Getting started

Ultra Assault is an old-skool scrolling shoot-em up - to complete the game you need to blast your way through all six levels. Alternatively, try Score Attack mode to get the highest score you can.

Using our RocketRating system, you'll actually be battling against everyone else with a copy of the game, as all your scores are (optionally) posted to our high score server.

Power ups allow you to increase the capabilities of your aircraft. They are dropped by enemies (or a wave of enemies).

Each power up fills up the bar at the bottom of the screen - if you press the 'use' button, you will gain the weapon, and the bar will reset.

Remember - extra weapons increase the weight of your ship, so you'll need to upgrade your speed to balance out your additional weapons.

Smart bombs are a special power up - they give you a devastating ultra-weapon which will damage everything on-screen when it is used, and destroys all enemy fire. Use these carefully, as they are in short supply during the game.

Note - bosses have special defences and are invulnerable to smart bomb attacks.

Survival

If you're hit by an enemy, your craft will be destroyed and you will lose a life. However, when you return to battle your power up state will be retained.

Game Modes and difficulty

When you start Ultra Assault you can choose a difficulty setting, or Score Attack mode.

Besides the default difficulty settings of Easy, Medium and Hard, you can customise the difficulty of the game through the options menu. Then, choose Custom mode to play with those settings.

Score Attack mode is a special mode designed for the RocketRating system. This mode is a fixed difficulty, and runs until you die or give up!

As you play, you will encounter all the levels in the game in sequence, with your score mounting as you get further. If you make it past level 6 you will return to level 1, but at a harder difficulty. Each wrap around makes the game harder, so see how far you can get.

When your game ends, you will be given the option to upload your score - and let everyone else know how good you are.

Score Sequence

To gain a really high score, use the score sequences built into each level. These sequences give you multipliers for shooting aliens in the defined order - each one you shoot in sequence increases the multiplier value.

Look for this indicator when playing - it tells you which alien is the next in sequence. If you hit it, your multiplier increases. If you hit an alien further on in sequence, the target marker will jump to the next one to shoot, and your multiplier will reset. See how long you can follow the sequence for - its the way to maximise your points.

RocketRating

If you have purchased the full version of Ultra Assault you can compete to get the highest score using our RocketRating system.

From the main menu, choose Options, and set 'Go online' to 'Prompt' (if you have a modem connection) or 'Always'. You'll then have to log on to our system - click on 'Login' and enter your details, or create an new account (please remember your details are case-sensitive).

Once you are logged in, you can view the global high-score table by clicking on 'Highscores'. From this screen you can also view local highscores, by clicking on 'Local Table' at the top.

While playing, your position in the global table will be displayed in the bottom left of the screen (if you are in the top 100). After your game, you will be asked if you wish to upload your score - you can also type a name for the local table at this point.

You can also choose to play as a group with friends - if you're only interested in scores of people you know, choose a group name and type it in the 'Group scores' box under Options.

Please note - Your RocketRating is only updated when you are online.

Loading Extra Levels

Using Ultra Assault's editor, players can create new level files. If you want to play a new level that someone has created, ensure that it is saved in the 'custom' folder in the directory where the game was installed (typically c:\Program Files\Small Rockets\Ultra Assault).

Once there, start the game as usual, choose your difficulty level, and on the level select screen type the name of the level (without the .lev extension) into the box and click the 'Custom level' button. The new level will load and play.