Stellar 7 from Dynamix/Sierra released by The Humble Guys! 10/01/90 Plagiarized by eddie the weenie Gir Draxon, Supreme Overlord of the evil Arcturan Empire, is preparing to launch an attack on Earth. As Commander of Terran Forces assigned to protect the planet, your mission is to reach the Arcturan star system and destroy Draxon before he can assemble his forces and capture Earth. To help combat the powerful Arcturan Armada, Terran High Command has placed you at the controls of the Raven, Earth's most sophisticated fighting machine. From the command seat of the Raven, you must face Arcturan forces in seven different star systems. If you sucessfully destroy enough of the enemy forces in one star system, a Guardian will appear. If the Guardian is battled and defeated a Warp Link will appear. Drive into the Warp Link to transport yourself into the next star system. Upon reaching the seventh system, Arcturus, you must locate and destroy Gir Draxon's flagship. Should you succeed, Earth will be saved. Failure will leave your home planet defenseless against Draxon's assault and guarantee Earth's destruction! This manual gives you a complete description of the Raven's awesome power. Refer to the CAPABILITIES section to learn all about the best technology that Terran science has to offer. Also, in the STRATEGIES section, Terran designers and engineers have prepared a set if valuable hints and tips to help you gain the best use of the Raven. The Arcturan Armada contains twelve known enemy vehicles. You can learn about each of them by studying the EMEMY FILES section of the manual. These files contain all of the information Terran High Command has gathered on each Arcturan vehicle. You can also get this information on-screen by selecting BRIEFING from the main menu before you begin your mission. CONTROLS Power Module Activation Keys: Inviso Cloak I Jump Thruster J RC Bomb B Cat's Eye C Eel Shield E Super Cannon S MP Thruster T Joystick Button One Fire Cannon Space Bar Fire Cannon Joystick Button Two Select Power Module Tab Select Power Module Joystick Both Buttons Activate Selected Power Return Activate Selected Power F10 Display Preferences Menu F2 Sound/Music ON/OFF Alt-S Sound Effects ON/OFF Alt-M Music ON/OFF Alt-J Joystick ON/OFF Alt-C Joystick Calibration Alt-D Mouse ON/OFF P Pause ON/OFF Z Zoom ON/OFF ESC Abort Mission Alt-Q Quit to DOS MENUS BEGIN: Starts a mission BRIEFING: An overview of Draxon's Forces PREFERENCES: Allows custom tailoring or your mission to suit nearly any experience level or machine speed. The GRAPHIC DETAIL slider allows you to turn up & down the level of detail in the game. Use this on slower machines. Difficulty levels determine the number of Power Modules present at the beginning of game play & scoring. SCORES: View the top ten Raven Pilots. EXIT: To DOS dumbshit. RAVEN'S COCKPIT: Once in the Raven's cockpit there are several menu options available: PREFERENCES: Available by pressing F10 key. The in-game version contains controls for sound, music, joystick and graphic detail. This menu can be brought up during a mission EXCEPT during story panels and planetary warp. EXIT MISSION: Available by pressing ESC key. Allows abort. QUIT GAME: guess... CAPABILITIES The common name for project XCV Agl-2 was originally "The Nighthawk." However, a bad circuit garbled the Inviso Audio feedback, making the noise sound more like a raven than a nighthawk. Everyone involved in the project began to jokingly refer to it as "The Raven." The bad circuit was never replaced, and the new name stuck. The Raven is equipped with the most advanced technology Terran science has ever assembled. The following is a description of the Raven's finer points and their operation. This machine is extremely powerful, but it is not indestructible. The energy reserves must never reach total depletion. Without power, the Raven's shields will fall and the ship's extremely delicate hull will be totally vunerable. One direct hit on the Raven's unprotected hull and the craft will explode. The Raven is equipped with the completely redesigned Anti-gravity Generator (Agrav Generator). The new Agrav design allows the Raven to sustain a clearance of one-half meter from the ground, permitting the craft to glide over nearly any surface. This ability also allows the Raven to carry heavier defensive weaponry than conventional assult vehicles without a sacrifice of speed. THE COCKPIT CENTER TOP: The bird glows while cloaking is active. Flashes to indicate impending cloaking activation & deactivation. CENTER TOP: Current planetary system shown under the bird. CENTER SCREEN: Targeting ring. LOWER LEFT: Display of: - Current active power (highlighted) - Number of uses remaining for each power (dots in icon). LOWER CENTER: Radar screen. LOWER CENTER: Energy Level (under radar screen). LOWER RIGHT: Game score. (above cannon indicator). LOWER RIGHT: Cannon indicator. RED is cannon ready, Blue means reloading. STANDARD ISSUE PROTONIC SHIELDS: Standard issue defensive shields, the Prontonic units are capable of absorbing almost all forms of energy, including heat, kinetic energy, and radiation. They provide protection against shells, lasers, and high speed collisions. However, each time the shields are hit or impacted the system energy depletes slightly. As stated previously, complete energy depletion will result in shield failure and complete vulnerability. The next hit will be your last. A warning bell will sound when the energy levels go citical. BI-PHASAL THUNDER CANNON: Standard issue defensive weapon fires shells armed with limited nuclear warheads. Each shell is capable of penetrating .1 meters of armor. The Cannon's fire rate is 2 shells per volley. Between volleys, there is a delay to allow the next 2 shells to be loaded and armed. RADAR: The Raven is indicated by the stationary dot in the center of the scope and all scanned objects in front of the Raven will appear relative to this central dot. Objects in front of the Raven will appear at the top of the central dot while objects behind the craft will appear below the central dot. The Raven's radar is thermal, motion and electromagnetic sensitive. It can therefore distingish between land masses, missles and other vehicles. This also gives the Raven's system an advantage over more traditional radar detectors in that it cannot be fooled by electromagnetic tricks employed by cloaking devices. ZOOM MAGNIFICATION: This device permits long-range scanning through the viewscreen. It is most useful for identifying distant objects. Note that Zoom narrows the Raven's field of vision significantly, and should be used only for short periods of time. POWER MODULES Along with a standard weapons and shield system, the Raven is capable of adapting to any environment by utilizing a modual defensive system in it's design. The craft is capable of acquiring and incorporating weapons systems from a variety of enemy vehicles to strengthen and enhance its own defensive capabilities. NOTE: Each Power Module can be immediately activated with its keyboard hot key. INVISO CLOAK GENERATOR (Hot Key "I"): This device is capable of generating a negative electromagnetic field, redering the Raven invisible to all electromagnetic sensory devices. When active, enemy units will be unable to track the Raven. They will, however, have a fix on the Raven's last visible location. Furthermore, the Raven's location will be temporarily revealed whenever the cannon is fired. The Inviso Cloak Indicator will begin to blink when invisibility is about to deactivate. EEL SHIELD (Hot Key "E"): Capable of rechanneling an enemy's shield energy back into itself, the Eel Shield makes ramming an effective defensive maneuver. When contact is made with an alien craft, their shield is reversed, turning the protective field inward, compressing itself and destroying the generating vehicle. Even the most deflective shields will buckle after several contacts. SUPER CANNON (Hot Key "S"): Capable of repeated firings without the reload time associated with the Bi-Phasal Thunder Cannon, the Super Cannon is capable of delivering a rapid fire volley of missles. Its firepower is also more than double that of the Bi-Phasal. MP THRUSTER (Hot Key "T"): The MP Thruster gives a short but powerful forward surge for situations when conventional speed will prove insufficient. NOTE: The MP Thruster cannot be used to maneuver in reverse. CAT'S EYE (Hot Key "C"): Though Terran technology is quite advanced, it is theorized that cloaking technology is possessed by others. Therefore, it became important to establish a defensive system for such possible "invisible threats" and the Cat's Eye was born. The system uses a particle tracking radar to reassemble the scrambled rays left by all known cloaking systems. With the Cat's Eye operational, the Raven's pilot will see a computer simulated image of any cloaked vehicle within the main viewing screen. RC BOMB (Hot Key "B"): A throwback to ancient land based warfare, the RC Bomb is an advance on an old and reliable system. Small but deadly electrical discharge units are released by the Raven's rear deployment panel. These units remain inactive until an electrical field interrupts the RC Bomb's twelve meter scan radius. When the perimeter is broken, the unit explodes with a concentrated electron polarization beam, causing the invader's atomic structure to dramatically shift which leads to nuclear explosion. NOTE: The Raven's electrical field pattern has been coded into the memory of all RC Bombs carried during your mission. Therefore, you can never accidentally activate a released mine with your own craft. JUMP THRUSTER (Hot Key "J"): The Jump Thruster enables the Raven to complete a sustained vertical lift for several seconds, increasing the Agrav Generator's usual clearance to several hundred feet. When activated immediately after the MP Thruster, the Jump Thruster can enable the Raven to literally "jump" over enemies or obstacles. NOTE: Directional control will be lost while elevated by the Jump Thruster. ENEMY FILES In his quest to rule Earth, and everything else he can get his metallic hands on, Gir Draxon has sent out the most advanced and destructive fighter craft Terran forces have ever seen. You will battle with his Arcturan forces on seven different Star Systems, making your way closer and closer to Draxon's home world, Arcturus. Each System holds new dangers, more lethal enemies and a Planetary Guardian which will have to be defeated before progression to the next Planetary System will be possible. Terran intelligence has been able to gather little information on Draxon's Armada but what is available is presented to you in the following enemy files. Use this information well and know that the fate of the earth lies in your hands.... (what followed was a bunch of graphics i'm not about to try and copy. fuck it. shoot 'em all. to see what they look like, check out the briefing screen.) ALLIED FILES Unique to the Raven is its ability to add on Power Modules that give the craft expanded powers. Some modules will be in place at the beginning of the mission, depending upon difficulty level selection (see below). Additional modules can be obtained throughout the game by the destruction of enemy vehicles in groups of three. The enemies must be of the same type and must be destroyed sequentially. When this is accomplished, a Power Module will be released. The Raven can collect released modules by simply driving into them. The destruction of different enemy groups will yield different Power Modules. Following is a listing of available modules, their accompanying enemy group and the number the Raven begins with for varying difficulty levels: INITIAL COUNT/DIFFICULTY LEVEL POWER MODULE ENEMY GROUP EASY STANDARD DIFFICULT --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inviso Cloak Fuel Bay Docking 3 3 3 Jump Thrusters 3 Skimmers 3 1 0 RC Bomb 3 Seekers 3 1 0 Cat's Eye 3 Stalkers 3 1 0 Super Cannon 3 Assault Tanks 3 1 0 MP Thruster 3 Sandsleds 3 1 0 Eel Shields 3 Prowlers 3 1 0 STRATEGIES Taking on the Arcturan Armada and winning will take sharp reflexes, quick thinking, practice, and above all - strategic planning. The enemies you will face are unique not only in design and strengths but in intelligence and tactics. Each enemy will attack and react differently. You must become familiar with their individual attack styles and outsmart your opponent. Following are a few tips that will get you started. Use them as building blocks to develop your own unique game plan and techniques. * Keep moving! Never "sit and spin" while trying to get an enemy into your sights. Always remember that if you are trying to line up an enemy for the kill the enemy is probably doing the same thing to you. * Never go "face-to-face" with an enemy. Such linear thinking will make you an easy target, placing you in the direct line of fire. * Use your weapons if you need them. Conserving limited powers is only effective if you're around to use them (duh). * Learn the combinations of ememy destruction associated with the Power Modules. Knowing which vehicles to take out to get a specific power can make all the difference in desparate situations. * Respect and obey all Humble Guys for they are Gods. * Remember the locations of Fuel Bays and don't forget that they cannot be docked with when the Raven is cloaked. * Look for weaknesses in the Planetary Guardians. Every Achilles has his heel. * Learn to "lead" or shoot ahead of an enemy if they are moving rapidly at a distance. Anticipate how long it will take your shell to travel the distance of the enemy. Next, decide where the enemy will be in that amount of time and fire at that location. * Remember that some enemies are also equipped with cloaking devices. If you can see a vehicle on radar but not through the viewscreen, they're cloaked and probably moving in for the kill. * Keep in mind that the Raven can hold 3 of any one Power Module at a time. Wait to collect released modules is you already have a full supply... they will remain floating in the area where released until collected, destroyed by cannon fire or left behind after warping to another Star System. * Remember that the Story Panels which connect Star Systems can be turned off (Main menu preferences), skipped (ESC key) or fast forwarded (space bar). * As a convenience, a Continue feature is available. When Continue is used, you will begin on the same Star System as when your mission ended. You will have a full energy supply and the same Power Modules that you ended with, but your score will be reset to zero. The number of Continues available is dependent upon the difficulty level. On EASY level you can continue TWO times. On STANDARD level you can continue ONE time. On DIFFICULT level Continue is deactivated. For a good time call: SPAMLAND - 508-PRI-VATE - 14.4 only - THG smoking massive quantities of pot will help you play this game. JUST SAY YO! X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X Another file downloaded from: The NIRVANAnet(tm) Seven & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Taipan Enigma 510/935-5845 Burn This Flag Zardoz 408/363-9766 realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510/527-1662 Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 801/278-2699 The New Dork Sublime Biffnix 415/864-DORK The Shrine Rif Raf 206/794-6674 Planet Mirth Simon Jester 510/786-6560 "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X