Picodroid

Controls

X (X key) - fire/ enter influence mode/ enter lift/ connect to terminal

O (Z key) - back button when connected to a terminal.

Story

It is the year 2521 and a cyber attack against the underground cities has caused all robots to malfunction.

You control a prototype influence device armed with a low-powered laser and capable of taking control of these robots. Your task is to clear the 8 city levels of all rogue robots.

Hold X to enter influence mode and run into another unit to pair with it. This is achieved by fighting for control of the robot's cpu. Failure to do so will result in your own circuitry burning out.

Use lifts to move between city levels and use terminals to access the central database. Power coils are positioned at various points allowing you to recharge.

Be careful of robots with short range 'disruptors' and use the terminals to view robot classes that are immune to disruptor damage.

How To Play

The objective of the game is to clear all 8 city levels of robots.

Here's a YouTube video playthrough, almost to the end.

At the start of the game, your "00" unit is armed only with a low-powered laser. To fire the laser, press X plus a direction key.

The first thing you'll want to do is to take control of another robot. To do this:

1. Without pressing any direction key, hold down X until you turn orange and a continuous bleeping occurs. You are now in "Influence" mode

2. Ram into another robot. You must be pressing a direction key to do this

3. This will take you into the grapple sub-game

Grappling

The object of the grapple sub-game is to change more cells of the central CPU (the stripped column in the middle of the screen) to your colour than your AI opponent. Each or the horizontal black lines represents a wire going from the side to the central CPU. Wires may be connected to one or more splitters, joiners, dead-ends or polarity reversers.

You are given a few seconds before the game starts to choose your side. Try to pick a side with more splitters (the ones that turn 1 wire into 2).

You are given a limited number of shots; the higher your robot rank, the more shots you get.

Move your tiny green power generator up and down and press X to fire a shot. The shot will then power that wire for a few seconds and, if power reaches the central CPU, the cell it reaches will be changed to your colour.

Once the counter reaches zero, a winner is decided. If you win, you gain control of the AI robot; if you lose, you will revert to a "00" droid or, if you are already a "00" droid, its game over!

Lifts

Lifts are used to move between floors and are represented by a solid circle with an X in the middle. Each floor has 2 or 3 lifts. Press X when you are over a lift to enter it.

Lower floors contain more powerful robots so it's not advisable to exit the lift at these floors until you are in control of a reasonably powerful robot.

Terminals

Terminals are used to view robot and city information.

Press X when you are in front of a terminal to connect to it. If you are a "00" droid, access will be denied.

You can only view robots up to and including your own rank. The robot information may include a "-DISTRUPTOR" message. These robots are immune to disruptor weapons (see below) and essential when trying to clear a floor with disruptor-equipped droids.

The "city information" option allows you to see which levels have been completely cleared.

Weapons

There are 3 types of weapon:

Lasers

The majority of robots have lasers of varying power. Some robots have no weapons in which case your "00" unit's own low-powered laser is used instead.

Grenades

Some robots throw grenades. These are useful for attacking robots that are on higher of lower ground to yourself.

Disruptors

Short-range disruptors are shown as a flash of white and will damage any robot nearby that is not immune to disruptor attacks.

When firing a disruptor, you must still press a direction key, even though the disruptor has no particular direction.

Tips

When you have taken control of another robot, its maximum power capacity will gradually drain. Make sure you take over another robot before the maximum power gets too low or you will revert to a "00" droid.

Some droids throw grenades. These are useful for attacking robots from above.

The "disruptor" is the ultimate weapon and only a few types of robots are immune to it. Make sure you control one of these before attempting to tackle a level containing robots with this weapon.

About

Based on Paradroid by Andrew Braybrook and Quazatron by Steve Turner.

All level layouts are as per Steve Turner's ZX Spectrum version of Quazatron.

Testing by Finn.

Many of the profile pictures of the various robot classes (viewable from a terminal) are based on images I found online. Unfortunately, none of these image had details of the original author hence I can't credit them.

Version History

• 0.81 - 09-Nov-2022 - Fixed "Out of memory" issue