"Quadron" The Tiny Arcade (Tom McConnell) 1982, Tape 100, Supertape I, ARCADIAN 6, no. 10 (Aug 24, 1984): 91-92. "Quadron" is for one player only. This game challenges you to defend a four-walled energy fortress by pursuing and eliminating four monsters who are slowly impinging on the walls and intend on breaking through. If a monster breaks completely through a wall (i.e. creates a "hole" or space the width of a wall) the fortress is destroyed. You start the game with a complement of four fortresses. The game ends when all four have been destroyed. To eliminate a monster, you must move the joystick-controlled blip (it is in the center of the fortress when the game begins) toward the monster and "touch" it with the blip. The monster will then disappear. However, another will take its place on the same side of the wall at a distant starting point. You will have a limited supply of energy with which to pursue the enemy. When you are running low on energy, the background color of the playfield will turn red as a warning. This means you will soon have to return the fortress and eat one of the energy dots located inside. (To eat a dot move the blip over the dot.) Otherwise, your speed will be cut in half and it will be very difficult to keep up with the monsters. Eventually, you will eat up the eight energy dots. To gain a new supply of these, it is necessary to eat all sixty of the bonus dots located near the four edges of the playfield (You will also receive sixty new bonus dots). When you accomplish this, the challenge will increase as the four monsters' starting points will move slightly closer to the fortress. In summary, then, the game action consists of eliminating monsters to protect the fortress and eating dots to ensure your energy supply. There are three basic routes you can follow in moving about the playfield. 1. Moving around the outside perimeter of the walls. 2. Passing through the inside of the fortress via the four Openings in the walls. 3. Moving off one side of the playfield and appearing on the opposite side. Use these alone and in combination to pursue monsters and eat dots. Scoring Monster ..................... 200 points Bonus Dot ................... 100 points All Sixty Bonus Dots Eaten .. 800 points Hand Control Joystick - Move the stick in the direction you wish to move the blip Trigger - No function Knob - No function The number of fortresses you have remaining is displayed in the upper left-hand part of the screen, while the current score is shown in the upper right-hand corner. To start a new game, press any key (except "H"). Digital Archive Notes: The "original" and "Alt" versions aren't byte-for-byte identical, but Paul Thacker couldn't tell a difference between any of them.