DEFENDERS OF THE EARTH is based on the very popular T.V. series of the same name. The Defenders, four super heroes from the Golden Age of Comics are: FLASH GORDON - The Team Leader. MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN - A master of illusion. LOTHAR - The strongest man in the world. THE PHANTOM - Has the strength of ten tigers at his command. They are aided and abetted by their pet mascot ZUFFY. A Team - Invincible, Ready, Able and Willing to Defend the Earth at all times. The courage and skill of the Defenders is put to the ultimate test by the evil of their arch enemy MING THE MERCILESS. He knows that only the Defenders stand in the way of his plan to be Master of the World. To stop them he abducts their children and takes them to the dark dungeons of his Fortress. He issues a dire warning - Interfere and your children die. A daring plan is conceived and put into action. Detection by the highly sophisticated intruder alarm would mean the instant death of the children and so Flash will enter the dark and dangerous fortress alone in the hope that he will be able to pass undetected through the intruder systems. Flash agrees to summon the other Defenders to his aid should he need it. Lothar and the Phantom will use their incredible strength, Mandrake will use his occult magical powers to confound the forces of evil under Ming's command and even Zuffy offers his help in whatever way he can. Flash, armed with a powerful handgun, transports into Ming's fortress with the future of the world in the balance. PLAYING INSTRUCTIONS - Flash starts the game with a number of power shields which will be worn down by contact with enemy fire and direct contact with Ming's forces. The shields are shown in the bottom left of the screen. Flash is invisible to the detector system while he is on his own but watch out for the special field generators (Amiga and ST only). Crossing the generators while they are still active will set off the alarm and bring the full might of OCTON against him. (Spectrum - CBM 64 - Amstrad) - If Flash spends too long in a location, he will be detected by the intruder alarm system. The only way he can conserve his energy is to leave the location as quickly as possible. Flash can jump or duck to avoid the attacks by the vicious creatures inhabiting the fortress and he must be careful of the secret weapons concealed in the wall. When Flash needs the special help of the other Defenders, he activates the "CALL HELP" key. He will need them to help open some doors, cross chasms, deactivate the intruder detection system, etc. The Defender most able to help will be sent by Dynak-X. If they are hit by the enemy forces a loss of energy level will occur. The Defender will have to leave if his energy level gets too low and will be unusable until his strength is built up again. If no one is available to help then Flash will have to survive on his own. Flash can give his weapons extra charge if he can find power packs scattered in the fortress. He can also find and use more powerful guns (16 bit) that will be useful in dealing with some of Ming's special bodyguards such as Mongor the Serpent. He may also come across extra energy and extra shields. Ming's main throne room is the scene of the final battle where the fate of the children and of the world will finally be decided. Loading Instructions Amiga: Turn machine off. Put disk into drive and turn computer on. The game will autoboot. Leave the disk in the drive when playing. Atari ST: Turn machine off. Put disk 1 into drive and turn the computer on. When prompted put disk 2 into drive. The game will autoboot. Leave disk in drive when playing. Follow any on screen prompts. C64: Tape - Press SHIFT and RUN/STOP simultaneously. Press play on tape. The game will load and run. Disk - Type Load:"*",8,1. The game will load and run. Spectrum: 128K Tape - Press ENTER at the loader prompt and press play on side A of the tape. You will be asked to turn over the tape. Do this and the complete game will load and run. 48K Tape - Type LOAD "" and press play on side A of the tape. The game will load and run. You will be asked to stop and start the tape at various points. Follow the on-screen instructions. +3 Disk - Switch on machine, insert disk and press Enter. Leave the disk in the drive. Amstrad CPC Tape - Press CTRL and the small ENTER key. Press play on tape. The game will now load and Run. Disk owners type: tape <enter> first. Leave the play key depressed throughout playing the game. Disk - Insert disk and type RUN"DISK <enter>. Leave the disk in the drive. Controls AMIGA - ATARI ST - CBM 64 - use joystick only. P - pause (RUN/STOP on CBM 64). Press fire to restart. A - abort. SPACE - call help SPECTRUM - AMSTRAD Q - jump or go through upper door A - duck or go through lower door O - run left P - run right SPACE (or M on Spectrum) - fire 1 - call help H - pause (press fire to restart) T - abort Program (c) 1990 Enigma Variations Ltd. Characters and name (c) 1990 King Features Entertainment Inc. King Features Syndicate Inc. All rights reserved.