Infestation manual

                                INFESTATION


Some of mates (aliens that is) have taken a liking to the mining colony
Alpha II and have killed all the miners, and have planted loads of eggs in
the colony. The eggs will soon hatch to form an invincible alien army that
will destroy all life!

So, mug that you are, you have volunteered to go bug hunting. Yes, you,
KAL SOLAR have won the trip of a lifetime!! A one way trip to an airless
rock floating in the back of beyond, just stuffed full of hostile aliens!!

Enough of the plot, let's get on with the important stuff...

Keys:
F1      Open/close door or grating
F2      Enter/exit terminal
F3      Take off/put on helmet

F5      Toggle tactical/recon mode
F6      Reset positioning
F7      Drop cyanide gas
F8      Turn suit's systems on/off

F10     Toggle crawling/standing up

HELP    Toggle pause
ESC     (whilst paused) exit to main menu

TAB     Toggle sound on/off

(following keys on keypad only)

1       Navigation computer
2       Status computer
3       Inventory
4       Life support systems
5       Scratch pad
6       Atmosphere analysis
7       Avionics

(following keys are cursors)

UP      MMU active/go up in elevator
DOWN    MMU inactive/go down in elevator

Within the colony there are various doors seperating different areas. F1
will open or close a door if you are facing it and are quite close. The
doors enclose horizontal elevator/airlocks; e.g. an airlock which moves
along a level instead of up/down levels. When you find a blueprint of a
level, the flashing arrows show the routes of these airlocks.

There are some elevators- these you need an elevator card for. The card can
be found in the ventilation shafts, so you've got quite a lot of searching to
do! You need the screwdriver to be able to open the grating which leads to
the ventilation shafts. Once you've got the card, find the elevator and then
you can get on with your mission- enter the elevator, close the door and use
the cursor keys up and down to move the elevator up/down levels. Then open
the door and go forth...

The terminals are computers with varying functions. The first one you will
find is near a radar base on the surface of Alpha II. When facing the two
flashing panels on the terminal, press F2 and you enter the terminal. The
first terminal you meet will request your name for security clearance. Type
in KAL SOLAR and you will see TRANSPORTER ACTIVATED at the bottom of the
screen. Now exit with F2 and go to...

The transporter. This looks a bit like a head from certain angles and has
an overhanging hook at the front. It's pretty big and close to the first
terminal so you can't miss it! Just walk into the centre of it and you will
be transported down to the colony.

Within the colony, transporters look quite a bit different. Anyone who has
seen Star Trek will recognise them instantly! When you've been transported
to the colony, walk forward a bit and then turn around to see what I mean.
Notice that there are two transporters- and both have arrows at the bottom.
The one with an arrow pointing away from the transporter is the one you've
just come out of. The other one is the one you should enter if you want
to use that transporter.

Now, you're inside the colony so you can take off your helmet. F3 will do
that. NEVER take your helmet off on the surface, as there is no atmosphere!
In fact, you should check the atmosphere before you ever take your helmet
off. Key 6 on the keypad will tell you what you want to know- bear in mind
that Earth's atmosphere is near enough 76% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen- so anything
close to that is breathable. Unfortunately, with your helmet off, you have
no access to your suit's systems like firing etc. So what's the point in
taking your helmet off at all? Because it saves precious Oxygen! Your suit
has a limited supply, so whenever you can, breathe the air around you!

Tactical mode is the default mode you start in, with all your weaponry ready
to be used. Recon mode only seems to have one use- holding down fire and a
direction changes the position you view the world from, so you can line up
on a target before firing. Then switch back to tactical to fire. Other than
that, I have no idea what use recon mode is. F6 will reset your positioning
if you get lost, and don't know what the hell way you're facing.

Cyanide. Lovely stuff! Yep, this is a real friendly way to let the neighbours
know that you're home! Cyanide gas will kill anything in a matter of seconds.
It's primary use is to dispose of the alien eggs. Cyanide will not affect the
various droids in the colony or on the surface, nor will it affect the
surface dwelling insects- they live in a vacuum so have no use for gases
anyway. Bear in mind that you shouldn't take your helmet off anywhere near
the spot where you dropped a cyanide canister!!

Turning the suit's systems off when you don't need them will conserve battery
power. This will be vital!

For a closer view of the ground, F10 can get you crawling in the dirt, and
standing up once you're happy with dirty knees. You can only enter the
ventilation shafts if you are crawling.

Saving/loading/formatting a blank disk is done from the main menu. If during
a game you want to save your position, press HELP, then press ESC. Now wait
for the main menu to appear, and select SAVE POSITION (you may have to format
a blank disk first). Then RESUME GAME to carry on. Later, you can use PLAY
FROM SAVED POSITION to resume where you saved earlier.

The navigation computer shows your co-ordinates and bearing- this will be
useful for the map you will almost certainly have to make. The colony is not
a small place!! Some terminals also have level blueprints which show a basic
map of the level. It makes good sense to carefully copy each blueprint to a
piece of graph paper. It will take time, but it will be seriously useful!!

The status computer shows things like Alien eggs left, kills, time etc.

The inventory shows the items you are carrying and how many cyanide canisters
you have left.

The life support systems show just how well or badly you are standing up to
the strain.

The scratch pad doesn't seem to be actually necessary. You could use it to
note down things before saving a game- e.g. where you are, what you have just
done or are about to do, etc. Other than that, I think it's just a nice
little gimmick.

Atmosphere analysis I've already mentioned, apart from the radiation level-
keep away from excessive radiation as it will kill you.

Avionics shows the state of your MMU (Manned Manoeuvring Unit). The three
bars
on the right are:
F       Fuel remaining
V       Velocity
A       Altitude

The T bar on the left is a standard attitude indicator. The controls of the
MMU are not immediately obvious: (joystick)
FIRE    Thrust forward
Left    Bank left
Right   Bank right
Up      Incline up (climb)
Down    Incline down (dive)
The MMU is provided for faster travel and for avoiding ground based nasties.

Your suit's helmet display shows oxygen status in the two bottles at top
left, battery level in the 'T' shaped collection of dots at bottom right and
radiation dose to the left of that. If you run out of oxygen you suffocate
and die. If the battery level reaches zero, the suit's systems become
inactive - so you have no means of defence or anything. If you accumulate too
high a radiation dose, you die.

The various objects in the game can be seen on the INTERROGATE OBJECTS screen
accessible from the main menu- take note of the descriptions!

By the way, there is at least one part of the colony that has no lighting, so
you may have to find a way of rectifying that... infra red... get the idea?