OPERATION NEPTUNE by Infogrames LOADING THE GAME - Make sure all connections are as they should be. Switch on. - For AMIGA 1000, load KICKSTART 1.2.) - When AMIGA requests WORKBENCH, insert OPERATION NEPTUNE disk. The program loads automatically. THE STORY You are BOB MORANE, locked in a deadly struggle with your old enemy, the Yellow Shadow. His new underwater bases are designed to build a series of killer robots which will be unleashed on an unsuspecting world. Once crushed and demoralized, the world's populations will be incapable of resisting against a new and dreaded global dictator: MR. MING, the YELLOW SHADOW himself! The Free World's Secret Services have turned to you for help. At 6:15p.m., you are parachuted into the zone where the YELLOW SHADOW has built his bases; the MARSHALL Islands in the Northern Pacific. As soon as you land, you must eliminate, while piloting a jet-bike, a DACOIT (one of the YELLOW SHADOW's hired thugs), then take control of a bathyscaph (mini attack-submarine). When you've reached the ocean-bottom, you must protect your bases and destroy the YELLOW SHADOW's growing network of bases. If this mission seems tough (and it is), then you'll be horrified to know that there's more danger waiting for you down there! Minefields, man- eating sharks, giant squids and DACOIT divers, the fanatical servants of Mr. Ming who will kill you for the glory of the YELLOW SHADOW. These ruthless killers will show no mercy. And in case you think you'll still have time for admiring the scenery, the YELLOW SHADOW has laid on a few fleets of undersea scooters; their super-laser beams can turn your sub to ash! YOUR MISSION OBJECTIVE - TO WIN: You must destroy every one of the YELLOW SHADOW's bases. You do that by placing mines on the energy canals which connect Mr. MING's bases to each other. Every enemy base is linked to one or more other bases by these energy canals in the middle of which you will see ENERGY REPEATERS. You must, therefore, eliminate these REPEATERS in order to destroy the energy canals and isolate the base. When one of the YELLOW SHADOW's bases is isolated, it will self-destruct automatically due to energy failure. You will see the different ways to eliminate the REPEATERS a little further on. - YOU FAIL: If any one of the following happens: * BOB MORANE runs out of energy. * BOB MORANE runs out of oxygen. * All the Free World bases have been destroyed by Mr. MING. Mr. MING'S METHODS In his efforts to take control of the underwater regions of the world, Mr. MING constantly creates new bases and links. - To protect these bases, Guard Patrols circulate permanently. - Work Patrols toil round the clock, to build and repair the links between the various bases in Mr. MING's undersea network. - War Patrols attack Free World bases and are currently hunting BOB MORANE. During your mission, these enemy bases will seek to destroy you. Their Patrols will defend, attack and counter-attack ceaselessly. Keep your eyes open! BASIC GAME CONCEPTS - All the movements (cursors, Bob MORANE in frogman mode or in undersea scooter mode, bathyscaph) can be controlled either by the mouse, joystick or cursor keys (only exception: introduction where the mouse isn't taken on account). - To click means to press the left or right mouse button; the fire button of the joystick or the space bar. - Hitting the ESC key corresponds either to quitting the map mode, the undersea scooter mode or the frogman mode. - Pressing RETURN: * In map mode; after having clicked on an item, it engages the automatic pilot (it won't be necessary to go back into the bathyscaph to change direction). * In frogman mode; you manually launch the time bombs which explode after 30, 35, or 40 seconds depending on the difficulty level. * In the bathyscaph; you'll make the cursor appear or disappear. CHOOSING THE DIFFICULTY LEVEL Before the game starts, the program asks you to chose the level of difficulty. Press the corresponding key: F1 = easy F2 = average F3 = difficult GAME PHASES 1) PARACHUTE JUMP AND SEA-SCOOTER BOB MORANE is parachuted over the ocean and then pilots a jet-bike. As soon as you take control of BOB MORANE, you'll have to eliminate a hostile DACOIT. One of you must fall into the water. You may pilot your scooter from left to right (using the cursor keys or joystick) while trying to unbalance your enemy by kicking him! right arrow : ................ scooter right left arrow : ................ scooter left Fire button or Space bar : ... a hefty kick. 2) GAME PRESENTATION If you manage to make your enemy fall into the water, you will leave your scooter and as the game title and credits scroll across the screen, you enter your mini attack-sub. To interrupt this presentation sequence, hit the ESCAPE key. 3) INSIDE YOUR SUB You're at the controls of the Bathyscaphe C5. Here's a description of your equipment: - COMPASS (top left): It indicates, in degrees, the angle of your submarine in relation to North, which is always the top of the map. You'll need the compass to navigate correctly. - CLOCK (top right): You can keep constant track of time. - CONTROL MONITOR (under the clock): When your sub nears an object, automatic sensors attempt to analyse and display it on this monitor screen. The object may be: * a friendly base * an enemy base * an enemy patrol * an energy repeater. - LEVEL (white gauge right): oxygen level drops 4 units every minute. Your submarine (the Bathyscaphe C5) has a maximum 10-minute supply. When the oxygen level reaches 0, the game ends. The YELLOW SHADOW has won! - ENERGY LEVEL (orange gauge right of the oxygen level): taking hits will reduce your sub's energy level. If energy drops to 0, the game ends. The YELLOW SHADOW's cackles triumphantly! - UNDERSEA SCOOTER (sloped zone, left): click on this to leave your sub, piloting an undersea scooter in a deadly battle with the YELLOW SHADOW's patrols. We'll see more details in . - TIME-BOMBS (Bomb icon): click on this to activate a time-bomb. We'll see exactly how it works in . - LAUNCH DECOY (right of bomb icon): click on this to activate a decoy which will attract almost all of Mr. MING's patrols. We'll see this in more detail in . - FROGMAN (sloped zone, bottom right): click on this to leave the sub, in deepsea diving gear. You will then combat enemy frogmen, squids or sharks. You must manually place the time-bombs on the energy repeaters. 4) MAP MODE When in your submarine you will see, center-screen, a porthole looking directly out to the underwater world you're moving through. To see this underwater world on your map, click beneath the Bomb icon. Here is a description of the various elements you can see. Enemy bases are RED and are linked to one another by an energy and communications network. YELLOW Guard Patrols move permanently around these bases, ready to defend them against attack from BOB MORANE. WHITE Work Patrols wait their turn to come out and build new bases and new energy lines with new repeaters. RED War Patrols attack WHITE Free World bases and BOB MORANE's submarine. REPEATERS are represented on the map by flashing points on the enemy energy canals linking the YELLOW SHADOW's bases. Time-bombs and decoys are also shown on the map. To access information about screen elements, move the mouse to point the cursor at the place or patrol of your choice, then left-click to display the relevant information. You can learn: - For a base; its type, personnel and strength (0 to 100). For friendly (Free World) bases, you will also see their energy reserves (0 to 100), oxygen reserves (0 to 100), bombs available (0 to 10) and decoys available (1 to 10). You can stock up your submarine by docking above one of these bases. Naturally, their reserves will diminish temporarily as you use them up! A good idea is not to empty any friendly bases of all its reserves. - For a time-bomb; you will be given the number of seconds before it explodes. - For decoys; you will be told how much longer they will continue to operate. - For an enemy patrol; its type and size. - For an energy repeater; its link-up bases. To return to Pilot mode, right-click your mouse. 5) MOVEMENT When you quit Map mode, having clicked on an element on the map for information and pressed RETURN, your sub will enter AUTOMATIC pilot and head for the clicked-on element. If you clicked several elements, the Auto-pilot will make for the last one. Auto-pilot guarantees against hitting rocks and mines. However, Auto-pilot is not 100% efficient! It travels only in angles which are multiples of 45 degrees (0, 45, 90, 135, 180, 225, 270 315). That means that if you choose a destination with a heading different from 45 degrees, your Auto-pilot will zig-zag its way. This uses more energy. Sometimes it's wiser to switch to MANUAL piloting! To switch to MANUAL, simply quit the map mode, press RETURN and pilot the bathyscaph. To leave the auto-pilot mode and take manual control, press RETURN. To change direction while in auto-pilot mode, switch to map mode (your sub keeps advancing), then point and clock on a different place. Your submarine will change heading and make for the new destination after your pressing RETURN. Note that as you move, the YELLOW SHADOW's patrols also move and act. 6) FROGMAN MODE Use this mode to manually place a time-bomb. First check that you're over a repeater. When you've clicked on the FROGMAN option, you control BOB MORANE in deepsea diving gear. You can use the keyboard, the joystick or the mouse. Press RETURN to drop a time-bomb (set to go off in 30, 35, or 40 seconds) depending on the difficulty level. WARNING! - Contact with a shark, squid, or enemy diver lowers your energy and oxygen levels. - Should BOB MORANE, an enemy diver, or a creature prolong contact with a time-bomb, then the explosion will be triggered! The same thing happens If anyone fires at the bomb. To re-enter your submarine, simply hit the ESCAPE key. BOB MORANE will go into the entry-chamber. He may still be in contact with enemies at this moment. 7) UNDERSEA SCOOTER MODE You pilot a scooter equipped with a super-laser. Your enemies are Mr. MING's scooters. Pilot the scooter with the mouse, joystick, or keyboard. Fire with mouse buttons, Fire button, or Space Bar. You can flip the up/down movement mode of your scooter (Plane mode or not) by hitting the F1 key. Enemy patrols have varying numbers of vessels: * 6 vessels for War Patrols, * 4 for Workers, * 2 for Guards. To quit the combat for any reason, press the ESCAPE key. Contact with floating mines, launched by your enemies, will drain some of your energy. 8) LAUNCH TIME-BOMB MODE You can drop your time-bombs without leaving your submarine. Click on the icon to activate the system. Use the Up/down arrows beside the icon to set the countdown (increments of 5 seconds, from 5 to 120 seconds). Launch the bomb by clicking on the time-display zone which flashes during setting. A display indicates the number of time-bombs in stock (maximum 5). The color codes are: * YELLOW - the bomb is available. * BLACK - the bomb has been used and is unavailable. * RED flashing - the bomb is activated and visible in Map mode. 9) LAUNCH DECOY MODE Click on the icon to launch one of the five available decoys. It will flash on your control panel. All patrols within a certain distance of your decoy will receive its signals which are similar to your sub's. All affected patrols will head towards the decoy until its 3-minute active period is finished. A display shows current decoy stock. The color codes are: * YELLOW - available * BLACK - used and thus unavailable * RED flashing - activated and visible in Map mode. HOW TO ELIMINATE ENEMY PATROLS There are 3 ways of doing this: * Launch a bomb near the patrol * Undersea scooter combat * Destroy the patrol's home base. DESTROYING AN ENEMY BASE An enemy base is destroyed when the energy canals linking it to other bases have been blown up. You do this by placing a time-bomb over the energy repeater in the energy canal (LAUNCH TIME-BOMB MODE) or by placing it manually (FROGMAN MODE). Launching a bomb is safe but not entirely accurate; water currents tend to move it. Manually placing the bomb is very accurate but dangerous because of enemy divers. A base can also be destroyed by lowering its energy level to 0, which will cause instantaneous self-destruction. You can lower a base's energy by dropping bombs on it. You will, however, need quite a few time-bombs for this. And it takes time, which means you'll attract quite a lot of attention from enemy Guard Patrols! RE-STOCKING Taking hits and just using oxygen and energy will lower your stocks. Used bombs and decoys will also have to be replaced. To continue your mission, you'll need to re-stock. Place your submarine above an active friendly base and your vessel will automatically re-stock with oxygen, energy, time- bombs and decoys. Don't forget that friendly bases have a certain potential quantity of oxygen, energy, bombs and decoys. Each time you stock up, this potential will lower. A base's stock will return slowly to maximum potential. Our advice is to allow a base to re-stock itself before you use it again. THE YELLOW SHADOW SHOWS HIMSELF Each time an energy canal or a base is built, and each time a patrol, canal or base is destroyed, you will catch a vague glimpse of Mr. MING's hateful face! The more bases Mr. MING has, the more out-of-focus his repulsive features become. At the end of the game, when all enemy bases have been eliminated, you will finally see a clear picture of his face in all its malignant ghastliness! FREEZE At any time during play, you can freeze the action by pressing the P key. to restart game, press any key. ________________________WORLD OF WONDERS_________________________