Playing Tips
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As each round opens, your ship approaches the first asteroid,
which is topped by a high wall. To avoid crashing into the wall,
use your laser cannon to confirm your flight path. Since the
laser cannon fires straight ahead, the position where your shots
detonate indicates the path of your ship. If your opening shots
strike the wall, move until they pass through the center area of
the wall's opening. This will ensure that you enter the asteroid safely.
As you fly along the surface of the asteroid, stay low enough (about
the first mark on the altimeter scale at left) to hit the turrets
and tanks on the asteroid surface. Keep to the left as much as
possible, destroying enemy turrets first, and fuel tanks after
you've eliminated the turrets that defend them. The turrets fire
both forward and sideways, and their missiles move rapidly, so
you'll almost certainly be hit if you get close to a turret without
destroying it. Fire at the turrets from a distance, then weave back
to the right to hit fuel tanks.
Remember to keep an eye out for the
vertically rising missiles that come out of the ground silos - and
don't forget the equally deadly missiles launched from the turrets.
Don't climb unless necessary to avoid a missile or a wall - even two
seconds at high altitude will bring a fast, hard-to-avoid homing
missile down on you.
As you leave the first asteroid to enter deep space, move toward the
center of the screen to give yourself maximum maneuverability. Then
wait for the first of the enemy fighters. You'll find that they're
very hard to hit until they approach and prepare to launch their
missiles. The best technique for survival in deep space is 1. Wait
until crosshairs appear in front of your ship. 2. Fire instantly.
3. Dive or climb immediately. Don't fire and remain still - even if
you hit the enemy fighter its missile will still destroy you.
Practice this wait-fire-move sequence until you can confidently
destroy the enemy fighters. By the way, it can't hurt to start
firing at enemy fighters as soon as they appear on the edge of the
screen. Unfortunately, long distance hits are hard to come by.
The action will abruptly slow as you approach the mighty ZAXXON. Move
your ship to the right to draw ZAXXON over toward that side of the
asteroid so you can fire at it. Then rise to an altitude of about
2 1/2 marks on the screen altimeter, and begin firing as rapidly as
possible. When ZAXXON launches a homing missile, try to hit it
several times to neutralize it (you'll see it change color), then
continue to fire at ZAXXON itself. Remember, only multiple hits at
the right height can destroy ZAXXON - and earn you points. If you
can't score these hits and destroy the homing missile, your fire
will at least drive ZAXXON back and you can begin another round of
attack.
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