Shadowfire

01 · Winning

Kryxix rescued, Zoff captured, and the ship cleared

The mission succeeds when Kryxix and Zoff have both been beamed aboard the attack craft and the other 42 people aboard Zoff V are dead or captured, with at least one of the team still alive.

The start menu after the last of the 42 has fallen, from a game played along this route.

Anyone but the team adds one to ENEMY KILLED OR CAPTURED by dying or being beamed aboard, Kryxix and Zoff included ($6542). At 44 the ship counts as captured, and with Kryxix and Zoff aboard the game goes back to the start menu with MISSION STATUS SUCCEEDED (start_menu, $74B9).

Two things end any hope of that. At 00:00 on the clock Kryxix is executed if he is still aboard Zoff V, and the count can then never reach 44 ($62BB). Zoff, once he is running, escapes if he reaches the end of his route. Neither the clock nor anything else hurries the rest: once Kryxix is safe, the clock runs on past 00:00 and the game goes on (Discoveries).

02 · The team

Three jobs only one of the team can do

Manto alone works the transporter, Sevrina alone opens locked doors without a key card, and Kryxix follows nobody but Zark.

Only Manto is offered the transporter beacons and the ballistic control on the objects screen (list_objects_here, $4CFA). The ballistic control stays fixed aboard the craft and puts Manto down in one of three places. A beacon works only where it lies: activated, it lists everyone standing at either beacon, and the one chosen is sent to the other beacon ($734D). Beacon 1 stays aboard the craft, so with beacon 2 put down aboard Zoff V the transporter links the two.

Sevrina opens a locked door with the tool kit, by activating it in the location the door leads from. A lock takes her about 32 seconds, and an attack stops her (activate_tool_kit, $7301). Kryxix starts in the inner interrogation chamber and follows Zark from the moment Zark walks in ($5B9A).

A weapon is only as good as the first figure of its strength, which combat uses in every location (Discoveries). The strongest have F there: the heavy $F6 gun, and the $F1 guns, which are among the lightest objects in the game. Sevrina's gun is one of those, and three more lie in the Robot Armoury. Maul, the slowest of the six, stays aboard.

03 · The landing

Manto goes first and brings the others down

The ballistic control's first destination is FIGHTER LAUNCH TUBE ONE, at the fighter bay end of the ship. Manto carries the second beacon there, puts it down, and beams the other four down to it one at a time.

04 · The Robot Armoury

Through two locked doors to the guns

From the launch tube the team walks to the Robot Armoury, where Sevrina opens two doors on the way. Guards attack all along this stretch, a few at a time.

In the armoury Zark, Torik and Manto each drop the weapon they carry and ready one of the three $F1 guns, and Syylk takes the heavy $F6 gun. The objects screen lists what lies in a location in the order of the objects' numbers, so the first of the four guns drawn alike is a weaker $63 one, and the three after it are the ones to take.

Then the team waits in the armoury until everyone's strength has climbed back near its full 255. Standing still brings it back, and the next two locations hold the hardest fights in the game.

05 · Zoff's security

A squad of eight comes to the command post

The way to Zoff's quarters goes through ZOFF SECURITY and Marshall Xator's command post. The first of the team to reach the command post sets eight guards walking towards it.

Location $41, MARSHALL XATOR S COMMANDPOST, is a trigger: the first team member there sets the patrols of the people from $0B to $12 going, and every one of their scripts ends in the command post (trigger_squad, $666B). Fight them there, all five together, before Sevrina starts on the door to the armoury.

06 · Kryxix

Zark walks Kryxix back to the beacon

Kryxix is held in the inner of the two interrogation chambers, beside Zoff's quarters. Zark fetches him and brings him back to the armoury, where Manto has put the beacon down.

Zark's way to the chambers goes round ZOFF QUARTERS ($4E), not through it, because the first of the team to walk into Zoff's quarters sets him running.

07 · Zoff

Zoff runs into the beacon

Zoff waits in his quarters until one of the team walks in. Then he runs for the fighter bay, and the first place he runs to is ZOFF ARMOURY, where Manto is waiting with the beacon.

The beacon's list a moment before Zoff is chosen, from the same game. The left-hand column is the craft, with Maul; the middle one is the armoury, with Manto and then Zoff.

1. Everyone but Manto and one other walks down-right into the outer interrogation chamber, so that the beacon's list has few people in it.
2. The other one, Syylk in the game played here, walks right from the armoury into ZOFF QUARTERS.
3. Meanwhile Manto chooses Activate on the objects screen and puts the cursor on the beacon, without choosing it yet.
4. As soon as Zoff appears in the armoury, choose the beacon and then Zoff. ZOFF HAS BEEN CAPTURED.

Zoff stops for a second in each place on his route and takes four seconds to the next (patrol script $15, at $BF00), so there are about five seconds to choose him. The beacon's list is made when the beacon is chosen, which is why the cursor waits on it until he is there. If he gets past, his route leads up through the command post and Zoff Security and out through the fighter bay, sixteen steps to FIGHTER COCKPIT ACCESS, where he escapes. Weapons cannot touch him (Discoveries).

08 · The rest of the ship

Hunting the last guards

With Kryxix and Zoff aboard the craft there is no hurry. What is left is to find everyone else, and the guards who patrol are the hard part.

A guard on patrol walks its route to the end and back, and some walk chains of routes across half the ship. Chasing one rarely catches it. Wait for it instead at a place on its route, which the Maps tab shows for every patrol (Maps), and fight it there.

Rest whenever anyone's strength falls below about 150. Sevrina opens the doors as they come. Manto can also capture a guard who stands still at the beacon: anyone beamed aboard the craft leaves play and counts as captured, as Kryxix and Zoff do ($5A68).

The way to the armoury, as far as ZOFF SECURITY, is the route Crash printed for the Spectrum in June 1986, which landed fewer of the team and beamed Sevrina down only when a door needed her.