Occupation of the bases is vital because
Seiddab forces may be launched from each base that they
control. To gain the upper hand you must destroy the Seiddab
defences in the Space Combat Phase, land and destroy each
base in turn.


Other Instructions
P = Pause game. Not available during the Strategic Phase.
O = Continue game after pause.
Q = Quit game during the Strategic Phase. The following
    options can then be selected;
    O            = Continue game.
    S (SAVE key) = Save your current position.
    J (LOAD key) = Load a saved position.

It is a good idea to save a position before you start
playing because if you then run out of ships you can start
again quickly by re-loading your previous position. If all
your ships are destroyed, you may practise the Space Combat
Phase only with 15 new ships. The ground bases will be
inaccessible.


			CHECKLIST

The instructions supplied with this program consist of:
(1) this sheet;
(2) a leaflet entitled ASTRO-CLONE BRIEFING;
(3) an order form.
If items (2) or (3) are missing please return this sheet as
proof of purchase to the address below together with your
name and address and they will be promptly replaced.


[graphic 1]				[graphic 2]


(c) Hewson Consultants Ltd 1985
Made in Great Britain

The program and data are copyright and may not be reproduced
either in part or in total by any means without the written
permission of Hewson Consultants Ltd. All rights reserved.
Unauthorised hiring or lending is strictly prohibited. No
responsibility is accepted for any errors.

Our policy is one of constant improvement, therefore we
reserve the right to modify any product without notice.
Hewson Consultants Ltd
Hewson House
56B Milton Trading Estate
Milton
Abingdon
Oxon OX14 4RX
