manual done up by Todd
To have something on the net
------
Blast Chamber is not a bad game,
if you can find it cheap, IMO
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Starting Up 2
Multi Tap 2
Game Controls 3
2096 4
Instructions 4
Free-For-All & Eliminator-The Multi-Player Games 9
Solo Survivor-The One-Player Game 13
Obstacles, Death Traps and Other Surprises 15
Power-Ups 16
Camera Movement 18
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Game Controls
L1 = camera up
L2 = camra move right
R1 = camera down
R2 = camera left
d-pad = run
triangle = autocam toggle
circle = not used
x = jump
square = shove opponent down
start = pause
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2096...
In a twisted, amoral future, you are not like normal people.
Genetically engineered to be the ultimate athlete, you were
raised from birth with others like yourself in training complexes
called stables. Isolated from the rest of the world, you exist
for only one purpose: to win a competition known to you only as
The Game. After years of specialized development and skillfully
applying yourself, you are finally awarded the honor to represent
your stable in The Game. Once you arrive, however, you discover
the horrifying truth ... the real reason for your total isolation
from the outside world. What you called The Game is known to the
rest of the world as Blast Chamber. The rules are the same, but
the consequences of defeat are lethal. Your life has suddenly become
worthless. Because to the owner of the stable, you are property" to
the masses, you are entertainment. And nothing is considered to be
more entertaining than a game of life or explosive death in ... the
Blast Chamber.
INSTRUCTIONS
When you turn on the PlayStation game console, you will see an
introductory sequence, which can be interrupted by pressing Start.
Whether you interrupt the introductory sequence or not, you will
eventually come to ...
The Title Screen
Press Start here to go to the Main Menu screen.
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The Main Menu Screen
The Main Menu screen has six icons. At the top: Chambers
(Chamber Select), Games (Game Select), Load and Options.
The two icons at the bottom of the screen are the Training modes.
If you want to jump right into the fire, go ahead and press Start
here- you'll begin a Free-For-All game (against one to three
computerized or human opponents). But not so fast-, if you
have never played Blast Chamber before, you would be well
advised to begin with Training. You'd better know what
you're doing before you start playing with fire.
Training Modes
There are two training modes: one for the multi-player games,
and one for Solo Survivor To enter one of the training modes,
highlight a Training icon and press X. You'll find yourself in
a training chamber. Throughout the session, the computer voice
will instruct you on the basics of Blast Chamber. Learn and
obey, and you'll live through the training session-, it's that
simple. When you've either failed spectacularly or completed the
chamber successfully, the training mode ends, returning you to the
Main Menu.
Ready to play now?
To Select A Game
You could jump right in and start playing the Free-For-All mode by
pressing Start when you're on the Main Menu, or you can select from
the five game modes. Just highlight the Game Select icon, which
displays images of players, and press X. You'll then come to the
Game Select screen which will have the following list of player
options:
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Free-For-All
Free-For-All Tournament
Eliminator
Eliminator Tournament
Solo Survivor
Free-For-All and Eliminator are the multi-player games. These games
enable you to play against one to three other human or computer
opponents. Solo Survivor is for 1 player only, with no opponents.
Free-For-All: When you die in this game (note that we said "when,"
not "if"), you instantly come back to life for more explosive action.
The objective in this game is to die the least number of times before
the game clock winds down to zero. In the regular made, you only play
in the chamber(s) you select. But in Tournament mode, you play in all
20 chambers, each of which is deadlier than the one before it.
Eliminator: In this game, death is a little more permanent: you can die
only once. No resurrections as in Free-For-All. The sole survivor is
the winner of the game. Eliminator also has a Tournament mode. Like a
Free-For-All Tournament, you play in all 20 chambers- each one being
more difficult than the preceding chamber
Solo Survivor is a one-player game. There are no opponents in this
game-, it's just you against the clock. You must survive 40
progressively difficult chambers.
To Select A Chamber
If Free-For-All or Eliminator are selected on the Games menu, you can
select a chamber to play in. (If Solo Survivor is selected, you can't
select a chamber, unless you have saved a previous game, or have a
password.) On the Main Menu, highlight the Chambers icon and
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press X. This takes you to the Chamber Select screen, which offers 20
different chambers to choose from. Each is special in its own way and
will make your multi-player experience as lethal as possible. You can
choose one, or as many as all 20 chambers, to play in. Once you , have
selected your chamber(s), press Start. This will return you to the Main
Menu screen.
Loading a Saved Game
In Solo Survivor, you play through 40 progressively challenging chambers.
Every 5th chamber you are given the opportunity to save your progress on
your memory card (you are given a password if you don't have a memory card).
To load a saved game, simply go to the Load icon
on the Main Menu screen. On your memory card, you can save the following
information:
* Up to ten Solo Survivor games. Not only is the last chamber saved,
but also your score and your number of lives at that point in the game.
- The top ten high scores for Solo Survivor, the Free-For-All
tournament, and the Eliminator tournament. Select UPDATE HISCORES
on the Load screen before turning off your Playstation.
· Preferences such as your favorite controller configurations,
volume settings and difficulty level. Select SAVE CONFIG on the
Load screen.
Options Menu
When you select the Options icon on the Main Menu screen, you can
adjust the level of difficulty, configure your controller, view
game statistics, and balance the volume of sound effects and music.
The Levels Of Difficulty
The four difficulty levels determine several factors, both in Solo
Survivor and in the multi player games.
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In Solo Survivor, the number of lives that you start with depends on
the difficulty level below).
In the multi-player games, putting a crystal in your reactor adds -
seconds (fill in the k according to the chart below) to your kill-clock,
while putting a crystal in an opponent's tor subtracts - seconds
(fill in the blank according to the chart below) from his killclock.
In Free-For-All -- FFA), your kill-clocks start with different initial
amounts of time. The A.I. @Artificial Intelligence) level of the computer
opponent varies as well. And a very insidious feature called
"Blow-up-yer-buddy" @BUYB) comes into play in the higher skill
levels-, with Blow-up-yer-buddy, when you explode, if an opponent
is standing a little too close, you'll take him out with you!
From the Options menu, highlight the Config icon and press X.
You can choose from several standard controller configurations.
Scroll through the choices and press X to select your favorite.
Viewing Game Statistics
From the Options menu, highlight the Stats icon and press X.
You can scroll through all 40 Solo Survivor chambers and see
the best times recorded. Wanna see your initials up in lights?
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Balancing Audio Levels
From the Options menu, highlight the Volume icon and press X.
You can slide the Sound Effects control and the Music control
until it's at the balance that you like.
To Start Play
Simply press Start when you're at the Main Menu screen. If you
have not selected a game mode, you'll be playing a Free-For-All
game-, otherwise, you'll be playing the game mode which is
selected on the Game Select screen. If you are starting a Solo
Survivor game, you'll go straight to the first chamber If you are
starting a multi-player game, you'll first stop at the Player Select
screen where you land your friends, if they're there) choose a player
color. You can also select colors for any desired computer opponents.
Follow the on-screen directions to select colors for human and computer
players. You have to have a minimum of two (and a maximum of four) human
and/or computer players selected before you can start playing. Once
your players are all selected, you won't need to set them up again as
long as the PlayStation game console is turned on. Once you've
finished selecting, press Start. And get ready to cook.
FREE-FOR-ALL & ELIMINATOR-
THE MULTI-PLAYER GAMES
At Start Of Play
Two to four players appear at the floor of the chamber Each player has a
device strapped securely to his body. This device is a Blast Pack. The
Blast Pack is a very lethal time bomb. The detonated bomb will completely
disintegrate its victim. This is to prevent the possibility of any debris
from littering the chamber and interfering with the remaining players'
gameplay.
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Free-For-All
There's a white clock at the top center of the screen. This shows the
overall time for the game. The colored clocks in the corners of the
screen are the players' kill-clocks - the color of each kill-clock
matches the player's color. The kill-clocks show how many minutes
and seconds each player has until his Blast Pack explodes. Under
each kill-clock is a death counter for each player, which counts
the number of times the player has been vaporized.
Goal: Be the player who has died the least (or who has more time left on
his clock than anyone with the same number of deaths) when the white game
clock hits zero.
Free-For-All Tournament: In the Tournament mode, you'll play 20 Free-For-
All games. The player with the best overall Tournament score wins.
Scoring: When the game clock hits zero in a chamber, the player who got
torched the least in that chamber gets 500 points, 2nd place gets 400, 3rd
place gets 300, and 4th place gets 200. In case of ties, tied players get
equal scores. For example, winner gets 500, 2nd-place winners tie for
400 points each, and the player who died the most still gets 200 points.
At the end of the tournament, scores are added up. The player with the
most points is not only the least
"well-done," but also the winner.
Eliminator
Because death is final in this game, there is no game clock or death
counter. Just kill-clocks. Let your kill-clock run down, and you're
a goner
Goal: To be the last one alive after all the others have detonated.
Eliminator Tournament: In the Tournament mode, you'll play 20 games of
Eliminator, in all 20 of the multi-player chambers. If you die in one
chamber, you are revived for the enjoyment of the masses in the next.
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Scoring: In Eliminator Tournament mode, the player still standing at
the end takes first place. The slow player who dies first takes last
place, and so on. First place gets 500 points, second place gets 400,
third place gets 300, and fourth place gets 200. In case of ties, tied
players get equal scores (just as in Free-For-All). At the end of the
tournament, scores are added up. The player with the most points is the
winner.
The Crystal
This glowing orb is the only way you're going to live through Blast
Chamber, whether in a multi-player game or a Solo Survivor game.
You can put the crystal in your reactor to lengthen your kill-clock
or you can put the crystal in your opponent's reactor and shorten his
kill-clock. Once a player holds the crystal, he starts flashing and
his kill-clock temporarily stops counting down. When you have the crystal,
do your best to keep the crystal from opponents until you can deposit it
in a reactor. When your opponent has the crystal, do whatever it takes
to take it away from him (see Possession of The Crystal). To put the
crystal into a reactor, simply walk onto the reactor.
Possession Of The Crystal
One can never stress enough how important it is in this deathmatch to
obtain and hold and use the crystal. If an opponent has the crystal,
you have several ways to take it away from him.
Push The Sucker Down: Run to him and press the SQUARE button (assuming
you have your controls set at the default configuration)- this pushes
him down, and he will drop the crystal.
Rotate The Chamber And Make The Loser Fall: Doing this will cause your
opponents) to fall-, the opponent holding the crystal will lose possession
of it. If you are holding the crystal and you initiate a chamber rotation,
you do not drop the crystal.
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Play The Waiting Game: The lazything to do is simply wait until he puts it
into a reactor, at which time a new crystal will appear somewhere in the
chamber.
Offensive vs. Defensive Play
In this game, there are two ways to survive: give yourself more time
or give your opponent less time. When you put the crystal in your own
reactor, time on your kill-clock is extended. If you put the crystal
in an opponent , s reactor, time on the poor fellow's kill-clock is
shortened. The amount of time added or subtracted depends on the
difficulty level (see "The Levels of Difficulty," elsewhere in this
manual).
Rotating The Chamber
It took hundreds of scientists and engineers to create the technological
marvels that are called Blast Chambers. These unique chambers are
specially-built arenas that can rotate clockwise and counterclockwise.
To turn a wall into a floor, go to one of the flashing green arrows
("Kickers"). The direction that the arrows are pointing to is the
direction you walk when the chamber turns and the wall in front of
you becomes a floor. The arrow must be pointing up the wall, and
flashing, in order for it to work. When an arrow is on the floor,
it is inoperable. Once you are at one of these flashing arrows,
face the arrow and walk into it. This will cause the chamber to rotate
90 degrees in the opposite direction.
In the multi-player games, once the chamber is rotated, the kickers are
de-activated for a few seconds (they stop flashing).
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SOLO SURVIVOR-THE ONE-PLAYER GAME
At Start Of Play
You are beamed into the chamber with a Blast Pack strapped on your body.
Unlike the multi player games where you have to worry about your opponents,
in this game the chambers themselves are your primary concern. You have to
figure out how to put the crystal in the reactor before time runs out.
The kill-clock at the top of the screen shows how much time you have to put
the crystal in the reactor. For your convenience, when your kill-clock has
five seconds remaining, the computer voice will begin a countdown. As a
further reminder of impending doom, your Blast Pack will start to burn
quite robustly-to move things along. When the kill-clock reaches zero,
you die a very fiery death.
Each chamber has its own way of making your life difficult, and they only
get harder. In all, there are 40 chambers. The 40th chamber has been
known to cause grown men to weep profusely.
You start the game with a limited number of lives, depending on the level
of difficulty (see "The Levels of Difficulty," elsewhere in this manual).
Unless you changed the settings, you start Solo Survivor with four lives.
You can earn more lives along the way, if you play really really well.
The Crystal
This glowing orb is the only thing that will prevent you from blowing up
into burnt fragments of flesh ... provided you put it in the reactor in
time. You can automatically pick it up by simply walking over it.
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Rotating The Chamber
To turn a wall into a floor, go to one of the flashing green arrows
("Kickers"). The direction that the arrows are pointing to is the
direction you walk when the chamber turns and the wall in front of
you becomes a floor. The arrow must be pointing up the wall, and
flashing, in order for it to work. When an arrow is on the floor, it
is inoperable. Once you are at one of these flashing arrows, face the
arrow, and walk into it. This will cause the chamber to rotate 90
degrees in the opposite direction.
The Reactor
Somewhere in the chamber there's a colored square zone called a reactor,
with a revolving pyramid floating over it (the reactor is the same color
as your player and your kill-clock). You must place the crystal in the
reactor as soon as possible. To automatically place the crystal in the
reactor, simply walk onto it. This completes the level. As your reward,
you'll be taken to the next, more difficult chamber (Hey, you lived,
didn't you? What were you expecting, cookies and milk?)
Scoring
When you finish a chamber, all remaining seconds on your kill-clock are
counted, then multiplied by 100. This is your score for that chamber.
At the end of the game, all your chamber scores are tallied for your
overall game score. If you die, you still have a slim chance at
immortality, since high scores are entered on the Top Ten list,
which is seen in the intro sequence of the game.
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OBSTACLES, DEATH TRAPS AND
OTHER SURPRISES
· The small yellow-and-red squares are triggers. Stepping on these
squares activates something somewhere in the chamber. Most likely
you'll always need to use them. But watch out when you do!
· Hazard pits. You can run or stand over them when they're closed.
If you're running or standing over them when they're open, you're dead.
· The spikes are razor-sharp. Don't fall on them unless you're
feeling suicidal. If the crystal gets destroyed by spikes, you lose
in Solo Survivor. In multi-player games if the crystal gets spiked,
it re-appears somewhere in the chamber.
· The glowing plasm clouds and laser-like streams are very deadly.
You have to time your moves so you don't get fried!
· The moving platform will take you for a ride. Just hop on.
· The fans will either give you a lift or push you around.
· The dark gray boxes are hydraulic launchers. These devices
propel you high in the air. You can use them to leap to otherwise
unreachable spots in the chamber. You can control your movements
in the air while leaping.
· Crumbling platforms can only be run across once.
· 180's: jumping on these small platforms will turn the chamber
180 degrees.
· Ladders are for climbing up and down.
· The large metal boxes are cages. Gravity makes them fall.
Just make sure one doesn't fall on you.
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POWER-UPS
The blue-and-red spheres that appear at various times are power-ups.
You can take one by simply running through it. The computer voice will
then announce the name of the power-up. To prevent your life from
becoming too easy, if you already have one power-up you can't pick up
another.
Mag Boots Allows you to run on walls and the ceiling.
Gravity Bomb Reverses opponents' gravity, forcing them to run on the
ceiling.
Paralyzer Freezes all opponents.
Psy-bomb Reverses your opponents' controls.
Hi Jumps Allows you to jump high.
Mercuries Allows you to run very fast.
Time Bomb Subtracts time from opponents' kill-clocks.
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Crystal Disruptor Makes the crystal warp to another location.
ViseGrip Allows you to hold onto the crystal during rotation or
when you get pushed.
Crystal Magnet Draws the crystal to you.
Reactor Swap Makes the reactors change colors.
Extra Time Gives your kill-clock more time.
Crystal Bomb Makes the crystal explode with deadly force.
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CAMERA MOVEMENT
The "camera" or POV (point of view) automatically tracks your movements
in the chamber. You use the camera to help you see around obstacles,
to get a grip on the 3D positioning of objects, and to get a better
view of a wall or the ceiling. You can override the autocam at any
time and change the POV by using the shoulder buttons.
Ll Up (Improves your view of the floor)
L2 Right (Improves your view of the left wall)
Rl Down (Improves your view of the ceiling)
R2 Left (Improves your view of the right wall)
To turn off the autocam and perhaps zoom in a little, press the
Triangle button. Press it again to turn the autocam back on.
QUITTING
You can wimp out and quit a game at any time. First press the Start
button (to pause the game)-, then press the Select button, and a
brief options menu appears. You can choose quit from this menu.
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that it it
