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Xari Arena - Atari - Atari 5200   Cartridge Scan icon Manual icon HTML Manual Box icon  

XARI ARENA INSTRUCTIONS

These instructions were obtained directly from Xari Arena's programmer, John
Seghers:

There are three selections for Xari Arena players each player may be in (in
play), out (out of play), or auto (computer play) these selections are made with
the * for the left player and the # for the right player.

Difficulty level is set by pressing 1-9.

Pressing start when in full auto play or in set-up mode will start a game.
Pressing reset when in full auto play or in pause will go to set-up mode.
Pressing pause will pause the game when someone is playing only. It will act as
reset during attract or auto-play.

During the game play (either players or auto play) the music may be toggled
off/on without affecting the other sounds by pressing the 0 key. Also,
intermissions may be terminated at any time by pressing the 0 key.

Game Characters:

The players are creatures composed of energy cells which they must protect with
their magic shields. If they can survive 32 waves in the arena, they will have
won their freedom.

The Xaris are the amoeba-like creatures in the center of the arena. They are
confined to an area in the center but are able to cast fireballs at the players.
The center area expands with each new wave.

The fireballs are not dangerous to the Xaris until they have been deflected by
the magic shields of the players. When this happens, they then become dangerous
to the Xaris. They do not, however, ever become non-dangerous to the players.

The fireballs may also be captured by the magic shields. This is done by
pressing the hard fire button (bottom button) to open the sides of the shield.
Once a fireball has been captured, it can be used to kill a Xari by moving the
shield to tag a Xari. The shield can hold up to four fireballs at a time.

If a shield touches a Xari and does not have a fireball captured to use to kill
the Xari, the shield becomes disrupted. When this happens the shield cannot
capture or reflect fireballs. The shield must be kept from touching a Xari for 3
seconds. After 3 seconds have elapsed since the last contact with a Xari, the
shield recovers and can again affect fireballs.

Each player receives one fire extinguisher per wave plus bonus extinguishers if
they start at a higher wave.

The extinguishers may be used to destroy fireballs behind and a short distance
in front of the player's wall. This enables the player to defend against
fireballs getting behind the wall and doing enormous amounts of damage. The
number of fire extinguishers available to the player are shown as little fire
extinguishers behind the players wall. Up to 15 can be displayed but more can be
accumulated.

The game continues for each player until the player loses all of his energy
cells. Each wave, the players have healed and therefore have all of their energy
cells.

The players score points for killing Xaris with fireballs they have deflected or
captured and bonus points for the energy cells remaining at the end of each
wave. Notice that the front cells are worth the most in the bonus scoring.

The Xaris score points (center score on screen) for hiting the energy cells of
the players. For the Xaris, the back cells are worth the most points.

Have fun and don't let the Xaris get you down!!