Contents

How To Play Asteroid

Objects In Space
Special Abilities
Movement etc.
Scoring

Menu Commands

Authors Notes


How To Play Asteroid

What's the object of the game?
Kill your enemies - [image]! Go on to the next level.  Kill your enemies - [image]! Go on to the next level.  Kill your enemies - [image]! Go on t.......

OK, but how?
Easy(!?), make your enemies ( [image]) run into various, dangerous objects in space.

Objects?
The ugly, too - small - to - see - what - they - are, multicoloured dots of course! Understanding how they behave is, by the way, the key to success in this game, so it is a good idea to read the topic - Objects In Space.

Is that it? I mean, what about those weird pictures and numbers at bottom of the screen?
They are the Special Abilities! You should probably read about them too before you play, because they all have a tendency to save your life in tricky situations.

Can I play now?
Yes, but you might want to read any of the following topics if you run into problems: Movement etc., Menu Commands or Scoring

Thanks. Bye!
No! Wait! Did you know that you have only a limited amount of time before you have to make your move? And that the score is displayed...

I'd like to start playing now!
Oh...sorry.....bye then!


Objects In Space

 You are of course the most important object.

 Moving Mines are your enemies. They follow You (or a Decoy), until they die or kill You (or the Decoy).
Important: Moving Mines do not detonate if they run into an Idiot.

 Asteroids, are for some obscure reason, the object this game is named after. They stand still and have a 50 percent chance of killing any You, Moving Mine or Decoy who dares to enter it. Standing still inside an Asteroid object is perfectly safe though.
Important: Asteroids are indestructible.

 Mines, are straightforward objects. They explode if anything runs into them.

 Idiots, are indestructible and sometimes extremely irritating objects. This is because they tend to walk into the Mine needed to kill that last Moving Mine.
Their pattern of movement is not entirely random....

 Decoys, look almost like You and will seriously confuse moving mines if it occupies the same space as You.


Special Abilities

General Description:
The implementation of the Special Abilities might not be totally intuitive, but it's the best I could do OK!? This is how it works:
If the number to the right of the orange button is greater than zero, the corresponding ability can be activated by pressing the button. (It is possible to activate all abilities at the same time.) When the next move is made, the activated abilities are executed.

Create Mine is safe to use if you make sure you move after you have selected it. Standing on top of a Mine is almost never recommended.

Teleport on the other hand is not safe. You could land on anything and die, but what do you do in a corner with Moving Mines all around you?

Release Decoy is probably the most versatile but also hardest to use of the Special Abilities. The released Decoy moves in a straight line, or stands still depending on in which direction the executing move pointed. If the Decoy is killed, all Moving Mines that were following it start to follow You instead :-(

Swedish Flag, not a Special Ability. What's it doing here??


Movement etc.

Movement (mouse):
Place the mouse pointer anywhere in space and the shape of the cursor will indicate in which direction you will move. Click the left mouse button to move. To stand still, place the cursor on top of You.

Movement (keyboard):
Use the numeric keypad, but remember to have NumLock pressed! Press 5 to stand still and use 1,3,7 and 9 to move diagonally.

Special Abilities Activation (mouse):
To activate/deactivate an Ability, left click its corresponding orange button (between the picture and the number).

Special Abilities Activation (keyboard):
To activate/deactivate:
Create Mine: F5  Teleport: F6  Release Decoy: F7


Menu Commands

If I add any commands that are even slightly hard to understand, I will of course describe them here. :-)


Scoring

Making it to the next level is worth 100 points!
Killing a Moving Mine is worth 10 points!
An exploding Mine is worth 2 points!

Note: That first thing about making it to the next level isn't really true. If you die, but take the last Moving Mine with you in the explosion, you will still be awarded the 100 points.


Authors Notes

This program first existed on a Wang PC about ten years ago. It was written in BASIC, by me, and inspired by a program called OGRE (I think) which ran on an old VAX. I never actually saw that VAX program. It was described by a friend of mine (Sten Friberg), and a few months ago he described an Apple Macintosh game that was very similar to my old Wang PC Asteroid game. This gave me the idea to program a new version for MS Windows, and here it is! "Nostalgitrip!", as I would say it in Swedish.

Credits go to:
Sten Friberg for giving me the idea and for still using that old 286.
Anna Berg for being my girlfriend and for being able to go to sleep in spite of the sound of a busy keyboard.
Gustaf von Blixen for the computer and most of my other equipment. Thanks Dad!

Note: I just found out that there are other games of this type for MS Windows, for example one called Daleks. Credits go to those too, and if anyone out there happens to have one of those similar games, please send it to me.