Date: 6 Mar 91 02:47:26 GMT
From: noao!ncar!csn!magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu!news@arizona.edu (Frank E. Seipel)
Subject: Dropzone, .OBJ, GAME, A.N.A.L.O.G. 47, OCT 1986
To: Info-Atari8@naucse.cse.nau.edu

DROPZONE

by Steven Hiller
from A.N.A.L.O.G., issue #47, October 1986

 "Suddenly, your scanner detects the presence of an alien. Moments later it
screams into view, charging headlong at you. In desperation, you back off,
firing salvos of raw energy bolts at your attacker. One strikes home, and the
alien pod disintegrates into scintillating dust. You were lucky that time,
but how much longer will you be able to survive in the Deathzone?
 Deathzone is a fast-moving, 3-dimensional arcade game that will work on
all Atari 8-bit micros.
 [You should probably rename this file AUTORUN.SYS (it may or may not
work otherwise, depending on your DOS). Also boot without BASIC, or with
BASIC disabled (i.e., hold down option on booting XL/XE machines).]

                        Playing Deathzone

 If you followed the instructions correctly, you will now be looking at the
title page for Deathzone. Both the lowest (L) and highest (H) scores are
shown. You can start the game either by pressing the trigger of joystick 1,
or by pressing the START key. If you should wish to abort a game before
completion, either the SELECT or OPTION keys will bring you back to the title
page.
 When you begin the game, you'll notice that the screen is divided into
sections. At the very top is a horizontal line whose length indicates how
close the alien is. Two sets of directional arrows at either end of the line
indicate whether the alien is to your front, left, right, or rear. The next 
line is the status line, showing your score from let to right, lives
remaining and current level of play. Further down, there's a standard radar
scanner superimposed on the sky. The white central dot represents your own
position, of course.
 By using the joystick, you can move in and out of the screen, or swivel
on the spot. You must do your best to avoid both the aliens themselves and
the energy bolts they fire. Each time you're hit, you'll lose a life. You'll
need to dodge, reverse away and fire rapidly, in order to destroy the aliens
before they reach you. Incidentally, you can pause the game with the SPACE
BAR and continue it by moving the joystick.
 Every so often, an alien pod with rather different characteristics will
attack you. If you should succeed in destroying it, you'll receive an extra
life and move up to the next level. There are a total of six levels, each
progressively more difficult than the last. Should you complete the last
level, well...wait and see!
 Last, a word of thanks to my brother for writing a "black-box" 16-bit math
package, around which the game was based"