Meteor : Rules of play
Rules
To begin with, you have several Meteors (balls). The number of reserve balls available to you is displayed
in the top right corner. Any ball that goes ‘out of bounds’
(ie past your ship and off the bottom of the play field) is lost forever. It will be automatically replaced
by one of your reserve Meteors and you can launch it into play by clicking the central button or by tapping a screen higher than tne rocket. If you have
no reserve Meteors, the game is over. As long as you are able to keep at least one ball in play, your game will continue.
Each of Meteor levels is comprised of a varying number of ‘bricks’. Most of these bricks are destructible by bouncing your ball off of
them (or shooting them) between one and three times. When all such one to three hit bricks have been cleared, you will have
successfully completed the level and you will advance to the next level.
Many levels contain obstacle bricks that are not required to be cleared for a level to be successfully completed.
All levels in the game are grouped into episodes of 10. If you have the misfortune of losing all your balls in the middle
of an episode, you must resume play at the beginning of that episode. Autosave is available: if you have any number of balls left, you can exit a game by tapping "cross" exit sign in the top right corner or by launching
any other application (Palm). The current level and score will be saved. After that you can return to the game and either continue from the reached level or launch a new game.
There are two main goals of Meteor. The first is to keep your ball in play for as long as possible so that you can advance to the next
level. You will keep the ball in play by simply keeping it from going past your ship and out of bounds.
The second is to accumulate the highest score possible by breaking as many bricks, collecting as many power ups and destroying
as many robots as you can. The score is shown in the bottom-left corner, the number of remaining balls (meteors) is shown in the top-right corner.
Controls
To pilot your ship, simply move your Pen Stilus in the direction you want the ship to move.
The central button will launch the ball into play and shoot your weapons - if you have collected the appropriate
power up.
The Button Pause on a game scoreboard will pause the game.
The Button MainMenu on a game scoreboard will abort the game and bring main menu screen.
Level of Difficulty – Meteor offers 3 levels of difficulty to challenge a wide range of skill levels. Make sure you find the correct level of
difficulty for you. You can select your level of difficulty each time you begin a new game. To change the level of difficulty,
before clicking on the image of the episode you would like to begin with, select a level of difficulty by
clicking the appropriate button above the episode images.
Power Ups
Many power ups work in combination with each other, but some will cancel out the effect of other power ups.
Catch a power up - Score: + 5.
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Increase ship's deflector |
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Decrease ship's deflector |
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Slow down your ball |
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Speed up your ball |
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3-Ball Split |
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7-Ball Split |
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Extra life |
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Magnet helps you to glue a ball |
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Fire your ball |
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It gives Plasma power to your ball |
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Make your ball normal |
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This power up gives you the ability to shoot with bullets |
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This power up gives you the ability to shoot with missiles |
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This power up gives you the ability to shoot with supermissiles |
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Protect your ship from shooting robots |
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Permanent wall under your ship is very helpful |
Specialty Bricks
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Colored brick. Score: + 5 |
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Power up brick. Score: + 5 |
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Explosive brick. Score: + 10 |
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Three (or two) hit brick. Score: + 10 |
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Connected brick. When you turn on all connected bricks they crash. Score: + 10 |
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Three (or two) hit unchangeable brick. Score: + 10 |
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Obstacle brick. Use missiles or special balls to destroy them. Score: + 10 |
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These brick is only indestructible if you approach it from the wrong side. Score: + 10 |
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Invisible Brick. Hit once to make it visible. Then hit it again to destroy it. Score: + 10 |
Robots
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Guarding robot. Score: + 20 |
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Guarding robot. Score: + 20 |
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Guarding robot with gun. Score: + 30 |
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Robot moves across the level and throws out bombs. Score: + 30 |