Dedicated to the living memory Benway Sr., R.I.P.

Story

Mariano, the Pink Dragon, has to face an incredibly difficult mission. All his friends have been injailed by the evil tetrarch Pachin Poi Poi in the prison-planet Cityland, just because they didn't fulfill his commands properly. The only way for Mariano to get the keys to release them is to perform their tasks by himself.

The Tasks

1.- Terminate all Karakasa.

Nanako was hired to free the planet's upper levels from hideous and annoying Karakasa which only gave headaches to the selfish tetrarch, but, in a strike of bad luck, Nanako lost her Powerful Boots, the only weapon capable to kill those horrid monsters. To release Nanako, Mariano has to find the Powerful Boots and then kill ten Karakasa in the surface.

2.- Send the enemy's plans to Pachin Poi Poi.

After a thousand of adventures and misadventures, Sgt. Helmet was able to break into the enemy's fortress and steal all their world domination plans, which he saved to a floppy disk so he could later transfer them to Pachin Poi Poi's main computer via a silly terminal located in the West side of the jail complex, just beneath the storage hangars. Too bad, he was too tired and fell asleep somewhere and never got the plans in time to the terminal. To release Sgt. Helmet, Mariano must find the floppy, which Mariano missed somewhere near the dungeons where his friends are trapped, to the East, and then carry it to the terminal.

3.- Paint red all the bins in the storage hangars

Horace was hired for this hard task: to paint red fifteen huge bins located in the storage hangars. The problem is that he went skiing and left the job undone. Mariano must paint those bins, but he must find the red paint before. Horace told him that he used to keep the paint somewhere in the hangar top levels...

4.- Trap every ghost in the Deep Caves.

Pachin called the Chost Embustes to exterminate all the ghosts which hauled and wailed all night long in the deepest caves, beneath the jail, but they sent Tracy before he could have lunch, so the poor ape, instead of doing his job, stayed eating bananas in front of the gates of the complex, leaving all the traps somewhere near the computer terminal and missing the dematerializer somewhere. Mariano must find the dematerializer, collect five traps, and go to the Deep Caves to trap the ghosts!

5.- Collect all shooting stars.

Phantomasa worked for Pachin collecting every lost shooting star which fell over the complex, 'cause they are an awesome source of clean energy. The problem is that she was somewhat lazy and forgot ten stars without collecting. Just collect them and you'll release Phantomasa!

Instructions

Moving Mariano is so easy:

ZX Spectrum
- O left
- P right
- SPACE start jump
- A activate trap

Amstrad CPC:
- Cursor left: left
- Cursor right: right
- Cursor up: jump
- Cursor down: activate trap

To activate a trap, a ghost must be on screen and you should have the dematerializer.

To get an object you just stay over it.

To activate the computer terminal you should have the floppy and just stay beneath it.

To paint a bin red you just walk over it, having collected the red paint.

Everytime you complete a task you'll get a key. You should use those keys in the cells located to the east so you can release your friends. Once you release the five of them, you'll win the game.

Loading Instructions

Amstrad CPC:
Floppy version: run"mariano
Tape version: run"

ZX Spectrum:
ZX Spectrum 48K: LOAD ""
ZX Spectrum 128K or later: go into 48 BASIC mode and follow the instructions for the 48K models.

FX Do It Yourself!

This game has been conceived as a "tutorial game" so you can learn by example. The CPC version is an awesome example to master the great games library Artaburu has developed and which you can find over http://www.amstrad.es/programacion/c/index.php. The ZX Spectrum version is a great example on how to code games unsing just BASIC and the HiSoft compiler.

We encourage you to take a glance!