Corescape

After your last trade of corefakeium crystals went sideways (your business associates decided to rat you out to the authorities to keep the merchandise, money, and the bounty), you are once again trying to escape from the evil galactic empire (is there such a thing as a decent galactic empire?). Luckily, your chances are great; you are only at the core of the main galactic hub space station where all of the empire's fleet is stationed.

Battle your way out through eight stages in a constant race forward – you have not been voted the "Best-looking blockade runner of the interior systems" for the last three years to be caught by the authorities. Collect additional lives and credits (score) on the way out.

Control is with a joystick in port two – just move and fire, no brains required. The space bar will pause the game, and 'Stop' returns you to the main menu.

Various cheats are available that can be activated during gameplay, but using them will prevent you from getting a high score:

• T: Trainer mode grants infinite lives.
• L: Gives you another life.
• R: Restarts the current level.
• S: Skips the current level.
• H: Slows the game to half speed.

The game has been designed for and tested with PAL on various C64 and C64 emulators (e.g. TheC64) your NTSC mileage will vary.

Music by Crisps

Warning: This game is not designed to be easy or casual, but hard, challenging and at times even frustrating.  You will not beat it with skill or reflex alone, you have to learn the levels.  If this is not your type of gameplay, just kick in the trainer mode and enjoy the music, it is worth it.

There is no shame in admitting defeat, we are not all born for immortal greatness, but if you are willing to go the extra mile, here are some tips on how to improve your high-score.

• You will not beat this game from the base line, use the full vertical range of the screen
• There are sometimes non obvious ways through obstacles, so look left and right
• Extra lives are spread generously around the stages (and even more in the intermissions).  They are usually not on the path where the game leads you, but behind walls or in alcoves to the side.  Some are very hard to reach and are more bait than bonus.
• You can control the direction of your shots with your horizontal ship movement.  This way you can destroy wall targets.
• All obstacles are 100% predictable, so you can know them in advance and be in the right place at the right time.
• Overcoming larger obstacles is mainly limited by your horizontal speed, so make sure you keep moving in the right direction all the time, or there will not be enough time.
• The half speed cheat is the most beneficial for training the tricky spots
• The background is the main enemy, the other ships are just the icing.
• The first two stages can be mastered without losing a single ship.  The first play through (stage 1 to 4) have been accomplished without cheating.  From stage 5 on …