Hunter-Killer

Fig.1 Combat Zone



Fig.2 Seabed Contour Chart





HUNTER KILLER

-------------



by R. Hopkins



Loading the Game

The solo program is loaded by typing LOAD "" or

LOAD "HUNTER". If you have any problems with

tape loading, consult pages 141-148 of the Sinclair

ZX Spectrum handbook. The program loads in four

sections; only stop your recorder when the display

showing the stars and your position comes up.



The dual version loading is covered in the "Dual

Game" section.



The Game

You are the Commander of an "S" type submarine

on an important mission off the coast of Helegoland

(Germany) and Denmark during the Second World

War. The area is shown in Fig.1. Inside this area is

an enemy submarine that you must hunt and sink

to complete your mission successfully. You must

not stray outside your area or you will be sunk by

destroyers which are hunting you. The coast is

heavily mined and if you sail too close to it you will

probably hit a mine; if not you will run aground. The

seabed contours are shown in Fig.2.



"S" Type Submarine

The "S" type submarine was one of the most

successful classes of British submarine, being the

largest single group of submarines ever built for the

Royal Navy. The class remained in service and

production throughout the Second World War. They

had an overall length of 217 ft. and displaced up to

1000 tons, and a crew complement of 44. The

diesel engines developed 1900 SHP giving a

maximum speed of 16 knots; the electric motors

developed 1300 SHP and gave a speed underwater

of 9 knots. The maximum diving depth was 300 ft.



Sailing a Submarine

A submarine sails like a normal ship, left rudder (<-)

will turn you to port and right rudder (->) will turn

you to starboard (remember that left and port both

have four letters). You can also turn using left and

right movements of the joystick. The maximum

rudder angle is 70 degrees. The rudder sensitivity

depends on your speed, and the faster you are

sailing, the faster you will turn.



A submarine has two engines; one diesel, one

electric. On the surface you should use the diesel

engine but, because diesel engines need air to run,

they cannot be used under water. In this situation

you must use your electric motors; diving

underwater with diesel engines will cause a



warning light to flash and, if this warning is

disregarded, you will irreparably damage your diesel

engines. The electric motors run off batteries that

are charged up by the diesel engines when on the

surface and if you allow the batteries to run down

by spending long periods of time underwater, you

can leave yourself with too little power to surface

and re-charge, so watch the battery charge

indicator.



Diesel engines are more powerful than the electric

motors; they will give you a top speed of 16 knots

compared with only 9 knots under electric power.

Pressing the E key will change your engines from

diesel to electric or vice-versa, and an indicator in

the main control room will show you which motors

you are using.



To dive the submarine two actions must be taken.

You must first fill your ballast tanks by using the N -

Neutral buoyancy - key. As the tanks fill up the

indicator at the top left hand side of the control

room will show the water level in the tanks. This will

cause the submarine to sink slowly. To assist in

diving, there are miniature wings on submarines

called hydro-planes. If these are turned clockwise,

pushing the tips downwards, then this will push the

submarine underwater. This is done by pushing the

(v) key (on the 6) or pulling the joystick back.

Remember you will not dive quickly if you don't

take both of these actions.



To stop diving you must level the hydro-planes by

pushing the (^) key (on the 7) or pushing the

joystick forward. You must also empty your ballast

tanks until the ballast indicator is at the half-way

mark. You will now level out at this depth.



To surface, you must do the reverse of diving,

blowing your tanks using the B - Blow - key and

angle the hydro-planes upwards by turning them

anti-clockwise. This is done by pushing the (^) key

(on the 7) or pushing the joystick forwards. Fig.3

shows the positions of the instruments and

indicators in the control room.



Fig.3 Control Room



Using the Periscope

The periscope is in the centre of the control room;

press the P key will raise or lower it, and pressing V

will let you see through it. When you look through

the periscope you will see the surface of the sea

and the target, if it is within visual range. The sea

surface will be higher up the viewing window the

deeper the submarine is sailing; below about 38 ft.

you will be too deep for a periscope view. The

optimum periscope depth is around 34 ft.



To turn the periscope, press O and it will rotate

clockwise in 36 degree increments. Pressing I will

rotate it anticlockwise in 6 degree increments.



Fig.4 Periscope View



Below the periscope lens are four digital readouts.

These are shown in Fig.4. The first shows the

periscope angle, 0 degrees is dead ahead, the

second is heading - the way the ship is pointing,

which is not necessarily the way it is moving. The

third gives the distance to the enemy, updated only

if the enemy is within range of the instruments, and

the fourth shows the number of torpedoes running.



Press V to return to the control room.







Radar, Asdic and Depth Recorder

The Asdic set displays a north up true bearing for

targets within a four mile range. It comes on

automatically at depths greater than 10 ft. and you

will hear its characteristic "ping". On the surface,

the radar is switched on instead. It has a greater

range - 22 miles - and again is a north up, PPI

display, on which each sweep of the antenna is

seen. Finally, the echo sounder indicates the depth

of water below the keel. Thus, if the boat is rising,

the trace falls, as it does when the submarine

remains level while the sea-bottom shelves off. Fig.2

shows the seabed contour charts and the echo

sounder range is from 200 ft. up to 0 ft.



The Chart Room

The chart room is on the starboard of the control

room and is accessed by pressing the C key. It is

shown in Fig.5. The control room proper slides

across, making room for the chart display as it goes.

Sounder and Asdic sets both remain in view, now

on the left, and both continue to work. On the chart

itself, apart from the local coastline, there is a large

compass rose, the boundaries of a continuous

coastal minefield - m - and a longitude/latitude grid

calibrated at the bottom and right. Inverse figures

give degrees, the others, minutes.



At the top left of the chart a small line radiating

from a small circle points in the direction of the tide



Fig.5 Chart Room



stream. Your own position is indicated by a

miniature submarine - at the left-hand end. Below

the chart can be found tide strength; the log, i.e.

your speed through the water; and the enemy's last

reported position. The position indicator only gives

the minutes part of the position, the degree part is

obvious. For example if the position indicator says

30.2' N, 7.4' E then the full position is 58° 30.2' N,

8° 7.4' E. This position is only updated if the target

is within range of the sensor that is functioning at

this time. The enemy is always surfaced for the solo

game, and always starts off from some point on the

eastern side of the chart, steering a course with a

lot of west in it, at a random speed up to about four

knots. Your position is not updated while the chart

room is accessed. Pressing the X key will allow you

to exit from the chart room and return to the control

room.



Firing Torpedoes

Torpedoes can be fired dead ahead at a target;

there are only bow torpedo tubes. Pressing T will

prime the torpedoes and fire the first one. Second

and subsequent torpedoes in this salvo are fired

using F. The torpedo count meter will keep track of

the number of torpedoes in this salvo. Salvoes must

be spread in time, not angle.



Torpedoes run at 45 knots and have a range of

three miles. A bubble track gives some indication of

the progress of the torpedoes, though not an

accurate position of the torpedo, of course. If the

salvo has clearly missed, the salvo can be aborted

by pressing A.



Torpedoes cannot be fired unless the rudder is

straight and the boat is maintaining a steady depth

less than or equal to the maximum periscope depth.

If the periscope angle is other than zero on firing, it

will automatically swing to, and lock on zero. The

rest of the display also locks until a torpedo strikes

home, or until all have run themselves out.



Additional Dangers

There are aircraft hunting for you. If one is spotted,

you will hear it approach and your klaxon will

sound. You have about two minutes to dive below

30 ft.; if you fail you will be sunk.



If you spend some time dead ahead of the target

submarine it will torpedo you.



When the game is first loaded you will be offered a

quick practice shot at a sitting target. Follow the

prompts on the screen exactly to make use of this

option.







(c) 1983 PROTEK COMPUTING LTD.







Summary of Controls



Key Function

5 (<-) or Joystick left Rudder left

6 (v) or Joystick back Hydro-planes down: dive

7 (^) or Joystick forwards Hydro-planes up : surface

8 (->) or Joystick right Rudder right

A Abort salvo

B Blow ballast

C Go to Chartroom

E Change engines

F Fire second and

subsequent torpedoes

I Turn periscope anti-

clockwise by 6°

J Decrease engine revs

K Increase engine revs

N Flood tanks (negative buoyancy)

O Turn periscope clockwise

by 36°

P Raise/lower periscope

T Prime torpedoes and fire first torpedo

V View through or exit from periscope

X Exit from Chartroom







------------------------------------------------------------------





HUNTER KILLER

-------------



DUAL GAME



Loading the Game

To play the dual game you need two ZX Spectrums,

both fitted with Interface 1 and their own TV sets.

They should be linked using the networking lead

supplied with Interface 1 as shown in Chapter 7 of

the Interface 1 and Microdrive Manual. Connect the

tape recorder to one ZX Spectrum and type in

LOAD "" or LOAD "HUNTER2" and load the

program in the conventional manner. The program

will autorun.



Type LOAD*"N";1;"HUNTER2" followed by ENTER

into the other ZX Spectrum; when the program in

the first computer runs it will transfer the program

to the second computer.



Playing the Game

The area of combat and the destroyer, mine and

seabed hazards are the same as the solo version.

All the submarine controls and instruments and the

hazards of running underwater are unchanged.



Apart from the fact that the target is now controlled

by the operator of the other computer, there are

two differences between the solo and dual games.

Firstly, the dual game has no air attacks, the duel is

between the two submarines only. Secondly, the

initial battery charge given to each submarine is

much less than in the solo game. This is to ensure

that each captain must conserve battery charge,

not just dive underwater and stay there indefinitely.



A summary of the submarine controls are given on

the back of this leaflet to let each captain have his

own copy.



If any error codes are generated, type CONTINUE

followed by ENTER. If all else fails, BREAK both

games and type in RUN2 to both computers. Press

enter together and the game will restart.







(c) 1983 PROTEK COMPUTING LTD.







Summary of Controls



Key Function

5 (<-) or Joystick left Rudder left

6 (v) or Joystick back Hydro-planes down: dive

7 (^) or Joystick forwards Hydro-planes up : surface

8 (->) or Joystick right Rudder right

A Abort salvo

B Blow ballast

C Go to Chartroom

E Change engines

F Fire second and

subsequent torpedoes

I Turn periscope anti-

clockwise by 6°

J Decrease engine revs

K Increase engine revs

N Flood tanks (negative buoyancy)

O Turn periscope clockwise

by 36°

P Raise/lower periscope

T Prime torpedoes and fire first torpedo

V View through or exit from periscope

X Exit from Chartroom