INTRODUCTION In an age where space travel is commonplace, a method of travelling between solar systems had finally been discovered. a tunnel of space and time independence could be created through harnessing the power of small stars. once the tunnel is open and stable, small spacecrafts can travel through it, exceeding the speed of light. After a time egotistical pilots started racing through the tunnels breaking speed records: from such simple beginnings the sport of 'starracing' began. the tunnels became tracks and the STARACE league was drawn up. STARTING THE GAME After loading the player is presented with the MENU console. a joystick plugged into the rear port will control the cursor, which appaers as a hand. the MENU console is controlled by a series of buttons, activated by moving the cursor finger over the relevant button and pressing fire on the joystick: VOLUME SLIDER Holding the fire down on the slider gives joystick control of the volume: left is quieter and right is louder. MUSIC BUTTON Pressing this will switch between sound fx and the music which plays while the game is running. IPLAY BUTTON This transfers control to a STARACE ship watting on the starting grid. TRACK BUTTON This button displays a side elevation of the currently selected track. pressing track button again rotates the view of the track. HIGHSCORE BUTTON The button labelled 'HI' displays the ten fastest times and the names of the pilots that flew them. each track has its own hiscore table. the hiscores can be saved by pointing the SAVE icon. DATA BUTTON Pressing the 'DATA' button displays information about the track and its current settings. the settings may be changed by pointing at the with the cursor; pressing fire will then change them. however, if you change the default settings of a track, you will not be entered on the hiscore table. The difficulty setting changes the speed of the other spacecraft you are racing against, while the control setting gives computer aided playing: DEMONSTRATION MODE - demo mode of the game, fire on the joystick exits back to the MENU screen. MANUAL - complete control of the craft. COMPUTER ALIGNMENT - if the craft leaves the tunnel for a length of time, controlis taken from the player as the computerputs the craft back onto the centre of the tunnel. COMPUTER ASSISTED - in this mode the computer turns the craft to centre it inthe tunnel. computer alignment is also enabled. SCREEN ARROWS While using the track, hiscore or data MENU screens, two arrow heads are displayed in the top right of the screen. selecting either one with the cursor will change which track number you have currently selected to display, and to race. PLAYING THE GAME After pressing the play button on the MENU console, your craft is placed on the starting grid. press fire on the joystick to begin the countdown. The object of the game is to finish the race in the fastest possible time. leaving the tunnel slows you down, so to get the fastest time you must try to stay inside the tunnel and constantly accelerate. Around the outside of some tunnel bends are spherical bollards. collision with abollard will instantly cripple the craft, indicated by the screen cracking and aloss of control. after a few seconds, the craft is repaired and placed in the centre of the tunnel. There are other crafts racing through the tunnel which also must be avoided ascolliding with one results on your ship going out of control. after a short time the craft is placed in the centre of the tunnel, but the other craft do not stop so a few may have overtaken you. CONTROLS The craft is controlled in a similar wayto an airplane: pulling left or right on the joystick steers the craft horizon- tally, pushing forward tips the craft downwards and pulling back tips the craft upwards. The craft is accelerated by holding downthe fire button, but is you leave the tunnel the craft will be unable to accelerate and will slow down. CONSOLE READOUTS 1. This bar graph displays position in the race by the height of the line, and distance along tunnel by the number of lines. this results in a display which shows your performance over the whole length of the track. 2. Digital distance from the end of the track. 3. Digital position in race. 4. Bar chart of speed. 5. Best time for current track. 6. Digital readout of speed. 7. This display shows where the centre of the tunnel is in relation to your craft. 8. Time elapsed since start of race. Keep the above mentioned readouts in mind as their position on the consoles is stated on the next screen. TOP CONSOLE --------- ------- ( ) ------- ( ) ( 2 3 ) ( ) ( 1 ) --------- ( 5 ) ------- ( 4 ) ------- ------- DOWN CONSOLE ----- -- ------- ( ) - - ( ) ( 6 ) - - ( 8 ) ----- - 7 - ------- - - - - -- Hope you'll understand this screen afterhaving seen the consoles in the game or blame me and this simple charset. ENTERING HISCORE If you qualify for the hiscore table you are invited to enter a five letter name. if you've already entered your name, just press return to enter it again. INTRODUCTION Learn to fly on the straighter tracks first. the craft turns faster at lower speeds. well, that's all!