CYBORG (ZX Spectrum Next)

CYBORG

A bullet-hell Sinistar for the ZX Spectrum Next!

Out in open space, they are building it.

Workers strip crystals from the asteroids and carry them to a place in the dark where, piece by piece, a face of flesh and steel is put together. When it’s whole, it wakes.

“I LIVE! RUN, MEAT!”

And it comes for you.

YOU HAVE NO GUN

You have sprays: eight different patterns of shots, one to a key. You start with one. Earn the rest by mining crystals and shooting the right enemies, then hold as many as you can at once and fill the screen with fire.

• RING: 24 shots at once, turning
• SPIRAL: three arms, every frame
• FLOWER: 32 shots at rising and falling speeds, in six petals
• WAVE: sine ribbons in the direction you face
• VORTEX: shots thrown off a turning circle
• STAR: twelve ways at three speeds
• FAN: seven shots ahead
• PINWHEEL: four arms turning at two speeds

OPEN SPACE

Space is open and wraps all the way around. Push a direction and your ship turns and speeds up. Let go and you drift. The screen follows a little ahead of where you’re heading, and the radar shows you all of space at a glance: asteroids, workers, enemies, crystals and the CYBORG itself.

BREAK IT, MINE IT, STOP IT

• Shoot the asteroids to knock crystals loose. Crystals fly to you when you get close, and every 8 crystals earns you a new spray
• P pickups drop from warriors now and then, and hunters always drop them
• Extra ships appear as 1 pickups, and you earn a life every 50,000 points
• Shoot the workers first. A worker carrying a crystal drops it when it’s hit
• Knock pieces off the half-built CYBORG before it’s finished. Every delivery brings it closer to waking
• Die and you lose the last spray you got, though never your first, and you come back right where you were

WHEN IT LIVES

Once it wakes, it hunts you. It’s a little slower than you, but it fires rings, aimed fans, and spirals when it’s hurt. Touch it and you die.

Destroy it to clear the zone. The next zone is harder, with more workers and warriors, spinners and orbs from zone 2, hunters from zone 3, and a tougher CYBORG every time.

CONTROLS

• Fly: Q / A / O / P, cursor keys (7 / 6 / 5 / 8) or a Kempston joystick
• Sprays: Space, Z, X, C, V, B, N and M, in the order you get them (Kempston fire fires your first spray)
• Pause: H

The panel lights up the spray keys you own, each in its own colour.

Requires a ZX Spectrum Next.

Mine. Spray. Survive. Don’t let it wake.