Tiny Planet Id (Industrial Dump) was once the home base for the Quaaflax Alliance's top special tactics team until it became their graveyard during a Gy Djin terrorist assault. The fighters' bodies were never found and Id became nothing but a radioactive wasteland, a dumping ground for the galaxy's military and industrial refuse.
Then it hit. Out of nowhere came a freak cosmic storm, lighting up Planet Id like a supernova. Toxic chemicals, military hardware, and radioactive waste fused together in a churning primordial soup. And out of the ooze crawled a strange, new life form: part military and computer hardware, part sentient life forms, these heavy-metal fighting machines came to be known as CyberGladiators. Looking mean enough to rip the lungs out of the universe, the Alliance was relieved to learn that the CyberGladiators intended to use their powers only to serve and protect. Strangely, these cybernetic warriors bear a startling resemblance to the Alliance heroes killed long ago in the Gy Djin assault. Have the lost souls of Id's most devastating war been reborn in the planet's animated remains?
Meanwhile... off in a far corner of the galaxy, the errant storm continued its path of destruction. Growing in force and dragging half of Planet Id's cosmic trash along with it, the storm slammed into the worst possible target it could find - DungeonStar, a hulking deep-space prison built to cage the galaxy's most notorious criminals. Among its inmates was the demonic Gy Djin leader, Master Pain, locked in Terminal Bio-Freeze in the DungeonStar's deepest vault. In a cataclysmic storm of fire, steel, and cosmic radiation, the howling prisoners were transformed into something more dangerous than even the DungeonStar could hold - a truly evil band of CyberGladiators. They emerged from the smoldering rubble with only one thing on their minds: revenge for their years spent behind bars.
Led by the ruthless Master Pain, the DungeonStar escapees launched their assault on an unsuspecting galaxy... but they now find themselves in a face-to-face showdown with the cybernetic enforcers from Planet Id. Special tactics expert, Sergeant Mayhem leads the counter-assault and vows to hunt his Gy Djin enemies all the way to Hell if that's what it takes to purge them from the universe.
Welcome to Hell.
Controls
Before you engage in battle you should familiarize yourself with the game's controls. Using the keyboard, a game pad, or a four-(or more)-button joystick, here are the keys and buttons you use to control your fighter:
IMPORTANT NOTE: Using the [Enter] and cursor keys to select a fighter automatically makes you Player 2 (the fighter that starts out on the right). Use Spacebar and the [A], [D], [W], and [S] keys to start out as Player 1 (the fighter that starts out on the left).
Keyboard controls
Game Pad/Joystick Controls
The preceding diagrams show only the four basic moves - Speed Punch, Power Punch, Speed Kick, and Power Kick. These are the moves you need to get started, but you'll want to refer to "Moves and characters" section to discover the more advanced moves and learn how to get the most out of your selected Gladiator.
Getting started
To start the game, simply insert the CyberGladiators CD into your CD drive and choose Play CyberGladiators from the selection window that appears. If the CD is already in the drive, double-click the CyberGladiators icon found in the Sierra directory on your hard drive. A title screen animation will appear. Wait until this introductory animation ends or press any key to bring up the game's Control Screen.
Here is where you choose your fighter. Use the Player 1 controls (the left portion of the keyboard) to play as the fighter on the left. Use the Player 2 controls (the cursor keys and numeric keypad) to play as the fighter on the right. You may highlight a fighter using the up, down, left, and right directional keys. Hit Start or Speed Punch to select that fighter for battle.
If you're the only player, or the second player has yet to choose a fighter, the game will ask you to press Start to begin a one-player game against the computer. You may press Start to accept the challenge, or wait until the second player makes his or her choice to enter the Battle as Player 2.
IMPORTANT TERMS: A bout is a single fight between two gladiators. A Battle is the combination of two or more bouts in which one fighter emerges victorious by winning two bouts in a row. A War is the series of Battles you enter when challenging the computer to a one-player game.
Press Esc or Alt-F4 to exit the game.
One-Player: War
You enter into a War against all opposing CyberGladiators when you challenge the computer to a one-player game. The order in which you face your enemies is determined by the allegiance of the Gladiator you've selected - one of the "good" Alliance fighters from Planet Id, or one of the Gy Djin terrorists from the DungeonStar.
Opponent When Fighting As Good
Opponent When Fighting As Evil
Planet and Arena
1st Battle
Death Row Jones
Psyclopps
Magnus Dungeons (Tunnels)
2nd Battle
Cloned Psyclopps
Cloned Death Row
Vulca Swamp (Swamp)
3rd Battle
Madam Discipline
Plazma
GloTech Loading Docks (Docks)
4th Battle
Cloned Plazma
Cloned Discipline
Magnus Power Facility (Power)
5th Battle
Brother Grimm
Nero Zero
GloTech Gneutonium Plant (Plant)
6th Battle
Cloned Nero Zero
Cloned Brother Grimm
XuneDune Bliss Gardens (Dunes)
7th Battle
Master Pain
Sergeant Mayhem
Vulca Magma Plains (Magma)
8th Battle
Cloned Mayhem
Cloned Master Pain
XuneDune Holiday Oasis (Oasis)
Final Battle
Carnigore
Dungeon Star
Final Battle
Shrapp
Planet Id
Note that the Alliance Fighters have created clone gladiators of the Gy Djin Fighters, forcing each villain to eventually face a duplicate of himself in battle. The Gy Djin Gladiators responded with evil counter-clones of the Alliance Fighters to even the score.
Your battles take you across four Quaaflax galaxy planets. You must fight your way to victory on the two arenas found on each planet - that's eight battles total - to win the right to face your opponent's ultimate warrior. This final match takes place on your enemy's home turf: Planet Id, if you're fighting as an evil gladiator; DungeonStar if you're fighting as a good gladiator.
IMPORTANT TIP: Finish the game without using a Continue and you will receive a special code that allows you to play as the Boss fighter you just defeated.
Winning a match against your opponent's most powerful gladiator (the Boss) is no easy task. Take him out, however, and you not only win the game, you win the right to fight as that Boss against your friends or any of the computer opponents. The game gives you five Continues (the ability to replay any lost Battle), but you will not be given the secret Boss code if you use a Continue to win a War. Nor can you earn the secret Boss code if you set your fighter's strength to "Strong" via the Options Screen.
Two-Player: Battle
With two players, you and your friend each pick a gladiator and battle it out to see who is the better fighter. Which arena you fight on depends on the game's Options settings. Under the game's normal setting, the arena is changed at the end of each battle and the order of the arenas is the same as in a one-player War. You may also pick the arena yourself from the Options menu.
At the end of each Battle, you will return to the Control Screen where you and your opponent may select a new pair of fighters. A player must win two bouts in a row to complete a Battle.
Game rules
The rules are brutally simple: pound your opponent into smoldering pieces of rubble using any means possible. The Health Bar that appears above your fighter shows "healthy" you are. Your Health Bar automatically moves to stay above you when you switch sides with your opponent by jumping over him. You win a bout by forcing your opponent's Health Bar to drop to zero or by knocking him or her off the arena floor. The bout is considered a tie when both fighters fall off of the arena floor.
You must win two bouts in a row to win a Battle. As a result, one fighter is in jeopardy of losing a Battle after any bout that doesn't end in a draw. The outline of your Health Bar pulses red whenever you're in jeopardy, so pay attention. You don't want to slip up when the game is on the line. Even with a relatively strong Health Bar, you will fall down if you get hit several times in a row. The inner portion of your Health Bar slowly turns red to show how weary your fighter is. You fall down if you are hit while your Health Bar is pure red.
A Game Clock located between the Health Bars counts down to zero. By default, the game uses 60-second bouts, but you can set the bout time to 45-seconds or to unlimited time from the Options Screen. If the clock counts down to zero before a fighter is knocked unconscious, the game goes into Sudden Death. Here, the next fighter to land a blow is declared the winner no matter what his or her Health Bar reads.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You must win two bouts in a row to win a battle. Also, pay attention to the Game Clock - the first fighter to land a blow after the clock hits zero wins the bout.
Press Esc or Start during a bout to pause the game. Once the game is paused, a menu appears giving you the option of continuing play or aborting the bout and returning to the Control Screen.
Custom settings
When you first run CyberGladiators, the game will fill your entire screen. You may run CyberGladiators in a window if you set your Windows' desktop to high-color, 16-bit graphics mode. To run CyberGladiators in a window, start the game and press [Alt] + [Enter]. Press [Alt] + [Enter] again to return to full-screen mode.
At any time during the game you can press the plus and minus keys (+ and -) to increase and decrease the game's screen size. Similarly, you can change the detail level of the graphics (how accurate the light-source shading is and how much of the background is visible) by pressing the left and right bracket keys ([ and ]). The game's frame rate (which affects how smooth the fighter movement appears) improves every time you decrease the screen size or detail level.
The brightness of the game's graphics depends largely on your computer monitor. If the game appears too light or too dark, you can adjust your monitor settings or use the back-slash (\) key to change the game's brightness level.
To avoid getting beaten to a pulp while you experiment with the screen size, graphical detail settings, or brightness level, try pausing the game before hitting plus, minus, left-bracket, right-bracket, or backslash. All of these settings are automatically saved when you exit the game and will reload the next time you run the game.
Game options
Pressing [Ctrl] + [O] from the Control Screen (the screen where you choose fighters) brings up the game's Options Screen. Here's where you customize game play to best match your fighting abilities and your preferences. This screen offers the following options:
Option
Possible Settings
Description
Fighter 1 Strength
Weak, Normal, or Strong
How damaging Player 1's blows are
Fighter 2 Strength
Weak, Normal, or Strong
How damaging Player 2's blows are
Motion
Smooth, Normal, Turbo
How fast the fighters move
Time Limit
60 secs, 45 secs, or None
How long each bout is
Arena Selection
Cycled or Arena
Which arena you fight in during a Battle
Voice
On or Off
Play fighter voices during match?
Music
On or Off
Play music during match?
Exit
Exit Options Screen
Use the Up and Down directional keys to select an option and the Left and Right directional keys to change that option's setting.
The Fighter Strength options let you handicap players or make it easier for you to win a War. Fighter 1 refers to the fighter who starts out on the left side of the screen; Fighter 2 refers to the fighter who starts out on the right. Both strength settings default to Normal.
The Motion option changes the speed of the game's motion. Choose Smooth for incredibly realistic motion or Turbo for a blazingly fast game.
The Time Limit option determines how much time is put on the Game Clock before each bout. Sudden Death kicks in after the Game Clock counts down to zero. During Sudden Death, the first fighter to land a blow wins the bout. If you set the Time Limit to None, the Game Clock does not appear and the game never goes into Sudden Death. The Time Limit default setting is 60 seconds.
The Arena Selection option allows you to choose which arena you fight in. Set this option to Cycled and your Battles will progress through each arena. All the other settings specify a particular arena. The default setting is Cycled.
The Voice option lets you keep the fighters from speaking (and grunting) during a battle.
The Music option lets you turn the game music on and off.
The Exit option brings you back to the game's Control Screen. Press Start or Power Punch when the Exit option is highlighted.
All options are reset to their default settings when you exit the game.
