Patrol Communique 4024/8: Friendly robot freighter downed on planetoid Beta-7 in your quadrant.
Cargo: Valuable trimetalisium energy crystals. Enemy star cruiser with fighter drones enroute to confiscate these highly valuable blue energy crystals.
Mission: Recover as many crystals as possible. Destroy all enemy fighter drones you encounter. Intelligence reports that enemy is combat testing new models of these drones and will periodically replace them during melee.
Mission Status: Critical. Expect extreme danger when penetrating orange atmosphere of Beta-7 planetoid. The energy crystals have ionized the gases to such an extent that your horizontal drives will be useless: you may not be able to move left or right at low altitudes. No further communication authorized. Good hunting.
1. Plug in Joystick or Ball Controller.
2. Turn power OFF, insert game cartridge.
3. Turn power ON.
4. DIFFICULTY SWITCHES are not used with STAR FOX since the enemy automatically becomes more aggressive as your score increases.
5. JOYSTICK CONTROLLERS move your space ship in any direction. When you enter the orange atmosphere your landing gear will automatically deploy. You will not be able to move left or right while in the planet's atmosphere. The red button on the joystick fires your laser cannon.
6. BALL CONTROLLERS work very well with STAR FOX. Higher scores should be possible.
7. GAME SELECT SWITCH will allow you to choose the difficulty level and whether one or two players will be playing.
| (man) |
(smile)
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Practice Mode - One player only, no scoring |
| (man) |
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First Level One Player - Scoring for successfully shooting or ramming enemy and for recovering crystals. |
| (man) |
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(man) | First Level Two Players - Play alternates starting with left Controller. |
| (man) | (diamond) | Second Level, One Player - Scoring for successfully shooting enemy and for recovering crystals. Colliding with enemy will cause you to loose a life. | |
| (man) | (diamond) | (man) | Second Level, Two Players |
8. BEGIN PLAY by pressing the game reset button or by pressing the red button on your controller. After each loss of a life, a controller symbol will appear at the top of the screen. Pressing the red button on your controller will restart the game.
Once you have pressed the red button, you are free to begin searching for crystals. They are always located just off the screen to the left or to the right. Flying in one direction then turning around and flying in the other direction is the best way to find crystals.
9. SCORING is done by destroying enemy fighters and recovering blue trimetalisium crystals. To destroy a fighter drone you may shoot it with your LASER or ram it. Be careful in the second level of difficulty: your ship is destroyed if you ram the enemy.
SCORES:
| Ram enemy |
10 points
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| Shoot enemy |
100 points
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| Recover crystal |
200 points
|
10. LIVES remaining in addition to your current life are displayed at the top of the screen. You have a total of four lives at the beginning of each game.
11. DIFFICULTY is determined automatically. As your score increases the enemy becomes faster. Your opponent is replaced automatically every 2000 points or so, depending upon the tactics programmed into the enemy. All but the most difficult enemy drones are available in the practice mode as well. In this mode, pressing the RESET switch will return you to the easiest enemy. Each successive fighter drone is more difficult to shoot than the last. Only the best players will get a chance to see some of the most aggressive units.
Your search for crystals will be greatly reduced by flying rapidly to the right or to the left. If you do not come across a crystal within a few seconds, reverse direction. This will generally bring a crystal into view almost immediately.
You are most vulnerable when with Beta-7's atmosphere while recovering the trimetalisium crystals. Since trimetalisium possesses an extraordinary amount of energy, they float above the surface of Beta-7. To reduce the time you must remain within the atmosphere wait until the crystal is near the top of the gaseous layer. It is also helpful to dive into the atmosphere at an angle instead of dropping straight down. Since your landing gear will deploy automatically as soon as your ship's sensors detect Beta-7's atmosphere gases you will decelerate very rapidly. Pick-up the crystal and ascend to thinner air.
STAR FOX by Mythicon has a high level of computer intelligence built in. The enemy is very smart and always knows where you are. It has an automatic tracking system which tells at what altitude you are flying, what airspeed you are maintaining and your rate of acceleration and deceleration.
Because of the extraordinary sensing devices aboard, a fighter drone is capable of detecting your every motion, except when bombing. It will attempt to evade your LASER cannon and reestablish an attack position behind your ship. Its sensors will also detect your entry into Beta-7's atmosphere. While you are recovering the trimetalisium crystals it will assume a bombing mode since it is not constructed to survive the ionized gases of the atmosphere. In this mode it will detect your location, hover above you, and release tactical bombs. When you rise out of the atmospheric level, it re-assumes its attack mode and the firing of its missiles.