REVECTOR
© 2004, Craig Aker

MISSION GOAL

Your goal is to outscore your opponent in a 7 minute timed match. You score points by shooting your opponent and by picking up power-up items. Revector can be operated player 1 vs. the Vectrex, or player 1 vs. player 2 simultaneous if you have 2 gaming controllers (highly recommended!).

GAME SELECTION

After the Vectrex has finished its power-up, the user can select game options on the player 1 controller. Toggle between 1 player game and 2 player game using button 1. Toggle between the different game types using buttons 2and 3.
Game options are :

- Game 1 : Standard game
- Game 2 : No Power-up items
- Game 3 : No Power-up items, no automatic weapon

When you are ready to begin press button 4.

STATUS DISPLAY

Player and game status information is displayed at the top of the screen. In the middle is a display of the current game time, which starts at 07:00 minutes and counts down to 00:00. Player 1 information is displayed on the right side, while player 2 (or the computer player) information is on the left. Each display includes from top down: score, health & energy. The score is your tally of your points. The health and energy displays consist of icons (heart for health, star for energy) and bars. When a bar is full, the corresponding health or energy is full. When it is low, the player is partially depleted.
If your health bar is gone completely, you will lose a vehicle and the opponent will be awarded 1500 points. Whenever one, or both vehicles are destroyed, a newround of fighting is started until the game time has elapsed. If your energy bar is gone completely, you will not be able to fire your weapon. The energy bar is slowly recharged automaticaly, but the health bar can only be replenished by picking up a power-up item.
At the beginning of a round, both players’ health is full, and both players’ energy is fully depleted.

HOW TO DRIVE

After game selection is complete, the game will begin. The players will be placed on their corresponding sides of the screen in a random position. Player 1 always begins on the right half of the screen and player 2 (or the computer player) begins on the left in a complementary position.
To turn counter-clockwise or clockwise, move the joystick left or right. To accelerate your vehicle forward or back, press the joystick up or down. You may bounce off of the walls (or the opponent!) without injury.

HOW TO FIGHT

To fire your vehicle’s semi-automatic weapon, press button 4 on your controller. To fire your vehicle’s automatic weapon, press button 3 on your controller. Note that the fully automatic weapon is not available in game 3, and button 3 will fire a single shot. If the player picks up smart bullets, button 4 will use the smart weapon, while button 3 will continue to use the standard weapon.
Once fired all projectiles become armed immediately, and can harm either player. A projectile can bounce off of the walls up to 3 times, but will self-destruct upon hitting the 4th wall. The player may have up to 5 projectiles on the screen at a time, and cannot fire a 6th projectile even if reserve energy is available.

POWER-UP ITEMS

In game 1, power-up items will appear randomly on the playing field. To collect the power-up, drive your vehicle over the top of the item. A unique sound for each item will be heard indicating that you have been awarded that item. The power-ups are:

- Health Recharge
  The heart will fully refill your vehicle’s health reserve.
  You will also receive 25 points.
- Energy Recharge
  The star will fully refill your vehicle’s energy reserve.
  You will also receive 75 points.
- Money
  The dollar sign will give you 1000 points.
- Freeze
  The toggling arrow will freeze a vehicle’s driving controls for a short time.
  You will also receive 125 points.

  When the arrow points to the right, player 1 will be frozen. When the arrow points to the left, player 2 will be frozen. Be careful not to freeze yourself! You cannot turn or accelerate while frozen, but you can fire.

- Invisible
  The spiral will make the vehicle invisible for a short time.
  You will also receive 200 points.

  If you are hit while invisible, you will become visible briefly. Beware that invisibility does not fool the Smart Bullets!

- Smart Bullets
  The 4-point star will add 10 smart bullets to your cache.
  You will also receive 150 points.

  The player’s energy bar icon will be changed from the 5-point star to the 4-point star to indicate that smart bullets are available. When all smart bullets are used, this icon will return to the 5-point star. Smart bullets will bounce toward the opponent vehicle after each bounce off of the playfield wall. Fire a smart bulet by pressing button 4 on the controller.

DISTRIBUTION

You may freely distribute this game to other collectors for use on personal Vectrex systems or use on an emulator. You may not profit from the sale of this game without specific permission from the author, however you are permitted to sale this game on an "at-cost" homebrew cartridge. This game may be distributed in bulk with the rest of the known Vectrex games, but should always remain free to download.
By running this game on your emulator or Vectrex you assume all responsibility for results of that action. This game has been tested for many hours on PC emulators and my personal Vectrex, but your mileage may vary.
Enjoy, and your comments are welcome! ... caker137(at)yahoo.com

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