HYDRA The Rivers of Death! Enemy thieves are trying to stealk the greatest treasures in Hydra. These are no ordinary museum pieces. Each of these valuable artifacts hides an important piece of the secret weapon needed to defeat the enemy. So the goverment issued you an experimental speed boat. You must use this powerful craft to navigate the treacherous rivers of Hydra and collect the treasures from the secret checkpoints before the enemy thieves get them first. If you succeed, you will be a very popular guy. Fail and you'll be all wet. Getting Started 1. Insert your Hydra game cartridge in your Lynx. 2. Turn on Lynx. The Hydra Screen title appears. 3. Press the joypad to choose one of the courses, Easy, Medium, or Hard 4. Press A or B. A picture of our hero appears with a map of the course while a conveyor belt carries the first treasure to dock. 5. Press A or B to begin game. Playing the Game Hydra is an aquatic racing adventure in which your goal is to deliver a series of treasures, weapons, and other cargo without getting toasted by enemy warriors or crashing into one of the many hazards along the river. When the game begins, your UltraBoost Powercraft is docked at the river bank. The first cargo is onloaded, and you're ready to let her rip. The screen shows a power gauge, and the current score. Press down on the joypad when the cargo is onloaded. When your craft starts its journey, a speed gauge also appears, along with a picture of the cargo. Use the joypad and option buttons to control your craft, as described below: Accelerate: Press down on the joypad. Slow Down: Press up on the pad. Steer Left or Right: Press the joypad left or right. Boost into the air: Press Option 2 Change Weapons: Press Option 1 (Option 1 has no effect if you have only one weapon.) You must steer along the river without crashing into any of the many obstacles. Fortunately you have a high-powered weapon to help you blast everything in your path. As you run the river, keep an eye out for enemies, obstacles, crystals and money bags. Run over blue and green crystals to get more fuel for your Powercraft. Fuel drums also give you more fuel. Run over orange crystals to get more boosts. Boosts allow you to fly for a brief period so you can collect items in the air, shoot flying enemies, and jump over hazards. You can only carry three boosts at any one time. Run over anything else and you're likely to end up in a fiery wreck. If you crash, you lose your cargo and the Shawdon boat picks up your cargo and carries it in front of you. You must shoot the Shawdon boat to place your cargo in front of you in the middle of the river. If you miss the Shawdon boat and pass it, it will move in front of you again; if you shoot it but do not pick up your cargo, it will pick it up and move in front of you again. In any case, if you lose your cargo, you must search for it as it floats downstream. Run over it to pick it up. But be careful. At high speeds, the cargo often looks alot like hazards in the water. Each level of the game is divided into segments. You must complete each segment without crashing or running out of fuel. If you run out of fuel, the game ends. You can press A to continue, but you will lose all points. If you successfully complete a segment, your ship is automatically refueled and you continue to the next segment. The number of segments in a level depends on the level you are trying to complete. At the end of each level, you reach a dock where a couple of your most gorgeous fans wait to take the cargo from you. After offloading the cargo, you are sent to a bonus phase where you have a chance to pick up extra cash by collecting fire rings. After completeing the bonus round, you may purchase supplies at the shop. The available supplies are: Uzi Cannon: Fires rapid-fire double shots. Nuke: Destroys everything on the screen. Fuel: Gets a full tank of gas. Shield: Protects the Powercraft from enemy fire. Homer: Seeks out the enemy vehicles and blows them away. Boost: Provides one air boost. 6-way Shot: Fires a six shot burst. To purchase an item, press the joypad until the selector box is on the desired item, then press A or B. You can continue to purchase items until you have run out of money or the shop is out of its very limited supplies. After doing your shopping, you will continue to the next level. Strategy Learn to recognize cargo as it float in the water. Otherwise, you will not get paid. Without money, you cannot strengthen your craft. That means you will probably be creamed by enemy missles. Get as much fuel as possible. Without it, you don't stand a chance. Know when to fly, and when to stay low. There are a few things in life more frustrating than missing all the money bags because you are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Shoot enemy craft whenever possible. The rewards are great. Scoring Money: Small Money Bags: $2500 Large Money Bags: $5000 Fire Ring (Bonus Dome Only): $5000 Points: Deliver Cargo: 10,000 Landing on disc in Bonus Dome: 1000 to 20,000 Collect Fire Ring: 200 to 10,000 Sink Ship: 5000 Destroy Flying Jet: 3000 Destroy Punk Island: 2000 Sink Gray Shooting Boat: 2000 Blast Helicopter: 1000 Shoot Halftrack: 500 Blast Hovercraft: 500 Shoot Tug Boat: 400 Sink Armored Boat: 300 Blow Up Jet Ski: 200 Shoot Down Zeppelin: 200 Blast Police Boat: 100 Destroy Black Shawdon Boat: 100 Video Game Advantage WWW manual archive -- http://www.io.com/~vga2000