RetroStar

A space-combat game for the ZX Spectrum Next.

Alone in the cockpit of a Federation Starcruiser, you face the Selenite invasion. Hunt their battle groups sector by sector: fight in deep space, hyperwarp across the galaxy through a winding tunnel of light, and destroy every last Selenite before your energy runs out.

100% machine code, written for the Next — and at full speed on 50 Hz and 60 Hz displays alike (switch with N on the help screens).

The story

In 1901 Earth Time, alien Selenite hives were discovered infesting Federation star systems. Fortunately, the Selenites were almost wiped out within the year by the Common Cold Virus.

For centuries they have been intent on revenge for what they claim was a biological attack. Now they have launched a full invasion.

Your mission is to destroy as many Selenite fighters as you can. Selenites destroy our starbases by first surrounding them on all four sides. At that point the starbase is doomed unless you get there first…

Your Starcruiser runs on twin Cavorite drives, left and right. They carry you at sublight speeds, and they fling you through hyperspace from one sector of the galaxy to another. Everything aboard draws on the ship's energy: the drives, the phasers, the shields, the scanners. Out here, energy is life.

The Selenites fly three kinds of ship: swarming Drones, heavier Cruisers, and the great Hivemothers, which shrug off all but the closest hits.

This is a classic retro-style arcade space combat game. Selenites do not exist, and you are not in command of a real starfighter.

Mission objectives

Your primary objective is to destroy every Selenite in the galaxy, including their mothership and, from Pilot level up, their commander, without losing your ship.

Your secondary objectives are to finish quickly (every stardate that passes lowers your rating), to keep your starbases alive, and to rescue the prisoners held in the Selenites' moon bases.

Getting started

You need: a ZX Spectrum Next. A joystick or Mega Drive-style pad in joystick port 1 is recommended. Sound plays in stereo through the Next's three sound chips.

Download: retrostar.nex (a 10-minute demo until it's registered, then the full game) and the manual, retrostar.pdf

Loading: copy the .nex file to your SD card and open it from the Next's browser.

Registering. Until it's registered, RetroStar is a 10-minute demo. Your box contains a card with a registration code (like Y2GB-N3AT-D53G). To unlock the full game, choose REGISTER on the main screen and enter your email address and the registration code. Then either:

• with the Next's WiFi connected, the game fetches your unlock code itself and you're done; or
• without it, visit kage.games/register, enter the same email address and registration code, and type the unlock code it gives you into the game.

The game remembers it on your SD card, so you only do this once. Codes don't use the letters I, L, O or S, so if you type one of them it's read as 1, 1, 0 or 5.

The game starts on the main screen, with the ship flying itself in the background as a demo.

The main screen

Levels

At higher levels the hyperspace tunnel is harder to fly through, and your final score is weighed differently (see Scoring).

Controls

The help screens (BREAK) list everything in the game itself. From any help page, Q returns to the main screen and N switches between 50 Hz and 60 Hz display. The game keeps running while help is open — press P to pause.

In the cockpit

Looking through the windscreen you'll see stars, drifting meteors, Selenite fighters and the bolts of both sides' weapons. The ticker along the bottom brings you messages from the ship's computer. Below the windscreen:

• Shields — the top bar: how much protection your shields still have.
• Energy — the bar beneath it: your ship's total energy. Everything uses it.

Press A to look behind you. Selenites attack from all directions.

The cockpit display

• Drive thrust — the outer bars up each side of the cockpit, one for each Cavorite drive: how hard it's pushing. They climb a step for each speed and fill in a hyperwarp. A damaged drive's bar can't reach the top; a destroyed one shows nothing.
• Phaser charge — the inner bars, one for each phaser: how far it's charged.
• Torpedoes — the numbers in the bottom corners: the torpedoes left in each tube, left and right.
• The tally — the lines along the bottom: your energy and torpedoes, and your coins (in gold) and kills.
• The ticker — messages from the ship's computer scroll along the bottom. Short, urgent ones flash up on their own line.
• The demo clock — until the game is registered, the time left in the 10-minute demo shows at the top right.

Phasers

Phasers are charged, not just fired. Hold the button to charge, release to fire — the longer the charge, the more powerful the shot. Don't hold past full: the bar flashes as a warning, and if you still don't let go, the emitter burns out.

Your left and right phasers are separate. Shots come from their own side, and you'll hear them from that side too.

Photon torpedoes

With the attack computer on (C), a reticle appears. It picks out a Selenite in view and closes in on it; once it's on target it locks and turns green. Fire a torpedo then and it tracks its target. If the Selenite slips out of view, the lock is lost and the reticle looks for another. You have a limited supply of torpedoes, fired from the left and right tubes in turn.

Shields and energy

Raised shields soak up hits — but they start empty. Raise them and they draw on your energy to build up, taking about 15 seconds to charge fully, and they leak a little energy all the while they're up. Every hit they take slows their recharge for a few seconds, so under heavy fire they wear down — and come back once it stops. Lower them and their charge flows back into your energy; raise them again and they build up from wherever they'd got to. So raise them before a fight, not during one — and while you've energy to spare: with your energy nearly gone, they won't raise at all. With shields down, hits get through to your ship and its systems. Speed, weapons, the long-range scan and hyperwarp all cost energy too. If your energy runs out, your mission is over.

Damage

Hits can damage your ship's systems (page 2 of the pilot's log shows each one as a percentage still working): the left and right Cavorite drives, the torpedo tubes, each phaser, the shields, the sensors, the long-range scan, the computer and life support. A damaged system works poorly, and a destroyed one not at all. Damaged systems slowly mend themselves over time; destroyed ones need a starbase. You'll hear it too: a damaged drive stutters, and a destroyed one falls silent.

Energy

Your ship holds 3000 units of energy, and everything draws on it:

• the drives — the faster you fly, the more they use;
• the shields — while they're up, and more again to recharge them after hits;
• your weapons — every phaser shot and torpedo;
• the long-range scan — while it's on;
• hyperwarp — the further the jump, the more it costs (the galactic chart shows the cost of a jump to the sector under its cursor).

When it falls below 300 (a tenth), the ticker warns you. Dock at a starbase to fill up, or collect dark energy crystals (250 each). If it runs out, your mission is over.

Pausing and quitting

Press P (or the pad's Start) to pause; press it again to carry on. BREAK opens the help screens, but the game keeps running behind them, so pause first. To give up a mission, open help and press Q: you return to the main screen.

The galactic chart (G)

The galaxy is a grid of sectors. The chart shows:

• Selenite battle groups — dots marking one, two, three or four-plus ships. Red groups are regular, mostly Drones; yellow are heavy, mostly Cruisers; white are elite, always led by a Hivemother. Bigger ships drop more coins.
• Starbases — green squares.
• Moons — white discs: each hides an enemy base (see Moon bases). A moon whose prisoners have all been found turns green.
• Your sector — the arrow.
• Stars — small yellow dots: each a sun with its solar system of planets. With the cursor on one you've seen, the status line shows the currency it trades in: COIN (Federation), CRYS (dark energy crystals, out on the Frontier) or SWAP (barter, in the Free systems).

Every sector is a square of its own: bright blue where you know what's there, dim blue where you don't (see The unknown galaxy). A white frame runs round the galaxy's edge.

The flashing box is the cursor: move it with the joystick or cursor keys. The status line shows which sector it's on (SEC 12-7) and the energy cost of hyperwarping there.

Battle groups don't stay still. About once a minute they jump a sector, closing in on your starbases, and you can watch them glide across the chart. Small groups move almost every time; big fleets are slow to stir. A group you're already jumping to waits for you.

Sieges. When battle groups sit on all four sides of a starbase (north, south, east and west), it's surrounded, and the ticker warns you: "STARBASE SURROUNDED". Then, one at a time, ships move in from the groups around it into the starbase's own sector (you'll see them on the chart, on top of the base) to attack it. The base fights back with its torpedoes, one ship each, as long as they last, but once they run out the attackers wear it down, and it's destroyed: gone from the chart, the attackers still there, and your rating suffers. Break the ring before they get in and it's relieved; fight off those that do and it's held. If you're there, the attack happens right in front of you.

Hyperwarp

Hyperwarp takes you to another sector.

• On the chart, press H (or pad A) to warp to the sector under the cursor.
• Anywhere else, H picks a destination for you: a sector with Selenites you know about, somewhere uncharted if you don't know of any, or the nearest starbase if you're running low on energy.
• On the chart, R sends a probe to the sector under the cursor (see The unknown galaxy).

The jump

1. Accelerating. The drive climbs toward warp speed, and you're still in normal space: you can fight, turn and look around, and you can still hit things. Star trails streak past. Changed your mind? Press H again to cancel and drop back to your previous speed, or pick a speed with 0–9. That makes it a handy way to escape trouble.
2. Point of no return. Near warp speed everything falls quiet. No more Selenites arrive, and nobody can fire.
3. Hyperspace. The computer beeps three times, and a tunnel of coloured rings appears, winding off into the distance. Steer through each ring as it comes. Miss one and you drop out of hyperspace part-way there, having spent only the energy for the distance you covered.
4. Arrival. The drive winds down and you're in your new sector. If there's a battle group here, it will find you soon.

The further you jump, the more energy it costs and the longer the tunnel.

The long-range scan (L)

A scope below the windscreen shows everything around you, seen from above: Selenites, meteors, weapons fire and any starbase (a glowing blip), each with a stick showing its height above or below you. It costs a little energy while it's on.

The pilot's log (V)

Four pages, turned with the cursor keys or joystick:

1. Current mission — your sector, Selenites left in the galaxy, starbases left, your kills, energy, hull, torpedoes, shields, the stardate, your coins, probes, the mothership, the robots you carry (red when you've none) and the prisoners aboard waiting to be taken home (pink when there are some).
2. Subsystems — each of your ship's systems, as a percentage still working.
3. Career — your service record.
4. Achievements — each one, and whether you've earned it: DONE, or the coins it's worth (+5) still to earn. First Blood, Sharpshooter, Ace, Rock Breaker, Crystal Hunter, Moneybags, Jumper, First Rescue, Liberator, Spy Catcher, Deep Diver, Treasure Hunter, Homecoming, and Bomber (a Selenite caught in a crystal's blast you set off).

Options

Press O on the main screen for the options. Choose with up / down and change with fire (the pad's A, B or C, SPACE, ENTER, or left / right):

• Music: on or off.
• Sound effects: on or off.
• Controls: normal, or inverted (pulling back dives, pushing forward climbs, swapped for flying only).
• Mode: arcade (the default) gives each level the same galaxy every time you play it, so you can learn it; computer makes a new galaxy for every game.

Choose BACK, or press O again, to return. Your choices stay set for the rest of your session.

The unknown galaxy

You don't start with a full map. The galactic chart shows your starbases and the sectors around you; everywhere you haven't been is a dim square. Fly somewhere and you'll see it and its neighbours on your long-range sensors, and your ship's computer keeps everything you've seen up to date from then on. If the computer is destroyed, what you know goes stale until it's repaired.

Probes. You carry three deep-space probes. On the galactic chart, put the cursor where you want to look and press R: the probe flies there, charting every sector it passes, and watches from there for about a minute. A starbase restocks them.

If you hyperwarp from the cockpit without choosing a sector, you'll head for a battle group you know about, or, if you don't know of any, somewhere uncharted to look.

The mothership

From Novice level up, a Selenite mothership lies somewhere in the galaxy, far from where you start. Its sector is marked on the galactic chart with a saucer from the beginning, and eight battle groups guard it, one on each side. They never leave their post.

While any of those eight sectors still has Selenites in it, the mothership is shielded and you can't hyperwarp in. Clear all eight and the ticker tells you its shield is down (though other groups moving into the ring can raise it again). Then go in and destroy it. Your mission isn't complete until you do; the pilot's log shows its state.

In its sector you'll hear its deep hum before you see it: a great flying saucer wrapped in a shimmering forcefield, its fighters waiting inside it. Your shots have to wear the forcefield down first (it flares where you hit it, and grows patchy as it weakens) until "MOTHERSHIP FORCEFIELD DOWN!". Then hit the saucer itself until it breaks apart. It won't let you get too close: fly at it and it backs away, holding off at a distance it can fight from.

It fights back with four gun points on its rim, one at each end and two underneath, each firing at you from where it sits. While the forcefield is up they're protected behind it; once it's down you can shoot them out one by one (they darken when damaged) and silence its guns for good. With its guns gone, its fighters come pouring out of the bay underneath, a few at a time, until the bay is empty. They're fanatical: they throw themselves between you and the mothership, don't dodge your torpedoes, fight on when hit, and fire far more often than other Selenites. Breach its hull and it breaks up, explosions ripping across it faster and faster, before it blows apart in a shower of coins you can collect. Destroying it also earns a bounty of 25 coins. Leave the sector and its forcefield will be back to full strength when you return, but the damage to its hull stays.

The Selenite commander

From Pilot level up, a Selenite commander roams the galaxy. It moves from sector to sector hunting your starbases, and when it reaches one it attacks: you'll hear "COMMANDER ATTACKING STARBASE" and you have about half a minute to get there before the base falls. Starfleet reports sightings every so often, and it shows as a red diamond on the chart wherever you know it to be.

Beware its tractor beam: now and then, between fights, it locks onto you (more often when your energy is low). You'll hear the alarm and see "WARNING: TRACTOR BEAM LOCKING ON": hyperwarp at once and you'll break free. If you don't, your engines are overridden and you're dragged, stars streaming past, into its sector to face it. It fights alongside that sector's battle group, and it's twice as tough as a Hivemother. Like a Hivemother, its shields turn aside shots from a distance: get in close to hurt it. Destroy it for a big boost to your rating and a shower of coins. Your mission isn't complete while it lives.

Starbases and docking

Some sectors have a Federation starbase. Arrive in one and the ticker tells you; it's out there ahead of you. To dock:

1. Fly towards it and bring it into the middle of the fore view.
2. Slow right down: speed 2 or less.
3. Close in until it's near and hold it steady: "ORBIT ESTABLISHED", and your engines cut so you hold station. A transfer vessel sets out from the base towards you: watch for its blinking lights growing as it comes, and listen for its homing pips.
4. Keep steady until it arrives: "TRANSFER COMPLETE". Your energy, shields and hull are full, every damaged system is repaired, and your torpedoes are restocked.

Your game is saved every time you dock ("GAME SAVED" on the ticker), to your SD card beside the game. If your mission ends, or you switch off, press C on the main screen to CONTINUE from the starbase where you last docked, with everything as it was then: your ship, your coins and upgrades, your rating, the galaxy and the Selenites' positions.

Speed up or let the base drift out of line before the vessel arrives and the transfer is cancelled. When you're done, press a speed key (1–9), even from the shop, to undock and fly off; come back any time to dock again. On the long-range scan the starbase shows as a glowing blip; when it's too far away for the scan, it sits on the scan's edge in its direction, so you always know which way to fly.

Defending a starbase. Selenites in a starbase's sector attack it as well as you. Its shields hold for a while, then its hull starts to go, and every time it's hit it fires two guided torpedoes back at them, as long as it has torpedoes left. Help it out: the battle happens right in front of you. If a starbase is besieged while you're there, the Selenites come in to attack it rather than wearing it down from outside. Even when you're elsewhere, a besieged base fires its torpedoes at the ships around it, and sometimes that's enough to break the siege.

Don't shoot the starbase. It takes damage like anything else, and it doesn't take kindly to it: it warns you off, refuses to dock you for half a minute, and answers every hit with two homing torpedoes. Keep shooting and you'll destroy it, and your rating will suffer badly.

The shop

While you're docked, the pilot's log opens on the starbase's upgrades page (page 5). Choose with up / down, buy with fire (or SPACE / ENTER). S still raises and lowers your shields while you shop.

Upgrades last for the rest of the game.

Coins

Destroy a Selenite and it leaves coins behind: one from a Drone, two from a Cruiser, four from a Hivemother. Get near and your ship's tractor draws them in; fly through them and they're yours. Don't leave them too long, as they fade after a while. Your total is on the pilot's log and at the bottom of the screen. Spend them at a starbase (see The shop).

Dark energy crystals

Smash a small meteor and there's no money in it, but it may hold a dark energy crystal: a violet sphere with glowing amber spikes. Your tractor draws crystals in like coins, though they're heavier and come in at about half the pace, and each one you collect adds 250 energy (up to the most your ship can hold).

Be careful where you shoot. A crystal hit by your fire blows up in a burst of dark energy. If you're close, the blast hits you hard (your shields take it first). Any Selenites near it are caught too, so a crystal drifting among them is a weapon, if you dare.

Solar systems

Some sectors hold a solar system: a sun and two to six planets, the same every time you visit. Arrive and the ticker names it. The sun glows yellow far ahead, and the nearest planets are coloured by what they are: green for farming worlds, brown for industry, red for mining, and cyan for high technology. They show on the long-range scan too (the sun yellow, the planets cyan), on its rim when they're too far away, so you can always find them.

The sun is a source of energy. Fly close and it slowly recharges you. Too close, and it starts to burn your hull ("HULL OVERHEATING!"), so don't linger.

Moon bases

The Selenites hold prisoners in bases hidden under four moons. Each moon is a white disc on the galactic chart, and each has a battle group guarding it that never leaves.

Getting there. Hyperwarp to the moon's sector and clear its guard. The moon hangs in space ahead of you, and it's on your long-range scan. Fly close to it and slow right down: IN ORBIT. Shots stop on the moon, yours and theirs, so it makes useful cover in a fight.

The robot. In orbit, press R and a robot beams down into the base. You drive it from the cockpit: the joystick walks and turns it, and fire stuns an alien. The first rule of robots: don't kill, stun is fine. The sight snaps onto the nearest alien in reach and turns red when it's locked on. Press R again to beam the robot back up. While it's down there, time in the galaxy slows right down, and no new battle group can come into your sector.

Prisoners. They sit in chairs, hoods up. Walk up to one and they turn round. Most are human and beam straight up to your ship, but some are Selenites in disguise: an impostor throws off its hood and joins the hunt. The icons at the bottom of the window show who's been found (pink rescued, red an impostor). Take the prisoners you rescue to any starbase: 20 coins each.

Inside. Each base goes three levels deep. Red and yellow key cards open the doors of the same colour; lifts take you down and back up. The map in the corner fills in as you explore, and shows the aliens you've seen. Coin troves and dark energy crystals are hidden about, and hearts repair the robot.

The aliens. Aliens wander near their posts. If one sees you it sounds the siren, and every alien in the base comes hunting. The alarm dies down after a few seconds unless one of them can still see you, and stunning the one that raised it silences it straight away. Walls and closed doors block their view, and a calm alien only sees ahead, so you can creep up behind one.

Losing a robot. An alien in contact drains the robot's energy (the bar above the icons). If it runs out, the robot is lost and that base is shut until you leave the sector. You start with three robots and can buy more at a starbase; you can't go down without one.

Watch the attract demo to see it done: its autopilot flies to a moon that still holds prisoners, orbits and sends the robot down, then drives the robot itself, finding its way to hearts, prisoners, treasure, key cards and the lifts, stunning any alien in its sights, and bringing it back up when there's nothing more it can reach.

Liberated. A moon remembers who you've found: a prisoner rescued stays rescued. Find them all and the moon turns green on the chart. But if the Selenites overrun a starbase, its people are taken to a moon base, usually one you'd already cleared, and it's back in play. If no moon has room, there are no survivors.

Your mission

Destroy every Selenite in the galaxy.

When you arrive in a sector, its battle group comes for you with every ship it has left. Each Selenite destroyed is one fewer in that group; ships that break away will come round again. Clear the galaxy to win.

The mission ends when:

• the last Selenite is destroyed: MISSION COMPLETE;
• your energy runs out: OUT OF ENERGY;
• your ship is destroyed: SHIP DESTROYED.

Your result and rank stay on screen until you press Start, SPACE or ENTER, which takes you back to the main screen.

Scoring

Your rating starts at zero:

• +6 for every Selenite destroyed;
• −1 for every stardate that passes, once your rating is above zero, so don't dawdle.

At the end, a bonus for your level and the outcome is added:

Your final score gives your rank, from lowest to highest:

Galactic Cook · Garbage Scow Captain · Rookie · Novice · Ensign · Pilot · Ace · Lieutenant · Warrior · Captain · Commander · Star Commander

Each rank also has a class, from 5 (just made it) up to 1 (top of the rank).

Training is unranked.

The stardate

Time is measured in stardates, starting at 1701.0. Time slows as you approach hyperwarp speed and stands still in hyperspace, but in normal space the clock is always running, and the Selenite fleet is always moving.

Tips

• Keep your shields up in a fight, but watch your energy.
• A fully charged phaser shot is devastating. Charge between attacks and don't over-hold.
• Lock on before firing torpedoes. A locked torpedo rarely misses.
• Use the long-range scan to see what's behind you.
• Hyperwarp and cancel to break away from a fight you're losing.
• Plan your route on the chart. Shorter jumps cost less and are easier to fly.
• In a moon base, stun the alien that raised the alarm first; the rest calm down again.
• Keep an eye on the robot's energy bar, and remember where you saw the hearts.

Credits

The Selenites and Cavorite come from H.G. Wells's The First Men in the Moon (1901).

Music: The Blue Danube (An der schönen blauen Donau, Op. 314) by Johann Strauss II, 1866, public domain, arranged from the tune as printed in James Kerr's Merry Melodies.