THE SPECTRUM GAME DATABASE

ESCAPE FROM KRAKATOA

PUBLISHER
Abbex

AUTHOR
Paul W. Reynolds

YEAR
1984

DESCRIPTION
Escape from Krakatoa is a scrolling arcade game, with strategy
overtones, similar to Choplifter (in the same way that Turbo
Esprit is similar to Chase HQ).

CONTROLS
You must use the keyboard for this game.  The controls are also
given in the game.

Forwards
Up
Down
Turn around
Rope up
Rope down
Machine gun
Mine

INSTRUCTIONS
There are several thing you must do in this game.  Your general
objective is to keep everybody and everything safe from the
volcano and the periodical air strikes.  And the submarine.

Starting on the left hand side of the playing area, the first
island is your base.  This is where you start from, and if your
helicopter gets damaged, landing here will repair it.  You can
also refuel from here as well.  Should you also rescue any
people, this is where you must drop them of to gain the points. 
Rescuing is done by lowering the rope and flying the end of it
into the men.  Depending on how much rope you lower, you can
carry up to 5 people at once.  When dropping them off, be careful
that you just lower the bottom person on the rope to level with
the ground - they will automatically climb off.  If you go down
too low you will kill them.

Next along the map is the tanker.  This can substain quite a lot
of damage, but everytime it is hit, another person will jump of
the ship and into the water, waiting to be rescued.  Once the
tanker has been damaged too much it wil sink.  Should the tanker
sink then it is game over.

In the same stretch of water as the tanker is the yellow
submarine.  This appears periodically, shooting torpedo's through
the water which may or may not hit the tanker.  The only way to
destroy this is to hit it with a mine.

Next along the map is the island of Krakatoa itself.  The first
big hill is the actual volcano, which erupts periodically (or
when/if you drop any mines into it) sending debris everywhere. 
When it does so, people will appear outside the three houses
demanding to be rescued.  You must run the gauntlet of flying
lava and try and rescue them and take them back to base before
they are hit.  Getting hit by the lava will damage your
helicopter.

There is nothing else on the map of note, except from the far
right (off the map), which is where the air strikes appear from. 
They appear in groups periodically, and depending on where they
land, they will either crash into the sea or into the tanker,
damaging it even more.  You must shoot these down using your
machine gun.

Should the helicopter become damaged, it will be affected in
various ways, depending on which sections have been hit
(indicated on the dashboard).  The control panel, including
radar, may start to flicker, the helicopter may start to act
erratically, or it may just crash altogether.

THE SCREEN DISPLAY
The two graphs on either side of the screen are your fuel and
ammo.  The pairs of letters are your damage warning lights.  In
the centre of the control panel is your scanner which shows all
major features in the map.

CHEATS

SEQUELS/PREQUELS
None.

INLAY CARD TEXT

SCORES RECEIVED

URL

GENERAL FACTS
In case you did not know, this game is based on a real-life
Krakatoa island complete with active volcano.

NOTES
One of the great things about this game is the amount of things
you can do.  As well as the normal objectives, you can also drop
mines into the volcano to try and set it of.  You can play a
simple game of Defender with the air strikes.  It is a challenge
to juggle all the objectives and can get quite frenetic.
