 EQUINOX 
 Mikro-Gen 1986

 CONTROLS : Keyboard, Kempston
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 AIM : A mining asteroid, Suri Ani VII, becomes contaminated with highly
 radioactive waste after an accident with its disposal. The miners have 
 fled for their lives, leaving behind their equipment and much valuable 
 ore. This has obviously cost the owners of the asteroid a lot of money 
 and hoping to cut their losses, they've sent in a Dedicated Disposal 
 Droid to get rid of the waste and decontaminate the mines. You're the 
 person with the job of remotely piloting the droid...
 
 GAMEPLAY : Nothing is ever as simple as it might seem, and such is the
 case in EQUINOX too - the fleeing miners forgot to shut down the 
 asteroid's security systems, as a result of which the place is now
 difficut and dangerous to penetrate. Security Droids materialise next
 to any intruder detected and attempt to destroy them. Since only three
 lives are provided, you'll need to make good use of the DDD's onboard
 laser system to destroy the Security Droids. Unfortunately they tend
 not to stay destroyed and rematerialise shortly afterwards.

  The radioactive canisters at the root of the problem must be collected
 and disposed of by dropping them down a disposal chute into the lead-
 lined storage room below. There are eight levels on Suri Ani VII, and
 each one must be cleared of the canisters contaminating it. A time
 limit is imposed on each level due to the creeping meltdown of some of
 the canisters - take too long and they'll explode.

  The DDD has a retro-thrust unit fitted which can be activated in an
 emergency to make an escape from materialising Security Droids. This
 demands a large amount of fuel, and if the DDD runs out of fuel it will
 explode. Batteries can be collected to replenish the fuel supply, though.
 Quicker movement between certain locations is possible via teleporters,
 for which you'll need to pay a toll of one droid life. This is exchanged
 for a cyan teleport credit which can be obtained from the credit
 dispensers. The trans-level transporter ensures safe passage between
 levels, but numbered level passes have to be collected before inter-level
 transport is permitted. Access will only be granted if the DDD has a pass
 with a number less than or equal to the number of the level you want to
 travel to.

  At the top of the screen are a number of status windows. The leftmost
 one shows the inventory; the next one shows lives remaining; the centre
 one shows the score and the time remaining (the coloured squares); and
 the right-hand one shows two bars indicating respectively fuel and laser
 energy supplies.

 COMMENTS : "A very well produced shoot-em-up adventure".
 RATING : 87% (CRASH #30, July 1986)

 NOW :  Quite a neat game, and somewhat reminiscent of the excellent
 STARQUAKE. The author, Raf Cecco, was later to go on to do EXOLON, the
 CYBERNOID games and the STORMLORD games - all of which are likewise very
 good.
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 KEYS : Left    -  O
        Right   -  P
        Thrust  -  Q
        Fire    -  M
        Use     -  A
        Pause   -  3
