========================================================================== WHO DARES WINS III v1.1 for the ZX Spectrum 128K, +2, +2A and +3 ========================================================================== Who Dares Wins II ...... Steve Evans, (C) 1986 Alligata Commando graphics ...... Keith Burkhill, Nigel Alderton, Rory & Karen, (C) 1985 Elite, from the Capcom arcade game Who Dares Wins III ..... namco/nexgen, 2026 Who Dares Wins II was a budget hit of 1986: one soldier, a jungle full of enemies, and eight outposts to take, screen after screen. It played well, but its sprites flickered, and next to Elite's Commando it always looked like the poor cousin. Who Dares Wins III is the same war, rebuilt. The same maps, the same enemies in the same places, the same rules, on a new engine written from scratch for the 128K: no flicker, 25 frames a second, Commando's soldiers and scenery, and sound from the AY chip. Two more outposts were added, and the war now has an end. THE MISSION ----------- The enemy holds ten outposts in the jungle. Fight your way up the map, screen by screen, to each outpost's gate. Clear out the soldiers it sends against you, take its commander, and the outpost is yours. After the tenth, your back-up team loses them all again, and you go round a second time against a harder enemy. Take them all twice and the mission is complete. REQUIREMENTS ------------ A ZX Spectrum 128K, +2, +2A or +3. Who Dares Wins III uses all of the 128K memory and the AY sound chip. On a 48K Spectrum it says so and returns to BASIC. With esxDOS (DivIDE, DivMMC) the high scores and the settings are saved to the file wdw3hi.bin, in esxDOS's current folder. Without it, they last until you switch off. LOADING ------- Choose "Tape Loader" from the 128 menu, or type in 128 BASIC: LOAD "" and start the tape. The loading screen appears first, then the rest of the game loads. It fades out into the main menu when the loading is done. THE MAIN MENU ------------- Move the bar up and down the options with your UP and DOWN controls (the joystick, or the cursor keys 6 and 7), and select with FIRE or ENTER. START GAME ........ off you go REDEFINE KEYS ..... press a key for each control in turn. A key already taken is refused. JOYSTICK .......... changes the joystick: KEMPSTON, SINCLAIR (the +2's joystick 1, keys 6-0) or CURSOR (keys 5-8, 0 fire). The keyboard always works too. ADJUST SETTINGS ... see SETTINGS GAME CREDITS ...... who made what Leave the menu alone for a while and the high-score table shows up. Any control (or ENTER) brings the menu back. SETTINGS -------- Choose a setting with UP and DOWN, change it with FIRE or RIGHT (LEFT goes back a value), and select BACK to return to the menu. GROUND ...... NORMAL, LIGHT or NONE: how many dots are drawn on the ground. Some people like a cleaner screen. MUSIC ....... ON or OFF: the march in the menu and on the endings. The sound effects always play. ENEMIES ..... how hard the war is: EASY 6 men to start with. The enemy hunts you less, fires less often, and its shots are slower; no more than two enemy shots fly at a time. You are harder to hit. Tanks fire and planes bomb less often. NORMAL Who Dares Wins II as it was: 5 men, and everything in this manual describes this level. HARD 3 men. More hunters, more shots and faster ones, more soldiers from each gate. You are easier to hit. Tanks fire and planes bomb more often. With esxDOS, the settings are saved with the high scores. KEYS ---- Q ............ up A ............ down O ............ left P ............ right M ............ fire Z ............ throw a grenade H ............ pause / go on BREAK ........ give up (game over) All eight can be redefined from the main menu. The grenade is thrown from the keyboard only, so joystick players keep a finger on Z. THE SOLDIER ----------- You walk in eight directions and shoot the way you face, up to three bullets in the air at a time. Bullets stop at walls, sandbags, rocks and trees. Grenades fly in an arc over everything and explode where they land. They kill everything in the blast: you too, if you stand in it. Only grenades stop vehicles, gunners in cover and supply crates. Walls, sandbags, rocks, trees and houses stop you. Step into the water (rivers, lakes, trenches) and you drown; bridges are safe. There is no going back: the way on is always off the top of the screen. THE PANEL --------- The line at the bottom of the screen shows your SCORE, your spare men (the little soldier), your grenades (the grenade) and the HI score. LOSING A MAN ------------ You can be shot, bombed, blown up by a grenade (yours or theirs), run over, or drowned. The screen then starts again with all its enemies, and you come back at the bottom where you came in. After the last man: GAME OVER. An extra man at 10,000 points, then every 20,000 (30,000, 50,000 ...), up to 9. THE ENEMY --------- Soldiers ......... wander about, or hunt you down, and shoot 70-80 Soldiers running in from the side . cannot be shot until they stop running 250 Gunners .......... fire from behind cover; grenades only, until you come close and they step out 100 Trench and river soldiers ......... rise, fire, and duck again 90 Grenadiers ....... lob grenades from their mortars; they come out when you are level with them 250 Guards ........... watch over a prisoner (see PRISONERS) 50 Vehicles, grenades only: Jeeps and armoured cars .... drive across when you come near; they run you over 900 Boats ............ cross the river 750 Tanks ............ roll left and right, following you, and fire down the screen; touching one kills you 550 Planes cannot be killed: one flies across dropping bombs, another dives down the screen at you. Keep moving. PRISONERS --------- Some screens hold a prisoner with a guard beside him. Shoot the guard and the prisoner is free: he waves and walks off, for 800 points. Hit the prisoner by mistake, or take too long, and he dies. SUPPLIES -------- Now and then a supply crate comes down by parachute. Walk over it for 1 to 4 more grenades and 100 points. A grenade blows it up. THE OUTPOSTS ------------ Each outpost ends at a gate. The gate sends out a squad of soldiers, from the gate and from both sides, and then the commander walks out, in red. Kill every soldier and take the commander (1,250 points) to capture the outpost; if he gets away, the outpost still falls, but he is not counted as taken. "OUTPOST n CAPTURED" then tells you whether the commander was imprisoned or escaped, and how many prisoners you rescued on the way. Each outpost taken makes the enemy a little harder. THE ENDINGS AND THE MEDALS -------------------------- After the tenth outpost you get the first ending, and then you go round again, harder ("OUTPOST n RECAPTURED"). After the second time round the mission is complete. Each time round, two medals can be won, with a bonus: - take every commander, none escaped ........ 50,000 the first time, 100,000 the second - free every prisoner ........................ 50,000 the first time, 100,000 the second Any key skips the ending pages. HIGH SCORES ----------- A score good enough for the table asks for your name: choose each letter with UP and DOWN, FIRE to go on to the next, LEFT to go back one. HINTS ----- - Grenades are scarce. Keep them for the vehicles, the gunners and the gates. - Hunters come straight for you; wanderers don't. Shoot the hunters first. - A tank cannot be passed: get it before it gets you. - The guard first, then the prisoner thanks you. The other way round does not work. ========================================================================== Who Dares Wins III by namco/nexgen in 2026. Who Dares Wins II by Steve Evans, Alligata 1986. Graphics and font from Commando, Elite 1985. ==========================================================================