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1. Unfortunately in general the more dangerous the alien life form the more valuable its data will be Exactly where and with whom you exchange life form data for valuable commodities is up to you to find out Flagship s Manifest This option lets you view and manipulate various detailed aspects of your flagship and combat fleet Checking Cargo The amount of minerals or other cargo your flagship can carry depends on how many Cargo Bays you have built into your ship When you choose CTAR ef bey 2 44 he CARGO the game will display the different types of minerals and how many units you presently possess as well as the remaining FREE CARGO space left on your ship The display also shows how much information you have gathered on life forms Should you wish to DISCARD some minerals perhaps to make room for other more valuable minerals select the DISCARD command and then press Enter or Button 1 Next move the flashing cursor over the type mineral you wish to discard and press Enter again Each time you do so one unit of the selected mineral will be discarded You cannot retrieve min erals once you have discarded them Using Devices During the course of the game you will find buy or otherwise obtain devices which you will carry aboard your flagship To manipulate such items choose DEVICES from the Command Menu A list of the devices aboard your ship will be displayed in the flagship status area After you have highlighted the de
2. Combat Energy The speed with which the energy for your weapons is replenished during combat The more Dynamos you have on board your flagship the faster energy will be regenerated Fuel Your flagship requires fuel to travel through HyperSpace and to send lan ders down to the surfaces of alien worlds Your ship always has a fuel reserve Capacity of 10 units of fuel and is initially equipped with one Fuel Tank Module with limited capacity To increase your present supply of fuel one unit up to your maximum fuel capacity select FUEL To transfer fuel from your ship back to the Starbase recouping some of its value choose FUEL To increase your fuel capacity you will have to buy addi tional Fuel Tank Modules Flagship Enhancement Modules The Precursors who designed your flagship 250 000 years ago while humans were still little more than smart monkeys would have really appreciated the Swiss Army Knife This is apparent in the way your ship is built The superframe of the flagship is strong but minimal providing little D 50 Wi better than a solid framework ready to accept additional pieces of equip ment These self contained equipment packages are called Modules You can build additional modules and attach them to your vessel CAR ERO Modules come in four different kinds Thruster Attitude Lander and Multi Function Thruster and Attitude modules affect how your ship handles in space The more Thrusters you have a
3. The Effects of Inertia and Gravity When ships are navigating in Star Control Il they are under the influ ence of two physical forces inertia and gravity Inertia is the tendency of an object in motion to remain in motion All moving objects have inertia and the faster they go the more inertia they possess When you let your foot off the gas in an automobile it slows and comes to a stop because there are many forces of friction acting against your motion like air resistance the roughness of the road and the cars mechanical parts rubbing against each other Garo REDAT CRTR g 30 Nu In normal space these resisting forces of friction are virtually nonexistent Any object in motion like a spaceship will keep moving at the same speed until something stops it The only way for a spaceship to stop itself is to turn in the direction opposite its line of travel and thrust until it comes to a stop Gravity is the natural attractive force that exists between all objects This force is usually too small to be noticeable unless an object is terrifically massive like a sun or planet In Star Control II the only situation in which your ship will be affected by gravity is in space combat As you approach a planet its gravity will begin to affect the course of your vessel bending your path toward the center of the planet Inertial ships can make use of planets gravity fields to achieve higher than normal velocities by performing
4. After 20 years marooned on Vela II the colonists were at last ready to return to Earth Or were they Pressed to begin programming the computer Farnsworth broke down and admitted he didn t have the foggiest idea how to do it It turned out he had never understood the incredibly complicated system Instead for years he had secretly employed the natural computer talents of a precocious young genius This gifted child now a young man had been born on Unzervalt the son of an officer from the Tobermoon and a Research Team engineer Each night after Farnsworth left the Control Computer console the young boy had crept into the caves and tinkered with the computer Within a few months the child had established a rapport with the computer far beyond anything Farnsworth had accomplished When the Professor discovered the boy s nocturnal activities he used gifts and phony promises to win the child s ul confidence then talked he young genius into activating the entire complex This time the Captain did throw the Professor into the stockade Then Burton called the young man into her office and proposed a plan She would command the starship and he would serve as pilot acting as the inter face with the starship s Precursor computer With trepidation you accepted The Return to Earth After 3 months of intensive crew training Captain Burton felt it was finally time to leave Unzervalt You weren t so sure weren t entirely com
5. Chenjesu This race is the only known form of silicon based life form to have achieved intelligence naturally The Chenjesu are the oldest most technologically advanced species in the Alliance and while all mem ___ bers in the Alliance are officially equal the Chenjesu are a bit more equal Since this species evolved as a photo chemo vore it derives its nourishment from light and ambient minerals with no natural predators the Cryo tippy P 62 De Chenjesu are entirely non aggressive preferring calm philosophical dis course above all other activities Mmrnmhrm The Mmrnmhrms origin is mysterious Less than a thousand years ago the first Mmrnmhrm awakened alone on the surface of a dark airless moon Looking up the conical segmented robot saw the huge factory starship which had just finished man ufacturing it by stripping the surface of the moon for raw materials and then refining these crude ores into final parts within its cavernous interior Within a few years the star system teemed with millions of intelli gent self aware robots who called themselves the Mmrnmhrm These non hostile mechanical beings were assembled for some kind of mis sion by a distant alien race When born built each Mmrnmhrm awakens filled with Knowledge and purpose though to date the Mmrnmhrm have not revealed the exact nature of their long term mission Within a century after the first Mmrnmhrm was built they had established peaceful r
6. In HyperSpace gravity and inertia do not function as they do in our ye 35 L dimension Once you cease thrusting your ship will gradually come to a halt as though some invisible force were constantly dragging on your ves sel This is in fact the case To continue travel you have to thrust con stantly and this uses huge amounts of fuel As a general rule DO NOT RUN OUT OF FUEL IN AN ALIEN UNIVERSE Few have lived to tell of the experience Encounters in HyperSpace All known star faring races use HyperSpace as their transit corridor between stars Occasionally such ships may meet in this alien dimension and the intersection of their masses causes them both to drop down from HyperSpace into the interstellar void The confrontation between ships then takes place in the traditional manner and is resolved in words and or weapons exchanges Returning to TrueSpace The passage back to TrueSpace is made via the transdimensional vortices produced by stellar gravity fields To enter a star system move your ship onto the center of a stellar vortex You will automatically transition out of HyperSpace and into the star system SHIP COMMANDS Your flagship is capable of many activities beyond navigation You access these abilities through the Flagship Command Menu You can enter this menu from Navigation by pressing the Spacebar or Button 2 then moving the highlight to the desired command and pressing Enter The Commands are as follows
7. The Ur Quan has an immensely powerful medium long range weapon that fires rapid fusion plas ma blasts It also has the capability of launching pairs of autonomous laser equipped fighters Remember that each fighter represents a depart ing crew member So if you are wounded to start out with don t send off all but the last few of your crew and risk defeat through a single lucky enemy shot Also fighters expire if you don t let them return to your ship Avoid high speed chases or your fighters will be left far behind Use fight ers at short range and in conjunction with your main weapon For best results chase an opponent in one direction while you head off in the opposite direction to meet him as he wraps around ple COMER NT Z 91 Kohr Ah Marauder The Kohr Ah ship is one of the few ships that is a good match for an Ur Quan Dreadnought The two ships are comparable in speed maneuverability crew and energy regeneration However 2 instead of firing plasma blasts the Kohr aF E O Ah vessel fires missiles which continue to AG move away from the ship until the Fire ers ge Button is released Once the Fire Button eA is released these spinning metal blade disks remain where they are placed When an enemy vessel draws near it tracks on the vessel and closes with it A KohrAh commander will often first lay down a defensive wall of blades around his ship then litter an opponents path with the spinning weapons Only eight blades
8. add crew and press Enter Additional crew are shown as green dots on your flagship Your maximum crew level depends on how many Crew Pod modules you have attached to your flagship Each Pod holds up to 50 crew For combat vessels the present maximum crew levels are shown in text beneath the image of each ship When you have added sufficient crew members you can then move the cursor to another ship or press the Spacebar to return to the Command Menu To remove crew from your flagship or a combat vessel choose CREW from the Shipyard Command Menu then move the flashing cursor over the desired ship and press Enter Each time you do so one crew will be transferred back to the Starbase and you will recoup most of the crews value When you are done removing crew press the Spacebar to return to the Command Menu Combat Vessels You may add up to 12 escort vessels which will travel with and fight for your flagship These ships may represent a less expensive alternative for defending yourself rather than spending a great deal of your resources on transmogrifying your flagship into a battleship Adding Combat Vessels To add a ship to your escort fleet choose SHIP from the Command Menu A list of the available ship types and their costs will then appear in the Flagship Status Window Move the highlight to the ship you wish to xy 53 L purchase and press Enter A hangar will then open showing the newly commissioned ship Remember shi
9. choose SuperMelee from the Star Control menu and ignore steps 3 amp 4 3 Change to the directory that contains the game For example if you installed the game in a subdirectory named STARCONZ type CD STARCONZ2 and press Enter 4 Now type the file name MELEE and press Enter again Note that MELEE EXE has the same command line options for sound as GART hope BROT P 78 h STARCON2 EXE see Specifying Sound Card on the Command Line for details Note The Melee program tries to run at the same speed on all computers If you would like to unleash your computer s power and play at maximum speed add frenzy on the com mand line after Melee The SuperMelee Main Screen The SuperMelee Main Screen includes three regions The Team Display which shows the ships in each team as well as their name the Game Settings which records the manner you have configured the game and the Main Menu which lists the general commands at your disposal As a convenience SuperMelee always remembers most recently used teams and settings and automatically loads these for you whenever you start the game Creating a SuperMelee Team To create a SuperMelee Team 1 First highlight EDIT on the Main Menu and press Enter 2 Using the Arrow keys move the cursor to the slot where you want to add a ship and press Enter The highlight will now move to the list of available ships Note If you place the cursor on a slot which already contains a ship
10. cores fluid mantles and a thin shell of H20 covering some or all of the surface of the planet Depending on the distance from primary the star about which the planet orbits the surface can be solid ice liquid or gaseous vapor Due to the unusual chemistry of water life is quite com mon on water worlds having an average surface tem perature in water s phase change range 0 100 centigrade Selenic World Selenic worlds are small and not dense being composed of light common minerals and metals Such planets rarely possess an atmosphere Earth s moon Luna is a perfect example of this kind of world Dust World The surfaces of these planets are composed of silicates and metal oxides with little or no usable mineral deposits The thin atmosphere found on dust worlds will occasionally support a minimal eco system Hydrocarbon World Hydrocarbon worlds are similar to water worlds but instead of H20 these planets are covered with a layer of richly varied inorganic hydrocarbons such as ethanol Small deposits of useful minerals have been found on such planets but they are most notable for their ability to support life Cpr ar L l Primordial World Large and rocky these planets follow the typical metal core silicate sheath configuration found in so many worlds of this size The primordial world gets its name from the conditions found on its surface when the primary supplies enough energy to volatilize the planets dense layer of C
11. After choosing NAMES you can pick CAPTAIN or FLAGSHIP After you have made your selection the current name in the Flagship Status Window is erased and you can enter a new name in its place To erase the old name use the Backspace and DEL keys When you are done press Return Quitting the Game To leave Star Control Il and return to DOS perhaps to play a game of SuperMelee choose QUIT and then choose YES QUIT to confirm your departure THE EARTH STARBASE Early on in the course of the game you will gain access to a huge Starbase orbiting Earth This spacestation will serve as your base of opera Va 48 L tions for the remainder of the game providing you with enhancements for your flagship additional combat vehicles and crew To visit the Earth Starbase go to the Sol star system and approach Earth until the view expands to show you the Earth Luna system The Starbase is the object in orbit between the planet and the moon Navigate your flagship until it touches the center of the Starbase and you will automati cally take up position adjacent to the space station Once you arrive at Starbase you have the following choices STARBASE COMMANDER OUTFIT STARSHIP SHIPYARD DEPART STARBASE The Starbase Commander This command initiates a conversation with the commander of the Earth Starbase He is the source of much information regarding the Ur Ouan and various developments which will turn up over the course of the game Transferri
12. Burton led a squad of volunteers back into the caves on Cyr ORY CAR OUER f 2 19 a cautious reconnaissance mission Inside the main cavern the squad came upon the robots assembling the spine of a huge ship a starship Although the robots clearly knew the humans were there turning to focus benign scan ners on the volunteers several times they obviously did not consider the Earthlings a threat Captain Burton decided it was safe for humans to return to work in the caves so long as people kept out of the robots way Days later an abashed Farnsworth was finally coaxed back to the Precursor Control Computer to continue his research Almost immediately the profes sor discovered two significant facts First the construction process would soon transition out of the caves and assembly of the starship would continue on the planet s surface Second as far as Farnsworth could tell the construc tion was going to take a long time The long time that Farnsworth predicted turned out to be nearly a decade The colonists grew accustomed to the framework of a great starship looming above their tiny village Day after day a hundred robots moved across the sur face of the vessel welding and fitting assembling and fabricating Then one day without warning the construction robots stopped work and returned underground They assumed their original positions in the cave and shutdown completely The cave was exactly the way the rese
13. Starmap This command displays a map of the stars in the known region of space CR Okey 2 36 he To find out the name of a star move the flashing highlight on top of it The name of the star and the fuel necessary to reach it will then be shown in the secondary and tertiary data displays at the top of the screen The grey oval surrounding your position represents your range with your present fuel supply Remember you use fuel landing on planets and escaping from battle so this range circle can change even if you are not in HyperSpace Note Planetary excursions require fuel and may significantly affect your range You can expand the Starmap to get a clearer look at a viewed region by pressing the Insert key Use the Delete key to return to the original view To scroll your view of the Starmap when you are zoomed in move the cur sor off the edge of the screen and the view will automatically re center Alien Spheres of Influence When you acquire information about an alien race either through friendly conversation or via minute inspection of enemy ship wreckage the Starmap will display what you have learned by showing the aliens sphere of influence This appears as a colored circle on the Starmap labelled with the name of the appropriate alien race The size of the sphere is an indica tor of the overall strength of an aliens entire star fleet Although these Spheres of Influence are usually centered around their native homeworl
14. an alien task force simply bring your ship into contact with the icon But beware the outcome of such an encounter may be sudden combat Entering Planetary Orbit Once you re in a star system you may want to visit the planets there Your flagship itself is not designed to land on a planet but you can enter a planet orbit for a closer look and then send a Lander down for a more thorough investigation To enter a planet s orbit maneuver your vessel until it touches the center of a planet You will then automatically enter the planet s orbit Planet Types and Descriptions Planets are aggregated matter which forms around suns The size compo sition and chemistry of each planet is unique but the majority of planets fall into a few general categories which are described below Gas Giants These planets are huge balls of gas composed of light elements such as hydrogen or helium Since gas giants have no surface to speak of just an CR ORR YT 2 32 Sale increasingly dense fog of gas ships cannot land on this type of planet Although there has been some discussion of harvesting the upper atmos phere of gas giants with enormous scoop ships your flagship is incapable of gleaning any useful minerals from such planets To date no complex life form has ever been found in on a gas giant however research into this field has been minimal Water World Like Earth most other water worlds are large rocky planets with nickel iron
15. chose to enter an unremarkable cave in a nearby hillside What he found within the cave was the most remarkable discovery of the century a huge underground installation the size of a small city built in the distant past by an extinct race known only as the Precursors The cave was massive over 2500 meters long and averaging 50 meters from floor to ceiling Off the main tunnel were countless side passages and hidden niches almost all crammed with futuristic equipment and hundreds of long dormant robots Halfway down the main gallery a deep crevasse sliced across the tunnel floor evidence of a tremendous prehistoric earthquake that had offset the adjoining walls by more than ten meters Over the centuries water trickling into the cave from the planet s surface had carried countless minute traces of calcium carbonate that settled out as lime As the limestone sediment built up the deposits covered much of the Precursors wondrous machinery with a smooth Cpr QUE OL Z 15 h coating called flowstone that was now five to ten meters thick in places Artifacts of this powerful and technologically advanced alien species had been found in every quarter of known space Yet this was the first time an entire Precursor base had been discovered Captain Burton recognized that the wealth of advanced technology could bring the Alliance victory over the Ur Quan but only if scientists could be brought to Vela II to study the fantastic find Rea
16. could be reassembled Star Control scoutships watching the orbiting bases reported an amazing sight Eight of the largest space stations were accelerating out of Earth orbit heading towards the periphery of the solar sys Zp 10 NL tem The Androsynths had somehow modified the huge space stations for flight including the recently finished StarLight Hilton Though Star Control chase ships were never able to catch the space stations a ten thruster ore freighter on its way home from an Asteroid Belt mining base with a hold full of titanium was able to make a high V interception of the rag tag fleet As the freighter pilot approached the fleeing space stations they suddenly began to glow with a bright energy field that spun around the ships with blazing speed According to the pilot s recorded testimony a great red hole over 500 meters across appeared in front of the space stations As he watched in disbelief the stations flew into the hole one by one and vanished in a starburst of white lights When the last of the Androsynth strongholds had disappeared the hole collapsed rapidly inward imploding finally to nothingness Over 30 years would pass before humans encountered the Androsynths again Aliens Contact Earth In 2112 the largest and most remote space installation Ceres Base was built on the 700 kilometer wide asteroid of the same name Three years later Ceres Base would be the site of mankind s first official contact with a
17. for the game on your hard drive usually C Change to the root directory by typ ing CD lt Enter gt 4 At the DOS prompt type MD STARCONZ2 lt Enter gt to create the STARCON2 directory 5 Change to your new directory by typing CD STARCONZ2 lt Enter gt 6 At the new prompt type COPY DASTARCON STARCON2 lt Enter gt A VD MINS a D N 5 per OLIERO Pa 26 AL where D is the name of your CD ROM drive This will copy the game from your Star Control Collection CD ROM to your hard drive and install Star Control Il on your C drive in a directory called CASTARCON2 After you launch the game you will be presented with choices 7 Start New Game The game starts at the very beginning prompting you to enter your captains name 7 Load Saved Game You are presented with a list of saved games to choose from If you change your mind and want to start from the begin ning press the Spacebar Start up Follow these steps to start the game 1 Make sure your computer is on 2 Place the Star Control Collection CD ROM in your CD ROM drive 3 If you have Windows exit from Windows to DOS If you have Windows 95 restart in MS DOS mode If DOS is your operating environ ment of choice you should already be where you need to be 4 Change to your CD ROM drive by typing the drive name usually D and a colon Press lt Enter gt 5 At the CD ROM drive prompt type STARCON lt Enter gt 6 Choose Star Control Il in the intro
18. for the team you want to change and press Return The skill levels are Standard default setting The standard computer opponent never uses its special power nor does it shoot very accurately This setting is suitable only for beginning players or young children Good At this setting the opponent shoots more accurately and begins to use its special power though not necessarily at the best time or place Awesome Playing SuperMelee against a computer opponent set to Awesome should remain a challenge for quite some time At this skill level the computer only shoots when it is sure it will hit you if A 81 NN you continue along your present course The computer now uses its special power at maximum effectiveness Leaving Settings Menu When you have established your desired settings press the Spacebar to return to the main SuperMelee Command Menu Saving and Loading SuperMelee Teams To save a team highlight SAVE from the Main Menu and press Enter Type in the name of your team 8 letters maximum and press Enter To load a team select LOAD from the Main Menu and press Enter Highlight the team you want to play using the Arrow keys and press Enter again Fighting in Melee Now that you ve selected your settings and created your teams you re ready for a game of SuperMelee From the SuperMelee Main Menu select MELEE You will now see a subscreen for each team in turn Picking Ships Each player now picks his first ship to f
19. in a few circum stances you may have to adjust either your computer system or the pro gram Maximizing Available Memory If you receive the error message Not enough memory to play Star Control Il you will need to free up memory on your computer Some simple ways to do this include Installing the game on and playing from your hard drive Removing TSR programs or unnecessary device drivers from your AUTOEXEC BAT and CONFIG SYS files Star Control Il does not use a mouse so removing your mouse driver if your system loads one would be a good first step In general the only such programs you will need are hard disk performance programs such as disk caches or automatic file compression utilities Enhancing Game Performance Star Control Il is a complex multi tasking program which plays all sound and music by mixing up to 8 digital channels in real time Consequently if you are running on a slower machine you may experience less then opti mal performance particularly if you are running internal speaker sound which has the most significant impact on performance To improve the game s performance you can Buy a faster computer lf you are running with internal speaker sound either purchase one of the supported sound boards which do not hamper perfor Pa 71 Llf mance as much and sound lots better or shut down sound and music altogether see Specifying Sound Card on the Command Line for details Solving Possibl
20. into the Alliance long enough for the Ur Quan to enslave them Androsynth These human clones established a fledgling colony in the Vulpecular constellation after fleeing from Earth in the year 2085 During the following three decades the Androsynths focused their energies on Gry heyy Cpr QUER OL 2 69 AG reproduction and armament The Androsynths were totally unaware of the Ur Quan invasion until the aliens were on top of them capturing their home star system in a few short weeks of intense interplanetary combat Androsynths now fight for the UrQuan and many Earthlings fear that should the Alliance lose the War with the Ur OQuan the Androsynth s hostility toward Humanity could result in great suffering for Earth Ilwrath Before the arrival of the Ur Quan these violent religious insectoids were of little consequence to their neighbors the Chenjesu and the Mmrnmhrm because they possessed little in the way of advanced technology or raw resources However when the Ur Ouan conquered their species the spider ish Ilwrath became dangerous indeed Now with modern weapons and drive systems the Ilwrath revel in their opportunities to deceive and destroy other forms of life as is required by their twin gods of evil Dogar and Kazon Spe Cutty i APPENDIX II PLAY TIPS FOR STAR CONTROL II d Star Control Il is mostly self configuring and most players will never have to do more than type the program name However
21. on a paradise world in the Arianni constellation where they built a great artistic civilization in harmony with their environment No citizen of Syrea suffered want or ignorance Then in 2035 a cataclysm of tectonic upheavals tore lava filled chasms across the planet s surface and irrevocably poisoned their atmosphere The disas ter killed off almost all the Syreen population only those in the Syreen Space Patrol were untouched The male population who were rare in the Patrol were virtually eliminated The Syreen Space Patrol collected what few survivors could be found on the surface and transformed their many orbital space platforms into huge Starships In the following decades before the War the Syreen became wandering space gypsies navigating their fleet of Habitats through the starways searching for a new planet of such surpassing beauty that it would forever wash away the pain of losing Syrea their Eden Cpr aro il The Syreen became unofficial members of the Alliance in 2120 after suffering repeated Ur Quan attacks on their fleets of slow moving Habitats Adapting their remaining Patrol vessels for combat the Syreen became a potent force in the fight against the Ur f S2 i Quan The single greatest weakness of the Syreen J P star fleet its severe shortage of trained crew members S was alleviated by Syreen scientists who developed a f N A Er psionic amplifier which could compel even the most hostile alien to
22. press the Special key and a Turn key simultaneously This should only be attempted by the most gifted of Supox commanders as it more often than not results in victory for your very happy opponent Pkunk Fury Though small and holding few crew the deft Pkunk Fury sports miraculous features The Fury s main and only weapon is a rapid fire very short range mini gun that launches streams of dense superheat ed metals forward and to the sides This unusual weapon configuration allows the Fury to engage in certain non traditional combat moves such as running broadside The popular Death Blossom attack is performed by fly ing adjacent to an enemy ship and then simulta neously rotating and firing to create a beautiful spiral of destructive force The vessel s energy is generated directly from the Pkunk captains fierce mental emanations By hold ing down the Special key the player instructs the captain to radiate these psionic energies Accompanying the regeneration are various insults and jibes spewed forth by the Pkunk captain toward his opponent When a Pkunk ship is destroyed in combat it will frequently reappear instantly and with no visible signs of damage The Pkunk claim that this Cryo fiber BROT 2 94 e resurrection is due to a trace of the blood of the gods which flows through each Pkunk as the result of some divine indiscretion on their home world several thousand years ago Other alien races believ
23. rye n rie pik OMT Table of Contents Introduction Starting the Game Confirm System Requirements Installing Star Control II Start up Play Controls Menu Controls Keyboard Menu Controls Joystick Menu Controls Combat Commands Default Keyboard Combat Controls Joystick Combat Controls Navigation The Effects of Inertia and Gravity Interplanetary Travel Encounters in Interplanetary Space Entering Planetary Orbit Planet Types and Descriptions Pushing Up into HyperSpace HyperSpace Travel Fuel Use in HyperSpace Encounters in HyperSpace Returning to TrueSpace Ship Commands Starmap Alien Spheres of Influence Using the Autopilot Feature Scanning a Planet Specific Scans Mineral Scan 25 25 25 26 27 27 27 28 28 28 29 29 29 30 31 31 31 33 34 34 35 35 35 35 36 36 37 39 39 Cpr aro il Biological Scan Energy Scan Dispatching a Lander Planet Surface Exploration Lander Status Display Returning to the Flagship Gathering Minerals Planetary Hazards Collecting Life form Data Flagships Manifest Checking Cargo Using Devices Ships Roster Game Options Saving a Game in Progress Loading a Saved Game Changing Game Settings Changing Names Quitting the Game The Earth Starbase The Starbase Commander Transferring Minerals to the Starbase Outfitting Your Flagship Flagship Characteristics Fuel Flagship Enhancement Modules Adding and Removing Modules The Shipyard Adding and Removing Crew Combat Vessels Leaving
24. the Starbase 40 40 40 41 41 41 41 42 43 43 43 44 44 45 45 45 46 47 47 47 48 48 48 49 49 49 50 51 51 52 53 RORI Encountering Alien Races Combat Sequence Conversing with Aliens Attacking Aliens Combat Selecting a Ship The Battlefield Navigating Your Ship in Combat Collision with Asteroids and Planets Ship Status Displays Crew Batteries The Basics of Blasting Victory and Defeat Running Away Analyzing Enemy Wreckage Appendix Known Alien Races Races in the Alliance of Free Stars Races in the Ur Quan Hierarchy Appendix Il Play Tips for Star Control II Maximizing Available Memory Enhancing Game Performance Solving Possible Conflicts with TSRs Known Conflicts Specifying Sound Card on the Command Line Loading Problems Garbled Graphics or Blank Screen Graphic Adapter Fix Booting Clean Technical Support Online Support lil 54 54 55 56 56 56 56 57 57 57 57 58 58 59 59 60 61 61 65 70 70 70 71 71 71 72 73 73 73 76 76 Cpr ar il Appendix Ill Instructions for SuperMelee Starting SuperMelee The SuperMelee Main Screen Creating a SuperMelee Team Game Settings Who Controls Each Team Input Device Computer Opponents Skill Level Leaving Settings Menu Saving and Loading SuperMelee Teams Fighting in Melee Picking Ships Fighting a Battle Winning SuperMelee Replaying Melee with the Same Teams Returning to the Team Edit Screen Appendix IV Keyboard Configuration Utility App
25. the original purchaser of the Software that the recording medium on which it is recorded will be free from defects in materials and workmanship Defective media which has not been subject ed to misuse excessive wear or damage due to carlessness may be returned during the 90 day period without charge After the 90 day period defective media may be replaced in the United States for 10 U S dollars plus 8 25 sales tax if the purchaser resides in California Make checks payable to Accolade Inc and return to Accolade Inc Attn Customer Service 5300 Stevens Creek Blvd Suite 500 San Jose CA 95129 To speed up processing return only your CD ROM Please do not return collateral materials LICENSE AGREEMENT AND LEGAL MUMBO JUMBO This computer software product the Software and the user manual are provided to the Customer under license from Accolade Inc and are subject to the following terms and conditions to which the Customer agrees by opening the package of the Software and user manual and or using the Software Granting of this license does not transfer any right title or interest in the Software or the user manual to the Customer except as expressly set forth in this License Agreement Star Control Il is a trademark of Accolade Inc Portions 1992 Paul Reiche IIl amp Fred Ford Game 1992 by Accolade Inc All rights are reserved Neither the Software nor the user manual may be duplicated or copied for any rea
26. to launch BUTT missiles and then out again The otherwise ineffectual forward guns can become quite deadly with practice If you need to kill only a few more crew for a victory as when fighting an undamaged Arilou don t shoot your wad in a single facing Instead rotate as you fire to increase your chance of a lucky hit Umgah Drone The Umgah Drone can defeat any other ship given just a few seconds at close range A favorite Umgah tactic is to zip backwards x 89 L right up next to its enemy If the anti matter cone is up through the maneuver there is a chance of it grazing the enemy as you zip past for a few bonus points of damage especially important against the Arilou Another way to use the retro movement is to thrust at the same time you zip backwards This results in a jerky half speed maneu ver which opponents often find difficult to deal with The Umgahs anti matter cone also makes an effective shield against most incoming missiles Notable exceptions are the Chenjesu s whole pho ton crystal and the UrQuan s fusion blast which pass through the conical field unharmed The Umgah receives all its power in one big whack after a considerable delay Each time the Umganh uses its anti matter cone this delay is reset to maximum So if you keep the cone up you will never regain fuel VUX Intruder Rather than building a faster ship the VUX have taken the approach of slowing the other ships down They do thi
27. 3 gt key instead 9 Press lt ALT f gt and lt X gt to exit the editor 10 At the A prompt type EDIT AUTOEXEC BAT lt Enter gt Note PC DOS users may have to type E AUTOEXEC BAT lt Enter gt 11 Keep the following lines intact ECHO OFF PROMPT P G the PATH line Any lines pertaining to your Sound Card Any lines necessary to the normal operation of your computer For all other lines move the cursor to the left edge of each line and type REM lt Spacebar gt 12 Follow steps 8 and 9 above to save the file and exit the editor The boot disk is now ready for use with the Star Control Collection To Play Star Control Il insert your boot disk into your A drive and either CARTERA Gpr UTY A Z 76 k turn on or reboot your computer At the A prompt type C lt Enter gt Type CD STARCON2 lt Enter gt then STARCON2 lt Enter gt to launch the game When you finish playing remove the boot disk from the A drive and either turn off or reboot your machine Technical Support 408 296 8400 If you still need help with this or any other Accolade product please give us a call between the hours of 8 am and 5 pm Pacific Standard Time Be sure you are at your computer when you call You can also write us at Accolade Attention Customer Support 5300 Stevens Creek Blvd 500 San Jose CA 95129 Online Support For your convenience and support Accolade maintains a Web site at http www accolade com F
28. BRO ER OiLER OL Before they were enslaved by the Ur Quan the Umganh culture was rela tively peaceful content to expand slowly through the surrounding Orionis constellation The most serious conflicts caused by the Umgah are the result of their incessant practical jokes such as clogging a fleet of Spathi Eluders life support systems with fast growing foul smelling goo of open spaces DVR VUX The VUX are bipedal and would be considered gaP ae 4 humanoid were it not for their heads which look like a 3 q gs tragic combination of a squid and a banana slug The Be VUX are very sensitive about their looks Indeed in the VUX culture physical appearance is of tantamount x importance and the VUX spend a great deal of their time on clothing jewelry and useless finery PDS The VUX s repulsiveness to most other races is matched dy Dw te by their technological achievement in linguistic transla tion devices This combination led to the unfortunate incident in 2126 when the Earthling Cruiser Miwok made first contact with the VUX near the Beta Luyten star system The Miwok s Captain Rand upon first seeing the VUX commander on his view screen remarked to his officers Thats the ugliest freak face I ve ever seen Rand was unaware that his every word was being relayed to the VUX captian with perfect clarity This griev ous insult and the subsequent ill will between Earth and the VUX delayed the VUXS entry
29. II Curr In the Beginning The time is in the year 2155 Yet the story begins over two centuries before in the 1930 s a time when surface vehicles on Earth burned fossil fuels It s all hard to imagine now of course getting from place to place in a dangerous noisy machine with an engine that set fire to spurts of prehistoric goo Makes one shudder Humans had another quaint oddity in those days it was a little box called a radio that transmitted a mindless mix of music and speech The radio was a harmless diversion really until the radio towers got taller and the broadcasts got stronger Until the transmissions began to pulse out into the vacuum of space riding electromagnetic waves throughout the universe It wasn t long before the broadcasts from Earth reached distant stars and sever al alien races took notice of this new evidence of life on the far off blue planet One of the species listening was the Ur Quan a life form devoid of conscience or character a race genetically compelled to conquest As early as 1940 the Ur Quan began to formulate sinister schemes to attack Earth Other aliens meanwhile benign species that wished only peace lay plans to warn Earthlings of the Ur Quan threat The Scrutiny of Earth Intensifies From their strange worlds many light years away both good and evil aliens watched with growing interest as Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the planet in 1961 Less than
30. IOS functions Since most BIOS calls are far slower than custom routines a minor perfor mance penalty may be noticed when using this option Note Any command line additions can only be made if you are launching the game without using the front end menu Booting Clean The easiest way to resolve loading problems DOS conflicts memory prob lems erratic game play etc is to copy the games to your hard drive and boot your computer with a boot disk each time you wish to play A boot disk is a clean DOS system disk that will maximize use of memory If you are in Windows 3 1 you need to exit Windows to get back to DOS From the File pull down menu choose Exit Windows A dialog box will appear mid screen Click on OK You are now in DOS If you are in Windows 95 go to DOS by clicking on Start then Shut Down and Restart the Computer in MS DOS Mode CAR areor Da 74 A First copy Star Control Il to your hard drive 1 At the DOS prompt type C lt Enter gt 2 At the DOS prompt type CD lt Enter gt 3 Type MD STARCON2 lt Enter gt 4 Copy the Star Control II files to your hard drive At the DOS prompt type COPY DASTARCON STARCON2 CASTARCON2 lt Enter gt Note If you enter this command and receive the message Invalid Drive Specification your CD ROM drive is not proper ly set up for use in MS DOS mode Contact your computer retailer or manufacturer for assistance Star Cont
31. Marine decreases the Nemesis crew by one Once inside the enemy ship the Space Marines employ basic search and destroy tactics wreaking havoc on the soft targets within When an enemy ship is destroyed any Marines onboard will jet out of the exploding hulk and return to the Nemesis for more fuel and ammunition Opponents would be wise to remember that Space Marines receive special training in using the Leyland Whip maneuver and are exceptionally adept using a planets gravity to speed them toward their target Druuge Mauler This ship is perfect for sharp shooters since its only weapon is a high velocity very long range cannon When fired the recoil of the massive discharge will send the Mauler sailing backwards Should the heavy projectile strike its target the enemy vessel gets a similar shove The experi enced Druuge commander can use this recoil effect as a super thruster The Druuge Mauler has pitifully slow energy regeneration and when unable to shoot the ship is a sitting duck To compensate for this weak ness the Druuge has a matter to energy converter that transforms crew members into instant bursts of power Each time the special power is acti vated one crew will be tossed into the furnace Zoq Fot Pik Stinger The Zog Fot Pik Stinger is a flimsy ship whose main weapon is a spray of minute anti matter particles which annihilate a _ tiny portion of the enemy ship s hull releasing colossal amounts of he
32. N expressions are varied and horrific Aboard ship these creatures cling to webbed ceilings with their back legs g bess dangling down over their controls and their slave crew Fz ae like hungry spiders hy ope TE de Bet AE S Ur Quan are extremely territorial and aggressive having evolved as non social hunter killers Their territorial instincts are so strong that only one Ur Quan is present on each Dreadnought When Ur Quan meet they keep several meters between themselves lest their instincts drive them to engage in an unarmed battle to the death A simple linear dominance structure dictates power within the Ur Quan species Each member of the species has a number indicating its relative power and authority Ur Quan Master 1 is the ultimate lord of the entire Hierarchy x The Ur Quan are unwilling to communicate directly with other species because to do so would be demeaning Therefore when giving orders or interrogating enemies the UrQuan use Talking Pets large brained frog like creatures which are non sentient but possess the telepathic empathic ability to translate all languages Mycon The Mycons are neither plant nor animal having evolved from something more closely resembling an ambulatory fungus Mycons are asexual and reproduce by budding their own flesh into a separate off spring They exchange genetic material by exhaling and inhaling DNAtrich H ONR ROL il spores Mycons are mos
33. O2 pro ducing a super thick incredibly hot atmosphere Metallic World Often found in the first or second orbital position metallic worlds have been subjected to such incredible heat that the lighter materials burn off the planet leaving a small dense ball of heavy metals and minerals Although such metallic worlds are exceptionally valuable finds for their abundant resources beware their occasionally intense gravity fields Reduction World The reduction world is very similar to the water world except that the pre dominant surface gas is not oxygen but instead methane and ammonia Radioactive World These rare planets have a much higher than normal surface concentration of valuable radioactive elements indicating either atypical gas composi tion or unusual mantle convection processes Other Planet Types There is no doubt that there are many other less common types of planets to be found in the galaxy each with their own unique characteristics It is up to you to locate these unknown worlds and determine their nature Pushing Up into HyperSpace To leave a star system and enter HyperSpace you will first have to leave the Cryo Pho Gpr UTRO Li Z 34 gravitational field of the primary star To do so fly away from the star until you reach the outer limits of the system At this point your flagship will automatically engage its pushers lifting you out of TrueSpace and pro jecting your ship into the adja
34. Pressing Button 1 is the same as pressing Enter and pressing Button 2 is the same as pressing the Spacebar Button 1 selects the highlighted option and Button 2 returns you to the previous menu petty Ll Joystick Menu Controls Up Button 2 a Button 1 Left es TT Right Down Combat Commands In combat you can control your ships with either the joystick or the key board You can redefine the control keys with the separate program KEYS EXE The KEYS configuration will not be saved unless you are playing the game from your hard drive In the SuperMelee bonus game there can be two human players and each uses a separate joystick or area of the keyboard Default Keyboard Combat Controls Keyboard 1 Keyboard 2 Use Special Power N 1 Rotate Counter Clockwise M 2 Rotate Clockwise 3 Thrust 4 Fire Main Weapon 5 Spe atte l l Joystick Combat Control Up Thrust Up Counter Clockwise Button 2 Up Clockwise Thrust amp Rotate Counter Special Power Thrust amp Rotate Clockwise Clockwise it Button 1 Fire Clockwise Counter Clockwise Rotate Clockwise Rotate Ctr Clockwise lt e NAVIGATION The core of Star Control Il is space flight both in combat and exploration Whether you are traveling from planet to planet or from star to star or engaging in combat the controls are the same To go somewhere you rotate your ship in the direction you want to go and then press the Thrust key
35. SuperMelee Main Screen by pressing F10 and then confirming your exit by pressing F1 APPENDIX IV KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION UTILITY The Keyboard Configuration Utility Keys exe lets you reconfigure the keys you ll use as the control keys in Star Control II Spe Cutty l l 1 Boot your computer as normal 2 Type CD Starcon2 and press Enter 3 Type keys and press Enter The following options will appear onscreen F1 Select a new keyboard layout F2 Experiment with different keyboard combinations F3 Information on keyboard configuration F10 Quit to DOS When you press F1 to change the keyboard layout you are given the option of changing the Player 1 or Player 2 controls Press the corre sponding function key to select your option After you ve selected your keys you ll be given the option to redo them Press N to keep them or press to change them To save the new keyboard configurations press F7 at the Control Keys Menu APPENDIX V COMBAT VESSEL DESCRIPTIONS Following are brief descriptions of the combat capabilities of all of the ships in Star Control and Star Control Il These descriptions are intended to give an overview of the ships attributes and special powers as well as a few tactical combat tips Ariloulaleelay Skiff An Arilou Skiff FF When flown skillfully can be one of the most J ET effective spacecraft Its speed and inertia less L yz drive make it the most maneuverable of all ZL ships and its
36. The aliens remained in the solar system for several months conferring with the political military and sci entific leaders of Earth Meanwhile the Chenjesu s starship transported U N observers through HyperSpace to visit several worlds that had been attacked by the Ur Quan and their Hierarchy of Battle Thralls The sad evidence of wholesale slaughter and devastation and the accounts of dazed survivors proved that the Chenjesu account was true On August 1 2116 Earth joined the Chenjesu and their other allies the Mmrnmhrm the Yehat the Shofixti and unofficially the Syreen to form The Alliance of Free Stars Following formal ratification of the pact by the United Nations Star Control Was OFERO 2 12 was placed under the direct authority of the Alliance Command Council The Chenjesu expected Earth to play a major role in the Alliance both as combatants and suppliers of war material Even though Earthlings were tech nologically primitive their civilization had thousands of huge modern factories and millions of skilled workers able to manufacture both munitions and spacecraft The tens of thousands of thermonuclear weapon components stashed away in the Peace Vaults were an additional bonus which surprised even the Chenjesu On the day following Earth s formal induction into the Alliance an alien race known as the Ariloulaleelay appeared landing first on the Earth s moon They transmitted a request to meet with Allian
37. a decade later a tremor swept through the advanced life forms beyond the solar system as American Astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin became the first men to tread Earth s satel lite moon Alien scrutiny of Earth intensified Meanwhile the fratricidal conflicts that had scourged mankind since the species evolved continued unabated The Small War of 2015 came close to obliterating civilization on Earth when Cpr aro il nuclear combat broke out between several Middle Eastern countries Fortunately the exchange was relatively small limited to less than a dozen warheads and a global conflagration was narrowly avoided Even so nearly a million people died The terrible loss of life and the near thing of a planet wide Armageddon sobered heads of government around the world The lead ers of the industrialized nations and the Third World met at the United Nations headquarters in New York and agreed to cooperate in an immediate strengthening of U N authority Within six months the U N Security Council had assembled a large Peace Keeping Army and assumed worldwide control over all weapons of mass destruction Mass kill devices were gathered up from every country that possessed them The weapons were then dismantled and their components stored in huge subterranean bunkers that came to be known as Peace Vaults Simultaneously the U N outlawed the sale of smaller arms It took nearly a decade to end all armed conflict on earth Yet the goa
38. adily available Cpr ary l Biological Scan g When conditions are right the temperature the atmosphere the amount of water certain planets develop life The vast majority of life forms are simple viral or bacterial organisms and present little to interest anyone but a specialist or someone whose body has become infested with such crea tures Larger more sophisticated life forms tend to be more interesting All living creatures change the environment around them absorbing light and or food and excreting less pleasant substances Your flagship is equipped with Biological Scan facilities which use such environmental changes to pinpoint large creatures 40 d Energy Scan The energy scan will locate power being generated on a planets surface providing the generator is not shielded or otherwise concealed The pri mary use of this function is to find alien ships or installations on a planets surface Dispatching a Lander Scanning only provides information about whats on a planets surface To retrieve something of value you will have to go down to the surface While your flagship is unsuited for such a journey it carries planetary land ing vehicles which can make repeated trips to and from planetside Your flagship can hold up to 10 landers To send a lander to the surface choose DISPATCH from the Scan Menu A flashing cursor lets you set your landing position Move the cursor with the Cursor keys and press Enter T
39. also measured in Earth units The mass combined with the radius determine a planets gravity Gravity A planet gravity affects how much fuel it costs to land on the world Gravity is measured in Earth units Length of Day This measurement reflects how long it takes for the planet to revolve fully about its axis CARTERA CRTR g 39 Au Axial Tilt Axial tilt describes the angular difference between a planets rotational axis and the axis of its orbit around the primary star Typically the greater the axial tilt the greater the planet s seasonal differentiation Specific Scans Based on what you have learned from the basic scan you may wish to make a more focused scan of the planets surface These scans include Mineral Scan This function paints low power deep radar waves across the planet and interprets the resulting echoes into dots on the mineral display showing the location size and type of each significant mineral deposit on the sur face The diameter of the dot indicates the size of the deposit and the color informs you what type of minerals are in the deposit MINERAL CHART Mineral Color Common Cyan Corrosive Red Base Metals Gray Noble Gases Blue Rare Earths Green Precious Metals Yellow Radioactives Orange Exotics Purple Of course each planet has many more resources well beneath the surface However your lander is not equipped to access these minerals and must limit itself to what resources are re
40. ansitions Navigating Your Ship in Combat Maneuvering your ship in combat is similar to travelling in interplanetary space You rotate your ship in a desired direction and thrust forward All of your ship commands i e thrust turn fire and special power use may be triggered simultaneously Collision with Asteroids and Planets Asteroids are large rocks which endlessly tumble through a solar system trapped by the gravity of the star and its planets Due to the sophistica tion of modern inertial dampeners colliding with asteroids causes no dam age just a sudden change in course Impacting a planet is a different matter altogether Your ship will be dam aged severely and potentially even be destroyed Once again AVOID HIT TING PLANETS Ship Status Displays The right side of the screen is broken into two Ship Status Displays one for your enemy ship and one for your own vessel In addition to showing who built the ship and the name of the captain that commands it the sta tus area displays key information which will be crucial to your success in combat Crew The bar to the left side of the large ship icon shows the maximum and cur rent crew levels Each time a ship is damaged green dots crew will dis appear from the bar When all the crew are gone the ship is destroyed Cpr aro il Batteries s D To the right of the large ship icon is the battery charge bar which shows the current and maximum energy levels in th
41. arch team had first found it silent motionless A flus tered Professor Farnsworth frantically asked the Control Computer for an explanation and got an immediate answer There were not enough raw materials left to finish the vessel nor were there suitable substitutes any where on the planet A week of tests by Burton and her team proved the ship Cry hear Cope OFERO 2 20 h was complete enough to blast off from the surface of Vela II But it would have to cruise slowly through HyperSpace lightly armed and with only enough room for a skeleton crew There was another problem The controls for the vessel were not designed for humans It became obvious from the interior layout of the starship that the Precursors were giants and seemingly not bipedal Levers were almost impossible to move three people were required to actuate a single switch and the chairs beds and other furnishings were better suited for a wooly mammoth than a human Some kind of automated control system was needed After mulling over the problem for several days Captain Burton decided that the only answer was to remove the Central Control Computer from the cave and configure it to run the ship Surely Professor Farnsworth knew enough about the Precursor com puter system to give it whatever commands were necessary to take the ship back to Earth Despite vehement protests from Farnsworth the Captain ordered the Precursors computer installed in the vessel
42. ared into the Unzervalt wilderness appearing months later clad in Ortog skins and bursting with tales of strange landscapes and even stranger life forms Farnsworth s Breakthrough After more than a decade of hard work Professor Jules Farnsworth announced with con siderable fanfare that he had finally succeeded in unlocking the secret of the Precursor Control Computer Without Captain Burton s permis sion indeed without even knowing what would happen Farnsworth com manded the computer to initiate its prime function The resulting near disas ter almost got the professor put in the stockade Suddenly the immobile machinery within the cave roared to life Huge elec trical arcs shot between massive electrodes incinerating a wooden storage shack Robotic vehicles began tearing across the cavern floor along pre pro grammed paths paths which led them right through several man made buildings A 30 meter tall crane like machine detached itself from one wall and swiftly rolled through the cave nearly crushing a group of panicked scien tists It was a miracle that no one was killed in the ensuing chaos as humans fled the caves in terror The next day robotic vehicles emerged from the cave and cut down a nearby forest They levelled the ground covered the surface with some kind of metal lic plastic and then returned to their cave Bronzed from the Vela sun her straw colored hair pushed up under her com mander s cap Captain
43. at and light The Zoq Fot Piks special power is a point GR IN IDAT P7 97 h blank range attack Should the Stinger maneuver adjacent to an enemy vessel it can quickly extend a rigid alloy tube from the front of the ship similar to an insects proboscis If the tube strikes the enemy ship exterior it bores a tiny hole through the hull metal and injects a high pressure stream of hot plasma into the interior of the vessel Slylandro Probe The Slylandro Probe tumbles through space devouring asteroids and zapping anything it can catch with massive electrical dis charges Like a shark the Probe must continually move constantly twist ing its invisible magnetic scoops to scavenge interstellar hydrogen for its internal fusion generator While the player cannot cause the Probe to stop the rotational controls will cause a change in its trajectory and the thrust control will make the Probe reverse direction instantly Gravity has no effect on this vessel however impacting the Fe planet will be severely damaging OS ja A A Wk WN he The Probe s best combat strategy is to first AES energize its lightning batteries by moving close to an asteroid and use its special power to pulverize the rock and absorb it as energy Then the Probe must move toward its opponent dodging all incoming missiles When it has gotten close enough for the screen to zoom it to the most magnified view the Probe should unleash its auto fire light
44. at dissipates after it is launched and does a huge amount of damage if it hits the opponent The Mycon ship can also use its energy to regenerate crew that have been lost Against most ships the Mycon Podship is a dead duck if it sits still Once it gets moving a good Gravity Whip will do its commander can fire a plas ma torpedo now and then and regenerate any damage that comes his her way However to give yourself time to respond to an onrushing WH riro celestial body avoid diagonal whip trajectories One of the most serious threats to the Mycon is its own weapon the expanding plasma cloud Fast ships like the Arilou Shofixti or Slylandro will try to direct the plasma weapon back upon the Mycon If the Mycon is moving at or beyond its normal maxi mum velocity it can overrun its own weapon immedi ately after launch suffering grievous casualties Solution shoot backwards Spathi Eluder previously known as the Discriminator The Spathi ship is very fast and maneuverable with a moderately ranged and relatively weak forward firing gun This ship is 3 most dangerous when running from the enemy and launching BUTT Backward Utilized Tracking Torpedo missiles directly into its pursuers path The Spathi commanders main job is to entice his opponent into chasing him Taunts and jeers work well Another effective strategy for a Spathi com mander is to circle his opponents ship just out of range bobbing in
45. ce representatives and a delegation of human and Chenjesu diplomats journeyed to the lunar surface to establish contact The Arilou explained that they too were threatened by the Ur Quan and had come to join the Alliance of Free Stars Alliance headquarters was consulted and soon afterwards the Arilous were welcomed into the coalition Although the Arilou were extremely secretive being unwilling to discuss even the locations of their homeworlds they provided additional strength to the Alliance This strength was to be tested almost immediately The Course of the War There were many great battles between the Alliance of Free Stars and the Ur Quan and their Hierarchy of Battle Thralls Both the Alliance and the Hierarchy built hundreds of asteroid forts all across the spiral arm of the Galaxy Only a small fraction of these fortified positions and the colonies and mining bases that surrounded them survived the fighting As the war spread new alien races were drawn into the conflict until finally there were 14 separate species at war On the Alliance side there were the Earthlings the Chenjesu the Yehat the Mmrnmhrm the Ariloulaleelay the Syreen and the Shofixti Fighting with the Ur Quan were the Mycon the Cryo fib Cpr OURO y 13 h Spathi the Androsynths the VUX the Ilwrath and the Umgah By 2134 it was becoming clear to both sides that the Ur Quan and their Hierarchy of Battle Thralls were slowly but surely winn
46. cent dimension of HyperSpace HyperSpace Travel All the myriad ways between the stars may be reached through HyperSpace a conveniently accessible alternate dimension which shares time space with our own universe The set of physical laws in HyperSpace is substantially similar to our own allowing starships and their occupants to survive there but certain key differences involving the speed of light permit fantastically accelerated transit between stars While in HyperSpace you can monitor your surroundings via the small tac tical display in the lower right corner of the screen On this display stars are shown as bright dots and alien vessels are shown as dark dots The Ariloulaleelay who seem most familiar with the nature of HyperSpace have intimated that there are other things in HyperSpace some of which are good while others are extremely bad Presumably these things the Arilou refer to would also appear on the tactical display though what they would look like is unknown Things look strange in HyperSpace The subtle differences in physics cause a substantial red shift in the visible spectrum casting everything in a blood red light The sudden explosions of bright light and coruscating energy bursts which are common in HyperSpace have proved harmless and it is theorized that these are manifestations of objects which are moving quick ly through HyperSpace into adjacent dimensions Fuel Use in HyperSpace
47. ch Then you wanted to punch the bulkhead You d been half in love with Burton you knew that now Life stunk Captain Burton s death left you in full command of the mission to find Earth You navigated the Precursor starship back on your original course your mind swirling with all that had happened A terrible doubt overtook you gnawing at the edges of what had always been your strong self confidence Could you pull this off You a son of Unzervalt born in a cave raised on Ortog milk and Libixx meat You a man who d never set foot in a university never had formal space flight training beyond the crash course from Burton You d taught your self everything learning from reading computer programs and watching how engineers and scientists did things The question ate at you now had you been both a good teacher and a good student Good enough at both to pre pare you for the awesome task that lay ahead Time would tell And time did tell Five days after the alien attack you arrived at a stellar vortex leading out of HyperSpace Your scanner showed the vortex spiralling down Gyr OERD CHROTERO Z 24 Sauls to a brilliant yellow star You knew at once that this was the great star that had given life to your ancestors the star your Earthling progenitors called the Sun You warped down out of HyperSpace and took a navigational fix You were just beyond the orbit of the ninth planet of the yellow star Earth was the third planet out from th
48. ct the Clone Revolt of 2085 was inevitable Stronger smarter and more adaptable than normal humans the Androsynths despised and deeply resented their status as slaves By the late 70 s there were tens of thousands of Androsynths distributed across the planet many of them doing sophisticated scientific and technological research Then in the spring of 2085 the Androsynths staged a worldwide rebellion throwing off their chains with the help of a sympathetic human underground The uprising had been exquisitely planned Within 24 hours the clones had captured nearly every space flight facility on the planet Androsynths working at the centers had secretly fueled and readied over a thousand spacecraft to carry their people off this hated planet Two days after the rebellion began the freed clones took over all orbital and lunar bases leaving not a single Androsynth on the face of the earth Star Control the recently established wing of the United Nations military forces made several attempts to evict the clones Each time the Star Control ships approached the craft were burnt to ashes by colossal MASER weapons that Androsynth scientists had fashioned out of formerly benign energy broadcast units After two months of futile strikes on the Androsynth strongholds with conven tional weapons the U N leadership decided to use the means of mass destruction stored in the Peace Vaults Yet before the nuclear bombs and laser rays
49. d they can move Therefore you might want to make regular examinations of your star map Using the Autopilot Feature You can fly to any star in space manually using the navigation controls described above As a convenience you can also have an automatic pilot fly your vessel directly to a desired star or location in HyperSpace Cpr aro il To set a course for automatic pilot start from the Starmap Position the cursor on your desired destination and press Return A line of blue dash es will show you the course plotted by the autopilot computer To engage press the Spacebar or Button 2 You will automatically enter navigate mode and begin flying to your target As long as AUTOPILOT is flashing you re headed for your destination You can activate the autopilot while in orbit in interplanetary space or in HyperSpace If you have set a star as your destination the autopilot will disengage when you enter the target star system To interrupt the autopilot at any time and assume manual control of your flagship press any of your normal navigation controls and the autopilot will disengage To resume automatic flight return to the Starmap and repeat the procedure described above Scanning a Planet Many planets exhibit important and interesting aspects such as valuable mineral deposits unique life forms and potentially items and artifacts left by other intelligent species To avoid tediously exploring the surface of every p
50. difying these settings you can have the computer fight your battles for you and or speed up how fast the game conducts the combat Cyborg If both your arms are broken or you are suffering from a serious disease you may wish to toggle the CYBORG setting on and have the computer fight your battles for you Of course some players have been known to use this feature WITH NO ADEQUATE EXCUSE Harumph Resolving Combat By using the Resolve and Resolve options you can speed up your Cyborg controlled battles The active setting is shown in the Flagship Data Window The available settings are Normal The rate of play is held to a consistent speed which is N F 47 d similar on most computers This is the default setting No Delay The program unleashes the full power of the computer allowing battles to be greatly accelerated on fast computers Flicker The same as No Delay but now the program shows only a sample of the calculated ship and weapon positions creating a flickering fast forward display Fastest To achieve maximum speed the program displays no ship to ship graphics just sound The status areas are updated continuously showing the progress of the furious conflict Curr Remember the Resolution setting is effective only when the Cyborg is turned ON Changing Names You will probably want to use this command at the beginning of the game to establish the name of your character and to christen your flagship
51. ductory menu When you are shown the picture of a star hit the lt Space Bar gt If you have copied the game to your hard drive exchange the following steps for their equivalents above 2 Since the game is on your hard drive you don t need the Star Control Collection CD ROM in the drive 3 Follow Step 3 above 4 From the root directory of your hard drive usually C change direc tories to the STARCONZ2 directory by typing CD STARCONZ2 lt Enter gt CARTERA GRUO A 2 27 he 5 At the CASTARCON2 gt prompt type STARCON2 lt Enter gt to launch the game 6 When you are shown a picture of a star hit the lt Space Bar gt PLAY CONTROLS Star Control Il can be played entirely from the keyboard or you can use a joystick for most game activities Joysticks are automatically detected and calibrated at runtime so keep your joystick centered and motionless until the game begins Menu Controls Many aspects of gameplay are accessed by a system of menus Each menu will list various options which allow you to give a command select a ship pick a phrase etc To select menu items with the keyboard use the cursor arrow keys to highlight the item you want then press Enter In some cases when you pick a menu item you will be given a new sub menu of options To leave a sub menu and return to the previous menu press the Spacebar Keyboard Menu Controls When selecting menu items the joystick acts just like the cursor arrow keys
52. e Conflicts with TSRs Some TSRs and device drivers do not cooperate with the Star Control Il program The most common such problems occur on 386 machines with older extended memory managers The symptoms include system lock up when the program first fires up or INCREDIBLY slow performance To fix these problems you can Configure the extended memory manager NOT to emulate expanded memory Remove or replace the extended memory manager Shut down sound and music altogether see Specifying Sound Card on the Command Line below for details Known Conflicts Conflict Extended Memory Manager only in rare instances Symptom Extremely slow performance and in rare cases system halts Solution Modify config sys or autoexec bat files to remove memory manager Conflict Gravis Ultrasound board in combination with Soundblaster or Roland sound boards Symptom System halts immediately when game is run Solution Remove all sound boards except Gravis Ultrasound or remove Gravis Ultrasound Specifying Sound Card on the Command Line Star Control II automatically detects supported sound cards inside your computer when you load the program However there are some periph eral sound devices which are not detected For these devices you will Spe atte i 72 iil have to add a code to the command line STARCON2 s DEVICENAME where DEVICENAME is one of the following Code DISNEY1 DISNEY2 LPT1 LPT2 Sound Device Dis
53. e Menu When you choose SETTINGS from the Main SuperMelee Menu the cursor will move to the Game Settings Window To change a setting move the high light to the desired setting and press Enter When you are done changing the game settings press the Spacebar or Button 2 to return to the Main SuperMelee Menu Who Controls Each Team In SuperMelee you can play against a human opponent the most fun or Dia 80 L against a computer controlled foe To change who controls a team high light the setting and press Enter or Button 1 You can set both teams to have computer control In this case they will fight a totally automatic series of battles against each other during which you can study their tech niques Input Device You can play SuperMelee with joysticks keyboard or a combination of both To reconfigure the keyboard configuration run the separate key board configuration program KEYS EXE For consistency the configuration you set for SuperMelee will also be used in Star Control II Note Any keyboard configuration other than the default will only be saved if you are playing from your hard drive If you use the KEYS command and are playing from the CD ROM your new configuration will not be saved Computer Opponent s Skill Level In SuperMelee you can set the computer opponents skill level to accommo date beginner intermediate or advanced players To cycle through the skill levels move the highlight to the skill description
54. e Sun With all thrusters on you can reach the blue planet in two days A horrible thought flits across your mind Had the Ur Quan broken through the Alliance defense lines and attacked your ances tral home Was there devastation Had the cities been obliterated by nuclear weapons and the survivors left irradiated mutants genetic freaks roaming the ashen landscape like primal apes You ll know in 48 hours Spe Catt l l STARTING THE GAME It shouldn t take much more than 5 minutes to install the game and begin playing Star Control Il Although we salute the expression of free will you will get started faster if you follow the steps below Confirm System Requirements 7 An At class IBM PC compatible computer with a hard drive and 2x speed CD ROM drive is required A 20 MHz 386 machine or better is rec ommended If you have a slower machine see Appendix Il 7 Star Control Il supports VGA and MCGA graphics only m You will need at least 580 000 bytes of low DOS memory available when you start the game m You will need at least 9 2 megabytes available on your hard disk if you want to play Star Control II from your hard drive rather than play off the CD ROM Installing Star Control Il onto your hard drive Star Control Il can be installed on your hard disk Here s how 1 Turn on your computer 2 Insert the Star Control Collection CD ROM into your CD ROM drive usually D or E 3 In DOS a DOS Window or MS DOS mode make a directory
55. e dream was shattered She knew he was gone even though there was no body to mourn over Strangely there were no bodies at all on board And most of the important ship systems were intact Do you remember how Burton wondered tears brimming in her blue eyes if Officer Chi and the other crew members had been taken prisoner How her words conjured up a picture in your mind of the Earthlings being tortured their ordeal provoking mirth in the soul less Ur Quan With a few days work the engineers brought the Tobermoon back to life What came next changed your life forever With Captain Burton the only one aboard qualified to pilot the Earth Cruiser you were put in command of the Precursor starship Admit it Standing on the bridge those epaulets the grieving but bravely smiling Captain Burton pinned on gleaming from your shoulders you felt proud sure of yourself Hey truth be told at that moment you thought you were invincible Your confidence didn t last long did it With the Tobermoon leading the way you and Burton pushed your ships out into HyperSpace the parallel dimen sion where distances are fantastically compressed and interstellar travel feasi ble Blazing white flashes surrounded your vessels and everything took on a crimson hue Something up there wasn t right Remember Your body felt like it was in a vise and your head was spinning You fought for control forc ing yourself to focus on the soft voice of Captain Bur
56. e ships batteries Firing weapons or using a special power consumes energy the amount depends on each ship s specific characteristics Unlike crew batteries recharge gradually over the course of the battle The speed of energy regeneration varies from ship to ship and is a significant factor in a ships unique com bat strategies Ships with constant fast energy renewal like the Yehat Terminator will want to close on their opponents and continuously blast away while other vessels with slower energy regeneration such as the Mycon Podship will want to approach their enemy and attack then retreat to accumulate a fresh supply of energy The Basics of Blasting Getting your ship in the right position is crucial to firing Therefore you must keep several things in mind when confronting an opponent The type and range of the weapon you re firing The defensive capabilities of your opponent both in defensive powers and evasive potential The position of other objects such as planets and asteroids which may affect either craft or the course of the fired weapon The computer opponent achieves its remarkable accuracy by firing not at your ship but at where your ship is going to be The best way to learn how to shoot and maneuver is to repeatedly prac tice in SuperMelee either against the computer opponent or preferably with a friend Cpr aro L l Victory and Defeat When you eliminate the last crew member from an enemy v
57. e that the res urrected vessels are in fact a mere projection generated by Pkunk vessels which are cloaked with some kind of invisibility field To date no one has explained why a projections weapons are genuinely destructive Melnorme Trader The primary weapon aboard the Melnorme pro nounced Mehl nor may Trader is a long range variable power blaster fired by holding down the Fire key and then releasing it The Melnorme s pro Jectile becomes larger and more destructive while the Fire key is held The weapon has 4 degrees of power reflected in the color of the pulsating mis sile A green weapon is weakest next comes blue pur ple and finally red Each color change represents a dou bling in the strength of the weapon The Melnorme ship will not regenerate energy while holding the weapon however at these times the weapon acts as a front shield for the ship J The special power of the Melnorme Trader is a long range confusion ray which scrambles the enemy vessel control systems causing the enemy to umble out of control The effect lasts only a few sec onds so the Melnorme must follow up the attack with a powerful blaster strike or an additional whack with another confusion ray Note that in order to penetrate an enemy ships hardened control system the Melnorme confusion weapon drains almost half of its maximum supply of energy Chmmr Avatar The Chmmr Avatar may be the most powerful ship in
58. eauty She drew her sidearm and held the mutineers off gaining the precious minutes she needed Finally the cabin temperature now nearing 150 degrees Fahrenheit she judged they were close enough to the titanic star for her plan to work As the Tobermoon s outer hull Cry theyre 2 14 began to liquify Burton jettisoned the ship s entire stock of nuclear missiles and detonated them From the Androsynths perspective the vessel they were chasing had exploded when it flew too close to the superhot sun As the Androsynth task force warped out of the system a severely damaged Tobermoon slowly emerged from its hiding place behind Zeeman s Star Burton ordered a damage report As she d suspected the craft sustained severe damage Worse the ship s engineers informed her they couldn t make repairs without a planetfall on a world with a breathable atmosphere Like most supergiant stars Zeeman did not have any Earth like planets in orbit around it The Tobermoon limped through space for almost a week before Hyper Radar reconnaissance located a hospitable planet orbiting the dwarf star Vela The planet was called Vela II and it proved to have both an oxygen rich atmosphere and deposits of metal ore the humans could refine and use to repair their ship After a successful landing Burton ordered the engineers to begin repairs She sent the rest of the crew off to explore their surroundings It was only pure chance that a young ensign
59. elations with the nearby Chenjesu and colonized the adjacent stars in the Virginis constellation Yehat The Yehat are a race of avian creatures who live their lives in the pursuit of honor for their clan their Queen and themselves through combat Physically these creatures resemble a 3 meter high hybrid between an old Earth pterosaur and a bumble bee To succeed on their world against larger faster competitors they evolved a complex programmable neural control system a thinking brain which Cpr OROT N allowed them to adapt to new situations with lightning speed Like Earthlings the Yehat entered space without the assistance of a more advanced race It is not surprising that they grant Earthlings such high honor and status for the same achievement The Yehat have great pride that they did not go through this uplift process and that their culture is totally intact In fact the same ruling family has been leading the Yehat people for over 2000 years dating back far beyond their Industrial Age Given their intensely martial society and advanced weapons technology the Yehat became the backbone of the Alliance Starfleet Shofixti A Shofixti resembles a large marsupial carni vore sort of a killer shrew who exhibits furious aggressive behavior contained within a strong ethical framework When the Yehat first found them in 2075 the Shofixti were living in fortified mud castles in a feu dal society simila
60. endix V Combat Vessel Descriptions Appendix VI Flagship Modules Game Credits Legal Mumbo Jumbo 77 77 78 78 79 80 80 80 81 81 81 81 82 82 82 82 83 83 98 101 102 Gye CGateey INTRODUCTION Welcome aboard Star Control II will take you on a far journey a space odyssey encompassing the realms of science fiction and role playing This epic adventure spans hundreds of light years and evokes a history reaching back over 250 000 years As you travel out among the stars your decisions and actions will directly affect the destiny of 18 intelligent star faring species including the inhabitants of Earth Star Control II is only in part a sequel to Star Control which focused exclusively on the strategy and tactics of the bitter Ur Quan Slave War known by the philosophical as the Great Crucible of Sentience You need not have played the first game to enjoy this one However if you have never fought a Star Control space battle you may wish to practice with the SuperMelee game before facing enemy forces The evil aliens you will encounter are adept at the art of war and unforgiving of weakness The history that follows details the critical involvement of Earth in the conflict between the Alliance of Free Stars and the villainous Ur Quan Hierarchy Study what happened learn from the mistakes of those that went before Only in this way will you be prepared for the mystery the intrigue and the blazing action of Star Control
61. es to and from your ship with near perfect clarity When the alien commander responds his her its image will appear on your screen Depending on the alien races general disposition and or your relationship with them up to that point the alien s greeting could range from a friendly Hello we come in peace How are you to the more traditional Prepare to die puny Earthling The latter phrase would probably end the conversation and cause an immediate transition to combat Conversations transpire in a familiar manner You say something the other being says something and the process repeats until one of you is suffi ciently angry bored or otherwise ready to end the conversation The interesting part of communicating with an alien or anyone else for that matter is in what you say When it is your turn to say something you will be presented with a set of possible phrases Depending on what phrase you choose you may alter nately befriend or enrage the alien you are talking to After you have decided on the phrase you wish to speak highlight it with the Cursor keys and press Enter The alien will respond and either you will be given another set of phrases or the conversation will come to an end possibly initiating combat To repeat the alien s last phrase to you press the Spacebar or Button 2 Cpr aro il Attacking Aliens If you choose ATTACK from the Command Menu or your conversation ends on a sour note yo
62. essel it is destroyed If there are other ships in the enemy s task force a new ship will warp in immediately Since each ships combat entry position is ran dom be prepared for immediate hostilities If one of your combat vessels is destroyed you must pick another ship with which to re enter the fray unless your flagship was destroyed WHEN YOUR FLAGSHIP IS DESTROYED THE GAME IS OVER In this unfortunate circumstance you will be given the option to resume a saved game start over from the beginning or quit to DOS Running Away If you are worried that one of your ships is about to be destroyed you can choose to flee the battlefield To run away while fighting with any ship press the ESC key Your ship comes to an immediate halt and begins an emergency warp out maneuver During this maneuver you will be unable to control your vessel but it will be vulnerable to enemy attack The glow around your ship will pulse faster and faster until your vessel has generat ed enough force to speed out of the combat zone When you command an escort vessel to flee you are prompted to select a new ship to fight with The ship that fled will not be available for the remainder of the battle but will return to the fleet when the fight is over When you run away while using the flagship you leave the battle alto gether taking your escort vessels with you CARTERA Cpr UTRO A JZ 60 Nu Note The emergency warp technology for escaping from combat
63. ffixed to your flagship the faster it goes Increasing the number of Attitude modules allows your ship to turn faster You can have a maximum of 11 Thrusters and 8 Attitude modules Landers are necessary for making journeys to planet surfaces You may need more than one lander because hostile conditions on planetside may result in the untimely destruction of a lander now and again You are limit ed to a maximum of 10 landers Multi Function modules fit along the spine of your flagship and can trans form it from a colony space ark to a mineral processing platform to a bat tleship of unrivaled power The characteristics of your flagship depend on the selection of Multi Function modules you make You are limited to a maximum of 16 Multi Function modules The optimum lay out of modules for your starship will depend on your specific mission and your style of play Adding and Removing Modules To add a module to your flagship choose MODULE The game will then display a list of available modules in the Flagship Status Window Next to each module is its cost Move the highlight to the module you wish to add and press Enter A flashing cursor will now appear on the schematic display allowing you to position the module on your vessel Move the cursor with the Cursor keys and press Enter The cursor will y 51 Lf now move back to the module list so that you can add more modules if desired When you are done adding modules to your flagship press S
64. fortable with your new role as a starship officer Burton listened as you expressed your doubts then put an arm around your shoulders and re assured you You d make a fine pilot She d trust a ship to you any time Besides all the plans were set The two of you would lead the return to Earth and once there send back a rescue ship for the colonists left behind If necessary Burton vowed you would fight your way through the forces of the Ur Quan Hierarchy You above all will remember that trip for during the journey you went through a rite of passage You left Unzervalt a boy and soon found yourself forced to be a eA man to lead bravely and boldly and wisely Think Pa ick AE A back Do you recall the exhilaration of blasting off from PA JE ars oe the tiny planet where you were born and the sheer terror later Three days out as you approached the perimeter of that cursed Oort Cloud you found the Tobermoon derelict and tumbling through space The deep burns along her hull were mute evidence she d seen combat And lost The discovery was of course a great shock to Captain Burton Unconsciously she chewed her bottom lip and for the first time her handsome face showed the awful strain CHR OFEROJ P 22 k of the past twenty years She d been engaged to Captain Chi Through two decades she d clung to the hope she d see him again kept alive the dream they d shared of marriage and children and a life together Now th
65. g cursor up or down to pick the Game State Slot in which you want to save the current game Although there are 50 slots available only ten are shown at once To scroll the entire selection of slots move the highlight up or down beyond the edge of the list When you have picked a slot press Enter The entire slot will highlight and you can now type in a brief description of where and or when you are situated in the course of the game If the slot already has a descrip tion you can use the Backspace and DEL keys to erase the old descrip tion if desired When you are satisfied with the description press Enter The game will save the necessary information and return to the Flagship Command Menu Loading a Saved Game After choosing LOAD from the Game Menu highlight the Game State Slot with the desired description and press Return The game will automati cally load and return to normal play Spe Cutty l l 4 Changing Game Settings This command allows you to configure the way the game plays to better suit your personal preferences Music Level This command toggles music on and off Sound Level This command toggles sound effects on and off Reading Speed After choosing READING you can either pick SPEED which speeds up the rate at which text is displayed in the game or you can choose SPEED which slows down text display Combat This submenu of options allows you to change how the game conducts space combat By mo
66. has NOT been included on your ships at the very beginning of the game However this feature will become available early on in play Analyzing Enemy Wreckage If you defeat all the enemy vessels in an attacking task force you will scav enge and analyze the enemy wreckage A scavenging report will tell you how much you have reclaimed N y 61 ll APPENDIX I KNOWN ALIEN RACES Cyr ERO Races in the Alliance of Free Stars The first Alliance race to become aware of the Ur Quan threat was the sophisticated crystalline race the Chenjesu In 2098 their ultra sensitive HyperWave receivers began recording strange broadcasts unshielded and strong from the direction of the Cygnus star cluster Soon after the Chenjesu listened as the Ur Quan brutally conquered the first race they encountered the Umgah By 2111 the Spathi had also been subjugated and the Ilwrath one of the Chenjesu s closest neighbors was near defeat The Chenjesu realized that they needed help fighting the UrQuan and their ever growing armada of battle thralls The Chenjesu s long standing mutual defense agreement with the Mmrnmhrm became the basis for the Alliance of Free Stars Soon the Yehat and their foster species the uplifted Shofixti entered the Alliance Following Humanity s induction in 2115 the Ariloulaleelay and the Syreen unofficially followed suit bringing the Alliance to its final configuration seven alien races united against a common foe
67. he fuel necessary to make the trip is displayed in the flagship data window Gri l Ch Dye AR OFERO 2 41 he Note If you have lost all your landers you will be unable to visit a planet s surface You will have to return to the Earth Starbase for more landers Planet Surface Exploration When you ve landed on an alien world be careful because the conditions there could be quite treacherous Planet landers though quick and maneuverable are not exactly invincible space tanks Lander Status Display To the left of the planet map is the Lander Status display showing the lan ders crew a maximum of 12 its present cargo its data stores and its pro tective devices Once you have launched a lander from your flagship you will see it fly off toward the planet Your command area will then be replaced by a magni fied image of the vehicle landing on the planet surface After you have arrived on the planet surface you can begin maneuvering the lander vehicle using your normal starship navigation controls though you will have to thrust continuously to move forward As you move about the surface the magnified view will scroll to keep your vehicle centered in the view Returning to the Flagship You can return from the surface to the flagship at any time by pressing the Spacebar or Button 2 Gathering Minerals Mineral deposits are shown on the planet surface as colored dots see the Mineral Chart for details To pick up a
68. ight with If you are playing against a computer opponent it will do so automatically To pick a ship move the flashing cursor over the desired ship and press Enter If you want the next ship to be chosen randomly highlight the and then press Enter Fighting a Battle Combat in SuperMelee is identical to combat in Star Control Il except that you cannot flee from battle When a ship is destroyed the ship selection menu will appear allowing you or your opponent to select the next ship to fight Spe atte l l Winning SuperMelee When all of one player s ships are destroyed the Melee is over Each play ers menu will then appear allowing the winner to gloat over his many vic tories This final display also shows the winners remaining ship points which indicate the margin of victory Use the following guidelines to determine the quality of the victory Winner s Remaining Ship Points Quality of Victory 5 By the skin of your teeth 10 A good close game 25 A serious thumpin 50 Totally Cree mated 75 and up Who are you playing with a moon rock Remember if you get Cree mated theres always the best 2 out of 3 Replaying Melee with the Same Teams To begin another SuperMelee with the same teams just press any key after the ship selection screen has been displayed Returning to the Team Edit Screen After a SuperMelee game is over or at any time during play you can quit the battle and return to the
69. imagination of mil lions of poor and disillusioned individuals worldwide Within a few years Brother Jason was one of the most powerful and influential people on the planet For most people on Earth the following two decades were a golden time of peace and prosperity This was not the case for Hsien Ho s now adult clones Seeing Ho s creations as a threat to his Godly Men Jason MacBride fought to have the clones declared sub human Calling them Androsynths or the fake men he used the vast resources of his Homo Deus organization to strip the clones of their human rights Sadly as the years passed the Androsynths became little better than well treated slaves Not unexpectedly March 11 2046 came and went without the arrival of Jason MacBride s promised Millennium Citing a lack of genuinely devout people MacBride withdrew from public life and faded into obscurity his power and fortunes rapidly declining By the middle of the 21st Century Earthlings had begun to colonize their solar system Planet orbiting factories led to lunar bases and soon there were min ing and research outposts scattered across the Asteroid Belt Yet the expan sion of mankind into deep space was limited by the relatively slow speed at which spacecraft could travel Research began in earnest to develop a ship that could warp toward distant stars faster than the speed of light Curr The Androsynth Rebellion In retrospe
70. ing the war Captain Burton s Discovery On March 16 2134 Star Control Captain I Burton a highly respected 28 year old female Earthling was leading a task force of heavy cruisers on a deep recon into what was believed to be a friendly sector near the Zeeman Vela star cluster Burton was brilliant and beautiful with wide set deep blue eyes a white even toothed smile and silky straw colored hair She also had a figure that turned heads even aboard a warship hurtling through deep space She had just taken a navigational star fix when the ships from Earth were suddenly ambushed by an elite force of Androsynth Guardian combat vessels The Androsynth ships had been modified for extended blazer mode giving them increased speed and range The task force was cut to shreds and only Burton s vessel the Tobermoon escaped immediate destruction Knowing the Tobermoon could not outrun the Guardian ships Captain Burton engaged in a des perate ploy to save the ship and crew Fear crin kling the corners of her deep blue eyes she warped her craft toward the heart of Zeeman s Star a nearby supergiant sun She had a desperate plan a last ditch ploy she prayed would confuse the pursuers sensors The bridge crew began to panic as heat in the cabin climbed to oven like temperatures Two enlisted men finally broke under the pressure and came for Burton terror in their eyes and sweat pouring down their faces But the captain had guts as well as b
71. l was finally achieved Ten years after the U N summit in 2025 the Earth experienced its first year without war To ensure the total destruction of the arms trade the United Nations prohibit ed future weapons research including the development of nuclear fusion and fission technologies that might be adapted for bomb making purposes Laser applications were also closely monitored to prevent the design of Star Wars like weapons Despite these restrictions science continued to advance across a wide spectrum of disciplines espe cially in bio technology Brilliant Swiss Scientist Hsien Ho combined the now complete human genome map with sophisticated genetic engineering techniques and perfected the artificial parthenogenesis cloning of humans at the Zurich BioTeknik in 2019 Though the clones were to all external appearances human Hsien Ho modified their genes so that they were not capable pereo of producing offspring Meanwhile a new religious order known as Homo Deus or The Godly Men was founded in the aftermath of the Small War and the emotional turmoil caused by the destruction of the Holy Lands Its charismatic founder former car salesman Jason MacBride built his worldwide following on the thesis that the Millennium was near MacBride even predicted a specific date March 11 2046 when Heaven and Earth would join and each devout person would be elevated to a divine status The movement captured the
72. lagship possesses use the CARGO command in the MANIFEST command menu To remove a Cargo Bay it must first be emptied typically by visiting the Starbase Commander Spe Cutty l l 9 Fuel Tank Maximum 16 Each Fuel Tank Module holds 50 units of fuel which is enough to take your flagship halfway across known space Of course if you are making a lot of planet landings or are employing a powerful device you may wish to increase your fuel capacity with more Tanks Fuel Tanks are purchased empty but can be filled from the Earth Starbase OUTFIT menu You can not remove a fuel tank module unless it is empty Dynamo Maximum 16 Dynamos are finely engineered pieces of equipment whose function is to supply raw energy to your weapons systems by augmenting your normal combat batteries A classic mistake in ship configuration is to load down a vessel with multiple weapons but not include an appropriate number of Dynamos The result is a ship whose firing rate is atrocious lon Gun Racks Maximum 3 each lon Gun Racks are poly channel combat units which concentrate the raw energy of your ships batteries and Dynamos into a focused destructive pro jectile Depending on the exact placement of an lon Gun Rack or other weapon module the ship will fire in one or more directions simultaneously The most weapons you can have on your ship is four The module slots in which you can put a weapon are marked in blue WEAPON POSITION FIRING EFFECT Firs
73. lanet you can make a quick evaluation of each planet from orbit by using your flagship scanning equipment To get a basic scan of a planet choose Scan from the Flag ship Command Menu This will display general information about the planet in the rotat ing planet display including Planet Type A general description of the planet Orbital Radius Distance from its primary star in A U s the distance from Cpe OEROL 2 38 h Sol to Earth is 1 A U Temperature The average surface temperature in degrees centigrade The hotter the planet the more prevalent are hotspots on the planet s surface making travel there more dangerous Tectonics This value gives a general indication of the frequency of large seismic shocks within the planets surface There are 8 classes of activity with 1 being least dangerous and 8 being a stupendous tectonic upheaval Weather This factor measures the force and density of disturbances within a planets atmosphere Like tectonics there are 8 classes of weather The most dangerous effect of weather on a lander is lightning which strikes more often on planets with higher weather factors Atmospheric Pressure Pressure is a measure of the density of the gasses which make up a planets atmosphere Atmospheric pressure is measured in Earth standard units Mass The mass of a planet is measured in Earth standard units where 1 0 is equal to the mass of Earth Radius The radius of each planet is
74. lizing that the surrounding region of space could fall under the control of the enemy at any time Burton accelerated repairs to the Tobermoon and rock eted back to Earth at emergency warp speed to report her findings to her superiors at Star Control Within a week the Tobermoon was on the return leg to Vela II crammed full of hastily assembled scientific equipment and experts on both the Precursor s civilization and their advanced xenotechnology Expedition to Vela Il The most respected but least liked Precursor expert in the expedition to Vela II was Professor Jules Farnsworth The professor was well known for his formida ble intellect and his extensive knowledge of the Precursor civilization Though recognized as a great mind Farnsworth was also widely disliked for his flam boyant egotism and rude impatience with peers who did not hang on his every word The man was simply impossible to work with for anyone with a mod icum of self respect It wasn t long before both his fellow scientists on the mission and Captain Burton rued the decision to bring Farnsworth along for the professor did little but complain during the voyage from Earth to Vela II Yet as irksome as he was Professor Farnsworth proved his worth almost immediately upon his arrival at the Precursor installation Within hours he located the base s deacti vated central control computer While the professor worked feverishly on the ancient aliens computer Captain Burto
75. may be present on the screen at any given time When a ninth is fired the first one disappears The other capability of the Kohr Ah ship is Known by the other alien races as the Fiery Ring of Inevitable and Eternal Destruction or FR I E D This is actually an expanding ring of super heated gases that can be used both for defense and close range offense When facing the Ur OQuan the Kohr Ah is better off staying farther away and the Ur Quan is better off closing Utwig Jugger This slow tubby craft is only a mod erately powerful ship However it is particularly well suited to facing the Kohr Ah and the Mycon The Utwig in addition to its forward facing wide area guns has the special capability of Shielding itself This shielding however uses up energy which cannot be regenerated so the trick for Utwig commanders is to acquire more than they use Against ships that fire rapidly and continually the Utwig commander can find himself Cole COMER NT ve 92 being tricked into shielding unnecessarily and wasting his energy The best strategy for the Utwig is to close with the opponents ship using a Gravity Whip when necessary and time the shielding to catch any incom ing shots DOGIS from the Chenjesu are an Utwig commanders greatest fear as they quickly turn his ship into a sitting duck Thraddash Torch The Torch is a difficult ship to master but can be quite potent when it is flown well The normal wea
76. mineral deposit simply run over it with your lander You will hear your harvesting equipment gather the material and bring it aboard The Cargo Status Bar will change to reflect Cyr OHEROL ye 42 A the presence of the minerals brought aboard and show how much room you have left in the lander If you try to gather a deposit when the lander is full you will hear an unpleasant protest from your harvesting machinery and you will be unable to load the deposit To gather additional minerals you will have to return to the flagship and off load the material into your Cargo Bays Planetary Hazards Alien worlds can be extremely hostile when compared with Earth and can cause the unfortunate demise of your landers crew If a disaster should strike and your entire crew be eliminated your lander will be destroyed and with it all the minerals and or devices you had collected When visit ing dangerous planets it is wise to keep a finger on your recall control just in case you need to leave in a hurry The hazards you will encounter include Earthquakes These massive tectonic upheavals appear on your magni fied display as expanding concentric rings The longer the lander is pun ished by an earthquake the more of your landers crew will perish Lightning Unpredictable and unavoidable lightning can dance around your lander for minutes then zero in on your vessel and wipe out half your crew in seconds Hotspots On planets with high su
77. n alien life form the crystalline Chenjesu The alien vessel suddenly appeared out of nowhere a scarlet flash of light announcing its presence as it took up a posi tion 3 kilometers above the asteroid Almost immediately the alien ship began broadcasting this message People from Earth We are the Chenjesu We mean you no harm We come in peace with an urgent message Heed these words there is a horde of conquering warriors advancing toward your solar system from deep space They GAAR TEDN Z 11 l are called the Ur Quan They know you are here They will make slaves of you as they have made slaves of a thousand races across the galaxy They will enslave both our species Chenjesu and Human unless we stop them now We are not alone in our struggle There are others who will fight with us against the Ur Quan Together in an alliance with the remaining free stars we may yet turn back the enemy defeating the Ur Quan and its Hierarchy of Battle Thralls d We beseech you to join us for we desperately need your help But we do not have much time What is your answer For over a week the answer from Earth was stunned silence The Alliance of Free Stars The Chenjesu representatives were patient Beings of vast intellect and per ception they understood the psychological shock their sudden appearance had on the inhabitants of Earth a people who amazingly had never before had contact with a species other than their own
78. n received a fateful message from the Crylo tippy Cpr QUOT P 16 h Star Control High Command As feared the Ur Quan had smashed through the defensive lines drawn between the Mira and Indi constellations Star Control reconnaissance ships reported that a large Hierarchy task force was hurtling toward the Vela star system Captain Burton was ordered to evacuate all personnel from Vela II and return to Earth immediately Burton s heart beat like a hammer in her chest as she read the rest of the message Star Control was paranoid that the Precursor s advanced technology would fall into the hands of the hated Ur Quan To prevent the Hierarchy from obtaining these ancient secrets Burton was ordered to install nuclear devices throughout the Precursor installation Once the Tobermoon was in orbit she was to set off the weapons and destroy the entire complex The non military members of the Vela II research team were stunned by the order Destroy the most significant discovery of the century It was unthink able Professor Farnsworth was especially distraught for he was in the middle of several critical research projects that promised to unlock ancient Precursor technical secrets In an uncharacter istic display of courage Farnsworth offered to remain behind promising to detonate the nuclear bombs if the Ur Quan found the Precursor caves The majority of the other scientists and engi neers also asked to stay on Vela II and continue thei
79. ney Sound Source on parallel port 1 Disney Sound Source on parallel port 2 Covox Speech Thing or other sound peripheral on parallel port 1 Covox Speech Thing or other sound peripheral on parallel port 2 If you want to specify explicitly your sound board follow the above con vention with one of the following codes Code INTERNAL ADLIB SBLASTER PAS SM2 ASC MICRO GRAVIS Sound Device Internal speaker An Adlib sound board A Soundblaster A Pro Audio Spectrum A Sound Master Il An ASC Media Master Microsoft Windows Gravis Ultrasound If you want NO sound use the code SILENT Loading Problems If you load Star Control Il and experience the following The game doesn t start properly You see a Not Enough RAM error message Freezes or erratic game play see the Booting Clean section Cpr ar il 7 Garbled Graphics or Blank Screen Star Control Il supports VGA or MCGA graphics only If your computer does not have these graphic cards and a color monitor this game will not work on your system If you do have these and still experience a blank screen or garbled graphics see the Booting Clean section below Graphic Adapter Fix Certain computers i e Tandy 4850 EP have unusual video hardware Therefore colors in the game might not look quite right If you experience this problem try running the game as STARCON2 g BIOS This will force the program to update the color palette using the B
80. ng Minerals to the Starbase In order to build new equipment for your flagship build additional combat vehicles or commission more crew you have to supply the Starbase with raw materials These materials most often take the form of minerals which you have gathered from the surfaces of alien worlds To transfer resources to the Starbase initiate a conversation with the Commander and select the option Commander have material to off load The Commander will then remove the minerals from your vessel and inform you of their value Outfitting Your Flagship At the beginning of the game your flagship is incomplete You will spend much of the first part of the game gradually building it into one of the most powerful vessels in the galaxy To do so you must gather mineral or other resources from across space and bring them back to the Starbase GART ERANT Gpr UTRO Li 2 49 Saal When you choose OUTFIT FLAGSHIP from the Main Starbase Menu you will see a schematic display of your vessel its components its present fuel supply and the landers you have on board Flagship Characteristics The flagship schematic display also lists the following characteristics Turning Rate The rotation rate of your flagship in combat HyperSpace and interplanetary travel based on the number of turn jets on your vessel Maximum Velocity Your ships speed in combat Hyper Space and inter planetary travel based on the number of thrusters your ship possesses
81. ng range attacks Stay away from the lt O enemy ship and fire your seeking nukes constantly Use a Gravity Whip off of the planet if necessary to keep your distance but be careful not to y 85 Wi collide with the planet The only reason ever to get close to an enemy ves sel is to make an honorable point defense laser coup de grace to elimi nate the opponents last crew member Mmrnmhrm Xform The X form is actually two ships in one Its special power allows it to transform from one form into the other The Y Wing form of this ship is fast but not very maneuverable and it fires long range homing missiles that do only a small amount of damage The X a powerful double lance convergent laser One very effective way to take advantage of this ship is to stay mostly in the faster Y wing form transforming into the X Wing form only to make quick turns or ward off would be attackers when they get too close Shofixti Scout Shofixti Scout ships are small and very quick They have a limited num z Y ber of crew and a relatively weak forward fir ing gun with a moderate range The special capability of this ship is that it can detonate itself like a big bomb and cause great damage to an opponents ship Of course this requires that the Shofixti ship get itself close enough before detonating Shofixti captains who are patient may find that their little gun can be quite effective when fighting sl
82. ning until its batteries are exhausted all the while maneuvering to stay behind its opponent es APPENDIX VI FLAGSHIP MODULES The Multi Function Modules initially available at the Starbase are Planetary LanderMaximum 10 This Module is actually a separate vehicle which you can launch from your flagship and send down to a planet surface Although a planet lander appears to have been built to carry a crew of 2 Precursors 12 human crew members can fit inside You may wish to carry more than one lander since you may lose a lander due to hostile conditions on alien planet surfaces Thruster Maximum 11 Thrusters lock into place on your warp outrigger units increasing your acceleration and maximum velocity and making travel through space less time consuming Fuel cost for HyperSpace travel remains constant regard less of how many thrusters you have on board your vessel Turning Jets Maximum 8 Turning Jets also fit in your outrigger units but their function is to let your flag ship turn more rapidly Turning Jets are most important for rapid maneuvering in combat Crew Pod Maximum 16 These modules provide living quarters and life support for up to 50 addi tional crew members When you purchase a Crew Pod it will be empty To fill it with new crew visit the SHIPYARDS in the Earth Starbase Cargo Bay Maximum 16 Cargo Bays hold up to 500 units of minerals or other cargo each To see how much available cargo space your f
83. or technical support and information email us at techelp accolade com Accolade is also on CompuServe and America Online Members of CompuServe can email us at 76004 2132 or type GO GAMAPUB and leave a message for us in the Accolade section Members of America Online can go to our area at Keyword Accolade or send email to Accolade Spe atte i APPENDIX III INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUPERMELEE SuperMelee is pure Star Control combat In this bonus game you can fight against the computer opponent or even better battle another human player SuperMelee battles are fought between two rival teams composed of up to 14 ships using any combination of the 25 alien vessels from Star Control and Star Control Il d If you have never fought a Star Control space battle SuperMelee is the necessary training ground where you will learn to survive in the hostile starways of Star Control Il You can begin by fighting weak opponents learning the ins and outs of tactical combat Then as your skills improve you can take on more cunning foes and begin to explore the unique strat agems for each ship to ship combination The experienced Star Control player will relish the 11 new ship types the multiplicity of ship battle combinations and the ability to devise his or her own SuperMelee teams Starting SuperMelee To play SuperMelee 1 Turn on your computer 2 Get to the point in DOS where you would normally launch the game If you play from the CD
84. ow or short ranged enemy vessels Syreen Penetrator This space vessel has the unique potential to leave a battle much stronger than it enters it The goal of a Syreen ship is peo always to get close to the opposing ship and use the Syreen call This causes the enemy crew from the opponent s craft to jump ship and drift through space towards i the Syreen ship The Syreen can then pick them up and use them as her own crew One very effective trick is to use the Syreen call and fire simultaneously This way when your opponent has only one or two crew members left the Syreen can NP destroy them before they have a CRANE to pick any of the crew back up again aP A Yehat Terminator The powerful and direct Yehat Terminator is the ear liest of all Star Control ships The ship is fF equipped with extremely powerful medium range dual cannons as well as a shield that when activated protects it from any weapon Avoid the temptation of exhausting all of your energy with your guns saving some for your shields Also remember that energy genera tion on the Yehat ship is not sufficient to maintain constant shield ing Lastly since Yehats are not particularly fast they can often benefit from a Gravity Whip from the planet This allows them to strafe an opponent as they go sailing past Androsynth Guardian The Androsynth vessel is normally very slow and its weapon fires auto homing molecular acid bubbles These
85. pacebar or Button 2 to return to the Command Menu There is no perfect configuration of modules so at times during the game you will want to replace a module on your flagship To remove a module and recover most of its value choose MODULE from the Command Menu A flashing cursor will then appear on the schematic display of your vessel Use the Cursor keys to move the highlight to the module you wish to remove and press Enter Note You cannot remove modules which contain resources such as fuel in Fuel Tanks or minerals in Cargo Bays If you want to remove such modules first empty them For a detailed list of module descriptions see Appendix VI Flagship Modules The Shipyard In addition to enhancing your flagship the Earth Starbase can also build additional combat vessels to escort you on your travels through space To build combat ships or commission new crew members for your flagship or combat vessels choose SHIPYARD from the Starbase Main Menu At the top of the Shipyard Screen you will see a schematic of your ship which shows how much fuel cargo and crew you have aboard Beneath this schematic are the 12 ship hangars in which you can build your fleet of combat vessels Adding and Removing Crew To add new crew members select CREW from the Shipyard Command K aR OEROL Z 52 ee Menu A flashing cursor will appear on the schematic of your flagship Move the cursor using the Cursor keys to the ship to which you want to
86. pon of this ship is a simple long range weapon that does a small amount of damage The special capability of this ship is to eject ultra high pressure bursts of plasma out the rear of the craft These propel the ship forward at great speed and act as an effective turbo boost of propulsion rather than their engines which actually slow the vessel down By using the rear Torch commanders can stay far away from shorter range ships and hit enemies with its long range weapon When these Torch bursts are laid down in a wall in the path of an oppo nent that is moving a lot they can be a powerful offense These bursts can also be used defensively to block incoming shots This technique requires the Torch captain to keep the rear of the ship facing the opponent whenever it is not advantageous to be firing Supox Blade The Supox Blade is another effective ship In combat situ ations any ship that can get another ship to chase it is in an advanta geous position The Supox with its ability to reverse direction is well suit ed to this strategy This is done by approaching a ship head on As soon ple COMER NT 93 Au as that ship is in range the Supox reverses the direction of its thrust and flies backwards shoot ing at the ship that is all of a sudden following it To travel backwards press the Thrust key and the Special key simultaneously Another capability of the Supox ship is to move laterally To perform this maneuver
87. ps arrive in their hangar with only one crew member the captain onboard It is highly recommended that you immediately add maximum crew to each new vessel as it is built When you are done building ships press the Spacebar to return to the Command Menu Note The selection of ships you can build will be very limited at the beginning of the game To expand this list you need to make alliances with other alien races You may only receive these gift ships from other races if you have room in your fleet Therefore you may want to keep two or three open slots Also these gift ships may be sold for Resource Units but you cannot rebuild the vessels Once they are sold they are gone Removing a Combat Vessel To decommission remove a combat ship from your fleet and recoup most of its value choose SHIP from the Shipyard Command Menu Move the flashing cursor over the ship you want to remove and press Enter Any crew on board the ship will be automatically removed and their value added to your available resources When you are done removing ships from your fleet press the Spacebar to Return to the Command Menu Leaving the Starbase When you are ready to leave choose DEPART STARBASE from the Main Starbase Menu You will appear in interplanetary space near Earth yR TERDI SREO ENCOUNTERING ALIEN RACES You can encounter alien ships in HyperSpace in interplanetary space and in orbit around certain planets Some encounters yo
88. r research Finally Captain Burton was persuaded that saving the treasure trove of advanced Precursor technology was more important than obeying a direct order from the High Command Still she didn t trust Farnsworth to det onate the nuclear bombs should the Ur Quan land She decided the only logical thing to do was to remain behind herself On August 11 2134 Captain Burton gave over command of the Tobermoon to First Officer Chi with orders to CH PIN OFERO 2 17 h leave the star system immediately He was to return to Earth at best speed and brief the High Command on the expedition s desperate attempt to save the Precursor installation Chi promised to return with a relief party and sup plies as soon as the Ur Quan attack was repulsed After the Tobermoon had lifted off the team quickly moved all their equipment deep into the cave sys tem and obscured all signs of their presence from the planet s surface Now if an Ur Quan reconnaissance ship scanned the terrain Vela II would appear uninhabited The weeks turned into months as Captain Burton and her team of 200 waited for the return of the Tobermoon Marooned After six months in the caves food reserves grew critically short and Captain Burton imposed strict rationing Professor Farnsworth found a data bank in the computer memory describing Vela II s flora and fauna Burton felt her spirits soar as Farnsworth pointed out sev eral plants and animals that could be ha
89. r to medieval Japan The Yehat had such admiration for these feisty little warriors that they immediately adopted them and took responsibility for the Shofixti s uplift swearing that no peace loving race would be allowed to dilute the Shofixtis noble warlike tendencies During the war the primary responsibility of the Shofixti star ships was to act as advanced scouts establishing mines colonies and for tifications throughout the stars Ariloulaleelay Arilou as individuals of this species are called are pale about 1 5 meters tall and have large childlike heads with dark soulful eyes Although Arilou never talk communicating through direct telepathic link they almost always wear a wide innocent smile per OLERO Z 64 AU The Arilou may have visited Earth often in the past especially in the period between 1950 and the year 2000 during which they are suspected of having been responsible for flying saucer sightings cropfield circles alien abductions and similar prankish behavior The Ariloulaleelay maintain great secrecy about them gt selves and their motivations The location of their m gt te home world or even their native region of space is unknown as is much else about these beings In fact the very existence of the Ariloulaleelay was not certain until the year 2116 when they appeared without warning on Earths moon and asked to be inducted into the Alliance Syreen The Syreen people evolved
90. rface temperatures you will encounter hotspots shifting regions of intense heat which are incredibly destructive Avoid these hazards at all costs Native Life forms On rare occasions you will encounter interesting life forms on alien planets Unfortunately interesting usually means danger GRNT Dye Gpr URRY ij 2 43 k ous You will be unable to ascertain just how dangerous a creature is until it attacks and it may then be too late Many life forms will flee from your lander instead of attacking Some creatures are sessile and just sit there Collecting Life form Data To collect life form data you need to thoroughly analyze the creature To do so you must first prepare the life form for study This is accomplished by aiming your lander at the entity and pressing Return to fire a stun blast When the creature is sufficiently incapacitated it will transform into a glowing specimen canister which can then be retrieved at your leisure by running over it with your lander Don t worry this doesn t hurt the crea ture at all Each species of alien life is different Some are fast and others are slow Some look like jumping plants while others look like zeppelins with teeth Some creatures are stunned by a single zap from your lander while others wont succumb until they ve been shot ten times As a general rule avoid physical contact with alien creatures unless they are stunned and properly contained Remember they may bite
91. rol Il is now copied to your hard drive Creating a Boot Disk 1 Make sure you have a high density diskette on hand that will fit into drive A 2 At the DOS prompt type FORMAT A S lt Enter gt You will be prompted to insert your diskette into drive A When the com puter asks you to enter a label name press lt Enter gt When the computer asks if you want to format another diskette answer NO 3 At the DOS prompt type A lt Enter gt 4 At the A prompt type COPY CANCONFIG SYS lt Enter gt 5 At the A prompt type COPY C AUTOEXEC BAT lt Enter gt 6 At the A prompt type EDIT CONFIG SYS lt Enter gt Note PC DOS users may have to type E CONFIG SYS lt Enter gt The editing screen display is blue with several lines of white text Each line of text is one DOS command Cor IN IDAT 2 75 ak 7 Only some of these lines are necessary for your game to run properly The lines we need can usually be left just as they are Keep the following lines intact The line with HIMEM SYS or any other upper memory manager The line with EMM386 EXE or any other expanded memory manager Any lines pertaining to your Sound Card Any lines necessary to the normal operation of your computer For all other lines move the cursor to the left edge of each line and type REM lt Spacebar gt 8 Once you have finished editing the CONFIG SYS file press lt ALT F gt then lt S gt to save the file PC DOS users will need to press the lt F
92. rvested for food The most likely sources of meat were the red brown Libixx animals that looked like winged rabbits and the six legged Ortogs 2 000 pound beasts with pendulous udders that resembled a cross between a cow and a lizard Both had cell structures internal organs and flesh remarkably similar to mammals on Earth The Precursor data also indicated that several plant species especially the giant blue flowered Iccamullon had the same proteins sugars and starches as crops humans had been raising for centuries Captain Burton assigned teams to hunt wild animals and harvest food plants allowing them out of the caves only under cover of dark for the first year they were there Then gradually as the years passed the marooned Earthlings grew confident they were safe from discovery by the Ur Quan on this out of the way little planet They began to see themselves as colonists and most moved out of the caves to settle on the surface Still with Captain Burton prodding them the humans remained cau tious building camouflaged houses and planting crops in purposefully chaotic patterns Eventually they gave their planet a name Unzervalt It meant sim Cyr OROT Ni ply our world Ten years slipped past marked by the deaths of a dozen colonists from acci dents or old age and the birth of 42 children Several of the scientists had now become full time farmers Others fabricated old fashioned bullet firing rifles and disappe
93. s by means of homing limpets which cling to the hull of an enemy ship making it less and less maneuverable In addition to this the VUX ship comes equipped with a very powerful medium range laser and a large store of energy to power it The VUX is one of the slowest and least maneuverable ships in the game Helping to offset this the Intruder has the advantage of always appear ing near an enemy vessel when combat begins The VUX commander must be ready to fire instantly and make course adjust Da 90 LI ments to keep his laser on target If the enemy escapes and possesses any long or intermediate range weapons the VUX must immediately seek out a planet and engage in a Gravity Whip If the enemy launches a seeking weapon don t forget to shoot at it as it approaches When the VUX nears its target it should slow by rotating to face the enemy and thrusting Never engage your enemy unless you have lots of fuel To make effective use of your limpets deploy them in a curtain then turn and thrust ahead of where your enemy must flee to avoid them When the enemy is really gunked up and you are fully recharged use your laser to blast the enemy ship s hull Remember though the Yehat shield is proof against your laser your limpets pass through its defenses unaffected Ur Quan Dreadnought Most experienced players would probably say that either the Ur Quan Dreadnought or the Kohr Ah Marauder is the most powerful ship in the game
94. serve a Syreen ship captain with perfect faithfulness Crews on board Syreen ships became a surreal pastiche of alien races with Ilwrath VUX Spathi and others working dutifully side by side with human volunteers under the command of beautiful Syreen officers Races in the Ur Quan Hierarchy The history of the Ur Quan is largely unknown save that they are an old race who have travelled the galaxy for thousands of years with a single motive To find intelligent life and enslave it Most Xeno psychologists agree that the Ur Quan behavior indicates they suffered some kind of severe trauma and are neurotically acting out their need to control every thing by enslaving any intelligent species they meet Most starship com manders who have faced the Ur Quan in combat think the Ur Quan attack and enslave simply because they are evil hostile creatures who should be destroyed The organization of the Ur Quan Hierarchy is simple and immutable All alien races are inferior to the Ur Quan Battle Thralls those other races who fight for the Ur Quan are granted the next highest status and are ol permitted to maintain a rl amount of autonomy All other independent species are simply known as prey oN y Zs V Ur Quan Physically UrOQuan resemble the predatory 23x os Caterpillar native to Earths Hawaiian Islands only a _ __ grown to over ten meters in length The Ur Quan uai 6 K j equivalent ofa face is rich in sensory organs and its TA
95. son The customer may not transfer or resell the Software or user manual The remedies provided above are the Customer s sole and exclusive remedies In no event shall Accolade Inc be liable for any direct indirect special incidental or consequential damages with respect to the Software or the user manual Except as provided above Accolade Inc makes no warranties eitehr express or implied with respect to the Software or the user manual and expressly disclaims all implied warranties including without limitation the warranty of merchantability and of fitness for a particular purpose All other trademarks and registered trademarks are properties of their respective owners
96. space with a laser so dangerous that when fired it ionizes the solar wind Gynt ROL If The laser strikes an enemy vessels hull with twice the amp destructive force of the feared VUX laser Orbiting around the Avatar are three ZapSats Sturdy satellites that automatically fire their own laser weapons at incoming ships and missiles The Chmmr Avatars special power is a tractor beam which generates a focused beam of artificial gravity pulling in an enemy vessel like a fish on a line The effect of the tractor depends on the size and speed of the opposing ship The biggest threat to the Avatar is the Kohr Ah Marauders fiery gas ring which will instantly destroy any satellites it touches Orz Nemesis This menacing manta craft was built for combat Atop the swift Nemesis is a rotating howitzer which can pump out shells at a high rate of fire over medium range Unlike vessels whose weapons are fixed forward the Nemesis captain can swivel his gun fore aft port star board or anywhere in between To swivel the gun the player must hold down the Special key and then press the Rotate keys This ships most exciting feature is its Space Marines Encased in vacuum fitted exo skele tons these relentless soldiers use their jet yee A packs to chase down enemy ships and then burn entry holes through their hulls When launched by pressing the Special key and the Fire key D 96 L simultaneously each departing
97. special ability to teleport can help it escape from fatal situations The Arilou Skiff has an auto targeting swivel mounted short range laser that pumps out damage quickly Unfortunately the Arilou ship can y 84 L sustain only a minimal amount of damage itself A successful captain will use the teleport function as well as an opponents inertia to move in quickly along the rear or flank of the enemy ship unload from a full store of energy and then fly or teleport quickly away to recharge Chenjesu Broodhome The main weapon of the Chenjesu the photon crystal shard is ver satile for both offense and de fense As long as the fire button is pressed the shard con tinues on its way If you hit an enemy with the whole crystal it does a great deal of damage If the crystal misses release the fire button while it is still near the enemy ship and the shard will explode into smaller pieces Since the crystals do not harm the Chenjesu they can be exploded at point blank range to create a kind of ack ack One powerful ability of the Chenjesu is to launch self directed DOGIs De energizing Offensive Guided Interceptor These little drones can steal the energy from ships or just pester the enemy until they are ready to give up The best strategy for a Chenjesu is to keep a good distance between itself and the enemy ship Earthling Cruiser The Earthling Cruiser is a vessel designed primarily for hit and run lo
98. t right most slot Fires Forward Second slot Fires a spread Third slot Fires to both sides Last left most slot Fires backwards It is recommended that you balance the number of lon Gun Racks on your CRTR 2 100 NA vessel with 1 3 to 1 2 as many Dynamo Modules to provide your ship with an adequate rate of fire in combat Other Modules Maximum Unknown New types of Modules will become available at the Earth Starbase as the game progresses The function and cost of such Modules will be explained as they are made available Game Credits Programming Game Design and Fiction Additional Design Art Sound Effects Music Producer Assistant Producer Testing Manual Manual Illustrations Online Manual Adaptation Manual Updates Cpr ary il 101 Fred Ford Paul Reiche III Greg Johnson Fred Ford Robert Leyland and Greg Hammond George Barr Paul Reiche Ill Erol Otus Kyle Balda Greg Johnson and Armand Cabrera Paul Reiche Ill Erol Otus Fred Ford Riku Nuottajarvi Dan Nicholson Marc Brown Aaron Grier Eric Berge Kevin Palivec Erol Otus and Tommy Dunbar Pam Levins Robert Daly Tomi Quintana and Joel Dinolt Paula Polley Paul Reiche IlI and Dick Moran Jeff Rianda and George Barr W D Robinson Harvey Bush David Foster Daniel Grove Josh Huynh Ray Massa W D Robinson Bobby Tait lt Curr Da 102 il 90 DAY WARRANTY Accolade Inc warrants for a period of 90 days from the date of purchase by
99. t Sintec in a hellish envi ronment of hot rock and poisonous vapors which would kill most other species in seconds Culturally the Mycon are baffling They appear to be born adult instantly able to assume responsibilities In addition all Mycons occasionally undergo temporary but dramatic personality transformation as though they were pos sessed by a different Mycon personality Spathi The Spathi are all abject cowards and have built quite a successful civilization around this basic characteristic The Spathi physique is Slight and soft with the vital organs being covered by a hard shell surface Spathi have large humanoid eyes atop stiff thick stalks that protrude from their central body mass at odd angles When alarmed Spathi ooze 7 ae amounts of unpleasant fluid from their pores It is somewhat confusing why the Spathi chose to fight with K Ur ZA since they certainly didn t fight very hard against them having surrendered after less than 6 hours of combat Umgah The Umgah are blobbish creatures consisting HA i gt of four main attributes eyes mouths tentacles and a A FIF 6 strong sense of humor The Umgah make use of bio ef ee logical forms in their technology and must often rely on gt lt al biomechanical hybridization 4 A t The Umgah prefer warm moist subterranean Ar dwellings sheathing the interior of their ships with a thick wet skin and suffer from agoraphobia the fear 7 Ate
100. tend to be most effec tive when fired en masse to create a dense cloud of bubbles that can serve as a haven for the Androsynth ship or to create a cloud of bubbles in the opponent s path The Guardian can transform itself into a blazing GART ERANT Gpr UTRO A 2 87 oa comet like ball of energy When it does this it travels at high speed until all of its energy is used up When the Androsynth is in this comet like Blazer form it can ram an opponents ship and do a large amount of damage Another use of the Blazer form is for escape llwrath Avenger The Ilwrath ships are only moderately powerful because they are not very fast and their weapon is only effective at short range In order to compensate for their weapon s shortcomings the Ilwrath ship has a special cloaking capabili ty Learn where the Ilwrath Avenger is when it is invisible Since the screen always centers on the midpoint between the two ships the Ilwrath is always diagonally opposite its opponent When your enemy gets near the center of the screen you must be there too So open fire literally Be aware that when you uncloak by firing your hellblast your ship is automatically oriented to point at your opponents ship If your enemy has maneuvered around behind you you can turn around instantly by cloaking and immediately firing your hellblast Mycon Podship This extremely slow ship can fire a strange homing weapon made of semi sentient energy plasma th
101. that ship will be replaced with your new choice 3 Using the Arrow keys move the highlight in the ship list Only two ships are shown at one time To scroll the entire list move the highlight N y 79 d up or down The list shows not only the names of the ships but their val ues as well Ship values are useful when two or more players want to compose different teams with the same overall strength When you have highlighted the ship you want to add to your team press Enter and the ship will appear in the Team Display region The cursor now returns to the Team Display region 4 Continue placing as many ships as you like on both teams by repeating steps 2 and 3 Notice that as you add and remove ships from each team the total team value changes to reflect your modifications 5 If you want to remove a ship from a team highlight the ship in the Team Display Region and then press the DEL key 6 To change the name of a team move the cursor to the name which will then highlight Use the Backspace and Delete keys to remove the old name then type in the new team name When you are finished naming a team press Enter or just move the cursor up or down off the team name using the Arrow keys 7 When you are done creating your team press the Spacebar to return to the Main SuperMelee Menu Curr Game Settings The current game settings for both Player 1 and Player 2 are shown in the Game Settings Display just above the Main SuperMele
102. the Leyland Gravity Whip maneuver To use this trick simply move past a planet and while you are close to the planet thrust continuously without rotating your vessel Then as you fly away from the world stop thrusting and coast at high velocity Note Use caution when performing this maneuver to avoid striking planets which can damage your vessel Interplanetary Travel Interplanetary navigation is travel between planets within a single star sys tem The interplanetary navigation screen is represented as a sun sur rounded by a number of planets each situated on an ellipse describing its orbital path around the sun As you navigate your ship toward the center of the star system the view expands to show you a more detailed view of the inner planets When you approach a planet the view will expand once more showing you a close up view of the world plus displaying any moons which may be orbiting the main planet Cpr aro il Encounters in Interplanetary Space Though most of the known area of space is still uninhabited you are likely to encounter groups of alien starships anywhere in your voyages In the Interstellar view these ships are represented as small icons which can be travelling be tween planets or patrolling space At typical interplanetary distances you will be unable to ascertain the exact configuration of an enemy task force The actual composition can be determined only when you make contact with the ships To engage
103. ton radioing a command from the Tobermoon Set course for Earth A day later you think it was a day but now looking back you can t be sure a sinister shadow began following you through HyperSpace It moved fast real fast Within a couple of hours it had approached close enough to interact with your ship s hyperdrive field pulling you both back into TrueSpace At close range the enemy ship looked like a pair of spinning red globes sur Cpe OFERO 2 23 rounded by a crackling energy field Some kind of glowing rod or energy beam connected the red globes The alien craft built up speed rapidly as it zeroed in on the starship you commanded Burton saw the attack coming and signalled you to warp out of the area immediately A moment later you watched on your command console monitor as the Tobermoon flashed away on a trajecto ry to intercept the alien ship As you pushed up into HyperSpace you saw a crackling bolt of energy lance out from the alien vessel and strike the Tobermoon Burton s craft wobbled violently then veered off on an erratic course in the general direction of Unzervalt The Alien craft was apparently satisfied with disabling the Tobermoon for the strange ship made a 180 degree turn and rocketed at warp speed toward deep space Once your starship reached HyperSpace you radioed the Tobermoon only to learn that Captain Burton had been killed by the alien s unexpected attack You felt sick to your stoma
104. u can avoid others are inescapable In some situations you may have to chase down the aliens to make contact with them Such an encounter may lead to a friendly conversation or you may imme diately find yourself in battle In most situations you will make the choice to talk or fight Combat Segue Unless you have established friendly relations with an alien race whenever you encounter their ships you ll hear the RED ALERT klaxon and the screen will change to display the combat segue screen On this screen you will see the composition of the alien task force as well as the closest planetary body At this point the Command Menu gives you the choice of talking with the aliens or attacking them You may also use all the GAME options so that you can save the game at this point should you desire to do so Note The Combat Segue Screen normally displays the exact number of ships you have encountered However if alien ships fill the entire screen you are facing an enemy task force of UNLIMITED size which you CANNOT defeat in combat If the task force is between you and something you want you will have to figure out what is necessary to appease the aliens or devise a clever plan to trick them into leaving L 55 Au Conversing with Aliens When you choose CONVERSE from the Command Menu you automati cally open a hailing frequency to the enemy vessel The advanced Precursor computer system aboard your vessel will translate messag
105. u will automatically go into COMBAT MODE COMBAT One of the most important and fun parts of Star Control Il is ship to ship tactical combat If you played Star Control you already know how this part works If you are new to this aspect of the game you will want to read this section carefully and then use the SuperMelee program to prac tice your combat skills If you are totally inept in fast action situations and just want to watch the battle unfold set the CYBORG option see page 39 for details and let the computer fight for you Note Setting the Cyborg option is comparable to taking a shower while wearing a raincoat Selecting a Ship When combat is initiated the screen clears If your flagship is flying with out any escort vessels it immediately warps into the combat zone If you are accompanied by one or more combat ships you must pick the first ship to fight Move the flashing cursor over the flagship or one of the escort vessels and press Enter The Battlefield Combat always takes place in a region of space near a planet or other large object The area is bounded and wraps around on itself so that when you leave one side of the combat zone you appear on the other side The screen always centers on the midpoint between your ship and the enemy vessel so when one ship wraps around the screen the view yrr Pa 57 AL will suddenly shift At first this may be disorienting but you will soon grow accustomed to the tr
106. vice you want to activate press Enter or Button 1 To leave the device list and return to the Command Menu press Spacebar or Button 2 Ship s Roster This command is useful for moving crew between your flagship and your combat vessels After choosing ROSTER you can ASSIGN crew from your flagship to a combat vessel or RECALL crew back to your flagship After you have selected the desired command highlight the ship you want to transfer crew to or from and then press Return to effect the transfer one crew member at a time The number of crew aboard the selected ship is displayed in the Flagship Data Window When you are finished assigning or recalling crew press the Spacebar or Button 2 to return to the Command Menu Gro yn DANT Gpr UTRO Li Z 45 h Game Options By choosing GAME from the Flagship Command Menu you gain access to several commands which let you SAVE your game in progress LOAD a game in progress change play SETTINGS or QUIT the game altogether Saving a Game in Progress You can never be sure just when you re going to be blown to tiny bits by an evil alien so it is a good idea to save your game as you play especial ly right before a battle or just after you ve struck it rich mining That way should you meet an untimely end all your hard work will not have been in vain When you choose SAVE GAME the program will display a list of num bered Game State Slots on the left side of the screen Move the flashin

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