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From: bdoa@ukc.ac.uk (B.D.O.Adams)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sinclair
Subject: New game , starblade (0/1)
Date: Sun, 10 Sep 95 16:23:32 GMT
Organization: University of Kent at Canterbury, UK.
Lines: 60
Sender: bdoa@ukc.ac.uk
Message-ID: <1029@kiwi.ukc.ac.uk>
Reply-To: bdoa@ukc.ac.uk (B.D.O.Adams)
NNTP-Posting-Host: kiwi.ukc.ac.uk

  A Brand new game for the spectrum, called STARBLADE.
Me and my  brother wrote this sevens years ago, but never got it published,
which is a pity because i think it was pretty good. Anyway recently i found the old tape
of it, and after having to hack my own game, got it loaded into a spectrum emulator.
The games is a uridium clone but with slightly 
more stratagy. Try it you might like it and its free.
Email me with what you think of it.

From our original blurb.

The game is a scrolling shoot'em up, with the objective to destroy all 48 zones of a network of
platforms forming a huge alien space station above the earth.

Features:-
           Many waves of animated masked sprites.
           Mothership up to 48 by 48 pixels
           48 zone each built of 8 platforms
           Flicker free graphics and scrolling.
           Background stars
           Extra weapons:
                         smart bombs
                         guided missiles
                         electrosmash
           16K of pure graphics
           all keys redefinable.

  To destroy a platform, all blastable surface objects must be destroyed in a specific order,
e.g. before a gunturret can be destroyed, all the objects on the platform with greater priority
(your have to find out which) must be destroyed. Finally once all the killable surface objects 
have been eliminated on the 8 platforms forming a dreadnought have been killed, you may
destroy the whole zone by releasing a smart bomb while travelling at maximum speed.
  When you reach an end platform the scrolling will halt, and a mothership or two will appear.
By means of the four arrows you may choose which zone to go to after having destroyed the
mothership. But Beware: The zone form a complex network and you must plan your route carefully
to avoid being trapped alway from unclear zones. If this happens your mission will fail and
earth will be destroyed.

-----------

Other info.

  You begin with 10 lifes and 5 smart bombs, your need them, if these a fault with the game its that
its too damn hard. Extra life, smart bombs and weapons can be picked up if you destroy an
complete wave of aliens. To change weapons hold down fire until your choosen weapon starts flashing.
They was a cheat code for it, but after seven years i can't rembember it, sorry.

Emulator info.

  Starblade has been tested succesively on the ZXAM 2.0 and spectrum v1.7 emulators for the amiga, and
is saved as a mirage format snapshot.
Its fast enough to be playable on an A1200 with a 28Mhz 020 or 25Mhz 030, anything less and it will
crawl. PC users will have to test it out for themselves but it should run on any good emulator.

Copyright info.
  Starblade may be freely distributable provided it is not modified. You may distribute snapshots in
other formats, or at later points in the games. We however retain full copyright on the game.
All donations gratefully accepted.


Barry Adams