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Super Cobra - Parker Brothers - Atari 5200     HTML Manual   


SUPER COBRA

BY PARKER BROTHERS


OBJECT

  • Brush off your ace piloting skills because you're about to take off on a hair-raising adventure: air surveillance of unfriendly territory. This means an 11,000 mile obstacle course through ever-changing terrain...over craggy mountain tops, around tall city buildings, through long jagged tunnels. And that isn't all! The course is just rigged with chopper-stopping weapons like igniting rockets, heavy ground artillery, flobbynoids, and flying saucers. Every 1,000 miles of terrain brings ever-increasing challenges and ever-certain...danger. But a handsome payoff lies at the end for anyone who's got what it takes!

    SETTING THE CONSOLE CONTROLS

    1. Place the cartridge firmly in the cartridge slot.
    2. Plug one or two hand-held controllers into controller jacks labelled "1" and "2." Use the controller in the "1" jack for a one-player game.
    3. Press the ON/OFF switch to ON.
    4. Press keypad button "#" to choose a one- or two-player game.
    5. Press either START or a bottom fire button on the controller in the "1" jack to start the action.

    THE HAND-HELD CONTROLLER

  • Use the joystick on the hand-held controller to fly your chopper up, down, or to the right. Move the joystick left to "hover." Press either of the bottom fire buttons to fire your missiles and to drop bombs. Each press of the fire button fires both missiles and bombs. For rapid fire action, keep both fire buttons pressed down.

    THE PAUSE BUTTON

  • Any time during the game, you may "freeze" the action. To do so, simply press PAUSE. To continue the action, simply press PAUSE again.

    PLAYING

  • You'll start the game with five choppers. The first appears in action while the remaining ones wait "on deck" at the bottom of the screen.

  • When the game begins, fly your chopper down screen to the right. The object is to avoid the obstacles that border around the chopper's air route in order to gain mileage. Hit an obstacle and the chopper goes down. When a chopper goes down, the next one comes up at the beginning of the section where the last one crashed. Each level has two sections, showing two types of terrain.

  • In addition to gaining mileage, try to shoot down for points the weapons scattered throughout the course. You'll find six different types of weapons: rockets, ground artillery, flobbynoids, falling mines, comets, and flying saucers. The types of weapons you'll find and whether they're activated or not will differ, depending on the level at which you're playing. Just remember this: dodge their fire, don't run your chopper into them, and try to shoot them down for points.

    {DIAGRAM- Shows Mileage Gauge, Air Route, Chopper, Fuel Gauge, and Remaining Choppers}

    {DIAGRAM- Shows Rocket, Ground Artillery, Flobbynoid, Falling Mine, Comet, Flying Saucer, Fuel Tank, and Booty}

    FUEL TANKS

  • The yellow bar at the bottom of the screen is your fuel gauge. Keep an eye on it because if your fuel runs out, your chopper is out of luck. You can partially replenish your supply by hitting a fuel tank with missile fire or a bomb. As the fuel depletes to a serious level, you'll hear a warning sound. This tells you to fly to a tank quickly and get more fuel. With each new chopper and with each new level, you'll get a supply of fuel.

    LEVEL 1-11: THE OBSTACLE COURSE

  • Notice the blue band at the top of the screen. Each block in the band represents 1,000 miles of the obstacle course- or one game level. There are 11 levels in all; each level has two sections of terrain. Every time your chopper enters a new level, its corresponding block turns red. Survive one level (with at least one remaining chopper), and you'll hear a brief musical tune and see "mileage cleared." In a moment, you'll cruise into the next level and a different section of the obstacle course. Each level shows not only a different air route, but also displays different combinations of active and inactive weapons. Here's a rundown of what you'll encounter in each game level:
    
    Level 1:  Rockets and ground artillery both 
              active.
    Level 2:  Rockets and ground artillery both 
              active.
    Level 3:  Rockets inactive, ground artillery 
              active, flobbynoids appear as obstacles.
    Level 4:  Rockets inactive, ground artillery 
              active, flobbynoids appear as obstacles.
    Level 5:  No rockets, ground artillery active, 
              falling mines active.
    Level 6:  Rockets inactive, ground artillery 
              active.
    Level 7:  Rockets inactive, ground artillery 
              active, comets appear as obstacles.
    Level 8:  Rockets inactive, ground artillery 
              active, flying saucers appear as 
              obstacles in first section and fire in 
              the second section.
    Level 9:  Rockets active, ground artillery active.
    Level 10: Rockets active, ground artillery active.
    Level 11: Here's where the booty lies. Rockets 
              and ground artillery both active.
    
    THE BOOTY

  • When you reach Level 11, the object is to pick up the booty by swooping down and landing on it. If you can accomplish this, there will be a slight pause in the action. After a brief musical tune, you'll go back to Level 1.

    END OF GAME

  • The game ends when you run out of choppers. Press Button to Continue: When you see "Press button to continue," immediately press either or both bottom fire buttons (within five seconds). The game will restart at the same section of the level where the last chopper went down. Your score will be reset at "0."

    TWO-PLAYER GAMES

  • The left player goes first; players alternate turns after each one loses a chopper. The left player's score is at the top left side of the screen. The right player's score is at the top right side of the screen.
    
    SCORING
    
    Hitting a rocket.......................50 points
    Hitting a fuel tank....................50 points
    Hitting ground artillery..............100 points
       for the first in each level; 200 points for 
       the second in each level; 300 points for the 
       third in each level; 100, 200, 300, etc. for 
       each additional hit.
    Hitting a flobbynoid..................100 points
    Hitting a falling mine.................50 points
    Hitting a comet.......................100 points
    Hitting a flying saucer...............100 points
    
  • High score for all games played while the unit is ON appears at the top center of the screen. Once you turn the unit OFF/ON and begin again, the previous high score is set at zero.

    END

    Typed by Robert "Ferg" Ferguson

    for Atari Gaming Headquarters

    Used with permission from Atari Gaming Headquarters