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Demon Transcendence (Amstrad CPC 128K+)

DEMON TRANSCENDENCE - AMSTRAD CPC 6128 EDITION Turn-based squad tactics on the Amstrad CPC, in Mode 0 and Mode 1! Gehenna Deep Station. The scientists built the Transcendence Engine to step beyond the edge of the world, and it tore a rift into somewhere else. Something came through. Your squad, Ninth Sentinel, goes in to clear the station, find the survivors, follow the rift down through the labs and the hive under them, and finish it on the other side. It plays like Rebelstar: your soldiers move a turn at a time on time units, then the demons move. A soldier with time left over fires at anything that moves in front of him. The demons are hidden until a soldier sees them. THE ZX SPECTRUM NEXT GAME, ON THE CPC This is the same game as the ZX Spectrum Next edition: 16 missions in four places, a comic page before each, the squad carried from mission to mission, and the same rules, numbers, demons and words. It runs on an Amstrad CPC with 128K (a 6128, or a 464 / 664 with a 64K expansion) and a disc drive. It is a multiload. The program loads at the start, and each mission’s map, each place’s graphics and each comic page come off the disc when they’re wanted. TWO VERSIONS: CHOOSE YOUR MODE Mode 0 version: the whole game in 160 x 200 and 16 colours. Each place gets its own set of 16 inks, with black, white, yellow, cyan, red and blue the same everywhere for the text and panel, and the other ten chosen for the place. The Next’s art is converted with shading patterns where two inks mix well, and every unit is drawn in four facingsMode 1 version: the game in sharp 320 x 200, with four inks per place: black, the place’s own map colour (station grey, labs cyan, hive magenta, hell dark red), green for your squad and red for the demons (yellow in the hive and hell). Every demon kind is told apart by shape. The map is 16 x 10 cells of 16 x 16 pixels, using the Next’s art at its own size In both versions, the title and comic pages are in mode 0 with 16 inks each. They appear panel by panel, and the Next’s pictures fade in and out. The sound effects are the Next’s, played on the CPC’s AY chip. SIXTEEN MISSIONS, FOUR PLACES The station (1-4): corridors, barracks, operations and the hangarThe labs (5-8): portals, open cells, Dr Varga and the Engine’s coreThe hive (9-12): flesh tunnels, nests, spawning pools and the GatekeeperHell (13-16): ash plains, the bone cathedral, the river of fire and the Archdemon SPEND YOUR TIME UNITS WISELY Steps, doors, pickups, terminals, shots and grenades all cost time units. Time you don’t spend is your guard: a soldier with time left fires at demons that move in front of him. Fire: choose a quick snap shot or a slow, accurate aimed shotGrenades: a 3x3 blast, soldiers includedRifle butt: out of ammunition, strike an adjacent demon insteadWeapons: rifle, shotgun and heavy gunDemons: imps, husks, hounds, spitters, brutes and wraiths, plus portals and nests that breed, altars, the core, the Gatekeeper and the Archdemon CONTROLS Q W E / A D / Z X C (or cursor keys, or joystick): move one cell, diagonals too. Walk into a closed door to open itN: next soldier (and survivor, on rescue missions)F: fire. Move the cursor the eight ways, N for the next demon seen, 1 for a snap shot, 2 for an aimed shot, F or B to go backG: grenade. Move the cursor, then G or Enter to throw (8 cells at most)P: pick up what you’re standing onU: use the terminal next to youT twice: end the turn Story pages: Enter or Space shows the next panel, B skips the rest of the page. HOW TO RUN IT Put the disc in drive A and type RUN"DEMONTR Requires an Amstrad CPC with 128K (a 6128, or a 464 / 664 with a 64K expansion) and a disc drive. Hold the line. Follow the rift. Finish it.