THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABASE THE PYRAMID PUBLISHER Fantasy AUTHOR Bob Hamilton with Darren and Ian Hamilton YEAR 1983 DESCRIPTION A simple, fun arcade game with large, amusing aliens. Attempted to introduce a character, Ziggy, with a "Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy"-style plot. CONTROLS Fuller, Kempston, Mikro-Gen and cursor joysticks supported, plus 3 keyboard options, listed on opening screen. INSTRUCTIONS The action all takes place within one screen. Shoot sufficient aliens to release a crystal; protect it from the aliens, pick it up when it turns blue and drop it above an exit. Repeat until the exit is clear, then leave that screen. INLAY CARD TEXT [back cover - picture of Ziggy within a triangle] THE PYRAMID is an arcade style game which has a very adventurous feel to it. The Pyramid contains 120 chambers on 15 levels. In order to get from one chamber to another you must fight off the indigenous aliens to collect an energised crystal which will neutralize the force field guarding the two exits. The Pyramid is inhabited by a total of 60 wierd and exotic alien types, all of which are beautifully animated. You will meet a whole variety of demons, droids, insects and monsters, with a sprinkling of the more unusual, the extra-terrestrial tweezers, galactic strawberry, cosmic claw, mutant eye, plus a whole host of entities that defy rational description. You will no doubt invent your own nicknames. You proced to explore the pyramid from top to bottom with the difficulty generally increasing with the depth of level. Depending on the choice of exit from each chamber you are likely to have a different game every time you play. Apart from the challenge of trying to achieve the highest score possible the pyramid contains a number puzzle to solve. The more chambers you successfully visit the more information is gathered to enable you to discover the secret numbers of the pyramid. The puzzle won't take you days to solve, it will probably take you a few months. The manned craft shown in the pyramid above is your exploratory capusle and is a true representation of the on screen graphics. Compatible with all leading joysticks [leaflet text] THE PYRAMID: THE SCENE WARNING! This is probably quite the silliest scenario ever written for any video game and we make no excuses for it. The more sober minded of you should turn over for the instructions. The original answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the universe and everything was 42 but many aeons have now passed since Deep Thought produced that magical number. Ever greater and greater mega-computers have come and gone since then with no further advances being made - that is, until Ziggy came along. Ziggy was both very inquisitive and very ambitious from birth. At the age of three months he decided that his life's quest would be to solve the puzzle once and for all. Instead of turning to the much tried computer, Ziggy decided to search for clues back in history and spent his 200 years of adolescence plugged into the memory banks at the offices of the Encyclopedia Galactica. At the age of 218 Ziggy obtained his Cosmonaut's licence and was free to fly the Universe on his great mission armed with just one clue from all his years of research. This concerned two amazing coincidences in connection with a small microcomputer known as the Spectrum. The Spectrum originated on a seemingly insignificant planet known curiously as 'The Earth' and when that planet was destroyed in a galactic highway clearance scheme some enterprising cosmic salvage expert recovered one of these machines and claimed universal patent rights. Within a matter of years the Spectrum became the universally biggest selling microcomputer of all time. The first amazing coincidence occurred on the planet of Imagit where 99% of the population were involved in the production of games for the Spectrum. On one fateful day, each of the 15,217 Software Houses of Imagit revealed their latest and greatest game to the realisation that they were all exactly identical, down to the very last byte. The resulting bitter conflict over rights was solely responsible for the outbreak of Cosmic War V. This game, The Pyramid, simultaneously created independently by 15,217 Software Houses became an all-time best seller once Cosmic War V was over and played a major part in the second amazing coincidence. The people of the planet of Sunder were games nuts and at this particular time were all nuts on 'The Pyramid'. In a moment of unparalleled frustration the entire population of 8,000 million, while playing the game, began leaping up and down in perfect synchrony and at a devastatingly destructive resonant frequency. The shock wave created sparked off a series of massive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions which tore the planet Sunder asunder. The Pyramid was subsequently banned from sale resulting in the creation of the most lucrative black market in history. For Ziggy, the odds against these two events occurring by chance were so ginormously ginormous that he reasoned there must be some fundamental significance in them. Ziggy got hold of a Spectrum at a space museum in a nearby galaxy and started conducting tests. For many years he toiled away searching for some vital clue to point the way on his quest until one day when the Spectrum was routinely churning out its pseudo-random number sequence he noticed a familiar pattern - the Spectrum has produced an Astral Co-ordinate. A computer check revealed that the co-ordinate belonged to the remote and largely unknown planet of Zargon, and in the centre of a large desert area. You now join as Ziggy arrives after a long journey to discover that at the precise astral co-ordinate produced by the Spectrum lies (yes...you've guessed) a PYRAMID. This third coincidence confirms Ziggy in his belief that he is close to the Ultimate Answer. We can reveal that as Ziggy you must battle your way through the Pyramid, chamber by chamber, to slowly discover its secret numbers. Once a chamber has been successfully negotiated its Key Number may be revealed to you - but not always. The guardians of the Pyramid have not made it easy so you will have to puzzle out the missing secret numbers from the relationship to the other numbers on that level (or possibly the ones above). The Ultimate Answer is the number for the inner sanctum chamber, the centre chamber on the lowest level. This number will have to be puzzled out and the techniques learnt from the puzzles of higher levels may well be of good use to you. This program may not be copied, hired out, lent, printed or broadcast by any means without prior written permission of Fantasy Software Ltd. COPYRIGHT (C) FANTASY SOFTWARE LTD 1983. The Pyramid was designed and written by Bob Hamilton. Graphics for chambers 5,6,7,11,12,16,20,21,22,34,39,45,60 and opening titles by Darren Hamilton. Graphics for chambers 2,18,26,29,40,48,53 and 61 by Ian Hamilton. (C) FANTASY SOFTWARE 1983. THE PYRAMID: THE GAME To explore the Pyramid you have an exploratory capsule with great defensive shield power and a highly effective phased plasmic laser to atomize the aliens. The Pyramid contains 120 chambers on 15 levels with the principal object of the game being to reach the base level (level 15) as quickly as possible. Each chamber is inhabited by one of a variety of 60 wierd and exotic aliens. Contact with these aliens is deadly but your shield power will protect you. Your shield energy is ued to atomize the unfortunate aliens on contact but this repeated action will deplete your supply of energy. When no power is left in your shield you become totally vulnerable to attack which will result in you (poor Ziggy) being splatted all over the screen on being hit. You will be pleased to know that your total shield power is fully replenished to 100 units every time you enter a new chamber. Your current level of shield power is indicated against 'P' on the scoreline. As you descend deeper into the Pyramid the aliens generally require more energy to atomize so you'll have to keep out of their way as much as you can. There are two exits from each chamber, both of which are guarded by a force field. The force field has to be neutralized in order to leave the chamber. This is achieved by means of an energised crystal which will descend from the top of the screen after a certain number of aliens have been atomized. The number of aliens to be destroyed before the next crystal is released is indicated on the scoreline against 'A'. The crystal has 3 energy states. In its highest energy state (white), the crystal will destroy any aliens that come into contact with it and has too much energy to enable you to pick it up. Any contact with the crystal in this state will result in loss of shield power. In its intermediate energy state (yellow) it is still not possible to pick the crystal up but it is now vulnerable to destruction by the aliens. In its lowest energy state (cyan) the crystal can be picked up and this is achieved simply by moving into it with your capsule. When you are carrying the crystal your capsule changes colour to cyan, however the crystal remains vulnerable to the aliens and is lost if the capsule is hit. The force fields guarding the two exits also have different energy states, four of them, indicated by yellow (highest), cyan, green through to magenta (lowest). Dropping a crystal through a force field decreases the energy state by one level or if in its lowest state will neutralize the field, allowing you to exit. Release of the crystal takes place automatically as the capsule passes over either of the exits although it can be picked up again in an emergency. Scoring for the game is a little unusual in that points are awarded for the speed with which you negotiate each chamber. As you enter a chamber the available points starts at 9999 and inexorably decreases as time goes on. You can still enter the next chamber even if the points have dropped to zero, your score will simply stay as it is. The points can be seen ticking away against 'S' on the scoreline. For each person there will probably be an optimum route through the Pyramid which you will have to gradually discover with experience. If you score more than 30,000 your high score will be coded. Send your score and its code to us and you may earn a place in our ranking list of the top 1000 scorers published every 6 months. After successfully negotiating a chamber the entire pyramid will be displayed showing your route so far and the next chamber to be entered (flashing). The key number for the previous chamber will also be displayed and this should be noted down. If a line of question marks is displayed then the key number for this chamber is missing and will have to be puzzled out. Watch our for details of a competition connected with the number puzzles in the Fantasy Micro Club newsletter. The following four joystick options are available: 1. FULLER 2. KEMPSTON 3. AGF/PROTEK 4. MIKROGEN There are three keyboard options available (and additionally the cursor keys can be used by selecting the AGF (Protek option). These are detailed on the opening page when the game starts. Keyboard use is very subjective and we hope to have covered everybody's tastes - let us know if we haven't! The required option is selected on the opening page and stays in force for the duration of the game. We hope you have a lot of fun playing 'The Pyramid' and that you enjoy meeting all the aliens invented to do battle with you. We strongly urge you to send back the reply slip and join the Fantasy Micro Club which has a regular newsletter with member's offers on both software and hardware, news on games, scores and member correspondence. One last point, the game can be held at any time by pressing "ENTER" on the keyboard. It can be restarted in the same way. CHEATS 44685,0 gives, effectively, infinite energy, though you still lose the crystal if an alien hits you while you're carrying it. SEQUELS/PREQUELS Sequels: Doomsday Castle and Backpackers Guide To The Universe (part 1). Not particularly similar to The Pyramid but also featuring Ziggy. SCORES RECEIVED URLs GENERAL FACTS NOTES The aim is to deduce the Key No. for Chamber 113. Chamber Key No. 001 000001 002 000002 003 000003 004 000005 005 ?????? 006 000011 007 088841 008 103041 009 035721 010 017689 011 000017 012 000013 013 000027 014 ?????? 015 000019 016 000211 017 000223 018 ?????? 019 000229 020 000233 021 000239 022 000003 023 000007 024 000031 025 ?????? 026 008191 027 131071 028 524287 029 000210 030 000090 031 000084 032 000378 033 000567 034 000042 035 000128 036 000384 037 000027 038 000035 039 000061 040 000072 041 000093 042 ?????? 043 000012 044 000088 045 000023 046 148877 047 205379 048 226981 049 300763 050 357911 051 ?????? 052 493039 053 571787 054 704969 055 912673 056 000101 057 000131 058 000151 059 000181 060 000313 061 000353 062 ?????? 063 000757 064 000787 065 000797 066 000919 067 000723 068 000180 069 000357 070 000289 071 000209 072 000317 073 000489 074 ?????? 075 000557 076 000995 077 000414 078 000486 079 002240 080 001344 081 000936 082 000936 083 001128 084 ?????? 085 001147 086 001258 087 001598 088 001316 089 000868 090 001302 091 001470 092 007854 093 041990 094 000520 095 015015 096 001750 097 010868 098 003267 099 018865 100 006050 101 057967 102 002310 103 013851 104 002584 105 004004 106 236313 107 000033 108 000217 109 000146 110 000015 111 032850 112 034839 113 ?????? 114 000711 115 000641 116 000026 117 433316 118 348816 119 000052 120 000129