The Way of the Son............................4
Starting the Game...........................N/A
The Kingdoms of the World.....................7
The Map.......................................7
Controls.....................................10
Life and Magic...............................11
Saving Games.................................13
Know Thine Enemies, and How to Defeat Them...13
The Mystery of the Stone Crosses.............14
The Dungeons of Death........................15
Controls.....................................16
The Select Screen............................17
Rooms, Doors, and Bricks.....................18
The Tools at Hand............................20
Apples and Potions...........................20
Keys and Tokens..............................21
Weapons......................................22
Spells.......................................23
Demons in the Dark...........................25
Guardians of Fate............................26
Song of the Harp.............................29
Sony Imagesoft, Inc. Warranty.............. N/A
-[4]-
THE WAY OF THE SON
My Dear Son,
In magic as in the seasons of the sun, balance is everything. From solstice
to equinox, equinox to solistice, the balance of darkness and light turns
and turns again, round and round through the circles of eternity. Even so
must we who command magic hold in delicate balance the good and evil
inherent in our power.
It is many years since I, Shadax your father, survived the trials of
Solstice. And they have been years of great peace and prosperity throughout
our kingdom of Galadonia.
But now - as surely, much to your horror, you already know - that age of
light has been shattered and scattered, driven to the four winds like
splinters of a gentle dream by the gruesome nightmare of...
Sonia.
She sought me out to be her teacher. But she was my enemy.
She pledged herself as my follower. Now she is my captor.
She promised to place her powers in the service of the world. But her only
ambition was, is, and ever will be to be its evil empress - to crush it,
and me, and you, O my son.
-[5]-
Now the way of the son - your way - is clear. It is back, back to the light
from this darkness. To deliver your father, your land, and all the peoples
of the world from a dateles night of pestilence, plague, terror, and
despair.
Make no mistake. The way of the son is long and arduous. It leads through
the gloom of the deep, deadly dungeons that underlie the seven kingdoms of
creation. And all - both the far reaches of the visible world and the vast
caverns of the dungeon world below - all is overrun with Sonia's venomous
demons.
But my power, and my life - and time itself - ebb fast away, even as I call
you to your mission.
Begin.
Shadax
-[7]-
THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD
The world of Equinox hold seven kingdoms, from Galadonia to Death Island,
home of the savage Sonia.
They are --
__________________
/ DEATH \
\ ISLAND /
\________________/
____________ ___________________
| \ / _/
|GALADONIA -/-------------------DEESO /
|__________/ \________________)
____|____ ()
| \ |/
| \ X
| TORI /---------X____________ __/ ATLENA
|________/ /
---------------\ | O
|QUAGMIRE /---O o o o _ _______/\-------- 4
|_____________/ |X| //\/\/\ \ ~~~
/-------------------------------/ /\ /\/\_/
/ / /\ /\ /\ /\_/
\ AFRALONA / /\ /\ /\/\ /
\_____________________/____________/
-[8]-
GALADONIA
Your home, located in the northwest corner of the map. There are three
villages here. The underground dungeon is small, as dungeons go.
TORI
The forest kingdom to the south of Galadonia. Four villages lead down into
a rough network of dungeon caverns.
DEESO
This barren desert kingdom lies east of Galadonia. Its eerie dungeon is
littered - and haunted? - with the remains of an ancient civilization.
Atlena
This is land that man made, for Atlena is nothing more than a handful of
villages supported by wooden platforms built by the inhabitants. It all
floats, just south of Deeso, above the murky dungeon world of a sunken
castle.
Quagmire
A swampy, fetid place worthy of its name. Difficult to navigate, and the
dump dungeon below - entered through five villages - is just as
treacherous. South or Tori.
Afralona
This large kingdom lies far to the south, engulfed by tropical seas, and
hides a sprawling, tomb-like dungeon. Afralona's eastern frontier bristles
with an impassable mountain range, but the seaport at the southeastern
corner of this ocean kingdom is your gateway to Death Island.
-[9]-
Death Island
This frozen isle lies amid the bleak northern seas. Its desolate landscape
affords only one entrance to the giant dungeon below: the Ice Palace,
stronghold of Sonia, your father's prison... and your utilmate destination.
You start the game in Galadonia. But eventually you must travel through all
the kingdoms, braving the horde of trolls and werebats let loose upon the
world by the evil sorceress. And in every kingdom, you must descend into
the dungeons below and unlock doors, find and use objects and weapons, cast
spells - whatever it takes to vanquish Sonia's horrid minions as you fight
your way, tooth and nail, toward your father's rescue.
Galadonia and its four neighboring kingdoms are joined by wooden bridges,
many guarded by the spirit of the Guardian of the dungeon below. So you'll
have to destroy the Guardian before you can pass over the bridge and
continue on your journey.
You can reach Sonia's Ice Palace, on Death Island, only by sea. But there
are no seaports on Galadonia or its immediate neighbors, and the port in
Afralona, to the south, is too far away for you to reach on foot. So you'll
have to find some other means of transport to Afralona before you can set
sail for Death Island.
-[10]-
CONTROLS
Use the buttons on your controller as shown when navigating the surface
world of the kingdoms:
Control Pad Move in the direction
of each arrow
B Button (Yellow) Jump
Y Button (Green) Play the harp
X Button (Blue) Rotate the map to
orient north at the
top of the screen
L Button Rotate the map 45
degrees to the left
R Button Rotate the map 45
degrees to the right
START Button Pause to view large
scale map, press again
to resume play
-[11]-
You can walk over land and wood but not over water, though you can jump
over small pools and narrow streams as well as small objects on the ground.
By pressing and releasing the L and R buttons, you can rotate the map
around you 45 degrees at a time, so you can go in eight different
directions in all. If you get disoriented, press the blue X button to
"reset" the map with north at the top of the screen. To get a better sense
of your bearings, press START to see a large-scale map of the kingdom
you're exploring. Press START again to resume play.
LIFE and MAGIC
The two-line display on the screen shows the following:
LIFE Life energy
MAGIC Magic power
-[12]-
At the start of a game, you have two full red portions of life energy and
two hollow green portions of magic energy. Portions of energy are used up
in half units. So, for example, the first time you lose a life, your life
energy will be reduced to one and a half full portions (you'll also have to
start over in the room you're exploring at that time). When no remaining
life energy is displyed, the next time you lose a life the game will be
over. You can restore your life energy to varying degrees by picking up and
eating apples.
Magic energy is required to cast spells. Each spell requires a particular
amount of energy. If you don't have enough energy for a given spell, you
simply won't be able to cast it. To increase your magic energy, you must
pick up and drink potions.
You can't store more than two full portions of life or magic energy, no
matter how many apples or potions you consume. When you have the maximum
amount of either kind of energy, you can plan ahead and leave the apples
and potions you find until later. However, if you don't clear a room of all
the apples, potions, keys and tokens after you defeat all the demon
creatures, they'll reappear the next time you enter the room.
You can increase the maximum capacity of your life energy by successfully
using a new-found wepon against the first enemy creature you encounter, and
by defeating a dugeon Guardian. In a similar fashion, you can increase the
maximum capacity of your magic energy by learning a new spell or by
defeating a Guardian.
-[13]-
SAVING GAMES
You can save up to four games on the batter-backed Equinox game pak, then
select any saved game to resume play via the menu on the title screen.
A game is automatically saved every time you leave a dungeon and return to
the map. And, as you'll find out, there's a spell you can use to save your
current position in a dungeon.
When you lose all your lives, you have the option of continuing from the
last point oat which the game was saved. If, instead, you choose GAME OVER,
the game is saved from that some point for you to resume at a later time.
KNOW THINE ENEMIES, AND HOW TO DEFEAT THEM
Sonia's trolls and werebats swarm through the seven kingdoms, though the
further they are from ther stronghold, the weaker they are.
Werebats live in holes in the ground, and come flying out to attack as you
approach. When they're killed, they usually leave behind a potion that will
increase your magical power, as shown in the Magic counter on the screen.
-[14]-
Trolls drop down from the clouds and chase you. When ther're killed, they
pass on their life force to you, increasing the number of lives you hace as
shown in the LIFE counter on the screen.
When you begin a game, you have no weapon-you must descend into the dungeon
beneath Gladonia before you'll find your first weapon. If your're attacked
by a troll or werebat before you've armed yourself, the only sensible thing
to do is run away. But this won't work once you leave Galadonia; in the
other kingdoms, where the landscape is less open, you'll have to fight to
the death with anything that attacks you.
When you do get a new weapon, the first troll you meet will be flashing,
which means that it's especially tough-it will give you a chance to give
your new weapon a real workout. If you defeat the troll, you'll receive a
permanent extra life.
THE MYSTERY OF THE STONE CROSSES
The stone crosses you'll see in each kingdom are part of an ancient magical
transport system. Unfortunately, the secret of how to master and use this
system has been lost.
-[15]-
THE DUNGEONS OF DEATH
The dungeons of Equinox, mostly underground caverns, are reached through
the villages of teh kingdoms, which appear as brown huts with smoking
chimneys. When you leave a dungeon through a different village from the one
you entered, you'll find yourself in the same kingdom but in a different
place.
The dungeons contain several rooms. As you progress through the kingdoms,
you'll find that each dungeon is bigger than the last. But in each one,
you'll find many useful objects to collect, weapons to use, and doors to
unlock. And you'll encounter many savage creatures, each of which you must
destroy before you can go on with your quest.
-[16]-
CONTROLS
In the dungeons, you use the buttons on your controller as shown-
Control pad Move in the direction
for each arrow, and
push
B Button (yellow) Jump
Y Button (green) Fire current weapon
X Button (blue) Cast current spell
Select Call up select screen
Start Pause or resume play
-[17]-
You can move and jump, just as in the surface world. You can walk on most
objects that you encounter, such as bricks, tables, stumps, and cages. But
spikes are always deadly-fall on one, jump on one, or even touch one, and
you'll lose a life.
You can jump about one and a half bricks high. Usually, you'll come just
barely short if you try to jump the width of two bricks between two bricks
of equal height. You can fall any distance without getting hurt, unless of
course you land on a spike. You can also turn and change direction in
midair while jumping.
THE SELECT SCREEN
You use the Select Screen to assess your inventory, and select a weapon or
spell. You can call up this screen at any time when you're in a dungeon.
The game is paused while the Select Screen is displayed.
The Select Screen shows the name of the current dungeon and room number,
your inventory of keys and tokens, a list of the weapons and spells you've
picked up, and which weapon and spell are currently selected.
Select **EXIT** to return to game play.
-[18]-
ROOMS, DOORS, AND BRICKS
ROOMS
Every dungoeon is split into rooms, each one usually about twice the size
of the screen. Each dungeon has more rooms than the one before it. The
first dungeon has only 16 rooms, the Ice Palace over 100. Everyroom has a
number, which is displayed on the Select Screen.
You must clear a room to permanently destroy all the enemy creatures in
it-which means you must defeat every creature, collect every item, and
leave the room without losing a life. If you defeat only half the enemies
or leave an object uncollected, the next time you enter the room the
creatures will have multiplied to full strength again.
You have to carry keys, tokens, and weapons out of the room where you find
them in order to add them to your inventory. If you lose a life just after
collecting an item, you must begin all over to clear the room-although you
will not lose any food, potions, or spells you've already collected.
DOORS
Most doors appear in two forms. When on the far wall of a room, they appear
as doorways leading into darkness. When on the front wall, doors appear as
arrows on the floor, so as not to obstruct your view of the room.
There are also some secret doors, not indicated by doorways or arrows. It's
up to you to find them.
-[19]-
Most doors are open, but some are locked. Colored locked doors-green, blue,
red, and white-can be opened with a key of the same color. Flashing locked
doors stay locked until the room is cleared-that is, all enemies destroyed
and all items collected.
BRICKS
The dungeons closer to your goal contain many bricks with unusual or
magical properties that may hinder or help your progress. The simplest of
these are the pushable bricks. They look exactly like other bricks, but
they can be pushed around-although some are so heavy that you may have to
push for a few seconds before that you may have to push for a few seconds
before they start ot budge. If you find yourself apparently stuck in a
room, try pushing every brick for a way out.
Some bricks work like conveyor belts. They look like ordinary bricks, but
they'll push you (or a pushable brick) in a certain directon. These
conveyor bricks don't affect enemy creatures.
Other kinds of special bricks include sliding bricks, floating bricks,
invisible bricks, and exploding bricks. You'll have to discover these on
your own. As you'll see, the Reveal spell will highlight all the special
bricks in a room except conveyor bricks
-[20]-
THE TOOLS AT HAND
There are two kinds of items to be found in the dungeons of Equinox, those
that affect your energy and those that you can and to your inventory and
use.
Apples and Potions
Apples increase your life energy and potions increase your magic energy, up
to your maximum capacity. Potions come in four colors, from least to
greatest strength: green, blue, red and white.
You'll find apples and potions dotted around the rooms of every dungeon.
Like other objects, they may have been left behind by defeated enemies.
-[21]-
KEYS AND TOKENS
Keys come in several colors, and each one opens a door of its own hue. A
key can be used only once, and then disappears. So if, for example, there
are four locked blued doors, you'll need four blue keys to open them.
You can't take keys from one dungeon and use them in another dungeon. Keep
in mind, too, that each dungeon contains the same number of keys as locked
doors. So if you have any spare keys when you're ready to leave a dungeon,
more of the dungeon remains to be explored.
Every dungeon contains 12 tokens. They may be lying on the floor or hidden
in a room or even carried by a demon creature, in which case you won't find
the token until all the enemies in the room have beeen destroyed.
You must have all 12 tokens to summon the Guardian at the end of the
dungeon. When you have all 12, simply walk into the Guardian's room to
summon it. The tokens will tehn disappear, but the Guardian, of course,
will remain-to take you on in mortal combat.
-[22]-
WEAPONS
Every dungeon contains one hidden weapon. The first weapon you pick up
becomes your selected weapon. As you add more weapons to your inventory,
you must choose the one you want to use through the select screen. You can
complete the game with only one weapon, but each weapon collected will make
the game a little easier to play.
All weapons are projectile weapons-you throw all of them. But they vary in
strength, speed, and the number that can be thrown at once.
Name Number of Speed Strength
Projectiles
Dagger 1 fast 1
Shuriken 2 slow 2
Axe 3 fast 3
TwinDagger 3 fast 4
Sword 2 very fast 5
Scimitar 3 slow 6
Mace 3 slow 7
Twin Sword 3 very fast 8
-[23]-
Spells
As with weapons, you'll find one spell in each dungeon, and as you build up
your inventory of spells, you use the Select Screen to choose the one you
want to use.
Unlike weapons, some spells are essential to completing the game.
You need magic energy to put spells to good use - unless you have the
energy needed when you use a selected spell, nothing will happen.
Most spells affect either you or the room you're in when you use the spell,
and they last only for a while. When you cast these spells, the screen
blurs in and out of focus, and a magical bell sounds until the spell runs
its course.
The spells are as follows:
HEAL. This spell reduces you magic energy and increases your life energy,
both by one half portion, each time you press the blue (X) button.
SLOW. This spell slows down all the demons in the room for 10 seconds
without affecting you. It requires one full portion of magic energy.
DAMAGE. This knocks off half the energy of every enemy creature in the
room, at a cost of one and a half portions of magic energy.
-[24]-
FREEZE. For two full portions of magic, this spell freezes every demon in
the room for 10 seconds.
ZAP. Destroy every bad guy in the room - but it will cost you two and half
portions of magic energy.
SAVE. For three portions, you can save your current position in the dungeon
on the battery-backed Equinox Game Pak. But this spell does not work in the
room through which you enter a dungeon.
REVEAL. Highlights all bricks in the room that are pushable or otherwise
magical. Cost: three and a half portions of magic energy.
UNLOCK. This spell unlocks all the remaining unlocked doors in a room
without the need for keys, but it takes four full portions of magic to
cast.
-[25]-
DEMONS IN THE DARK
Most of the enemies that lurk in the dungeons of Equinox come in green,
blue, red, or white. The green guys are the easiest to knock off; the white
demons are the hardest to destroy.
Sometimes, when you destroy the last nasty in a room, a bonus item - say,
an apple or a potion, or perhaps a key or a token - will be left behind.
Most demons kill you simply by touching you.
GHOSTS bounce around the room at different speeds, but they're quite easy
to destroy.
KNIGHTS are slow, plodding, stupid demons, but they're sturdy, with strong
armor that protects them from attack. To get to them, look for the small
chink in the side of their armor.
PORTCULLISES simply wind up and fall down at varying speeds. They can block
your way, but they're deadly only on their way down, so just be sure you're
not standing under them as they come down.
SPINNING DEVILS chase you around the room. Invulnerable and elusive as
whirlwinds, they can be attacked only when they stop to catch their breath.
BLOBS are extremely intelligent, and their bouncing movements are very hard
to predict. The best trick with Blobs is to keep moving.
-[26]-
THE GUARDIANS OF DEATH
At the end of every dungeon, you must defeat a giant Guardian before you
can go on the next dungeon. You can summon the Guardian of a dungeon only
when you've collected all 12 tokens from the dungeon - if you enter the
Guardian's room without all 12 tokens in your possession, nothing will
happen. Once the Guard has been summoned, you can't leave the room until
either you've defeated the Guardian or lost all your lives. It's do or die
with the likes of these, listed here in the order you'll encounter them -
BONEHEAD. This giant skull doesn't take kindly to being shot at, and he
likes to throw ghosts at you.
SUNG SUNG. Maybe he's got a complex about his name, but this guy hides out
in the soil a lot, coming up every now and then to chuck rocks at you.
Quetzalcoatl. This enormous living statue is too massive to be destroyed in
one round. And watch out for the surprise he has in store for you at the
end.
-[27]-
PINCHA. This crab's claws protect his vulnerable eyes, so get your shots in
when he takes his swinging swipes at you.
DOLLOP. He's just one big ball of slime, and after every jump, he spews
smaller blobs of slime in your direction.
EYESIS. The tough thing about a gigantic spinning pyramid is that its only
soft spot is way up there at the top.
BILLY BONES. The maniacal captian of the ghostly galleon never stops
shooting those exploding cannonballs - until he's stone cold dead.
-[28]-
SONIA. The Evil Sorceress herself. She can teleport at will, and those
floating magical balls she fires are fatal.
With most Guardians, you can harm them only by shooting them in the face or
in the eye. After a few such hits, they'll change colour, turning a shade
closer to red.
When they turn bright red, it's a sign that they're close to their demise.
When you destroy a Guardian, you'll be rewarded with increases in your life
and magic energy, and the Guardian's spirit will disappear from the surface
world.
In additon, as you defeat each of the first five Guardians, you'll collect
a string for your harp.
-[29]-
SONG OF THE HARP
You'll find that you can play the harp as soon as you try, but it won't
sound very good. Adding strings to the harp will improve its song.
But like the mystery of the stone crosses, the secret of the song of the
harp has been long lost. The last magician who made it really sing
disappeared instantly - transported, perhaps, to other places... to other
times... even, perhaps, to mighty new regions of magic... who knows?
