 MICRONAUT ONE 
 Nexus 1987

 CONTROLS : Keyboard, Kempston
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 AIM : Welcome to the Guild. Long live His Imperial Majesty Georgius IX.
 Now hear this: the Emperor has decreed that you, a member of our
 glorious Guild of Equalizers, shall do your utmost to maintain the
 Empire's Biocomputers and perform all the duties befitting a member of
 this, our Guild.  (Imperial Decree LXXVII, dated 24.5.1290 A.O.)
 
  As a member of the Guild of Equalizers, the biotechnicians responsible
 for maintaining the huge, asteroid-based Biocomputers, it's your job to
 keep these fragile organic machines from damage inflicted by parasites
 and simple entropy. The parasites in question are the Scrim, the
 mutated descendants of fruit flies which were accidentally introduced
 centuries ago. Now the tunnels of your Biocomputer are infested with
 Scrim eggs, larvae and their ultimate product, the Jellyfly...

 GAMEPLAY : Your craft is a sort of bidirectional skimmer which can
 zoom up and down the winding corridors of the Biocomputer. You've got
 a map to help you, and you can set up markers on it to act as homing
 points for your craft's Navigational Locking System. You can't actually
 turn round (not enough room in the tunnel); instead, slow to a halt and
 press down to switch to the rear view (or rather, the front view now).
 You can then go on as normal. Note though that you can _only_ switch
 direction if you stop first!

  You have two main problems: the Scrim, obviously, and the energy levels
 of the computer. Being parasites, the Scrim feed off the energy of the
 biomachine, which tends to cause serious energy imbalances in the
 circuits. Your craft is equipped with an accumulator which allows you
 to drain off surplus energy or otherwise top up the computer. You do
 this at one of the Energy Transfer Units (ETUs), which look rather like
 large winking eyes behind transparent sliding doors. The levels of the
 four ETUs (including the one at which you're currently at) are shown
 when you stop in front of the eye. Red is danger; green is safe. If the
 level of the current ETU is too low or too high, you can increase or
 reduce it. If the ETU level gets too low or too high, the computer will
 explode. You can only alter the level of the ETU at which you're
 currently "docked".

  Your craft is equipped with an anti-Scrim weapon, a sort of giant Van
 der Graaf generator which spits out tendrils of energy. This, naturally,
 uses up a good deal of energy (which could leave you with too little to
 top up an ETU). However, you can recover this loss either by draining
 an ETU (not recommended) or catching one of the sparkling clouds of
 energy particles that coalesce in the corridors. Your weapon's power
 level is shown on the console of your skimmer (the second of the three
 bars), while above it is the craft's speed and below it a scrolling
 message bar gives information about the Biocomputer.

  Your main enemy, the Scrim, have a three-stage lifecycle. (You can
 get more information on this in the INFO menu - having started the
 game, it's a good idea to explore the menu system a little. VIEW will
 take you to the action). The three stages, plus the accompanying webs,
 are as follows:

1) Egg		- Small but growing ovoids, impervious to your fire. 
		There's nothing you can do about these. Laid by
		Jellyfly.
2) Larvae	- Huge and disgusting grubs that mulch their way along
		 the corridors. Can be destroyed but they need a lot of
		 energy to zap. It's best to kill them before they turn
		 into the next stage:
3) Jellyfly	- The adult Scrim. Looks rather like a high-speed
		 umbrella. Zooms up and down the corridors looking for
		 an open section of tunnel, and then lays a couple of
		 eggs and an energy-gathering web which permanently
		 blocks the tunnel (_not_ good news). Kill, kill, kill.
   Web		- A secreted organic structure which spans a tunnel
		 and blocks it. Can be destroyed if you get to it before
		 it's completed.

  Too many webs can be fatal - you can be blocked in, or equally badly
 an ETU entrance can be sealed off. Either way, you'll be unable to
 correct the computer's energy imbalances. It's possible to get rid of
 a web if you can get to it before it's complete, but afterwards it's
 impervious to your efforts. You'll be informed of where a web has been
 strung - make a note of it on the built-in pad and program your NLS to
 guide you there before it's too late. The game is thus a constant race
 against the ETUs' energy fluctuations and the Scrims' lifecycle. To 
 complete a level, you have to clear out all the Scrim on that level.

  There's a built-in bonus game - a series of races against a computer-
 controlled robot (actually a maintenance droid, quite harmless, in the
 "real" game). To get to this, tick the RACE option on the SETUP menu
 (off the main menu) and go to PLAY. You'll get the chance to choose
 a track, pacer and speed, and race against the clock.

 COMMENTS : "Original, visually stunning, very playable and addictive".
 RATING : 92% (CRASH #43, August 1987)

 NOW : The original comments above are still absolutely correct. One of
 the all-time (but under-sung) Spectrum classics. A prime candidate for
 updating - just imagine it with DOOM-style graphics...
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 KEYS : Redefinable.
