Congratulations for purchasing this Faulcon de Lacy Cobra Mk III fast space
trading and combat craft. Familiarise you with all the aspects of space flight,
combat and trading provided by the advanced systems aboard your new ship.
Your Cobra Mk III comes with a single pulse laser, three homing missiles and
fore and aft shields fitted as standard equipment. Many extras are available
for the Cobra, which you can pay for from the profits you make while trading
Alternatively, Cobras are ideal for bounty hunting (collecting bounty by
hunting down pirates), and sadly are occasionally used by some unscrupulous
pilots for piracy. The craft is approved by the Elite federation of pilots.
They are a group known throughout the eight galaxies for their expertise in
space combat Your ship-board computer will tell you your official combat rating
according to the Elite federation. This starts as "Harmless" and progresses all
the way to "Elite". Becoming "Elite" shows acceptance in to the Elite
federation itself, the dream of pilots everywhere.
Press START to pause the game. Some buttons will appear.
The Restart button (a tombstone) abandons your current position and returns
to the main menu.
The 1 or 2 person icons swiches the controls between a single person to one
person doing the flying and another doing the shooting.
The music notes toggle the music on and off, whereas the speaker turns on/off
the sound effects.
The two arros pointing towards the middle inverts the direction the controller
will pilot your ship. If you prefer the opposite way, change it here.
Usually the ship will return to straight and level flight when you don't
press any buttons. The circle with dashes icon will change that.
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Practice
********
Use this mode to get better at flight combat. Press START to initialize and you
have a beam laser as well as three homing missiles against three poor crafts
each with a pulse laser. The computer times the session on how long you take to
destroy the enemy crafts. If you use the missiles you get a 60 second penalty
each time. If you want to skip through this mode, press SELECT.
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First Run
*********
As you start you may want to hang around in the nearby systems, for example
Lave. Lave has lots of food and textiles at cheap prices, and there is very
little piracy. Take some cargo to fill up the ship with lots of food and
textiles.
Move the selector on the Stock Market icon ($ sign) and press action. A list of
available items for sale on Lave will be shown. The right column shows the
number of items in your cargo bay at this time. Press right on the food item to
buy 16 tonnes. The display will show these changes. Your money counter will
also go down to reflect your buying spree. Buy 4 tonnes of textiles to fill up
the cargo bay. Use the Inventory icon (piles icon) to see what you have in your
cargo bay.
Select the Launch icon (square teleport pad). After you have launched into
space, steer away from the planet just in case. Select the Map icon (Radar
circle) to see the star system. Select Zaonce and use the Data icon (wall of
text on a monitor) to view the information about this system. Return to the map
screen when you have read everything.
Change to Front View (lasers shooting at the middle) to have a new icon for the
Hyperspace jump (round ball with an arrow pointing left). There is a countdown
until you jump but right now you should only have to wait and get going.
After you arrive at the planet, use the compass to find it. There must be a
solid green dot in the compass. Hollow dot is the opposite way. The dot must
also be in the center. By now the planet should be seen in the main view.
Accelerate towards the planet, use the Fast Forward (like on a remote control)
icon. Continue pressing it until it won't work any longer, at this point you
are close enough to the planet already. It could also mean you are being
attacked so you have to defend yourself.
When you reach the space station, the scanner will detect it and a Docking
Computer icon should be visible. The icon is similar to the Launch icon but the
arrow points towards the teleport pad. To use this icon you must pay 5 credits.
It is worth doing, but you may attempt to land manually at a later point. Use
Fast Forward to skip the docking procedure. To land manually, line up your ship
with the slot in front of the space station and match the rail while you fly
through it. Go slow to dock safely.
Once you have docked, use the Stock Market icon to sell all your cargo. Each
time you visit the prices will vary, but this time around you should make a
healthy profit.
To save your position to use for later, use the Store Position Icon (file
cabinet). This is only available while you are docked. You may also change the
name of the commander. Use the Change Name icon (AA_) to do so. There are up to
8 slots to save the game in. When you switch off the NES, hold down the RESET
button to keep the record or else you will risk losing the saved position.
Use the Equip Ship icon (wrench) to connect your ship to the space station's
computer network. Here you can buy fuel and items to fit on your existing ship.
You cannot sell items you have bought. Obviously you need a certain amount of
cash before being able to buy items, but do not forget your room space. Keep
the button pressed down for the amount of fuel you want to buy. Lasers can be
mounted on different sections.
If you had a look at the Data of a planet you will have noticed the Tech Level
of a world. This indicates how much equipment it has for sale.
The standard laser is complemented by three missiles, even four if upgraded.
Missiles require a target before they can be launched. Then you must Arm the
missile with the target that has a + next to the missile for the target. A
missile will flash and a targeting square appears on the gun sight. Move your
ship to that target view and the Fire Missile icon (just a missile, no +) will
appear. Should you happen to not want to target, press the Arm Missile icon
again. Fire the missile when ready. It is not necessary to point directly at
the target. It is not 100% certain to hit however. It can be shot down,
destroyed by an ECM or run out of fuel on the way, the target can also be too
far away. Use them well, they do not come cheap.
Pulse Lasers are standard on the ship. They can overheat and shut down
automatically, but cool down soon.
Beam Lasers are powerful lasers that fire continuously. As they use more power
they also overheat quicker than the standard laser.
Military Lasers are even more powerful than the Beam.
Mining Lasers are especially designed for Full Scoops and to mine minerals.
An Escape Capsule (Eject button) helps you escape from a threatening situation.
It automatically carries you to the nearby space station. You will get a new
ship thanks to an insurance policy, but you do not get any cargo back nor a new
escape capsule.
The Energy Bomb destroys ever small ship in the vicinity, except the ship
activating it. You may only use it once and then has to be re-bought. Use the
Bomb icon to activate (looks a little like a sun too).
The scanner shows where objects are relative to your ship. It is always in
the center of the scanner area.
Yellow: Ships
Blue: Junk
White: Missiles
Green: Large Objects
ECM (Electronic Counter Measures) are used to destroy all missiles in the
vicinity and is activated with the ECM icon (pulse-like waves). You can equip
it with any ship but first have to purchase it. When the ECM was used, the
screen becomes a little distorted, even if used by another ship.
Full Scoops enable the ship to skim hydrogen fuel off the surface of the sun.
This activates automatically and a message will be displayed. You could also
scoop up other items in the process while it passes on the view screen. Not
every item you pick up has a good impact on your trading status.
Energy Units recharge the energy banks and shields more rapidly.
To navigate in larger areas, use the Map icon and pick the Data icon to plan
your route. If you have a Galactic Hyperspace then you can use that icon to
jump to another galaxy without using up fuel.
A docking computer avoids having to pay 5 credits when docking at a space
station.
The Data screen shows how strict the goverment is. If it is very strict then
piract is low, and the opposite is true too.
The main bulk of your game is based on trading. Food is generally cheaper on
agriculture world compared to a rich industrial world. On the other hand that
on is cheaper at computers. Here is a list with places to buy and the average
price you should be getting:
Trade Item: Place: Average Price: Note:
----------------------------------------------------------------
Food Agricultural 4.4 per tonne
Textiles Agricultural 6.4 per tonne
Radioactives Agricultural 21.2 per tonne
Robot Slaves Agricultural 8.0 each ILLEGAL
Beverages Agricultural 25.2 per tonne
Luxuries Industrial 91.2 per tonne
Rare Species Agricultural 114.8 per tonne ILLEGAL
Computers Industrial 84.0 per tonne
Machinery Industrial 56.4 per tonne
Allos Agricultural 32.8 per tonne
Firearms Industrial 70.4 per tonne ILLEGAL
Furs Agricultural 56.0 per tonne
Minerals Agricultural 8.0 per tonne
Gold Any 37.2 per kg
Platinum Any 65.2 per kg
Gem Stones Any 16.4 per kg
Illegal goods may be noticed while you launch or land from a space station. If
so, the GalCop police will chase you. If you are an experienced pilot then you
may still want to trade with these items. You may also scoop up illegal items
in the process.
There is a modification to increase the cargo hold size to 35 tonnes. This
upgrade increases the amount you can transport but also risks more tonnes at
the same time.
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Story Events
************
Somestimes a story event will trigger, it is not known when this will happen so
just playing the game for a while should be enough. Of course this means you
actually do something like trading and not just wait around in the space docks.
At a certain point a trader will approach you to sell "the rarest item in the
world." Do not agree to buy this item. If you do, you will end up losing your
cargo hold. You will not notice straight away, but with each visit to a planet
or space station you tend to have more of that item. Strange? Like the Star
Trek Tribbles, you bought some kind of rodent that likes to multiply and take
up space. You can not sell this item either. To remove it from your cargo hold
you must lose your ship.
Play a long time and you will be asked to follow a trader through the galaxy.
Do so, but I am unsure what happens next.
It is vital to know other ships that you will encounter. Pirates, in general,
shoot on sight and try to destroy you for your cargo. You get rewards for
catching them because the GalCops do not hunt them for their piracy themselves,
only for trading illegal goods. There are other bounty hunters out and about,
too. They might still get in your way as you try and arrest another pirate.
Some ships like to hide in asteroids. You will encounter them as you clear the
asteroid field (for money rewards).
Name.........................Adder
Usage........................Smuggler, Pirate
Dimensions...................45/8/30
Cargo........................2
Armaments....................Lasers
Max Speed....................0.24
Crew.........................2
Hyperspace...................Yes
