Manuale di Mech 64

Mech 64
-------
by Roberto Sandri - 2022

Game manual - English version

Index
Introduction....................................2
Start the game..................................2
Game Basics.....................................2
Why Achieve Assigned Targets ?..................3
How to Win the Game ?...........................3
How to Lose the Game ?..........................3
The Main Menu...................................4
Mechs and Aliens Features.......................4
The Mech Management Panel.......................5
The Control Panel...............................6
Fire and Ice Effects............................8
Notes..................... .....................8

1

Introduction
In a distant future humanity struggles to survive an
alien invasion.
The weapon that proved to be so far the most effective
are the Mechs, massive
powerful robots driven by artificial intellingence or
skilled human pilots.
Your mission in to launch the decisive attack on these
evil creatures after
gathering the most sophisticated Mechs and the best
known pilots.
Good luck…

Start the game
1. Turn on/reset your Commodore 64
2. Insert the Mech 64 floppy disk in the disk drive.
If you have more drives, use drive with id
8, which normally is the first drive in the serial
chain.
3. Digit LOAD “MECH 64”,8 and press RETURN
4. After loading is completed (return of the prompt
READY.) digit RUN and press
RETURN: the game will automatically cotinue loading
and then will start.

Game Basics
Mech 64 is a turn-based strategic game. It is
organized in missions, each of them composed by 10
sectors and each sector deployes in 10 turns to play.
That means you will have 10 turns available to
achieve the targets assigned for every sector.
You play controlling two different mechs. There are
different mech models available in the game,
each with specific characteristics. They are also
customizable with additional equipment.
Mechs can be driven by A.I. robots, with no particular
benefit, or by human pilots, who are much
better: every pilot starts with a particular skill,
that somehow increases the power of the driven
mech or gives a general benefit in the gameplay.
Moreover, human pilots gain more experience killing
aliens, growing up in level. And every new
acquired level gives another random special skill.
Every pilot starts with level 1 and can reach the
maximum level of 4.
A.I. robots never grow in experience.
You can choose your two mech models at the beginning
of each new mission and will have to use
them for all the 10 sectors, until the end of that
mission.
Differently, mechs maintenance, customization and
pilots assignment can be done after completing
each single sector.

2

If a mech driven by a human pilot breaks down, the
pilots is wounded and will become available
again only for the next mission.
The mech instead will become available again sooner in
the next sector… but never break both your
mechs in the same sector, otherwise the game will end
!
Why Achieve Assigned Targets ?
In every sector of a mission, different targets to
achieve will be assigned to you.
Trying to achieve targets is important for two
reasons:
- achieveng all the targets assigned in a sector gives
an experience bonus for each human pilot
playing that sector, so your pilots would grow up
faster to acquire a new level and a new skills.
- some specific targets are of key importance to
complete the game; they are highlighted in purple
color.
Picture A: Example of target assignment for a sector.
The one highlighted in
purple is a key goal to complete the game.
How to Win the Game ?
Unblock all the mech models (8) and all the pilots (8)
available in the game, by achieving specific
targets. After doing that, at the end of the current
mission you will face the final battle.
How to Lose the Game ?
There are two conditions that make you lose the game:
- if both mechs are broken down in a sector.
- if all the housings of sector are destroyed; so
always pay attention to protect housings even if it is
not an explicitly assigned target.

3

The Main Menu
From it you can chose the following options:
NEW GAME Start a new game. You will be asked to choose
a profile name, through
which your progress will be automatically saved during
the game: remember
this name in order to load and restore your condition
afterwards.
CURRENT GAME Get back to the game you were playing,
assuming a game was in progress.
LOAD GAME Load a previously played game: you will have
to enter the corresponding
profile name.

OPTIONS Acces another menu that lets you:
- shift the controlling joystick port
- change the disk drive to save and load your
profiles, assuming more disk
drives are detected.
Mechs and Aliens Features

MOVEMENT This value (symbolized by a purple tile)
determines how many tiles the mech
or alien can move within the sector in one turn.
Most of them can move only horizontally or vertically
(if diagonally, a x
marks this skill) and can not move on flooded areas.
DAMAGE When shooting against an enemy, this value
(symbolized by an orange
bullet) determines the amount of damage received by
the enemy, which will
be subtracted from its remaining Resistance points.
Warning: Damage does not apply for buildings: if
shooted, the probability
for a building to collapse is determined by its
defence %.

RESISTANCE This value (symbolized by a green shield)
determines how much Damage has
to be received to break down (for mechs) or be killed
(for aliens). It is
decreased of the amount of the attacker Damage value
every time the mech or
alien are hit. So beware not making it reach 0 for
your mechs.
Resistance of mechs can be restored selecting the
REPAIR action (see
specific section in the control panel explanation) and
even some aliens can
heal themselves.

OUTFIT This feature applies only to mechs and
describes any mounted additional
equipment. Several different equipments can be made
available during the
gameplay… discover how to.
Using the additional equipment will require extra
energy for the mech, that
can be provided by generators.

4

GENERATORS This feature applies only to mechs and
indicates how may generators are
installed (symbolized by a red battery). Each use of
the additional equipment
(OUTFIT) consumes 1 generator, that is then wasted
after use, decreasing this
value.

The Mech Management Panel
This panel summarizes your state in the game and it is
the interface to customize your mechs and
prepare them for the next sector.
At its top it shows your profile name and your current
condition, that is how many sectors you
completed in the current mission or if you are at your
home base waiting to undertake a new
mission. Remember: when you are at base the previously
wounded pilots become available again.
Possibly, if you have spare generators in your stock
(that means ready to be installed in your
mechs), that amount is shown.
Then are shown the name of your mech model, its
specific characteristic, the common features
(Movement, Damage, Resistance), the installed
generators and the eventual mounted special
equipment (Outfit).
Then are the name and picture of the assigned pilot,
his/her experience level (symbolized by a
yellow grade) and the special acquired skills.
Picture B: The mech management panel, showing one of
your two mechs and its pilot.

5

At the bottom of the panel all the available actions
with corresponding funciont keys are displayed:
SHIFT MECH Change the focus to the other mech.
ASSIGN PILOT Shift along the list of the available
pilots and assign him/her to the
mech.
CHANGE EQUIPMENT Mount or unmount along the list of
the available special equipment.
INSTALL GENERATOR Install a new generator in your
mech, taking it from your generators
stock. This action is not reversible: once a generator
is installed, it can
not be unistalled, only used.
CONTINUE After preparing your mech, choose this option
to go the next sector.
EXIT It takes you to the game main menu (to come back
afterwards choose
CURRENT GAME option).

The Control Panel
This is the main game interface, by which you can
control your mechs.
At the upper side, the turn counter or other
information are displayed, in the middle there is the
map
of the visited sector and at the bottom there are the
values of your mechs (Movement, Damage,
Resistance, installed generators and other symbolic
info) and the actions they can perform.
First of all, move the joystick right and left to
shift the control between the two mechs: there is
no specific order to use your mechs.
When a mech is selected, its pilot’s face is shown
and by moving the joystick up and down you
can choose among the actions.
To perform an action press fire button: a frame will
appear to select the tile where to perform that
action.
To cancel the choosen action, press fire button on a
tile not allowed for that action or on the
mech itself.
MOVE This action moves the mech within the sector
according to its Movement
value and characteristics.
Most of the mechs can move only horizontally or
vertically (not diagonally)
and can not move on flooded areas.
After moving, a mech can always perform another action
or you can shift
the control to the other mech.

6

Picture C: The control panel. Note that the mech on
the left mounts a special equipment
(Water Jet) so the additional action appears among its
choices.
SHOOT Use this option to shoot against an adjacent
alien or building. Most of the
mechs (and aliens) can shoot only horizontally or
vertically (not diagonally,
unless marked with a x).
If an alien is shot, the amount of the mech’s Damage
will be subtracted
from the alien’s Resistance, possibly killing it. If
a building is shot, it may
randomly collapse or not, according to its defence %.
Warning: after shooting, the mech’s turn always
ends, shifting the control
to the other mech or, if already used, passing the
turn to the aliens.
SCAN Use the radar scanner to get information about
the framed object on the map:
info will be displayed at the top of the screen. It is
useful to know buildings
functions and to see the aliens values and features
before approaching them.
Unlike the other actions, there is no limit for SCAN
actions in a turn, until
you skip or end the turn by other actions.
REPAIR/SKIP This action skips the turn for the mech,
passing it to the other mech or to the
aliens. If needed, a reparation is performed on your
mech restoring 1 point of
Resistance.

7

SPECIAL If a special equipment is mounted on your
mech, its name will appear as an
additional action and the effect is to use it,
consuming 1 installed generator. If
no generator is available, this action will not work.
Warning: using this action is alternative to SHOOT and
it will end the
mech turn alike.
Fire and Ice Effects
Some aliens, instead of performing a normal attack,
can set your mechs on fire or freeze them.
If a mech is on fire, when selected it appears red
instead of white and will receive a double damage
if shot (i.e. like the attacker had a doubled Damage
value). By the REPAIR action the mech can
recover from this condition.
Aliens on fire can not recover from this condition,
but some of them are anyway immune to fire.
If a mech is freezed, when selected it appears cyan
instead of white and it can not perform any
action except for SCAN or REPAIR. The REPAIR action
recovers from this condition and the mech
will be able to perform other actions in the next
turn.
Aliens may randomly recover from freezed condition.
Some of them are also immune to freeze.
Notes
Mech 64 was made by Roberto Sandri, it is absolutely
freeware and shareware (...guess why).
In gratitude for the efforts made, please do not
remove the references to the author, otherwise
remember him in the event of any intestinal
discomfort.
Comments and bug reports are welcome to
rs2809@yahoo.it.
Enjoy !
8

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