********* Welcome to Project 64! The goal of Project 64 is to preserve Commodore 64 related documents in electronic text format that might otherwise cease to exist with the rapid advancement of computer technology and declining interest in 8- bit computers on the part of the general population. Extensive efforts were made to preserve the contents of the original document. However, certain portions, such as diagrams, program listings, and indexes may have been either altered or sacrificed due to the limitations of plain vanilla text. Diagrams may have been eliminated where ASCII-art was not feasible. Program listings may be missing display codes where substitutions were not possible. Tables of contents and indexes may have been changed from page number references to section number references. Please accept our apologies for these limitations, alterations, and possible omissions. Document names are limited to the 8.3 file convention of DOS. The first characters of the file name are an abbreviation of the original document name. The version number of the etext follows next. After that a letter may appear to indicate the particular source of the document. Finally, the document is given a .TXT extension. The author(s) of the original document and members of Project 64 make no representations about the accuracy or suitability of this material for any purpose. This etext is provided "as-is". Please refer to the warantee of the original document, if any, that may included in this etext. No other warantees, express or implied, are made to you as to the etext or any medium it may be on. Neither the author(s) nor the members of Project 64 will assume liability for damages either from the direct or indirect use of this etext or from the distribution of or modification to this etext. Therefore if you read this document or use the information herein you do so at your own risk. ********* The Project 64 etext of the ~Koronis Rift manual (Atari Version)~, converted to etext by anonymous, Retrieved from Morbid Guy's Atari 8-bit Manual Archive http://www.best.com/~morbid/manuals/krift.txt KORIFT10.TXT, September 1997, etext #292# ********* KORONIS RIFT - Operations Manual 24 Febrius, 2249. For three days your Scoutcraft has been travelling through empty space, on its way from one foresaken part of the galaxy to another. You're a technoscavenger, making a living searching for abandoned technological systems - but for all the luck you've had in the last month you might as well be an intergalactic drifter. Psytek, your science droid analyzer, is monitoring the instruments. There isn't much to do - not much, that is, until suddenly Psytek flashes an urgent message: POWERFUL RADIATION FLUX DETECTED: COORDINATES 45:90 RELATIVE AZIMUTH AND ELEVATION Powerful is right! Your instruments indicate rads in the ten thousand range. "Any idea what it might be?" you ask. NEGATIVE. CHARTS INDICATE EMPTY SPACE FROM HERE TO STAR SYSTEM 583 Strange. And stranger still, when you deploy the Scoutcraft's optical sensor, you discover a large, solitary planet - one that simply doesn't exist according to the charts. But there it is, it's surface cut with deep chasms and ancient rifts. You call up a dimensional coordinate grid of the radiation flux. Sure enough, the lines of the grid are ruler straight until they reach the area of the radiation flux. There, they become as warped and tangled as the wiring of your third-hand Scoutcraft. A powerful radiation flux...a planet cut with deep rifts... Suddenly a wild idea occurs to you. Have you stumbled upon the legendary Koronis Rift? Seven hundred thousand years ago, the Ancients ruled the stars - a confederation of over thirty different races whose technological achievements were unsurpassed. According to legend, the Ancients used the deep rifts of a planet called Koronis as a testing ground for their most powerful weapons. Finding the fabled Koronis Rift has been a dream of technoscavengers for centuries. Now, just maybe, you're the one.... As soon as your ship moves within range, you activate your on-board detector. Tuned to the Ancient's standard wavelength, it should tell you whether this mysterious planet contains any caches of powerful technology. Instantly, the detector registers the loudest alarm you've ever heard. Koronis Rift...it must be! You signal Psytek. "Prepare the Surface Rover for descent." Using the optical sensor, you snap an orbital photograph of a section of the planet's surface. A moment later Psytek announces: SURFACE ROVER READY FOR DESCENT. "What about the Repo-Tech Robot?" you ask. RT ROBOT EQUIPPED AND ON BOARD. The Scoutcraft, with Psytek in control, will orbit while you explore the planet in your Surface Rover. You can always summon Psytek to come pick you up at any time - as long as you're in the clear and not under attack. There's no time to lose. Koronis Rift, the greatest treasure trove of technology in the galaxy, is waiting.... QUICK START 1. Launch Scoutcraft Once your disk boots up, you'll find yourself inside the Surface Rover, ready to explore the planet Koronis. To start scavenging, press the fire button on your joystick. 2. Koronis Rift The planet Koronis is cut by deep valleys, called rifts, which are ringed by mountain ranges and sprinkled with hills. You land in Rift One which looks to be the least dangerous. 3. Hulks The vehicle you see on the ground before you is just what you've been hoping to find - an abandoned hulk, a war machine of the Ancients. 4. Video Displays Check out the video displays at the top of you're screen. To the far left, the circle with a glowing dot at the top is your directional display. The glowing dot points toward the nearest hulk, directly in front of you. 5. Search To search the rest of Koronis Rift for Ancient technology, just turn your ship until the dot is at the top of the display, and then move forward. 6. Drive To turn on forward drive, just push the joystick forward. To turn off forward drive, pull it back. Push the joystick left or right to turn in those directions. Simple. 7. Guardian Saucers Those are Guardian Saucers swooping in. They are out to destroy you. New waves will keep coming until you destroy their base on Rift 20. You've got only two choices - to evade, or to destroy them. To fight back, use your joystick to position your targeting cursor - the small cross hair that moves within the viewing window. With the cursor centered on an enemy saucer, push the button on the joystick. One hit may not be enough. After all, these Guardian saucers will stop at nothing to protect the hulks of Ancient technology. And that's exactly what you're after. 8. Looting Hulks The radiation levels on Koronis are enough to fry a Dromodite. So you'll have to send your Repo-Tech Robot out to loot the hulks you find. But you can't do anything, until you've destroyed all the attacking saucers and positioned your Rover next to the hulk. Then you'll see the options "LOOT HULK" and "CALL SHIP" appear beneath your viewing window. To enter the option area, move the cursor to the bottom of the viewing window andpress the button. Move the cursor to the right until the indicator light above "LOOT HULK" comes on. To issue the command to your RT Robot, press the button on your joystick. The RT Robot will bring back any useful systems it finds in the hulk. To return to the Scoutcraft, activate the indicator light above "CALL SHIP" and press the button on your joystick. 9. Final Objective Destroy the saucer base on Rift 20 by gradually increasing your capabilities on the earlier levels. You can end the game anytime by returning to your Scoutcraft to cash in on all the technology you've found, but you cannot claim the entire planet for yourself unless you destroy the Guardian Base. 10. Pause and Restart Press the SPACE BAR to pause the game. Press it again to resume. To reset the game press ESC. SYSTEM ICONS The following lists standard military systems of the Ancients, along with symbols commonly used to identify them. Other types exist that have not yet been identified. LASER - Chromoquantized laser, capable of emitting a beam of destructive energy in a single color frequency. SHIELD - Chromoquantized shield, capable of defending against energy weapons of various colors. GENERATOR - comprising stand power supply. POWER RESERVE - a high capacity energy storage device. RADAR - Remote sensing device, designed to locate a specific type or class of objects. May also serve as compass or direction finder. ECM - Electronic countermeasure device, capable of interfering with enemy detection gear and rendering the user harder to detect. DRIVE - Propulsion module, for augmenting or changing the ability of the Rover to move over terrain. * **** ** ****** ** * ********** * * * * * * * * ****** * ** * * * ** * * ** ** * * ** * ** ** ** * ******* ******** ** * * ***** * * * ** * * * ***** ** ** ** ******* **** ** ** ** ****** *** ** ** * * **** * * * * **** * POWER ** LASER SHIELD GENERATOR RESERVE RADAR ECM DRIVE STRATEGY AND TACTICS Add a new module to an empty slot by selecting the slot and hitting the fire button. Use the "Add Module" option only to replace existing modules. Some strategies will score more points than others. For high points, either try to bring back lots of modules for dismantling, or try to gather enough powerful waepons quickly, then get to Rift 20 and destroy the Guardian base. Most radar modules point only to hulks made by the same race. If you first figure out what kind of modules an Ancient race is good at, then you can use radars made by that race to tell you if and where you may find more of those modules. Save the radars of useful races with Psytek for use on later rifts. Mapping the rifts will help you from game to game. Some modules will help you in making maps. Pay careful attention to energy flow. Powerful modules may require more energy than you can afford. If you add stronger shields and lasers to your Rover, you'll need to get stronger generators and power reserves too. Unusual modules may work only on certain colored saucers, or for limited amounts of time. Pay attention and experiment. You may find improved versions in later rifts. Note the progression of colors in the saucer weapons and shields. Once you recognize the pattern, you can plan ahead by having the modules you'll need to defeat or evade the saucers coming up. Differently shaped saucers have different attack patterns. Adapt your attacks to their patterns. Cutting through passes and staying near mountains can throw saucers off their pursuit, particularly if you have a good generator and drive. ********* End Project 64 etext Koronis Rift manual. *********