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Today this section is dedicated to one of the best programs for "ZX-SPECTRUM" - the wonderful creation of the genius Pete Cook - "TAU CETI". In the application, you can get acquainted with the fully restored and Russian version of this program. The presented version was prepared by programmers from Perm - Busygin A.V and Litvinov A.A. But first, we recommend getting acquainted with the most detailed description of this remarkable program.
Busygin Andrey
TAU CETI
special edition
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PETE COOKE+CHRIS NEWCOMBY
CRL GROUP 1987.
In the distant constellation of Tau Ceti, everything became unclear to us. We send them "What is going on there?" And they send us back.
V.Vysotsky.
This work aims to shed light on the purpose of the game, introduce the controls, and generally popularize the wonderful game "Tau Ceti", created by the remarkable English programmer Pete Cook and his associate Chris Newcomby. But first, about the genre and the version of the game itself.
This game was released by "CRL Group" in 1987. The credits state: "Special edition", and on the dashboard, there is an inscription "TAU CETI III". Additionally, this version works exclusively on computers with 128K RAM. This is due to the large volume of additional game information organized in the form of an electronic disk. One can only sympathize with the owners of 48K "Spectrums", deprived of the pleasure of playing this excellent game, and advise them to urgently acquire a memory expansion board and turn their computer into a 128K machine.
"Tau Ceti" is a predecessor of the widely known game "Academy", and in terms of excitement and dynamism, it is no less inferior. Magnificent sound effects, beautiful graphic inserts, a vast gaming space, and a great plot - all this makes "Tau Ceti" an excellent space simulator, standing alongside the famous "Elite".
* * *
So, this whole story began in 2047, with the opening of the interstellar drive. Using hydrogen scattered in space as fuel, humanity rushed to the stars. First, the nearest star systems were explored and colonized. In 2050, the first Earth researchers arrived at the 4 nearest G-class stars: Alpha Centauri, Tau Ceti, Van Maanen's Star, and Beta Hydri. Seven months later, the first wave of colonists reached Tau Ceti and began building a civilization on the third planet of this star system. It was an inhospitable desert world with very sparse life. Forty years later, the colony had made significant progress. The Taukians built over 30 cities, created a powerful commodity-industrial base, and developed robotics and hydroponics.
Later, in 2150, a terrible disaster struck the population of the four growing colonies. A horrific epidemic - Encke's syndrome - swept across the planets.
Once it appeared, the deadly disease inevitably spread from city to city, leaving behind few survivors. When the last remnants of the colonists, defeated in their struggle against the plague, fled, only robotic life support systems remained on the planets.
Two years later, a cure for the plague was found on Earth, and communication between it and the two remaining colonies: Alpha Centauri and Beta Hydri, was restored. After a while, all radio contacts with the invaluable automated systems left on Tau Ceti were interrupted due to the fall of a massive meteorite on the planet.
Soon, the surviving refugees decided to return to their planets and recolonize Tau Ceti and Van Maanen's Star. In 2164, the first re-expedition to Tau Ceti was organized. The starship entered the system and, after reaching planetary orbit, dispatched a shuttle to the planet's surface. A minute after a successful landing, the shuttle sent a distress signal, followed by complete silence.
Experts concluded that the robotic defense systems created by the first colonists perceived the meteorite's fall as the beginning of an enemy invasion from space. After seven years of successful recolonization of Van Maanen's Star, a second expedition to Tau Ceti was organized.
There is only one way to stop the defense systems without destroying all remaining buildings - to send a military skimmer to extinguish the main nuclear reactor in the planet's capital - Centralis.
An experienced pilot can succeed where fifty will fail. You were foolish enough to volunteer.
* * *
So, you inserted the diskette with "Tau Ceti" into your computer and pressed the necessary buttons to start the game. Now, be patient and wait for it to load. This is quite a long story since you will have to read our advertisement as well. By the way, we do not recommend deleting it, because even if you manage to do so, unpleasant incidents may occur during the game, including a reset. So for a while, you will have to wait for the advertisement block to decode, and then the game itself. Soon, a square menu with five options will appear before you:
Start Game
Background Story
Instructions
Dashboard
Messages from Gal-Corp
The controls are listed at the bottom of the square (for the slow-witted, I will explain that selecting options is done with the up-down cursor keys, loading - with the "Enter" key, exiting by pressing "Break").
So, the lander (a special Gal-Corp shuttle) has delivered you to the surface of the third planet of Tau Ceti. At the beginning of the game, your skimmer is in its dock (as indicated by the corresponding inscription on the onboard computer display), fully fueled and ready for launch. The entire Galactic Commonwealth is waiting for you to start demonstrating wonders of heroism. But you have other priorities: it would be good to find out where the steering wheel of the skimmer is located.
In fact, military skimmers of Gal-Corp... By the way, what is Gal-Corp? Ah, yes, I remember: at the end of the 20th century, three monsters of the earthly space industry merged - the Russian NPO "Energia" along with Glavkosmos, NASA, and the European Space Agency - and created something truly unimaginable: the Galactic Corporation for Space Research, or Gal-Corp for short. The newborn monster quickly subsumed the entire unfortunate earthly industry, and to justify its existence, it sent innocent earthly fools to explore terrible planets in the depths of the Universe.
But we digress. So, in fact, military skimmers do not have a steering wheel as such, and they are controlled exclusively via buttons. By the way, the designers of the skimmers turned out to be rather clever guys and provided the option to customize the controls for a specific pilot.
The skimmer has two modes - flight mode and landing mode. In flight mode, you control the skimmer flying at a low altitude, destroying defensive structures, flying saucers, etc. In landing mode, you work with the onboard computer, giving it your (often quite silly) commands. As for the skimmer itself, as stated in the manufacturer's advertisement, "this is a powerful and dangerous ship capable of challenging even an experienced pilot." Not very encouraging at the start - personally, I don't like answering a skimmer's challenges, especially in the heat of battle with several flying saucers or fortifications.
The skimmer is equipped with a rotating turret with a single ruby laser, which tends to overheat at the most critical moments of the battle with robots, 8 heat-seeking missiles and a targeting system, 8 anti-missiles, 8 flares, an infrared night vision system, a Hoffman system radar scanner with a 360° field of view, four switchable displays for a panoramic view, a compass with automatic targeting to the city center via beacon beacons, as well as an onboard computer with guaranteed normal operation under any conditions (I wish my "PROFI" had such a guarantee!).
First of all, I advise you to customize the controls. This is done as follows: without leaving the dock, type "CONTROL" and press "Enter," of course. You will see a list of the initial control keys.
Q left;
O right;
S cursor up (during landing), or acceleration (in flight);
X cursor down, or braking;
Sp. fire, or select;
V switch screens;
M launch missiles;
F launch flares;
A launch anti-missiles;
H increase altitude;
G decrease altitude;
J hyper-jump;
L land on the surface;
R report on the status of the ship's systems and score;
I turn on/off the infrared night vision system.
Next, a question will follow, whether the keys are comfortable:
If everything is fine, press "Y", if not - "N" and define the buttons your way.
Well, let's assume you are familiar with the controls in flight mode. Now about the controls in landing mode. It is automatically selected by the onboard computer after docking the skimmer with something or after landing on the surface by pressing the "L" (land) button. You can get a list of commands by typing "HELP" or simply ".".
When entering a command, you can use abbreviations, but they must end with a period.
SERVICE (SE.) - repair, refueling the skimmer, obtaining weapons, flares: works only in the docks of support centers and the lander's dock.
HELP (.) - displays a list of commands on the screen.
EQUIPMENT (EQ.) - view available additional equipment.
CONTROL (CTRL) - redefine keys.
START (S.) - take off the skimmer.
LIBRARY - access to the library database: works only in the library dock.
LOAD - load a saved game from disk.
INSPECT - inspect the surroundings around the skimmer.
MAP (MAP) - view the planetary map.
NAME - enter the pilot's name.
NEW.JOURNAL - erase records and accumulated points.
EXIT (EXIT) - exit the game (after confirmation).
JOURNAL (J.) - notebook: a very useful thing, as it allows you to record which cities you have already visited without using outside papers.
PAUSE - pause in the game until "fire" is pressed.
RAMSAVE - save the game state in memory.
RAMLOAD - load the state from memory.
REACTOR - enter the active zone of the central reactor to install the collected rods.
RODS - view and assemble rod halves.
SAVE. - save the game state to disk.
SCORE - view earned points on the onboard computer screen.
TARGET - turn on the targeting reticle.
REMOVE.TARGET - turn off the targeting reticle.
REPORT - analogous to the "R" key in flight mode.
STORAGE - obtain additional equipment.
WAIT - wait (five minutes), usually used to wait for dawn.
ABOUT THE DASHBOARD
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1 - overview screen. It displays the harsh reality surrounding you on the third planet of Tau Ceti, where you will also read information from the library database, and so on.
2 - computer screen. The onboard computer of your skimmer will provide you with information about the status of the ship's systems, various travel messages, etc. You will also give it your commands here.
3 - timer showing local time. One Tau Ceti day is approximately equal to one Earth hour.
4 - inscription showing which screen you are currently viewing.
5 - city in which you are located. If the screen is blue, it means you are in the city, and if red, you are at a checkpoint.
6 - compass.
7 - screen shows the ship's location.
8 - radar shows all objects around you.
9 - window informing about the status of the infrared night vision device (1 - on, 0 - off), and the amount of remaining ammunition: missiles, anti-missiles, flares.
10 - in this window from top to bottom are displayed: flight altitude, energy of the force shields, fuel reserves, laser temperature, and skimmer flight speed.
11 - arrow indicating direction to the city center.
12 - arrow indicating direction to the space shuttle. Works only in the city of RIMA.
Well, now you almost know everything about controlling the skimmer, and it's time to get acquainted with the papers from Gal-Corp. They provide a brief description of that warm place you so recklessly volunteered to fly to.
What does the office write to you? So, ah, yes, on this planet, the day is quite short, approximately equal to one Earth hour, which is explained, as they say, by the planet's rapid rotation. Furthermore, the planet has no moon, so they suggest using the infrared night vision device at night. What else? Many buildings are equipped with docks protected by force screens. Therefore, docking with them should be done at minimal speed. The planet is covered by a network of hypercommunication lines, with stations located on the outskirts of the city. Jumpers - the local form of life usually gather near the stations, so it is recommended to slow down when making jumps to avoid crashing into them upon exit. The jump is made when you approach the station and press "J".
Alright, that's enough, these bureaucrats won't come up with anything smarter anyway... Ah, here's something interesting. A personal note from a charming girl!
What does she want from you? Unfortunately, she simply asks you not to turn useful buildings, like mines, industrial complexes, and hydroponic farms, into ruins while destroying military objects. She suggests remembering that every undestroyed building saves millions of credits in the future budget.
Well, try to curb your destructive tendencies and behave yourself. As they say, if a woman asks...
Now you can start the mission to save the planet for colonization. Let's take a look at the map.
By typing "MAP", you see that the computer has given you a map of the planet. It does not all fit on the screen, and to see the details of the plan, you will have to move it back and forth, aiming the targeting reticle at the arrows drawn on the lower red stripe and pressing "fire". You can get a larger view by aiming the reticle at the table "+", or look at the entire planet at once: "-". The "Search" option is used for quickly finding any city. For this, you need to enter its name and press "Enter". Aiming the reticle at any city and pressing "fire" will provide useful information about it.
The information is given in the following form:
Former population.
Main industry:
light industry;
high-tech industry;
mines, quarries;
food industry.
Approximate level of security:
Extra;
High;
Medium;
Low.
Hyperjump stations to other cities.
Cities on the map are connected by hypercommunication lines. This means that you can get from one city only to the neighboring one connected by this line.
For example, from Rima, you can get to Heim if you use the western hyperplatform, or to Centralis if you fly south.
Well, that's it, you have nothing more to do in the lander's dock. Type "START" and take off into the harsh world of the third planet. Look around. You are surrounded by mysterious structures. How to know which ones are good and which ones need to be destroyed? So far, it seems no one is shooting at you. Choose the direction north-east by the compass, or even directly east, and fly to the reactor substation. Halfway, you are attacked by flying saucers. After easily dealing with them, you suddenly see one of the towers starting to rain fire on you from its laser.
"Ah! So this is the control tower," you realize - "To hell with it!!!". The debris of the audacious structure scatters around, and you finally see the reactor substation. Nearby stands another building with a diamond shape on the roof. For your information, this is a library, and an inexperienced person sitting in a skimmer for the first time will find it useful to take a look there.
Fly into the library dock (but be careful, or your pieces will fly into the corners!), and carefully watch what the onboard computer will write. Now you can access the extensive library database by typing "LIBRARY".
You will see a menu of four items:
Access to data;
City maps;
Identification table;
Exit.
Not being clever, start from the end. If you choose the last item, you will find yourself back in the library dock. It’s better to take a look at the identification table. In it, you can find all the objects that you may encounter on this planet.
The data is presented in the following form: picture, below the picture - name of the object and its equipment.
Hangar - presence of a dock for receiving the skimmer;
Mobile - ability to move;
Armed - presence of weapons (lasers, missiles);
Defense - presence of protective means (anti-missiles);
Force shields - power level of the force shields.
On the right side, you will see two arrows and a table "exit". By aiming the cursor at the arrows and pressing "fire", you can view the entire map.
Having memorized this entire table by heart, you can continue your stroll through the library. Now take a look at the city maps. You will see a list of cities whose maps are available in this library. Position the cursor on any name and press "fire". Before you will be a fragment of the city plan with mysterious symbols. Cunning Pete Cook wanted you to struggle with his game for a while, so to draw the full map of the city, you will have to move the image back and forth for quite some time. Movement is done with the arrows at the bottom. The pictogram of two squares means that by standing on it, you will find yourself in the city center.
To understand what is drawn on the map, stand on the indicator "LEGEND". It will decode all these symbols for you. Just in case, I will also decode them. The symbols mean:
Filled squares:
green - reactor;
blue - support center;
yellow - space shuttle.
Unfilled squares:
green - library;
blue - fortress;
yellow - control towers, spheres, domes.
Filled diamonds:
green - automatic factory;
blue - barrier mine;
yellow - hyperjump station;
Unfilled diamonds:
green - beacon;
blue - radar tower;
yellow - industrial objects;
magenta - volcano.
Now another small nuance: in the list of city plans available in the library, you will see a name marked (CHECKPOINT). This is an advanced settlement, a checkpoint that exists near each city. How to get there? More on that later. For now, a bit about the library's data bank. It contains information about a good forty objects. You will learn many interesting details about the planet, the history of galaxy exploration, skimmers, etc. You can exit the data bank by typing "EXIT".
Now let's go back a bit. You haven't forgotten what the onboard computer wrote to you when you flew into the library, have you? Just in case, I’ll remind you. It said:
THERE IS A STORAGE IN THE LIBRARY
This means that the library has samples of the scientific and technical achievements of the long-gone colonists. They will be very useful to you. Therefore, type "STORAGE" on the panel, and now you will have to solve the color-sound access code to the storage. You will see a prompt to enter the code. Bring the cursor to the rectangle with two arrows in the center of an octagon made of the same shapes and press "fire".
Cheerful music will play, red-yellow rectangles will spin, and when they stop, you will need to select one of them with the cursor. If you guess the right one, a red square in the top row will light up, and the same disco will repeat, and you will have to find the same rectangle again, and so on until all squares are lit. If you make a mistake, you will have to start all over again from the central rectangle.
When you light up all the squares, a message will appear: "Locking system deactivated, storage opened," and you can take what was in the storage.
You can receive various items, which are selected randomly, and there is no way to predict what exactly you will find in this library. Nevertheless, the overall list of items is small, and I will list and describe them.
ANTI-RADIATION SUIT. It will be useful when you venture into the active zone of the main reactor to insert the collected rods. Even crawling in an active zone in a suit is a very unhealthy activity, and without it - pure suicide. The suit will give you a slight delay from radiation sickness, although you shouldn't rely on it too much.
SHIELD RECHARGE UNIT. A very useful thing, as it allows you to reduce your force shields' regeneration time by half.
SPARE SHIELD. A wonderful item. It allows you to last much longer in active combat zones than you deserve, as when your main defense is breached, instead of the message "game over," a message will appear that the spare shield has been activated, and the defense energy will return to maximum. The only inconvenience is that this is a one-time device and does not regenerate after use, so try not to let it come to that.
HYPERDRIVE. As you already know, there are advanced settlements near each city, and this machine is needed to get there. To use it, press SIMBOL-SHIFT and the button that corresponds to hyperjumps simultaneously. Just keep in mind that not every checkpoint has a support center, and this device consumes fuel just as much as a regular hyperplatform. And also, for heaven's sake, before jumping, determine where you are and check the map for what is at that checkpoint, or you might find yourself in quite a predicament...
EXPERIMENTAL SUPER MISSILE. It has a stunning effect, hitting all enemy objects in the city. It is launched by simultaneously pressing SIMBOL-SHIFT and the missile launch button. Use it only when there is absolutely no other option left.
DURIUM CRYSTALS - a very strange thing. By looking into the library, one can learn that these are the rarest crystals found only on Tau Ceti III, very unstable, and used in the latest force fields to service high-energy explosion recuperation. Initially, they have no effect on your skimmer, but then, at an opportune moment, they explode, disabling all systems - from lasers to force fields.
If you are attacked at that moment, and you have no (or still have) super missiles, you can order a funeral at Gal-Corp's expense. Most likely, these crystals are used in the robots' defensive systems. Alright, we've finished with the library, I can only suggest that you can get additional equipment in the cities of RIMA, CENTRALIS, HEIM, STAR, PERM, ENTROLA, ROUEN, FORT. And to find out what is available on the skimmer, you can type the code word EQUIPMENT. Now let's fly to the reactor substation.
Upon entering the substation, you will receive a notification that a certain quantity of graphite rod halves has been loaded into your skimmer. You have nothing more to do in this substation, so fly to another city. When you gather about ten to fifteen halves, you can try to assemble a couple of rods. This is done as follows: by using the command "RODS," you enter a special room and start checking which halves you have available. They will be shown at the bottom, and at the top, there are six blue squares. You can place several halves there, and then see if there is a pair for them. Move the bottom row by aiming the cursor at the pictograms with arrows. To transfer halves upward, aim at it with the cursor and press "fire." Then drag the "stuck" half to a free window, and after placing it in the center, press "fire" again.
The window you are manipulating will be highlighted. Now you can do anything you can think of with the half. Turn it over, rotate it, and even change its color. The corresponding pictograms serve for this. Two more pictograms are used to return unwanted halves to the bottom row. The one marked "ONE" will return the one you are working with, while the second "ALL" will return all those at the top.
Now you are almost an experienced pilot and can go further, searching for graphite rods all over the planet. On my part, I can give you a hint about the cities where military support centers are located, that is, where they provide missiles and anti-missiles. These are ZILOGI (OUTPOST), ENIGMA, ZMIEV, HEIM, GRIADA, PERM, LAX, ATLAS, ATLAS (OUTPOST), RUSSIAN, PENTAGON. As you can see, they are not everywhere, so take care of your ammunition.
A tip for novice kamikazes. While in the center of Rima, jump to the outpost and see what happens to you.
Now let's assume that you have achieved the incredible and collected 40 halves and assembled 20 graphite rods from them. Don’t rejoice, your adventures are not over yet. Now you have to repeat the fate of the Chernobyl liquidators. First of all, fly to Centralis and look for the main reactor there.
When you get to the dock, don’t forget to dump the situation onto the RAM disk, you’ll thank me later. Now type "REACTOR" and here you are in the active zone. In front of you are twenty holes where the rods need to be inserted. They open in random order and for a very short time. During this time, you need to catch a rod with the cursor and hold it in the grip by pressing "fire". Now drag the rod to the hole that is flashing yellow, aim more accurately, and release the grip ("fire"). And do this 20 times.
As the radiation counter readings grow in the right part of the screen, you will be "delighted" with the following messages:
DANGER: THIS IS A HIGH RADIOACTIVITY ZONE - this upon entering the reactor. RADIATION DOSE HAS REACHED THE RECOMMENDED MAXIMUM BY GAL-CORP. ATTENTION: RADIATION HAS EXCEEDED THE MAXIMUM FOR THE SPACE SUIT. ATTENTION: RADIATION DOSE IS CLOSE TO CRITICAL LEVEL. IMMEDIATELY LEAVE THE REACTOR CHAMBER! And finally: FATAL RADIOACTIVE DOSE. MISSION FAILED.
Now you understand that you need to act quickly and accurately? Don’t forget about the beautiful lady who sent you a letter before your flight.
She is unlikely to want to tie her life to a person who has lingered in a nuclear reactor, even if he has saved the budget millions of credits. Therefore, try to finish the "disassembly" with the reactor without reaching the Gal-Corp maximum.
However, if you do everything as it should, you will receive a huge bonus from the Corporation and a medal for bravery, and grateful Tau-Chinese will erect a monument to you at the site of your immortal feat.
Safe travels!
P.S. By the way, if you are puzzled about the names of the cities, we decided not to leave them in English (try, for example, to pronounce SCARTH in Russian), and we proceeded from the fact that Gal-Corp is an association... see above. Therefore, the map contains both Russian and foreign names of cities.
Contents of the publication: Spectrofon #13
- Expertise - Андрей Бусыгин
Guide for piloting, finding graphite rods, completing reactor tasks under radiation threat. Tips for city exploration, saving strategies included. Achieving success awards player with corporation bonus.
- Debut - Андрей Школьников
Discussion of the game 'Worm in Paradise' by Level 9, its complex gameplay, and narrative intricacies. Exploration of the 'Silicon Dreams' series and protagonist Kim Kimberly's adventures. Insights into game mechanics and thematic elements.
- Assault - Василий Смирнов
Analysis of game 'HIJACK' with strategies and codes for success, shared by player Vasiliy Smirnov from Kirov. Key to advancing in the game is acquiring codes for opening doors and accessing transport. Exploration of the relationship between different codes and game progressions.
- Exam
Summary of the game contest 'THEY STOLE A MILLION' in Spectrofon #13. Detailed answers from reader Anton Igoshin. Gratitude to participants and encouragement for future contests.
- Premiere
Release of a new version of the logical game 'COLOR LINES' by Moscow's Grepan brothers, featured in Spectrofon #13 with an additional demo reel.
- Review
Review of simulation and sports games for ZX Spectrum, including 'F-19 Stealth Fighter', 'Carrier Command', 'Dizzy 7', 'Hudson Hawk', and 'Magic Johnson's Basketball'. Highlights features, graphics, and gameplay elements.
- Review - Вячеслав Медноногов
Description of the game 'UFO: Enemy Unknown' by Vyacheslav Mednonogov, detailing the storyline of alien invasions in 1997 and gameplay mechanics.
- Overview
Announcement of the 'SPECIAL FORCES' game by Step Creative Group, inspired by 'LASER SQUAD'. Players command a team of space marines against various threats. The article also mentions a new game, 'UFO: ENEMY UNKNOWN'.
- Bits from the World
The article discusses tactics and strategies in the game Elite, focusing on cargo management, achieving ranks, and exploiting game mechanics. Authors share experiences with item limits, cargo extensions, and combat techniques. Interesting insights on using Alien Items and technical lasers are presented.
- System - Matthias
Comprehensive guide on using SOUND TRACKER for ZX-Spectrum, covering features and functionalities like pattern management and sound editing.
- Advertisement
The advertisement section of Spectrofon #13 provides contact information for purchasing the magazine, promoting collaboration opportunities for program developers, and offering various Spectrum-related products and services.
