0
====================================================================
Startup Menu
====================================================================
Before every game, a menu appears to allow you to set up the game
as you prefer. Use the cursor keys (up/down to move between
options left/right to change the option) to select the mode
(difficulty level).
Controller and preferred shot type - inertia or no inertia, shots
fired with inertia have your speed of motion forward, backward,
left and right imparted to them, shots without inertia will fly
straight forward.
The Graphics mode and sound selections can also be made here. The
choice is yours. Players who have never played Vaxine before can
use PRACTICE mode. Here, the enemy cells never attack your bases,
so there is no time pressure. Use this mode to practice moving and
firing until you are skilled enough to try the main game. Players
who have mastered the first few rounds may prefer to select
ADVANCED mode which starts the game off at level 10.
====================================================================
Playing the Game
====================================================================
Vaxine starts on a checkerboard grid, upon which the whole game
takes place. It is easiest to move around this grid using a mouse,
but you can use a joystick or keyboard if you prefer.
The object of the game is to survive each level by destroying all
enemy cells which appear, before they bond together and destroy all
of your base cells which appear as half domes on the floor of the
grid. The game ends if all of your bases are destroyed, or if one
of your three ammo streams reaches zero.
To destroy enemy cells, shoot at them using the left mouse/fire
button; BUT - you will only destroy a cell if you hit it with a
shot of the SAME COLOR.
How do you know which color shot you are about to fire? Look at
the ammo readout at the top of the screen: it shows how many shots
of the currently selected color you have left. It changes color by
clicking the RIGHT mouse button or pressing the SPACE BAR. You
have three different shot colors to choose from.
STATUS LINE
-----------------------------------------------------------------
At the top of the screen are a number of items that provide
essential information. On the top left is your score, in the
center is the ammo bar described above and to the right are two
numbers. THe first of these shows the number of enemy cells in the
currently selected color which are on the grid. The second shows
the total number (all three colors) of bases remaining (you begin
with nine).
AMMO RECHARGING
-----------------------------------------------------------------
If you shoot any enemy cell with the wrong color shot, it will not
be destroyed and will continue its evil business. However, the
resulting energy reaction creates a star which bounces on the spot
three times before disappearing. If you shoot this star you will
gain more ammo - 8 shots if shot with the SAME color cell, only 3
shots if shot with a DIFFERENT color cell. Nothing comes free
though; if the star disappears without being shot you will lose
five shots of that color. If you fall low on ammo in the middle of
a level you MUST recharge your ammo levels in this way; if any one
of your ammo levels fall to zero, then you cannot possibly defend
your bases properly and the game is automatically over.
THE STAR TREE
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To make life slightly easier on the ammo front, there is a short
"grace" period at the start of every level. This is shown by a
timer at the top right of the screen counting down to zero.
Immediately in front of you is a star tree - a source of free ammo
to help you through the level.
Just pick off the stars one by one. Stars shot with the same color
scores 80 points and yields 8 extra shots of ammo. Stars hit with
a different color shot scores 30 points and 3 extra shots.
Remember that as soon as the timer reaches zero, the "grace" period
is over and the bad guys will start to appear.
THE ENEMY CELLS
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Nasty, evil things with only one aim in life: to bond together in
groups of three or more, seek out one of your perfectly innocent
base cells and suck the life from them to make more of their own
kind.
Try to destroy enemy cells before they even join together: they are
harder to hit when they're joined by strings and even harder to hit
when bouncing around one of your bases just prior to destroying it.
To help you know what they are up to behind your back, we've
included sampled sound effects to warn you whenever they:
Materialize Rising siren sound
Join together Slurp sound
Attack one of your bases Low resonance sweep sound
In addition to the normal enemy cells, later levels feature two
additional species:
HATCHERS appear as three differently colored cells bonded together.
When any one of them is shot, the Hatcher splits up into a whole
mess of individual cells. Worse still, if you haven't located and
destroyed a Hatcher after a period of time, it explodes of its own
accord and makes even more cells than if it had been shot.
SPITTERS will also appear if you take too long finishing a level.
Spitters look like flattened balls that roam around on the floor of
the play area and can only be shot by positioning yourself so that
one of your shots lands on top of the spitter. Sounds easy, but
wait till you try it! No sneaky waiting until continuously making
stars. Spitters, as the name suggests, rome the grid, spitting out
new enemy cells from time to time. The longer you take, the more
spitters appear and the more enemy cells each one of them will
produce.
PSYCHIC RADAR
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Another useful way of locating enemy cells is with the radar
function. Periodically you will see a word appear on the grid
ahead of you. This message is an indicator of the direction -
(ahead, back, left, or right) of the closest cell whose color
matches the shot type you are using. This particular radar system
also assumes that there are times when you won't want to be
bothered with it, for example when you are battling with an eight-
ball cluster. So, it only shows up when it thinks you are lost.
It decides this by seeing how long it's been since you last moved
the mouse, joystick, or pressed a key, so if you need any help wait
for a second or so and it will appear.
THE PORTAL
-----------------------------------------------------------------
When moving around the grid, every so often you will see solid
black slabs emerge from the ground (or retract back into the
ground). These are portals. If you move through a portal, when
you emerge on the other side everything will have frozen. You can
move around the grid freely, but all the enemy cells, stars,
fragments of explosion and so on, are suspended in mid-air. This
state of affairs continues until either the timer reached zero or
you fire a shot. This is so that if things are going terribly
wrong somehwere, you can use a portal to suspend action until
you've located the trouble spot. Naturally there's a price to be
paid for this. Everytime you use the portal the enemy cells get
meaner, as if the action had been shifted up a level. So if you
use a portal twice on level three, the aggrestion of the enemy
cells will be that of level five.
DNA STRINGS
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Another weapon which can be used in the fight against disease and
destruction is the DNA STRAND. To fire a DNA strand using a mouse
hold down the right button and press the left button, using a
joystick press and hold down the fire button. With every press, a
shot is fired attached by elastic to the previous one. If you
pause too long, or let go of the right button the string of cells
you have fired will be released and wander off around the grid.
The advantage of these strands is that they appear to the enemy as
"one of their own." Every time an enemy cell bonds to the string
it is destroyed along with the leader cell until the string is used
up.
There are two disadvantages to using DNA strings:
1) They cost FIVE TIMES as much as normal shots (ie. five units gone
from the ammo readout).
2) They have no intelligence of their own: they merely wait to be
approached by an enemy cell. So you must decide when it is worth
launching them.
SAVED AGAIN
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Through the miracles of modern science, your job has been made
slightly easier by virtue of the fact that at the beginning of
every fifth level, all of your bases are restored and you will have
the opportunity to increase your ammo levels in the "Shooting
Stars" sequence. In this bonus level dozens of ammo-storing stars
swirl onto the screen in front of you. Get as many of them as you
can (with the same color shot preferably, for maximum ammo top-up)
and then continue on.....
CONTROL SUMMARY
-----------------------------------------------------------------
CONTROL FIRE CHANGE AMMO FIRE DNA
MOUSE: LEFT BUTTON RIGHT BUTTON Hold down RIGHT BUTTON
press LEFT BUTTON
JOYSTICK: BUTTON A BUTTON B Press and hold down
OR SPACE BAR FIRE BUTTON
KEYBOARD: ENTER SPACE BAR A Prolonged Press of the
RETURN key.
In addition: press "P": to pause, SPACEBAR to continue: Press ESC
to quit game back to title screen. Press F10 while in the game or
at the title screen to return to DOS.
SCORING
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Each enemy cell: 250 points
Each cell in cluster: 500 points
Star shot with same color: 80 points and 8 extra shots
Star shot with different color: 30 points and 3 extra shots
Hatcher: 1000 points
Spitter: 2000 points
Bonus for each remaining
base after every level: 100 points per base
PLAYING TIPS
-----------------------------------------------------------------
- Levels one and two are relatively easy because there are only a
few enemy cells - not enough to attack your bases. The Spitters
will not appear for a long time. Use these levels to practice
moving around the grid and shooting accurately.
- Spitters are very difficult to shoot because they stay on the
ground and in the time it takes to line one up and destroy it,
several cells could have been released. On the higher levels they
appear more quick and in greater numbers. Time is of the essence.
- When enemy cells attack a base, you have a few seconds to try and
destroy them. You have only got to hit one of them, and all the
others disperse back onto the grid as individual cells.
- Further into the game your ammo levels will become crucial, so on
the early levels it is worth amassing as much ammo as possible.
- A level will not end until your last shot has dissapeared. This
feature can be exploited to shoot any stars remaining on the star
tree at the end of a level.
Startup Menu
====================================================================
Before every game, a menu appears to allow you to set up the game
as you prefer. Use the cursor keys (up/down to move between
options left/right to change the option) to select the mode
(difficulty level).
Controller and preferred shot type - inertia or no inertia, shots
fired with inertia have your speed of motion forward, backward,
left and right imparted to them, shots without inertia will fly
straight forward.
The Graphics mode and sound selections can also be made here. The
choice is yours. Players who have never played Vaxine before can
use PRACTICE mode. Here, the enemy cells never attack your bases,
so there is no time pressure. Use this mode to practice moving and
firing until you are skilled enough to try the main game. Players
who have mastered the first few rounds may prefer to select
ADVANCED mode which starts the game off at level 10.
====================================================================
Playing the Game
====================================================================
Vaxine starts on a checkerboard grid, upon which the whole game
takes place. It is easiest to move around this grid using a mouse,
but you can use a joystick or keyboard if you prefer.
The object of the game is to survive each level by destroying all
enemy cells which appear, before they bond together and destroy all
of your base cells which appear as half domes on the floor of the
grid. The game ends if all of your bases are destroyed, or if one
of your three ammo streams reaches zero.
To destroy enemy cells, shoot at them using the left mouse/fire
button; BUT - you will only destroy a cell if you hit it with a
shot of the SAME COLOR.
How do you know which color shot you are about to fire? Look at
the ammo readout at the top of the screen: it shows how many shots
of the currently selected color you have left. It changes color by
clicking the RIGHT mouse button or pressing the SPACE BAR. You
have three different shot colors to choose from.
STATUS LINE
-----------------------------------------------------------------
At the top of the screen are a number of items that provide
essential information. On the top left is your score, in the
center is the ammo bar described above and to the right are two
numbers. THe first of these shows the number of enemy cells in the
currently selected color which are on the grid. The second shows
the total number (all three colors) of bases remaining (you begin
with nine).
AMMO RECHARGING
-----------------------------------------------------------------
If you shoot any enemy cell with the wrong color shot, it will not
be destroyed and will continue its evil business. However, the
resulting energy reaction creates a star which bounces on the spot
three times before disappearing. If you shoot this star you will
gain more ammo - 8 shots if shot with the SAME color cell, only 3
shots if shot with a DIFFERENT color cell. Nothing comes free
though; if the star disappears without being shot you will lose
five shots of that color. If you fall low on ammo in the middle of
a level you MUST recharge your ammo levels in this way; if any one
of your ammo levels fall to zero, then you cannot possibly defend
your bases properly and the game is automatically over.
THE STAR TREE
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To make life slightly easier on the ammo front, there is a short
"grace" period at the start of every level. This is shown by a
timer at the top right of the screen counting down to zero.
Immediately in front of you is a star tree - a source of free ammo
to help you through the level.
Just pick off the stars one by one. Stars shot with the same color
scores 80 points and yields 8 extra shots of ammo. Stars hit with
a different color shot scores 30 points and 3 extra shots.
Remember that as soon as the timer reaches zero, the "grace" period
is over and the bad guys will start to appear.
THE ENEMY CELLS
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Nasty, evil things with only one aim in life: to bond together in
groups of three or more, seek out one of your perfectly innocent
base cells and suck the life from them to make more of their own
kind.
Try to destroy enemy cells before they even join together: they are
harder to hit when they're joined by strings and even harder to hit
when bouncing around one of your bases just prior to destroying it.
To help you know what they are up to behind your back, we've
included sampled sound effects to warn you whenever they:
Materialize Rising siren sound
Join together Slurp sound
Attack one of your bases Low resonance sweep sound
In addition to the normal enemy cells, later levels feature two
additional species:
HATCHERS appear as three differently colored cells bonded together.
When any one of them is shot, the Hatcher splits up into a whole
mess of individual cells. Worse still, if you haven't located and
destroyed a Hatcher after a period of time, it explodes of its own
accord and makes even more cells than if it had been shot.
SPITTERS will also appear if you take too long finishing a level.
Spitters look like flattened balls that roam around on the floor of
the play area and can only be shot by positioning yourself so that
one of your shots lands on top of the spitter. Sounds easy, but
wait till you try it! No sneaky waiting until continuously making
stars. Spitters, as the name suggests, rome the grid, spitting out
new enemy cells from time to time. The longer you take, the more
spitters appear and the more enemy cells each one of them will
produce.
PSYCHIC RADAR
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Another useful way of locating enemy cells is with the radar
function. Periodically you will see a word appear on the grid
ahead of you. This message is an indicator of the direction -
(ahead, back, left, or right) of the closest cell whose color
matches the shot type you are using. This particular radar system
also assumes that there are times when you won't want to be
bothered with it, for example when you are battling with an eight-
ball cluster. So, it only shows up when it thinks you are lost.
It decides this by seeing how long it's been since you last moved
the mouse, joystick, or pressed a key, so if you need any help wait
for a second or so and it will appear.
THE PORTAL
-----------------------------------------------------------------
When moving around the grid, every so often you will see solid
black slabs emerge from the ground (or retract back into the
ground). These are portals. If you move through a portal, when
you emerge on the other side everything will have frozen. You can
move around the grid freely, but all the enemy cells, stars,
fragments of explosion and so on, are suspended in mid-air. This
state of affairs continues until either the timer reached zero or
you fire a shot. This is so that if things are going terribly
wrong somehwere, you can use a portal to suspend action until
you've located the trouble spot. Naturally there's a price to be
paid for this. Everytime you use the portal the enemy cells get
meaner, as if the action had been shifted up a level. So if you
use a portal twice on level three, the aggrestion of the enemy
cells will be that of level five.
DNA STRINGS
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Another weapon which can be used in the fight against disease and
destruction is the DNA STRAND. To fire a DNA strand using a mouse
hold down the right button and press the left button, using a
joystick press and hold down the fire button. With every press, a
shot is fired attached by elastic to the previous one. If you
pause too long, or let go of the right button the string of cells
you have fired will be released and wander off around the grid.
The advantage of these strands is that they appear to the enemy as
"one of their own." Every time an enemy cell bonds to the string
it is destroyed along with the leader cell until the string is used
up.
There are two disadvantages to using DNA strings:
1) They cost FIVE TIMES as much as normal shots (ie. five units gone
from the ammo readout).
2) They have no intelligence of their own: they merely wait to be
approached by an enemy cell. So you must decide when it is worth
launching them.
SAVED AGAIN
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Through the miracles of modern science, your job has been made
slightly easier by virtue of the fact that at the beginning of
every fifth level, all of your bases are restored and you will have
the opportunity to increase your ammo levels in the "Shooting
Stars" sequence. In this bonus level dozens of ammo-storing stars
swirl onto the screen in front of you. Get as many of them as you
can (with the same color shot preferably, for maximum ammo top-up)
and then continue on.....
CONTROL SUMMARY
-----------------------------------------------------------------
CONTROL FIRE CHANGE AMMO FIRE DNA
MOUSE: LEFT BUTTON RIGHT BUTTON Hold down RIGHT BUTTON
press LEFT BUTTON
JOYSTICK: BUTTON A BUTTON B Press and hold down
OR SPACE BAR FIRE BUTTON
KEYBOARD: ENTER SPACE BAR A Prolonged Press of the
RETURN key.
In addition: press "P": to pause, SPACEBAR to continue: Press ESC
to quit game back to title screen. Press F10 while in the game or
at the title screen to return to DOS.
SCORING
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Each enemy cell: 250 points
Each cell in cluster: 500 points
Star shot with same color: 80 points and 8 extra shots
Star shot with different color: 30 points and 3 extra shots
Hatcher: 1000 points
Spitter: 2000 points
Bonus for each remaining
base after every level: 100 points per base
PLAYING TIPS
-----------------------------------------------------------------
- Levels one and two are relatively easy because there are only a
few enemy cells - not enough to attack your bases. The Spitters
will not appear for a long time. Use these levels to practice
moving around the grid and shooting accurately.
- Spitters are very difficult to shoot because they stay on the
ground and in the time it takes to line one up and destroy it,
several cells could have been released. On the higher levels they
appear more quick and in greater numbers. Time is of the essence.
- When enemy cells attack a base, you have a few seconds to try and
destroy them. You have only got to hit one of them, and all the
others disperse back onto the grid as individual cells.
- Further into the game your ammo levels will become crucial, so on
the early levels it is worth amassing as much ammo as possible.
- A level will not end until your last shot has dissapeared. This
feature can be exploited to shoot any stars remaining on the star
tree at the end of a level.