ACTIVISION SPIDER FIGHTER BUG BRIEFING ---------------------------SPIDER FIGHTER BASICS------------------------------- The object of the game is to protect your fruit orchard from insect fruit theives, scoring points by exterminating the attackers. 1. Hook up your video game system. Follow manufacturer's instructions. 2. With power OFF, plug in game cartridge. 3. Turn power ON. If no picture appears, check connection of your game system to TV, then repeat steps 1-3. 4. Plug in left Joystick Controller. It's the only one you'll need. 5. Set both difficulty switches to a to begin. 6. Game select switch has no effect. 7. Use of Joystick Controller. Hold Joystick Controller with the red button in the upper left position. Fire poison pellet volleys by repeatedly depressing red button. Move Joystick left or right to move mobile blaster left or right across the screen. 8. To begin or start a new game. Press game reset. Action begins when the first Master Nest descends. 9. Difficulty switches. Left Difficulty Right Difficulty A. Regular Game A. Straight Pellets B. Expert Game B. Guided Pellets Left difficulty switch affects speed, fire-power and point values of insects. Right difficulty switch selects guided pellet option: in b position, pellet's can be "steered" after they've been fired. [Note to owners of Sears Tele-Games Video Arcade: Difficulty is called skill, and a is expert, b is novice] 10. Fruit Orchard. Your fruit orchard is growing oranges, grapes, strawberries and bananas. You must protect each variety of fruit from waves of insects. Four waves attack oranges, grapes and strawberries. Then, unlimited waves of insects attack your bananas. Each wave starts out with three fruit and four Master Nests. _____ ___ ______ / o \ __--_ / \ / \ \ o / __-- __-- \ > / \ \ o / __-- __-- \ \ \ / \_/ ------- \___\ \______/ Strawberry Banana Grapes Orange 11. Reinforcements, You begin each game with four bug blasters in reserve. If you manage to save all three fruit from an insect wave, you're awarded an aditional blaster. You can only have up to four reserve blasters on the screen at one time. 12. Scoring. Each time you exterminate an attacking insect, you score points. The point values for each insect are listed below: SPIDER FIGHTER POINT SYSTEM Insect Point Values (Regular Game Only) Master Nest 100 Stinger 50 Spy Pod 50 Green Widow 30 In the expert game, point values for insects are multiplied when you are protecting certain fruit: insects are worth twice as much when protecting grapes, four times as much for strawberries, and eight times as the regular game point values when bananas are present. Bonus points: If you manage to save all three fruit in a wave, and you also have four bug blasters in reserve, then you will receive 500 bonus points. [screen shot] -------------------------------BUG GLOSSARY------------------------------------ _____ The Master Nests. This is the ringleader and major fruit thief. It ------- is protected from poison by a white band, until it releases a Spy ======= Pod. Its sole aim is to keep you busy with bugs, so that it can slip __-_-_- away with your fruit. ----- /\ Spy Pods. These sneaky critters scout around and instruct the Master []==[] Nest to release more insects. As long as any Spy Pods remain on the \/ screen, the Master Nest continues to release its creepy offspring. Destroy the Spy Pods and you slow infestation! \ / Green Widows. Green Widows fly interference, protecting the Master === Nest with cover-fire. They also act as living shields, sacrificing / \ themselves by intercepting your poison pellets. Even though Green Widows are slower and dumber, by careful! They still deal a deadly bite. \ / Stingers. The most dangerous and aggressive of the pack. Stingers = track your blaster with the single-minded goal of destroying you. ----- Warning! When you kill the Master Nest, Pods and Widows instantly /---\ transform into Stingers! Then, the mortality rate is very high. === / \ -------------------------HOW TO JOIN THE ACTIVISION---------------------------- "SPIDER FIGHTERS" If you score 40,000 points or more on the regular game level, you qualify for Activision's elite corp of Spider Fighters. Send us a picture of your TV screen showing your score, along with your name and address, and we'll send you an official Spider Fighters emblem. BECOMING A MASTER BUG BLASTER Tips from Larry Miller, designer of Spider Fighter Larry is the newest addition to the Activision design team. He's an experienced designer, having completed a number of games for home computers. "As you can see, keeping a fruit orchard isn't exactly easy. Those bugs can really become a nuisance. You can never get rid of them entirely, but you can control them. "There are various strategies you can experiment with, but one of the most effective that I have found is to first gun down the lone Spy Pod. If you can exterminate that Pod, you halt the flow of reinforcements. Afterwards, you can pick off the rest of the attackers, leaving the Master Nest for last. "Occasionally, the Master Nest will release a continuous stream of Spy Pods, and each one you hit seems to be replaced. If this happens, you must immediately destroy the Master Nest and take your chances against a squadron full of angry Stingers. Normally, though, it is best to destroy the slower Spy Pods and Green Widows that hover near the bottom of the screen before killing the Master Nest. A low-flying Stinger is your worst enemy. "So maintain a stiff upper lip, and send me a line in between Spider fights. I'd sure like to know how this year's fruit harvest will fare." [Larry Miller] Look for Activsion video games wherever you buy video game cartridges. Drop us a note, and we'll gladly add your name to our mailing list and keep you posted on new Activsion game cartridges as they become available. ACTIVSION Activision, Inc., Drawer No. 7287 Mountain View, CA 94042 (c) 1982 Activision AX-021-03 -------------------Atari 2600 Instructions Archive-------------------