THE INCREDIBLE WIZARD (1 or 2 players)

A player is referred to as a "worrior" as he or she is in the Dungeons of Wor, the Wizard's homeland. In two player mode, both players play at the same time, in the same maze. Player 1 is on the left, player 2 on the right. Their adversaries are the Wizard and his pets, the Worlings.

STARTING THE GAME

Choose "1-THE WIZARD." Another menu comes up asking for a one or two player game. Choose one, and a third menu will ask for easy, medium, or hard. Choosing one of these will start the game.

Before each maze there is a screen display to inform the player(s) to "GET READY," and of any bonuses awarded. Then a super large "GO" screen appears for a few seconds before the next maze starts. The worriors enter the maze from the bottom and have ten seconds to leave their home squares before they get booted in automatically.

PLAYING THE GAME

The hand control functions for The Incredible Wizard are:

Because of the nature of a unified-field disturbance, only one shot can be "in the air" at a time, and until it strikes a wall, monster, another shot, or the other worrior, another shot cannot be fired. Long corridors can be dangerous because while the shot is traversing the corridor, a monster can come in behind it and eat the player, who could not shoot again. This puts a great importance on WHEN the player shoots, and when NOT to shoot. Alternately, short shots hit nearby walls and can be reloaded quickly, giving the player a rapid-fire capability. The problem with short shots is there is only one chance to shoot a monster or he will sneak in between shots and run over the player.

There are two objectives in The Incredible Wizard: descend as far as possible into the dungeons and score as many points as possible. Higher point totals are achieved by shooting the Worluk and the Wizard to earn a point multiplier on the next maze. Descending into the eighth maze earns the player the title "Worlord" and the privilege of challenging the Worlord dungeons. An extra player is given a fourth maze, nicknamed "The Arena," at the eighth maze entering the Worlord dungeons, and at the eleventh maze, the pinnacle of the Worlords, "The PIT." Extra players are also awarded every four more mazes, e.g. 15, 19..., and another PIT is encountered, giving Worlords a standard to compare each other's ability, as in "I made it to FOUR PITS!!!"

The first creature to battle is Burvor, the hopping monster. He is the slowest of all the monsters and is always visible. After Burwor is Garwor, the chomping monster. Then, Thorwor, the "lightning" monster, as he is the fastest of the three basic monsters. Both Thorwor and Garwor are invisible until the player is in the same CORRIDOR as the monster. The real world analogy is that a person walking around a corner is "invisible" until they "appear" in the front of the observer.

A RADAR at the bottom of each maze tracks these "invisible" monsters. Although the radar has no lines to show the walls in the maze, one can get very good at knowing where a monster is located in the maze. The radar is critical in tracking Thorwor as he moves too fast to rely exclusively on reflexes.

DON'T WALK AROUND A CORNER JUST BECAUSE NO MONSTER IS VISIBLE!! Check the radar first.

Clearing all these monsters out of a maw brings out Worluk, the flying monster. Worluk is visible all the time and will try to escape out of one of the two magic doors. He is very fast and can be avoided if the player chooses to do so, but then double score may not be earned for the next maze. Should you try and stop him, maneuver towards the door and cover it, so when Worluk tries to leave, you are in position to shoot him. After the Worluk escapes or is shot, the Wizard may appear.

The Wizard comes out more frequently in higher mazes, and is more difficult as the player descends deeper into his dungeon. He disappears and reappears and cannot be tracked by radar.

Avoiding the Wizard is impossible, as he will teleport closer and closer to either wonior until one of them has "bit the dust" or has shot him. Shooting the Wizard makes his magic waver and the entire dungeon shakes with his demise. He cannot be completely destroyed and will be back in a subsequent maze. While he is walking around, he is shooting lightning bolts in random directions waiting for a mistake.

To battle the Wizard, one can try to anticipate his movement into a corridor and shoot down that corridor, or one can wait for him to walk in front of you and shoot him then. The latter method has a serious drawback. While waiting for him, he is reappearing closer and closer to you, and he might show up right behind you! Shooting the Wizard doubles the next maze's points, so shooting both the Worluk and the Wizard is good for QUADRUPLE (4x) points in the subsequent maze.

SCORING

PLAYING AGAIN

To play The Incredible Wizard again, press the RESET button, and follow the instructions for starting the game.