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Synergistic Software Presents BOLO ==== Copyright 1992 by Evlyn Software SCENARIO Somehow, the aliens had known. They were waiting with their primitive robot tanks when your spacecraft landed. Out of an entire unit of highly trained men, you alone survived the ambush that reduced one of your side's finest military spacecraft to a pile of rubble. Even just one Mark XXIX BOLO could have defeated those puny, stupid robots! The aliens, of course, knew this as well as you did, so they hit you before your ship had even settled to the ground. Now, from your hiding place just inside their proving ground, you watch your government's worst fears come true. The alien's experimental replicator factories are already operational. Somewhere within the huge building, sophisticated machinery copies a matrix, reshaping the atomic structure of raw materials into a finished tank. A single BOLO could destroy hundreds of the simple-minded machines, but it takes months to build a BOLO, and these replicators can produce one of their weaker versions in minutes! And, according to the briefing officer, the aliens intend to send these monstrous factories on unmanned drone ships to all of your inhabited worlds! Using the bedrock of the planet itself for raw material, even one such drone could overrun a continent in weeks. One of the enemy devices spots you, turns your direction and opens its antipersonnel ports. You dodge behind a half crumbled wall and run, hoping that it will be too stupid to find you again. These wall look far too weak to pen a groundcar, much less these behemoths. Looking closer, you notice the slight sheen of a force field. Good thing you didn't lean against it! You run on, staying well away from the deceptively frail barriers. Wait... that hulk up ahead looks vaguely familiar. A BOLO? Intelligence section had reports that the aliens had captured a few of the Terran self-aware tanks. The design of the machine ahead of you looks Terran, not alien, but it's different from the Mark XXVIII's and XXIX's you're used to. As you approach, you see the designation "BKI 156 BOLO Mark XXV" on the side. One of the ancient Stupendous class? It must be 200 years old! Still, the enemy machines aren't even that good. Maybe there's a chance to complete your mission yet. Faint panel lights greet you as you enter the observer's command area through the service hatch. At least the secondary power cells have some life left in them. A quick scan reveals the enormous butchery the aliens performed on this BOLO trying to learn its secrets. Most of the psychotronics have been removed, the personality center destroyed, the introspection complex and experience sections useless. Even the battle reflex circuitry is a mass of wreckage. Sending out a call on the short range Brigade channel, you receive faint, automatic responses. Somewhere within this maze there are four other BOLOs. The manual controls check out operational. Most of the weapons systems are junk, but for some reason the aliens did not remove the main Hellbore. Their mistake, and it may be their last. If you can destroy the replicators, your fleet may have enough time to prepare before the aliens can build more. You leave the proving ground and hide, hoping to hijack a transport back to your own lines. To hide would be safer, yet you place your hands on the controls and move the BOLO forward... for the honor of the Regiment. GAME PLAY The objective of Bolo is to maneuver your Bolo tank through the treacherous maze and destroy the enemy's six tank bases. Each base is continuously manufacturing a variety of opponent tanks. The tank types vary from the primitive drone version encountered early in the game to the faster torpedo tanks and the deadly hunter/killer tanks. The intelligent assassin tanks will pursue you at high speed by the most efficient route. To begin, place the Bolo diskette into disk drive #1 and tun on your computer. The disk will boot automatically, and you will see a brief demonstration of the Bolo game. To end the demonstration hit any key, and the option screen will appear. The option screen allows you to choose both the level of play and the maze density you want. There are nine increasingly difficult levels of play and five maze densities. Press the number of the one you want to try. Since a new battle maze is generated by the computer every time you play, you will have to wait anywhere from a few seconds to three minutes for the maze completion. When the maze screen appears, the tank control panel will be shown on the right. The panel shows your score, the number of tanks left (you start with five), the fuel gauge (a red stripe), a base locator, and a radar scope showing the position of your tank in the maze. The base locator indicates the direction of the nearest tank bases by the green squares in its quadrants. COMMANDS The key board controls are arranged in two identical sets for right- and left-handed players, centered on the 'L' and 'S' keys respectively. The keys used by a left-handed player are shown in parentheses next to the right-handed player's keys. Hit O (W) to increase forward speed by 1, or decrease backward speed by 1. Hit . (X) to increase backward speed by 1, or decrease forward speed by 1. Hit K (A) to turn 45 degrees counter-clockwise. Hit ; (D) to turn 45 degrees clockwise. Hit 1 (:) to turn the player tank turret 45 degrees counter-clockwise. Hit 2 (-) to turn the player tank turret 45 degrees clockwise. Hit L (S) to stop moving. Hit space bar to fire the turret gun. Hit the ESCAPE key to freeze the game. Hit the ESCAPE key again to restart the game. Hit CTRL S to toggle the sound between the speaker and the cassette port. If you do not have a speaker connected to your cassette output, this will effectively shut off all sound Combination Controls (For advanced players) Hit I (Q) to increase forward speed while turning counter-clockwise. Hit P (E) to increase forward speed while turning clockwise. Hit , (Z) to increase backward speed while turning counter-clockwise. Hit / (C) to increase backward speed while turning clockwise. SCORING Points are won by destroying the enemy tanks and tank bases. To destroy a tank base you must hit the circle in the middle of the base, causing it to blow up. Hitting the circle is difficult since you must first blast through the self-healing walls. Once you have cleared a maze level of all six tank bases, you are awarded one extra tank. Then the game will generate a new maze with six new tank bases to find and destroy. Hitting a tank on level one scores 1 point. When you hit a tank on level two you score 2 points, and so on, up to level nine. Destroying a tank base on level one scores 100 points. When you destroy a tank base on level two you score 200 points, and so on, up to level nine. HINTS When learning to play Bolo, master the simple keyboard commands first, then learn the combination commands. Do not worry about turret action until you have mastered movement. When firing at a wall or tank base, beware of shrapnel ricocheting back at you. [Extra Notes] These instructions are possibly not complete. Note that some keys are not in the "correct" positions when running on an Apple // emulator (ie. the IBM keyboard layout is different), so that if you play using the right-hand keys, then it is very difficult to hit the ':' key. I recommend using your left hand on the '1', '2' and space bar, and your right hand on the other keys centred around the 'L'.