Quadralien
Brought to you by Belgarath

It was October 2057 when I awoke. I had been in cyberslumber for 3 weeks while the 
shuttlepod silently crossed the Asteroid Belt and docked with Jupiter Outpost 5. There 
wasn’t even time to visit the rest room before the Outpost’s director, Dr. de  Boochs was 
with me. 
“What’s happening?” I asked, still groggy. They dragged me out of bed and bundled me 
on a Zippo TransBelt Sleeper for Jupiter the same day. No clue about the mission. No 
time to pack. And of all the places to go, Outpost 5!” 
Outpost 5 was pretty dead, only a few people eavesdropping on the weird stray signals 
from the sinister Quadraliens, who seemed to be all over the sky. It is the last place 
you’d expect the kind of lethal bother that I handled. 
“‘It’s   Astra.  Boy are we in trouble” said de   Boochs. 
I lit up a cig and asked, “Astra? The powersat? 
“It’s the massive fission reactor they orbited a couple of megaclicks down Jupiter orbit 
from here. It powers everything we’ve got in deep space, including this place.   " 
“Fine. But the whole stack’s on auto and has been ever since the construction crew 
packed up twenty years ago. Any problems and there’s some system of magnetic slave 
droids to sort it, isn’t there?” 
“Yes, the Dynamic  Magnetics  System of Entropy Control. It’s functioned flawlessly until  a 
month ago. Now the telemetry tells us the system’s gone rogue and the temperature’s 
rising. Radioactivity’s all over the shop, We could be heading for a real Chernobyl.   " 
"Hmmm" I said, looking for an ashtray. “Bad news. But you could override Astra’s 
central computer and chain the whole thing through to Earth control. You don’t need to 
drag  me out of bed.  " 
“Yes we do. Astra’s Computer won’t talk to us. And it’s sealed off access to all its higher 
levels. " 
‘Machine mutiny? So, no way to defer Meltdown remotely. That’s bad.”
“it’s  worse than that. " 
I glanced through the window and could see a dark speck move across the swirling face
of Jupiter. It was too small to be Galilean, too large to be Amalthea.  It must be Astra. It 
looked like I’d be down there pretty soon. “What could be worse?” I asked, trying to set 
the voice to cool. 
“You know the quantum-quantum power beams Astra sends out? They go in all 
directions, where ever there’s a deep-space machine that needs energy. It looks like the 
beams have taken Z-way traffic. " 
“Huh?” By this time, I was holding a smoldering stub.
“The Quadraliens. They’ve ridden a beam down to Astra.” 
“You mean.....?” 
“Yes. The Quadraliens have established a foothold in our Solar System. There’s a 
Mother in the very heart of the Reactor itself. " 
“Okay, de Boochs,  what can I do?” 
“We’ll give you six droids. They’re all packed and ready to go. it’s too radioactive for 
you, even in a suit. you’ll have to control them form the comms-room on each of Astra’s 
levels. You know now it’s a double mission, don’t you?” 
“Yeah, ""  I said. “‘Prevent meltdown. That’s hard enough. But you also want me to seek 
and destroy the Quadralien Mother, don’t you?” As I spoke, the lights dimmed for a 
moment, then came back on, but blue and eerie. 
“They must be tampering with our energy beam” said de  Boochs. “The Quadraliens 
have us in their power already. You’d better go. Any questions?” 
“Where’s the rest room?”


LOADING 

Atari ST:     Double click on the icon  labelled QUAD.PRG 
Amiga:        The program will auto-boot. 
PC:           Note:  CGA disk 1, VGA disk 2. Boot your computer with DOS. “Log 
              onto” the floppy drive containing the Quadralien program disk. Type
              "QUAD" <ENTER>. NB-PC version: all mouse functions must be  actioned 
              by indicated function keys. 

Mission Briefing: Astra

Astra  was  the last and largest of humanity’s fission reactors. It orbits Jupiter and 
transmits power on quantum-quantum beams to almost all machines and outposts in 
Deep Space.
Astra has 3   levels,  each comprising 6 chambers, and the Reactor Core. Each chamber is 
a unique environment. 
Astra is fully automated, day-to-day maintainance being controlled by the Dynamic
Magnetics System of Entropy Control (DyMSEC). This system comprises slave droids
which either attract (red-black on PC) or  repel (blue-white on PC) and  Mega-boxes whose 
fields extend indefinitely. 

Objectives

You have a double mission, 

1.  Prevent Complete Breakdown of Astra. Astra will cease to function if the core 
TEMPERATURE is too high or the operations ENERGY is too low. Temperature is
reduced by sending water barrels down chutes, or occasionally reducing the
Entropy level, which is a measure of the movement of the   DyMSEC (see above). 

2. Find and Destroy the  QUADRALIEN MOTHER. 

Selection Screen

The first mouse operated Screen is the   Selection  Screen. This enables you to choose your 
<LEVEL>,  select Droids and Chamber, and   <ENTER>  upon a chamber. 

LEVELS 

Astra's  computer has sealed ail but Level One. 70 gain access from one level to the next, 
you will need to reach a Target Score for that level. Then you will be given the security
code the next level. This code must be entered on the Levels Screen (on which you
appear in a spacesuit, except on PC} using mouse or keyboard. Once you have reached 
a higher level, new games can begin if you retain the code number, 

THE DROIDS 

1. SELECTION 
You have 6 droids from which to choose 2 to deploy at any one time. A droid is
selected or deselected by using the mouse to click on its picture. The selected droids’
pictures are highlighted by a drop-shadow. 

2. WHICH  DROID? 
Each droid has different characteristics, and these can be studied by clicking on the red 
squares at the top left of the droids’ pictures, Detailed information is similarly available for
each characteristic- click on the red box. Particular characteristics, are likely to favor 
certain droids for work in particular environments. 

3.  CHANGING  DROIDS  
You may change your droid selection at any time by bringing  a 
droid to a console, accessing it and clicking the   <QUIT>  function and then entering the
Droid Selection Screens. 

4. OPERATING THE   DROIDS
Once you are in a chamber, you can only operate one droid at a time. This droid is 
represented by the icon near the top right of the screen. This droid’s energy is 
directly below the icon, and the other droid’s energy is to the right of this. 

THE CHAMBERS 
Each level has 6 chambers, increasing in complexity clockwise from the top. The 
chambers in the same position on each level constitute a module. Chambers can be 
studied and selected in a similar way to Droids, by mouse control from the  <SELECT 
MODULE> function. Information about radioactivity, chutes and consoles is displayed in 
plain form. 

CONTROLS 
Once you have selected your droids and chamber, you enter the chamber by clicking on 
the ENTER icon. The MODE of directional control of your droid can be altered using 
function keys: 

F1: Move droid 
F2: Reorientate droid 
F3: Pan screen 

Directional control is by mouse or joystick or the following keys; 

Z Left              ‘(Apostrophe): Up 
X: Right            /(Forward slash): Down 

F4:                 Activate Geiger scanner (If you are carrying one)
F5                  Swap active droid 
F6/7:               Music off/on   (F7/8 on PC) 
F8/9:               Pause on/off   (F9/10 on PC) 
Help:               Restarts game, (ESC restarts on PC) 
RETURN key or 
Left Mouse Button:  Fire laser 
SPACE bar or 
Right Mouse Button: Absorb radioactivity, or Access Console, or Detonate 
                    Explosive, or pick up   Detonators/Geiger  Scanners. 

The following are available from the Selection Screen; 

S: Save a game to disk L: Load a game from disk 

Note: A formatted disk must be in drive A prior to activating Save or Load. 

CONSOLES 
Every chamber contains a number of information consoles. To access a console, place
your active droid next to and facing the console and press the SPACE bar or the Left 
Mouse Button. The Database Menu Screen will then come up, which is mouse accessed. 
This screen tells you the name of your active droid, the chamber and the level (top left
panel); the TARGET SCORE for the level (the panel below); and provides you with 8 
mouse accessed functions. 

<QUIT> This removes your droids and enables you to reselect droids, chamber 
(module) or level. 

<RECHARGE> This recharges the energy of your active droid. 

<SCRUB> This scrubs your active droid of radioactivity, enabling you to absorb more. 

<LEGENDS> All objects in chambers other than radioactive ones and
Quadralien workers are displayed. These are described below in
the Special Objects section.

<ENVIRONMENT> This accesses the databank on the chamber you occupy. On the
plans showing chutes, consoles or radioactivity, the location of the
droids is also indicated.

<STATUS> This accesses the database on your active droid.

<POINTS TABLE> All RADIOACTIVE objects are green (not on PC) and throb, except
radioactive symbols on the floor. The points gained by shooting or
absorbing radioactivity are given in this database. Exterminating
Quadralien workers with laser also gains points.

SPECIAL OBJECTS

All these objects are displayed in the <LEGENDS> database.

REPELLERS AND ATTRACTORS: These constitute the DyMSEC. The magnetic field
of a circular slave droid extends one space and those of the Mega-boxes indefinitely.
Other objects are sometimes contaminated with attractive or repellent properties.

<OK> Returns you to the chamber.

LIQUID COOLANT BARRELS: These will reduce temperature when pushed down a
CHUTE. Some may be magnetically contaminated, indicated by color.

ENERGY CELLS: These will replenish Astra’s operating energy when pushed down a
CHUTE.

EXPLOSIVE CHARGES: These can be moved by a droid and detonated by a droid (if it
is carrying detonators) positioned adjacent to it. Whatever is on the other side and
underneath will then be destroyed.

INFORMATION CONSOLES: See above

MAGNETIC TRACK: Originally designed to guide slave droids of the DyMSEC system,
these will now automatically move any objects with attractive or repellent properties.

UTILITY CHUTES: It is down these chutes that COOLANT BARRELS and ENERGY
CELLS are dropped.

GEIGER SCANNERS: These can be picked up by placing your droid over them and
pressing the SPACE bar. Some droids already carry these, and they are used to
highlight radioactivity.

EARTHING BOX: If a droid is moved onto an earthing point, he is disabled as all his
energy is drained away.

2 EXTRA DETONATORS: These can be picked up like GEIGER SCANNERS. They are
used to detonate EXPLOSIVE CHARGES.

LIGHTING POINT When a droid is placed on a lighting point, the entire chamber is
illuminated.

QUADRALIEN has been conceived and coded by Paul Carruthers and Ian Downend of ASTRAL SOFTWARE, Music by David Whittaker. 
Artwork by Junior Tomlin. 
Documentation by ASTRAL and Herbert Wright. 
Documentation layout by Dian E. Dulberger.
Text Documentation by Belgarath

(c) Astral Software/Logotron Ltd. 1966 All rights reserved.
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