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          Star Raiders: by Lou DuChez


          The Story:   A fleet of invading warships is passing through
                       your space sector, destroying everything in its
                       path.  You are the lone defender of the sector,
                       piloting a craft with warp drive, advanced
                       defensive shielding, a weapons system with lock-
                       on potential, and long-range and short-range
                       scanners.  Your mission is to destroy the
                       invaders before they can destroy you or any of
                       your three star bases.

          The Game:    As you play the game, you will be looking out
                       the ship's main view screen, where you will see
                       enemy ships randomly moving up and down, left
                       and right, near and far (if they happen to be in
                       view).  You have crosshairs to use as a torpedo
                       sight; when an enemy is in the middle of the
                       sight, the hairs will switch from white to red
                       to indicate a weapons lock.  A torpedo fired
                       while you have a lock will follow the ship
                       targeted.  (Without a lock, you really don't
                       have much chance to destroy anything but the
                       nearest enemies.)  The concentric boxes at the
                       bottom middle of the screen comprise your
                       short-range sensor: each dot in the sensor
                       represents an enemy ship (blue dot = "enemy is
                       far away", red dot = "enemy is extremely
                       close").  If the dot is within the inner box,
                       the ship is visible on the view screen. 
                       Flanking the box are four indicators: an "M"
                       (indicating that your short-range map is
                       functioning), a "T" (to indicate that your
                       torpedos are functioning); an "S" (if your
                       shields are working); and a digit to indicate
                       how many enemies are left in the sector.

          Keys:        Imagine that your ship is controlled by an
                       aviator's joystick.  That's how to use the
                       numeric keypad: "Up" to head down, "Down" to
                       head up; "Left" to go left and "Right" to go
                       right.  (Notice that the objects on the screen
                       will go opposite of those directions.)  You may
                       also use the diagonal keys for combinations. 
                       "Ins" fires your torpedo; "Del" calls up your
                       long-range map (see "Warping" below).  Notice
                       that you can do all your fighting one-handed, so
                       the other hand will be free to eat with or talk
                       on the phone.

                       You can "Pause" or "Unpause" the game with the
                       "P" key. "Q" is your self-destruct / "Quit"
                       button.












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          Damage:      Enemies can fire torpedos at you only when they
                       are on the view screen, and only when they don't
                       already have a torpedo flying at you.  (Tip:
                       they usually choose to fire when they are
                       changing course.)  You may dodge a torpedo by
                       maneuvering it off the screen; if you don't see
                       it explode, it didn't hit you.  If you are hit
                       by an enemy torpedo, the bottom of the screen
                       will flash red, and your torpedos, short-range
                       map, or shields might go out.  If your torpedos
                       go out, your crosshairs disappear (and the "T"
                       goes blank).  When you lose your short-range
                       map, the "M" disappears, and the short-range map
                       "freezes".  When your shields go out, the blue
                       bars on the sides of the view screen disappear
                       (as does the "S"), at which point you are
                       eminently destructible (assume a 20-25% chance
                       of destruction on any hit).  All this damage may
                       be repaired by docking with a base (see below).

          Warping:     To enter "Warp", first you need to display your
                       long-range map (by hitting "Del").  A matrix of
                       numbers and symbols will appear, each repre-
                       senting a space sector.  A number indicates how
                       many enemy craft are in the sector; a dash
                       indicates an empty sector; and a "B" represents
                       a base sector.  The sector you are currently in
                       is displayed in red, and there will initially be
                       a white box around it.  To move to another
                       sector, move the box to another sector and hit
                       "Ins"; a mediocre swirling effect will follow
                       for about 10 seconds, indicating that you are in
                       hyperspace.  (To get back out of "Map" mode
                       without warping, just hit "Del" again.)

          The Fleet:   The fleet starts at the upper left of the screen
                       and proceeds to the lower right.  Each ship in
                       the fleet is bent on getting to the lower right
                       of the screen; if one of your bases happens to
                       be in the way, it gets destroyed.  (So your two
                       bases on the sides are relatively easy to
                       protect; just clip off the "wings" of the
                       invading fleet.)  Your presence affects fleet
                       movement: no enemy ships can move into or out of
                       the sector you are in at the time the fleet
                       advances.  So enemy ships will try to move
                       around you, going towards the edges of the
                       screen if they can.  (So you can sometimes be
                       responsible for destroying your own base by
                       forcing enemy ships to go around you and plow
                       through base sectors.)  When a base is
                       destroyed, the computer will alert you by making
                       your screen flash red as if you had yourself
                       been hit (although you take no damage).












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          Docking:     Warp to a base sector; you will see a white
                       circle (your base) approach and draw away
                       repeatedly.  To dock, you must get the base in
                       the middle of your sight when it is at its
                       closest range (note: even if your torpedos are
                       out, you will have crosshairs while docking, so
                       you will be able to steer).  Once you have
                       docked, the base stops moving, all damage is
                       repaired, and you may resume the fight.

          Scoring:     Basically, the more of them you destroy, the
                       more points you get (2 points per enemy).  You
                       get 20 points for each surviving base, and an
                       additional 20 if you yourself survive.  Each
                       time you dock costs you 5 points.  You also get
                       a bonus if the fleet moves quicker than every 80
                       seconds (5 points for each 10 seconds quicker)
                       or a deduction of they move slower (5 points for
                       every 10 seconds).

          Parameters:  When you start RAIDERS.EXE, you are given a
                       light-bar menu that will let you change the
                       fleet speed (10 seconds per move to 200 seconds
                       per move) and the maximum number of enemies per
                       sector (from 1 to 9).  The defaults are 80
                       seconds per move and a maximum of 6 enemies per
                       sector.  You may also enter parameters from the
                       command line: to set the fleet speed to 75
                       seconds and the maximum number of enemies per
                       sector to 7, type

                       RAIDERS R75 E7


































