How to play Space Cruiser Orion
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If you're not familiar with the classic game it's based on, it may not be clear how to play Space Cruiser Orion. Here's a brief guide to get you started.

The action takes place on an 8 by 8 grid of galactic sectors, each divided for convenience into 8 by 8 squares. It's a tiny slice of space, but still gigantic at human scales. Good thing your ship is fitted with a Polaris drive, than allows it to travel very fast between points of interest.

There are 8 stars within the mission area, and you'll have to visit all of them to figure out where the missing outposts are. Make sure to optimize your trip: zipping back and forth across space is going to eat up your energy fast!

Each outpost is blockaded by 1 or 2 Mechanoid raiders. Mechanoids don't like the Space Patrol and will need persuading to leave. For this purpose, your ship comes with Pulsar guns, that have perfect aim but use a lot of energy, and Meteor missiles, that need to be aimed much like the ship itself, and can easily hit the wrong thing or miss entirely.

Getting started
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You start the game in a random sector. To begin with, you'll want to see the galactic `chart`, and get a `visual` of the local space. Most likely you'll be in the middle of nowhere. In that case, try to `jump` in-between a few stars, and `scan` the surrounding sectors to get an idea of what's waiting for you there. (While at it, also `refuel` your ship with interstellar hydrogen.) Or you can jump in blindly, but in that case expect to be shot at!

Either way, once in a star system there will be Mechanoid ships to deal with. Choose your weapon wisely! A single Meteor missile can destroy or cripple an enemy raider, but you begin with just a few, and they're prone to hitting any intervening bodies. You can `rocket` around to line up your shots, but that gives Mechanoids time to shoot back. Best to use the Pulsar guns if you're not too far and/or have the energy to spare. They have less, and might just run away if drained.

Speaking of which: your ship, the Orion, has limited energy reserves, and shields to protect it. Any hits you take will first deplete your shields, then start dealing damage. You should `reroute` more energy to shields if possible, because damage causes every ship system to misbehave. Take 50 points or more, and it's game over! But so it is if you run out of energy, so beware.

Once all Mechanoids are gone from the vicinity of an outpost, you can maneuver next to it and `dock`. That will replenish your shields, energy and missiles, and repair some damage. But outposts have limited resources! You can only dock five times during your mission, once per outpost (it can be the same outpost though), and you'll get fewer supplies every time. You can also make your own repairs in emergencies, but this, like many other things, uses precious energy.

Either way, once none of the outposts are blockaded anymore, you win the game. You can keep playing to hunt down any remaining Mechanoids if you like, but it's not necessary.

Hope this helps. Have fun!

Ship and missile course
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Course is entered as a number from 1 to 9, corresponding to the following directions:

	,___________.
	|  4  3  2  |
	|   \ | /   |
	| 5 -- -- 1 |
	|   / | \   |
	|  6  7  8  |
	`-----------'

You can add decimals for fine tuning.

Energy usage
------------

Many actions in game require energy:

- long range jumps use energy equal to the distance squared times 100;
- rocketing within a sector uses energy equal to the distance times 10;
- Pulsar guns deal damage to the target equal to energy divided by distance.

Map symbols
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On the galactic chart:

- "?" means sector not scanned;
- "!" means sector has outpost;
- "@" means your ship is there.

In the sector view:

- "-@-" is your ship;
- "-M-" is an enemy ship;
- "-!-" is an outpost.

Hints
-----

- outposts are always found orbiting a star;
- you can only dock with outposts five times, once for each, but it can be the same outpost;
- your ship can rocket past any obstacles;
- missiles sometimes miss, or hit the wrong thing even when aimed in the right direction;
- the more enemies in a sector, the easier you can surprise them and shoot first;
- you can ignore any enemies not blockading an outpost, but they'll add to your score;
- you score 100 points for each scanned sector and 500 points for each enemy ship destroyed.