This document is provided by HARDWARE HEISTER and input by BELLE STARR, for your playing pleasure. ARCHON - THE MANUAL INTRODUCTION THE GAME. ARCHON depicts the eternal struggle between Light and Darkness as a contest of action and stategy between opposing forces wrought from myth and legend. The Light Side and the Dark Side are equal in number, balanced in strength, but not identical. Their aim, however, is the same: conquest of the five "power points" or the elimination of the opposite side. ICONS. The various fantastic creatures at your command are represented by specific images - "icons" - stylized pictures of knights, goblins, manticores, and the like. There are 18 icons - a total of eight different kinds on each side. None of yours are identical to any of the icons on the other side. THE TWO SCREENS. ARCHON is played on two screens. On one - the strategy screen - you and your opponent take turns maneuvering your icons into favorable positions. When you place an icon on a square already occupied by one of your opponent's icons, the game shifts temporarily to the second display, the combat arena. HOSTILITIES. In old-fashioned and - admit it - somewhat dull board games (chess, backgammon, and their ilk), the "defending" piece gets removed quietly from the board, and the "attacker" wins the "battle" - and the square - without a blow being struck. In ARCHON, we do not allow such docility, such rank defeatism on the part of the defender. No! If you want that square, you have to fight for it! When you try to occupy a square held by the enemy, the disputed square expands to fill the entire screen ... and then, in the words of a certain orange-skinned monster of comic-book fame, "IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME!!!" THE LUMINOSITY CYCLE. ARCHON's strategy screen *changes*. While some squares are always white or always black, others - "luminance" squares - vary in brightness throughout the game in a simple pattern: black-dark-barely dark-barely light-light-white... and reverse. Back and forth, throughout the game, the cycle continues, the luminance shifting after every other turn. Your fortunes in the game tend to ebb and flow with the luminosity cycle. This is because icons of the Light Side are harder to defeat on light squares than on dark ones. conversely, DarkSide icons are stronger on dark squares and weakest on white ones. POWER POINTS. The five "power points" are indicated on the screen by flashing red symbols. Icons on power points heal faster than usual and are protected from the effects of magic spells. If your icons occupy all five power points, you win the game. MOVEMENT. If the hollow square or "frame" is on your side, it's your turn. (Simple, eh?) Use your joystick to move the frame atop the icon you want. Once you push the button to confirm your choice, you >must move that icon somewhere<. (If an icon has nowhere to go, the computer will not allow you to "pick it up".) Once you move the icon to its destination (again with the joystick), push the button again, and the obedient image will freeze in place. Movement comes in three flavors: ground, fly, and teleport. Ground movers cannot move through occupied squares; fliers are restricted only in where they land. fliers can also move diagonally; ground icons cannot. Only the Wizard and the Sorceress can teleport, but for practical purposes you can think of them as fliers in disguise. On any turn, you can move an icon as far as its range allows in any direction or comtination of directions. It can stop on any square not already occupied by one of your own icons. Note: If you change your mind while maneuvering a ground mover, you must backtrack. Otherwise, the computer, being very literal-minded, will assume you are trying to extend your move unlawfully. COMBAT. Action in the combat arena is immediate and simultaneous; there is no taking turns. Joysticks direct movement of the icons. Pressing the button initiates an attack - swinging a sword, firing an arrow, casting a fireball - in the direction the joystick is pointed. You can attack or move in any of eight directions: up, down, left, right, and the four diagonals. Important: your icon cannot move while the button is pressed. Combat is of three general types. Knights and Goblins are sword-swingers and club-wielders; they must be very near an opponent to inflict damage. The Banshee and the Phoenix inflict damage in a circular area around themselves; the longer the opposing icon is in that circle, the greater the damage it sustains. Such "area" attacks need not be aimed. All the other icons "throw" missiles of some sort and can, consequently, do damage from a considerable distance. See the Quick Reference Card for a detailed comparison of the speed of and damage done by the different missiles. THE ATTACK INTERVAL. while combat is fast and furious, you can't just fire away as fast as your finger twitches. It takes a moment to raise a sword into position to strike; longer to conjure even a fast fireball; and the better part of two whole seconds (!) to rip a boulder out of the ground and lift it high enough to throw. Pushing the button before your icon is ready to strike will accomplish nothing - except to keep your icon from moving. At the exact instant you can launch another attack, the computer rings a bell - a high note for the Light Side, and lower one for the Dark Side - to let you know. BARRIERS. The obstacles or barriers in the arena go through luminosity cycles of their own. Be careful; they can be as tricky as an opponent! Normally, a barrier is impenetrable. However, when its cycle changes a barrier's luminosity to exactly match the color of the background, the barrier disappears ... for a few seconds. You can walk over it, shoot past it, anything. It's gone. Furthermore, for a few seconds before a barrier vanishes and after it reappears, you can walk or fire a missile through it, but you (or the missile) will be slowed down. If this seems at all confusing, just remember that the more solid a barrier looks, the more solid it is. If you have any doubts, avoid the barriers entirely - and get out of the way of oncoming missiles. LIFE, DEATH, AND WOUNDS. The "lifelines" at either end of the arena indicate the current lifespan of the two battling icons. When an icon is wounded, its matching lifeline is reduced in proportion to the severity of the wound. When its lifeline is gone, the icon is "dead" and combat is over. A victorious icon returns to the strategy screen in control of the disputed square. However, a seriously wounded icon is easier to defeat the next time it is forced to fight. Even the strongest icon can be worn down by waves of attackers. On the strategy screen, wounded icons are healed slowly by the simple passage of time; more quickly, by resting on a power point; or instantly and completely, by a Heal spell. See next doc for MAGIC SPELLS.