SID the Spellbinder

31.12.1982

Genre: Shooter Adventure

Press 0 on the numeric section of the keyboard. The Voice will ask you to "SELECT SKILL." Choose 1 or 2. Press 1 for the first skill level. Press 2 for the second skill level. (If you don't press either, the computer will automatically deliver skill level 2 after about 15 seconds.) The Voice will immediately announce: "MONSTER ATTACK! OPEN FIRE!" Sure enough! Giant Sid the Spellbinder snakes across the screen. Your only defense is a missile launcher at the bottom of the screen. Use the joystick of either hand control to move your missile launcher to the right or left. Press the action button to fire a missile. Your ammunition supply is indicated by the number at the lower right hand corner of the screen. You get thirty missiles at skill level 1 and twenty missiles at skill level 2. If you do not completely destroy Sid the Spellbinder before it reaches the opening at the lower left and right sides of the screen, it will eat your reserve missile supply starting with the second turn. Sid the Spellbinder consumes five missiles for each of its segments that make it to the opening. Your score appears at the lower left hand corner of the screen. Every segment you hit is worth progressively more points. The first segment you hit is worth 1 point. The second is worth 2 points. The third is worth 3 points - and so on up through ten. If your score is less than 200, Sid the Spellbinder will squeeze its remaining segments together when it goes off the screen. When your score goes over 200, the game gets harder. The gaps will remain open and Sid the Spellbinder moves faster and faster. The spelling fun starts when you hit all ten segments of Sid the Spellbinder - or when it reaches the bottom of the screen. - eats some of your missiles - but leaves you with some in reserve. The Voice will ask you to spell a word. Type in the letters on the alphabet section of the keyboard. If you make a mistake in typing, press CLEAR. When you think you have typed in the correct spelling, press ENTER. You get 10 missiles for every word spelled correctly at skill level 1. You get 5 missiles for every word spelled correctly at skill level 2. You will get a chance to spells three words in each round of the game. If you don't spell a word correctly the first time, the computer will ask you to try again. If you don't spell the word correctly on the second try, the computer will spell it for you so you'll know how to spell it next time. After each series of three words, Sid the Spellbinder will attack and try to eat your missiles. The game ends when you have no missiles left. To start a new game, press RESET and then press 1 (for skill level 1) or press 2 (for skill level 2).

Sid the Spellbinder! was one of the three games specifically designed to use the resources of The Voice. It is some sort of Space Invaders variation, in which instead of shooting space invaders, the player has to shoot Sid the Spellbinder, a giant segmented snake. Sid comes snaking down the screen and the player has to shoot its segments before it reaches the openings at the lower sides of the screen. The player starts with 30 missiles (20 in skill level 2) and scores in an arithmetic progression: one point for the first segment, two for the second, three for the third and so on, up to 10. If the player's score is below 200, Sid will align its remaining segments together whenever it goes off the screen. If the player's score is 200 or more, the gaps will remain making it harder to the player to shoot Sid. If Sid gets into those openings, it will eat the missiles in the reserve. Sid eats five missiles for each of its segments left when it enters the opening. If the player hits all of Sid's segments, or if Sid gets to the lower end of the screen and leaves the player with some missiles after eating, the game changes into a spelling game. The computer will speak a word and the player has to type it in. Each round has 3 words to be spelled and the player has two chances to spell each word. The player earns 10 missiles (5 in skill level 2) for each word spelled correctly. The game is over when all missiles are gone.