THE CENTURIONS ============== BY TONY CROWTHER AND ROSS GOODLEY Ace McCloud, Jake Rockwell and Max Ray are THE CENTURIONS! Stop the evil Doc Terror in his desperate bid to destroy the world! Guide the Centurions through Space, Sea and Air, and find all six parts of the master key before if s too late! Choose from an awesome array of weapons and prepare for the battle of a lifetime! SPECIAL FEATURES ★ Multi-directional scrolling ★ 3 massive levels ★ Amazing ‘Exoframe’ feature ★ 1 or 2 players co-operational game The Centurions... The Final Conflict In the relaxation centre of SKYBOLT the CENTURIONS were enjoying a relaxing game of 4-dimensional chess. (A strange 3 player game where one player plays yesterday, one today and one tomorrow). Their minds were not really on the game, all three were looking forward to the excitement of Zad Hunter’s visit. Zad, a strange scientist from the Quazor University, had informed our heroes of some new weapon systems for their Exoframes as well as S.C.O.U.T. Just as Jake was discussing the implications of check-mating Ace 3 O’clock yesterday, Max bellowed; “Look, Zad’s Ship! Come on guys, let’s see what the Profs got for us today”. Ace and Jake decided to agree on a draw and leapt to their feet knocking over the delicate playing boards and wiring at the same time. “Oh well, silly game anyway.” Zad’s craft was hovering outside when his familiar face appeared on the monitor screen in the control room. “Hi guys, you’re going to have to beam me over. Since I’ve attached the new laboratory to this baby I’ve not been able to dock anywhere”! Crystal’s fingers flashed over the keyboard and soon the scatter-brained techno-wizard was on board Skybolt with a whole host of new equipment. After greeting each other, the Centurions and their guest moved to the on-board firing range to test out the new weapon systems. “Hey Doc, what happened to your leg?” exclaimed Ace as he noticed that Zad’s left leg had been replaced by a rather odd blend of artificial limb and robotics. “It’s a long story, I’ll tell you in due course. Meet S.C.O.U.T.” chuckled Zad. “The most perfect surveillance droid ever created”. He removed the casing on a small robot about a metre tall but was lifted about another 30cms by it’s uncanny knack of hovering. The rather odd contraption rotated on its own axis whilst numerous sensors and indicators performed their tasks. “If we plug this little gizmo into your computer you can not only control it via the camera but it sends back all the data to you”. Zad ran excitedly to the terminal and connected the unit into the VDU. After typing in a few commands the screen showed the view from the droids camera. At the push of a button the printer churned out an analysis from S.C.O.U.T. “So”! Zad spun round, ripping the paper from the printer. “All you need to do in future is send our little pal into a danger zone and you can find out all you need to know about the area before you guys zoom in with your weapons”. “Is it armed?” queried Max “Yes, but lightly. It has a single shot laser bolt, ifs unlikely that the droid can stay in battle for long. Fighting is for you guys”. With that he opened up the next parcel. “I have devised a number of new weapon systems for you, they are not complete outfits in themselves, they are designed to fit onto your existing systems and so any of you may use any of them”. Zad held up a cylindrical device a bit like a bazooka. ‘This is the ‘Doubler’, it fires a slug of energy which splits into two and then four and so on. Ifs power is awesome so make sure you know where the other two are before you fire”. Max stepped forward to try the device. Zad fastened it to the arm of his exoframe and with a wry grin Max turned to face the targets. He triggered the device and with a thunderous roar a bolt of light shot from the weapon. “Good shot” shouted the scientist as he leapt in the air clapping his hands excitedly. Max, Jake and Ray stood in amazement as they looked at the remains of all eight targets at the bottom of the range. Zad went on to demonstrate more of his arsenal as Crystal entered the new assault pack configurations into the Skybolts computer. After some time and many targets later, they came to the last new weapon. Zad took two packs from his case and fixed them to Jake. One at the front and one at the back. “Jake, this is the most deadly weapon I have to offer but it is important you use it carefully”. He pointed to his leg, “this happened with a trial model which was a lot less 1 powerful than the one you have”. He paused for a moment as Jake looked nervously at the pack on the front of his exoframe. “It works like this, as you run, fly or swim”. He looked at each Centurion in turn. “It sends out a ring of plasma completely surrounding you. The ultimate weapon that if used incorrectly could literally turn against you”, he smiled to himself happy with the pun he had just made but as yet the others would not understand. “If you stop moving then the plasma ring catches up with you from behind with disastrous consequences”. “Well for a risk like that it better be worth it”. Jake laughed covering up his obvious nerves. The team set up targets down the range and Jake prepared himself for the test. He started to run down the range and triggered the weapon. A shell formed around Jake as Ace and Ray looked on nervously. Zad stood nodding his head as if to signify that all was going to plan. Jake was nearing the end of the range. He powered down the weapon and stopped I at the end. As he looked back up the range to his friends he shouted; “Not bad eh, let’s hope it can’t get jammed on”! As with all the tests that day all the targets had been annihilated. Zad bid the heroes good bye and entered the transporter. “See you next month and let’s hope you don’t have to use any of those in the near future”. As Zad’s figure disappeared from sight Ace walked over to the main computer. He punched a few keys, put his feet on the desk and started to read a resumee of the new weapons. Suddenly the emergency warning sounded and all three Centurions leapt to their feet. “There has been a break-in at the Weapons Development Centre, we are sure ifs Doc Terror and we know what he’s after”. A plan of the centre flashed onto the screen. Ace stood up to take a closer look. “Are these what I think they are?”, he said gazing at a row of cases marked on the plan. “Yes, I’m afraid they’re cases of Tyron-Dichromate, if Doc gets hold of these we’re in trouble”. “I guess this is where we try out our new weapons, but what do we do about this Tyron stuff’? Max seemed pleased about the prospect of using the new weapon systems but worried about the cases. Tyron-Dichromate is a new chemical devised to allow the process of Nuclear Fusion. It is not available on the open market as it has not been fully tested. “Don’t forget the lock system. Most of the rooms are locked and you need to get all six parts of the master keys to open the exit to the next building” added Crystal. How to play the Game. Centurions is a one or two player game. What follows is a description of the one player version. Additional features for two players is described after. To Load:- C-64 Disk LOAD "A$"8,l Tape Shift Run/Stop Ams Disc RUN "AS Tape CTRL/Small ENTER Spc Tape LOAD"" There are three different rooms and you can start in any of them. Though it is best to start at the first room. (C-64 owners can change the difficulty with the Q key). To complete a level you must find all six keys. These are shown on the map and displayed in the centre of your console. When you have done this you may move to one of the exits. When you start the game you are the droid, simply move onto the Air, Sea or Land section to become Ace, Max or Jake. You may use the droid to play but its weapons are weak. You may change characters at any stage in the game by moving onto another pad. Before you can summon an assault pack from Skybolt you have to hit enough baddies. If a ‘Quanf is left behind and you move onto it then you may choose an assault pack. Press the fire button when the appropriate letter is highlighted. A Quant is displayed as a white cross. In order to enter many of the rooms you require a key, these keys are in the shape of blocks. You will notice that these are surrounded by an area of air, sea or land. Only the Centurion specialising in that area will be able to reach it. Details on some of the weapons A. Gives you an energy boost as well as a random weapon. B. This is the ring weapon as described in the story. Use it carefully. C.-H. Various weapons of different fire powers. I. Grenade. Press fire to release grenade and let go to explode it. All the weapons wear out after a while. The Tyron-Dichromate Bonus points for destroying these cases, simply walk into them in order to eliminate them. Some take longer to break than others. Doc Terror If the image of Doc Terror hits you then you are recalled to Skybolt and replaced by a droid. You must go back to the Air, Sea, Land pads to change back. Second Player The second player may join in at any stage by simply pressing the fire button on his joystick. Remember, the Centurions are a team! You cannot change into the character which the other player already is and you will loose energy if you try to do so. Two players destroy the Tyron blocks very quickly. Controls C-64 must use Joysticks (Port 2 for player one). Amstrad may use the keyboard or Joystick. Spectrum may use the keyboard or Joystick. Q Change difficulty on the C-64 only. Fire Fire, pick up key, selects assault pack. Run/Stop (64) Pause TAB (Amstrad) Pause Delete (Spectrum) Pause RESTORE (64) End game CTRL/SFT/ESC1 (Ams) End player 1 game CTRL/SFT/ESC 2 (Ams) End player 2 game SS/CS1 (Spc) End player 1 game SS/CS 2 (Spc) End player 2 game CREDITS Game design Tony Crowther and Ross Goodley Commodore Tony Crowther Amstrad Ross Goodley Spectrum A.N. Other Storyline James Poole Music We M.U.S.I.C. © 1987 RUBY SPEARS ENTERPRISES, INC. ® 1987 ARIOLASOFT UK LTD. P.N. - 00810/UK Copyright subsists in this program recording. 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