Can you pilot your ship through the space/time tube? 1-4 players with 1 joystick. There are 2 copies on this tape.
WORMTUBE Loading = CLOADM, press ENTER, when the OK returns type EXEC. Enter up to 4 pilot/player names. Each name can be up to 9 letters long, and ENTER should be pressed after each name or if no pilot for nos. 2, 3 & 4.
THE GAME You are the pilot of a spaceship with FTL {Faster Than Light} drive. When you exceed the speed of light, the space-time surrounding your ship forms into a "tube", which we have called a "Wormtube".
As soon as you enter the tube, you start earning points because your ship collects "gold dust", that is formed when the FTL drive compresses space-time into a tube. You can also earn points by capturing gold "pieces" with your ship's jaws".
To capture pieces, though, you have to explode larger gold "nodules" into the right size with a torpedo. If you are hit by a nodule, your ship will suddenly drop below light speed and sustain major damage, costing up to 50,000 points.
Hitting a gold piece is not as serious, but points are still subtracted for repairs, depending upon the speed you were doing.
Another hazard is letting your ship hit the wormtube "fabric" and ripping the spacetime. This also will result in major damage, costing 50,000 points and loss of your turn.
Each player starts with 3 million points. Dependent on your speed/skill level your scores will —
INCREASE
+ 1-9 points for each segment of tube passed.
+ 1000-9000 points for each gold piece you collect.
DECREASE
- 100-900 for each piece your ship hits. - up to 51,000 for hitting a nodule. - 50,000 for hitting the wormtube.
WORMTUBE CONTROLS
Right-hand joystick = ship control.
F key = faster speed (up to 9). S key = slower speed (down to 1).
Break key = freeze the action. Enter key = restart the action. ! = clear
names/scores to zero and start afresh.
Shift & Clear keys = to exit wormtube with no names/scores intact.
P key = to let next player have a turn without affecting the current player's
score.
NOTE Since you can adjust your speed/skill level while you travel the wormtube, you can speed up when it is wide and slow down when it narrows. You do not need a warning when the wormtube starts narrowing, but the top and bottom bars on the screen will lash anyway.
Using the joystick's left and right movement, you operate the "burst" of speed, which does not affect your skill level.
The fire button shoots the torpedos.
Scores above 10 million are not impossible, but you have got to be good to get anything like that—so good luck!
Dragon 32
Type "CLOADM". When loaded, type "EXEC".
© Copyright 1983 Hornet Software Limited