THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABASE
ACADEMY
PUBLISHER
CRL
AUTHOR
Pete Cooke
YEAR
1987
CATEGORY
Arcade Strategy
CONTROLS
Keyboard, Kempston
KEYS: Redefinable, or:
Left - O (or joystick).
Right - P (or joystick).
Accelerate - S (or joystick).
Decelerate - X (or joystick).
Fire Lasers - N/Space (or joystick).
Missile - M Launch missile if carried.
Amm - A Launch Anti missile missile
if carried.
Flare - F Fire Flare if carried.
Bomb - B Drop delay bomb if carried.
View - V Switch view-forward/left/
right/rear.
Height+ - H Take skimmer up.
Height- - G Take skimmer down.
Jump - J Allows skimmer to use jump
pads.
Land - L Return to Ground Mode (the
skimmer must be on the ground
to land).
Infra-red - I If carried.
Status Report - R As in ground mode.
INSTRUCTIONS
After an incident on 61 Cygnus in 2197 when a rookie pilot
selected the wrong gear when docking with the main central
reactor and reduced half the planet to molten lava, Gal-Corp
decided that a special training facility was needed to provide
an elite corps of pilots for the advanced military skimmers used
in colonisation and reconnaisance work. The Galcorp Academy for
Advanced Skimmer Pilots (GASP) was founded in 2213 to meet this
requirement. With an intake of over a hundred would be skimmer
pilots a year, only a few meet the exacting requirement of flying
and combat skills. In order to graduate from the Academy cadets
must complete 20 missions, grouped in five levels of four,
successfully.
A run through the menus:
The first thing to do after loading is to enter your name. Move
the pointer to 'Enter a New Cadet' and press FIRE. The screen
will clear to the New Cadet sub menu. Type on your name followed
by ENTER and your date of birth. When the program asks 'Restart
Game from Level I' press 'Y'. 'FIRE' returns you to the main
menu.
Having entered your name the next task is to choose one of the
four level I missions. Move the pointer to 'Select a Mission'
and press fire. The screen will clear to the 'Select a Mission'
sub menu. A list of four missions will be shown:
I If it moves.
II Red Dawn.
III Meltdown.
IV Softly Softly.
The mission selected at present is marked with a tick. To select
another mission simply move the pointer to it and press 'FIRE'.
Below the mission list is a set of three options:
Info on this mission.
Load in Next Level.
Selection Complete.
'Info on this mission' will explain the task required and ships
and buildings that you are likely to meet on a mission (System
support means repair and refuelling centres). You can also call
up information on the planetary system where the mission is set
to find out about conditions on the surface. The program will
also recommend a suitable skimmer for the mission.
'Load in Next Level' will be marked with a cross and cannot be
selected until you have an average score of over 90% on the first
four missions and are ready to load in another set of four.
'Selection Complete' returns you to the Main Menu.
Select the first mission ('If it moves . . .') and call up the
information on the mission and system. When you have finished
move the pointer to 'Selection Complete' and press FIRE to return
to the Main Menu. Having chosen a mission you will need to
choose a skimmer for that mission. Move the pointer to 'Select
a Skimmer. and press FIRE.The screen will clear to the 'Skimmer'
sub menu. A list of six skimmers will be shown at the top of the
screen:-
GCS Lenin.
GCS Lincoln.
GCS Wilson.
unused.
unused.
unused.
The last three skimmers are not defined and cannot be selected
yet (see 'Design a Skimmer' below). The skimmer selected at
present will be marked with a tick. To select another skimmer
move the pointer to it and press FIRE. Below the list of skimmers
are four options:-
Info on this Skimmer.
View Panel.
Design a New Skimmer.
Selection Complete.
'Info on this Skimmer' gives a list of the equipment carried on
the Skimmer. 'View Panel' allows you to see the panel layout.
Press FIRE to return to the menu. 'Design Skimmer' allows you to
put together a customised craft for a particular mission or group
of missions. 'Selection Complete' will return you to the Main
Menu. The recommended skimmer for 'If it Moves - . .' is GCS
Lenin so select this skimmer and move the pointer to 'Selection
Complete' to return to the Main Menu. Having selected a mission
and a ship you are ready to try a mission. Move the pointer to
'Accept Mission' and press FIRE.
On to a Mission! The screen will clear to show the Skimmer's
instrument panel. On the top line is a 'Status bar' which will
show the ships state (Docked), the mission score (000%) and the
mission time (00:00:00). Below this is the Viewscreen, various
gauges and dials and a small blue rectangle, the computer window.
The message 'Skimmer Ready'. Type help or some other command'
will appear followed by an input prompt.
You are now in one of the two game modes, called ground mode, and
can communucate with the skimmer's computer by typing in one of
a list of commands:-
HELP Lists all commands available.
SIGHTS ON Turns on skimmer's sights.
SIGHTS OFF Turns off skimmer's sights.
PAUSE Freezes the clock ('FIRE' continues).
WAIT Advances clock by five minutes.
EQUIP If docked allows you to refuel and repair the
skimmer.
STATUS Shows equipment status (whether damaged or
not).
CODES Allows you to manipulate any code pieces
found in a mission.
LOOK If docked with building gives information on
same.
DEAF Allows practice on D.E.A.F. unit.
QUIT Abandons the mission in progress and updates
scores.
LAUNCH Sends the skimmer out onto the planets
surface.
The skimmer can have severa differing items of equipment and
armoury for a particular mission:
Shields All skimmers are equipped with shields but
they may have differing strengths.
Lasers Again, always equipped but three types are
available.
Scanner Optional. Very useful piece of equipment
which gives a 360 degree radar scan of the
area around the skimmer.
Missiles Optional. Missiles will home in on a
selected target and are much more
destructive than lasers but only
a limited number may be carried.
Flares Optional. On all but one-face worlds the sun
will set after a period of time and the view
will become dark. Flares will provide light
for a short period.
AMM's Optional. Anti missile missiles will
destroy any incoming enemy missiles.
Unfortunately they will also destroy any
missiles that you may have fired.
Delay Bombs Optional. A recent addition to skimmer
weaponry, delay bombs are extremely powerful
over a short range. Once dropped the
internal timer allows roughly ten seconds
for the skimmer to escape before detonation.
Most useful against large statiionary
objects.
Infra-Red Optional. Infra-red provides a method (at
a loss of some clarity) of viewing the
planets surface at night.
Compass/ADF unit Optional. The compass will give the craft's
heading and the Automatic Direction Finder
is usually locked on to the Galcorp Landing
Vehicle (G.L.V.). Very useful on planets
where navigation is tricky.
Jump/Door Activator Optional. Jump pads are often found in
larger colonies and cities and allow ships
to jump from one pad to another saving much
time in travelling. Thejump unit will
activate these pads, allowing the skimmer
to use them. Many of the larger buildings
may have docking facilities, the door unit
will provide the correct decoding sequence
to allow the skimmer to dock with these
buildings (an airlock can be recognised by
it's characteristic shimmer). Docking at
high speeds is not recommended and the
docking unit will show red if the skimmer
is travelling too fast.
Target/Tracking unit Optional. When the ships lasers are targeted
with a vessel the upper bar will show red.
The central bar shows red if your skimmer
is being radar tracked by an enemy ship and
the lower bar lights if your shield unit
power is being drained.
Gauges All skimmers are equipped with gauges
showing Laser Temperature (lasers are prone
to overheat if used continuously), Shield
strength, Fuel remaining, Height and Speed.
When a mission is completed (a score of 90% or over) docking with
the Galcorp Landing Vehicle will terminate the session. The
display will return to the Main Menu. N.B. If your ship is
destroyed your score will not be recorded. While on the Main Menu
you can access your rating on each of the missions by selecting
the 'Progress Report' option. This will display the four
missions available on the level along with a score for each
mission and an average score overall.
Apart from the three skimmers in the program, it is possible to
design and equip your own ship for any mission. To do this go to
the 'Select a Skimmer' option from the main menu and select
'Design New Skimmer' option. The screen will clear to the select
equipment page. On the left is a list of possible equipment and
in the centre are two or three boxes showing whether the skimmer
has the equipment/how many items the skimmer has/what strength
the unit has. The present value is marked with a tick and on the
right is a value for the weight of the equipment:
Scanner Unit No Yes
Compass/Adf Unit No Yes
Target/Track Unit No Yes
Jump/Door Unit No Yes
Infra-Red Unit No Yes
Missiles None 4 8
Amm's None 4 8
Flares None 4 8
Delay Bombs None 4 8
Laser Power Level Low Med High
Main Drive Power Low Med High
Shield Power Unit Low Med High
Steering Power Low Med High
To alter the equipment level, move the pointer to the correct box
and press FIRE. For example, to equip your skimmer with a
Scanner Unit, find the line 'Scanner Unit', move the pointer
across to the box marked 'Yes' and press FIRE. A tick will
appear against the Yes box indicating that the item has been
selected (It's a good idea to set all equipment to it's lowest
level first and work up from there). The two main limitations in
equipping a ship are the weight of equipment and the total cost,
both show in cyan towards the bottom of the page. The basic
skimmer hull will not carry a weight of over 100 Galactic
Megatons and Gal-Corp's budget will not stretch to designs
costing over lOOM credits. If either of the two figures are over
the limit they will show red and you will need to remove some
items of equipment before continuing.
When you are happy with the equipment selected, move the pointer
to the 'Design Complete' option near the bottom of the page and
press FIRE. This will take you into the 'Design Panel' section,
where you can design the Skimmer's Panel layout. Choose a
background texture and colour from the list and select 'Place
Instruments' to actually lay out the panel. The screen will clear
to the panel texture and colour and a window will appear in the
top left hand corner with the options:-
Place Viewscreen.
Undo last step.
Move the pointer to 'Place Viewscreen' and press FIRE. The
pointer will disappear and be replaced by a large white rectangle
representing the viewscreen. Move this to the position you want
and press FIRE to place it. (you can go back to the previous
menu at any time by moving up into the top line where the block
will turn back int0 a pointer and selecting the Menu option).
Having placed the viewscreen the pointer will return, move it
onto the menu bar and press FIRE to place the next item. (N.B.
you cannot place an item over the top of another, the item block
will show yellow when an overlap would occur). If you have chosen
a large complement of equipment for a skimmer design you may find
it a little tricky to fit all the items in the available screen
space, a useful hint here is to tuck the viewscreen away in a
corner of the display to allow you to place dials or gauges off
to one side of it.
After all the equipment has been placed select the 'Design
Complete' option and press FIRE. Finally choose a name for your
skimmer and type it in followed by ENTER. The display will return
to the 'Select Ship' page with the new skimmer shown below the
three built in designs.
If you have already filled the three custom design slots you can
select which design to replace by marking it before going to the
'Design New Skimmer' sub menu, otherwise the program will
automatically replace the last design with any new one.
In order to progress to the next level and the next block of four
missions you must have an AVERAGE score of 90% or over. To load
in the next block of mission data, move to the 'Select a Mission'
sub menu from the Main Menu. The option 'Load Next Level' should
now be marked with a tick. Move the pointer to this and press
FIRE. The five blocks of mission data are stored in the file
LEVELS.TAP (you will need to use the Tape Interface Menu on Z80
to open this file). When the computer finds a mission data block
it will print 'Found xxxxx' and when the correct block is found
'Loading xxxx'. The load can be aborted at any time by pressing
SPACE without losing your present rating.
You can save your total game position at any time from the main
menu by selecting the 'Tape Menu' option 'Save Game File'. You
will have to save it as a .TAP file (again, use the Tape
Interface Menu on Z80). To reload a saved game select the 'Load
Game File' option from the same menu. Any user defined keys are
saved with the data but note that you cannot save the game while
in a mission.
It is also possible to save any Skimmers you have defined using
the 'Save Ship Designs' option. All three custom designs (if
used) are saved in .TAP format (remember to select .TAP
loading/saving!)
The View/Redefine Keys Menu allows you to alter any or all of the
keys used in Flight Mode on the planets surface. A list of the
present keys is given, followed by three options:-
Alter keys.
Kempston Joystick.
Return to Main Menu.
To alter the keys (for a Sinclair/Protek joystick or other move
the pointer to the 'Alter Keys' option and press FIRE. A question
mark will replace the key for 'left' in the keys list. Just press
the key you wish to use for Left, Right, etc. in sequence. If you
make a mistake or choose impossible keys you can always return
to the default key setup by pressing 'BREAK'.
Below are listed the current training missions in use at the
Academy:-
... at the O.K. Corral. Ceti Revisited.
Cipher. Don't Panic.
Hades II. Hide and Seek.
If it moves. Laserium.
Meltdown. Mission Improbable.
Needle in a Haystack. Out of the frying pan.
Paz! Protector.
Red Dawn. Softly Softly.
The Coal Mine. The Sands of Time.
The Shepherd. Where to Guv?
SEQUELS/PREQUELS
Academy was prequelled by Tau Ceti, a similar game.
SCORES RECEIVED
Crash: RATING: 92% (CRASH #36, January 1987)
NOTES
This game is only really playable on the registered version of
"Z80", since it makes use of .TAP files. (You can play level 1
on other emulators but you won't be able to load in the following
levels).