Impact

IMPACT

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Trapped - in a 1970s arcade game! Every escape route is blocked by a wall of brightly coloured bricks.

Powerfully addictive, IMPACT has 80 built-in screens, but if you prefer you can design your own - as hard, as

simple, as much fun as you like. Hidden on each screen are special tokens - catch them if you can. Use them to

buy one of nine powerful weapons, or keep them until the end of the screen to score a bonus. If you thought

the fun had gone out of computer games then IMPACT is the game that’ll change your mind!



Here’s what ACE said about the Atari ST version.



Very colourful... amazingly addictive... ACE rating 955/1000





GETTING STARTED



Type LOAD"" and press Enter. If you are using a 128k Spectrum you should first select 48k mode.



The object of the game is to demolish the wall on each screen - there are 80 in all. After every tenth screen

a password is displayed - use the passwords to skip screens that you have already conquered.



Press 1 to play using a Kempston-compatible joystick, or 2 to use the keyboard. The default keys are Z and X

for left and right, spacc for fire, and enter for select, but you can choose your own keys (or set up a

‘keyboard’ joystick) if you press 4. Move the joystick forward, or press space to launch the ball; you can

adjust the position of the ball on the bat by pressing fire or enter. Move the bat left and right to hit the

ball against the wall of bricks; if you miss the ball you lose it - you start the game with five.



Most bricks are destroyed with a single hit from the ball, but some need to be hit more than once, whilst

others are indestructible. On certain screens you will encounter invisible bricks.





ALIENS



Various alien life forms move about the screen as you play. Although they are not harmful, they can interfere

by deflecting the ball. On some screens the aliens drop small white stun bombs - if one of these hits the bat

it is paralysed for about a second. Aliens are destroyed on contact with either the bat or the ball. Each alien

destroyed scores 100 points.





TOKENS AND WEAPONS



Some bricks contain yellow tokens which can be used to purchase weapons - so catch them if you can. Any tokens

unspent at the end of a screen score 1000 points each (maximum 9000 points). The nine available weapons are

represented by icons, and a white square indicates the weapon currently available for purchase (this depends

how many unspent tokens you have). Press the select button to buy it.



Slowdown - 1 token

Reduces the speed of the ball. Can be selected more than once if you collect more tokens.



Magnet - 2 tokens

Allows you to catch the ball and hold it (for about 2 seconds).



Divide - 3 tokens

Splits the ball into three.



Wide - 4 tokens

Enlarges the bat (the extension is not vulnerable to stun bombs).



Torch - 5 tokens

Lights up invisible bricks



Laser - 6 tokens

When selected you can fire laser bolts by pressing fire. Beware, some bricks reflect laser bolts back onto

the bat.



Smart bomb - 7 tokens

All aliens are removed from the screen.



Missile - 8 tokens

Missiles can be launched, one at a time, by pressing the left button. Missiles can destroy multi-hit bricks

with a single hit.



Force field - 9 tokens

A force field encircles the ball, allowing it to smash through bricks and aliens without being deflected. When

surrounded by the force field the ball can pass through, but not destroy indestructible bricks.



All weapons other than torch are lost when you lose a ball, or at the end of the screen. Some cannot be used

together, e.g. laser and missile or magnet and divide - choosing one will cancel the other.





BONUSES



An extra ball is awarded after 50,000 points have been scored, and for every 50,000 points thereafter. On some

screens you can gain a bonus by destroying, in order, bricks marked with the letters B-O-N-U-S.





STOPPING THE GAME



You can abort the game by pressing Break. Pressing any undefined key will pause the action; press any key to

restart.





DESIGNING YOUR OWN SCREENS



There are 10 user-definable screens (81-90); the password for screen 81 is user. The screen designer is

selected from the main menu by pressing 3. It has a built-in help screen - just press the space. Use the cursor

keys to move around the screen and press Enter to draw a brick in the currently selected colour - use P and L

to cycle through the available colours (black will erase a brick you have previously drawn).



The points scored by destroying a brick depends on the colour; no points are awarded for black (i.e. invisible)

bricks, 10 for blue bricks, and so on. Press M to make a brick multi-hit, I to make it indestructible, or R to

make it reflect lasers. Invisible bricks are created by pressing M, I, or R without first drawing a brick.

Press B, O, N, U or S to draw a bonus brick.



0 moves on to the next screen; 9 goes to the previous screen. You cannot access the built-in screens. There are

various additional parameters that need to be defined for each screen. Display the help screen by pressing space,

then use the cursor keys to change the parameters.



initspd the initial speed of the ball, in the range 4 to 16



acccl the acceleration of the ball, in the range 0 to 8; the ball speeds up when it hits a brick



maxspd the maximum allowable ball speed on this screen, in the range 4 to 16



tokens the number of tokens hidden in bricks; up to 99, but no more than one per brick



speedup when the number of bricks on the screen falls to this figure the ball speeds up when it hits

anything, not just bricks



aliens there are 8 alien types; up to six aliens in total are allowed on any screen



bombs the rate at which aliens drop stun bombs, 0 to 8



to kill the number of times a multi-hit brick must be hit before it is destroyed



To save the screens you have designed go to the help page, place a blank tape in your cassette recorder, then

press play and record. Next press S and wait while the screens are saved. You can abort the save by pressing

Space. Press L to load screens you have previously designed.







(c) 1988 Audiogenic Software Limited, England HA3 7SJ



Audiogenic Software Limited, Winchester House, Canning Road, Harrow HA3 7SJ, England.