Astrogeddon is a high-speed, asteroid-blasting arcade game which fuses old-school gameplay with new-school cool.
The game features fully rendered 3D graphics, 360-degrees freedom of movement, huge explosions, a wide range of
power-ups and more than 20 types of enemy spacecraft, spread over a massive 100 levels.
THE PLOT: An alien armada has swept the galaxy, laying all to waste.
Diplomacy has failed and New Earth is under attack.
Star Fleet has been destroyed and you are our last remaining hope.
Astrogeddon will not run unless you have an up-to-date copy of Microsoft DirectX installed.
DirectX is a free add-on for Windows which enables games to make full use of your PC's
multimedia capabilities. Most PCs come with DirectX pre-installed, but if you encounter
any problems, please try downloading the latest version (currently 10) either via Windows Update
or from the DirectX Homepage (to check which
version you currently have, click the Windows "Start" button, select "Run" and type dxdiag.exe).
3. Playing The Game
Every time you are hit, your shield will be depleted.
If it runs out completely, you lose a ship.
You begin the game with three ships.
You can regenerate your shield, collect new ships and boost your firepower,
by collecting the power-ups released from the wreckage of enemy craft.
YOUR WEAPONS
PULSE LASER: You start with a low-powered single shot laser gun,
but can boost your firepower by collecting the orange cross-hair power-ups.
Your current firepower is indicated on the matching cross-hair icon at the top of the screen.
Don't waste your shots as your firepower will steadily decrease the more you fire.
UNGUIDED MISSILES: These missiles launch two at a time, always along a straight path.
GUIDED MISSILES: These launch one at a time, from alternate sides of your ship,
and always home in on the closest enemy craft to their initial direction of travel.
FLAMETHROWER: This a very powerful weapon, but it burns out quickly, so use wisely.
It is particularly effective against enemy craft fitted with shields.
SPREADFIRE GUN: Only available in the full version.
CHEAT KEYS
If you have the full version, you can enable and disable the cheat system by typing the word "CHEAT" at the game's main menu screen
(you won't see the word as it's typed, but you will see an acknowledgement afterwards).
Once enabled, you can use the following cheat keys while playing the game:
F1 - restores your health and lives. F2 - loads your ship with all the weapons available. F3 - nukes all enemy craft. F4 - toggles collision detection on and off. F5 - restarts the current level. F6 - skips to the next level. F7 - toggles between normal and slow speed.
ADDITIONAL KEYS: the "Pause" key will pause the game; "Esc" will exit the game.
4. Hints
If the spinning background makes you spacesick, switch it off via the Options/Graphics menu.
If the game is too easy or too hard, try changing the difficulty
level. On the easy level, your ship will be able to take more hits,
but you will be awarded fewer points.
To succeed, you MUST collect power-ups, but only collect the ones you need: ignore shield and missile power-ups
if you are already fully loaded and only collect bonus points if it doesn't put your ship at risk.
Try to stay in the centre of the screen - you'll have more time
to react to approaching danger.
If your ship is hidden off the edge of the screen, don't hang
around waiting to be hit - take a chance and just accelerate ANYWHERE.
Prioritize your targets - eliminate the most dangerous enemy craft first!
Keep the number of asteroids on the screen to a minimum by
picking off the larger rocks one at a time: shoot one large
rock, shoot all the smaller rocks released, and only then shoot
the next large rock.
Some of the alien craft home in on your ship. You can confuse
them by moving off one side of the screen and appearing on the other.
If an alien craft is attempting to chase or shoot you, the safest place to
be is usually behind it!
Some alien craft are protected by shields. The flamethrower weapon can penetrate
shields, but if you only have laser shots and missiles, you will have to attack through the
gap at the rear of the ship.
If you encounter any problems running Astrogeddon, see our Support Page.
Every time you are hit, your shield will be depleted.
If it runs out completely, you lose a ship.
You begin the game with three ships.
You can regenerate your shield, collect new ships and boost your firepower,
by collecting the power-ups released from the wreckage of enemy craft.
