Central Catering Command

Pilot's Delivery Manual

Everything a responsible interstellar pizza courier needs to know before entering the asteroid.

Read before launch

01 / Mission Briefing

Story

The Year Is 2086...

Deep within a battered asteroid, far beyond the usual delivery area, lies a top-secret government installation.

Hundreds of scientists, miners and suspicious-looking men in white coats toil around the clock on projects so secret that even they have forgotten what they are doing.

For years, the base has survived meteor storms, alien attacks, reactor failures and at least one unfortunate incident involving an experimental matter transporter.

But tonight, it faces its greatest crisis yet...

The workers are hungry!

A freak asteroid storm has destroyed the base canteen, the emergency food dispensers are serving nothing but cold porridge, and the last delivery pilot sent into the complex has mysteriously failed to return.

With tempers rising and several important scientists threatening to go on strike, the government sends out a desperate call for help.

And that is where you come in!

You are the galaxy’s fastest, possibly only, interstellar pizza courier. Your orders are simple: load your delivery craft with the hottest pizzas in the sector, enter the asteroid and feed the hungry workers before the entire installation descends into chaos!

But there is one small problem: the customers are scattered throughout the complex, from the busy upper levels to the deepest and most heavily restricted chambers. Every successful delivery sends you farther into the asteroid, where the corridors become more treacherous and the customers considerably harder to reach.

Navigate twisting tunnels, dodge dangerous machinery and time your journey through deadly laser barriers. Activate mysterious portal systems to reach sealed areas, and keep a careful watch for anything lurking in the darkness.

Speed is important, but so is survival. One careless move could scatter your precious cargo across several square miles of government property and earn you a strongly worded complaint from Central Catering Command!

Somewhere in the lowest levels, the final customers are waiting.

Nobody knows what secret work is being carried out down there. Nobody knows what happened to the previous delivery pilot. And nobody knows who ordered the one with extra mushrooms!

Only the bravest pilot can reach the heart of the complex. Only the most skilful courier can satisfy every customer.

Can you complete every delivery, uncover the secrets of the asteroid and return as the greatest interstellar pizza courier of all time?

There is only one way to find out!

02 / Flight School

Controls

You can redefine the keys from the Main Menu, or use a joystick/gamepad connected to Port 1.

If your controller has more than one button, one button will control Thrust and another will activate your Shield.

If you are using a traditional one-button controller, pressing Down will activate the Shield instead. Ancient technology requires ancient solutions.

Your ship is constantly being pulled downwards by gravity, so use Thrust together with Left and Right to keep yourself airborne and, ideally, in one piece.

Your Shield can protect you from many of the hazards found throughout the asteroid. Unfortunately, Central Catering Command did not approve the budget for unlimited shielding, so your Shield Energy is limited on every level.

Use it wisely!

03 / Delivery Protocol

How To Play

Your mission is simple:

Deliver pizza. Don’t crash.

Each level contains a number of hungry workers waiting for their pizza to continue working. You must navigate the environment, avoid the various things trying to destroy you, and deliver the required number of pizzas.

A worker waiting beside a striped landing pad inside the asteroid — To make a delivery, find one of the workers waiting near a **landing pad** and bring your ship safely down onto it. Land carefully (nose of the ship pointing straight up) and the pizza will be delivered, the customer will be fed, and with any luck, they might even get back to doing some work. Try not to arrive nose-first at several hundred miles per hour. Although technically a delivery, Central Catering Command does not consider this acceptable customer service.

As you travel deeper into the asteroid, the levels become increasingly dangerous and the customers increasingly inconvenient.

Apparently nobody considered accessibility when designing this installation.

The HUD shows everything you need to know.

HUD readout, left to right

Score

Your current score. Bigger numbers are generally considered better.

Pizzas Required

The number of pizzas you still need to deliver on the current level.

Shield Energy

How much Shield Energy you have remaining. When it reaches zero, pressing the Shield button will mostly provide emotional support.

Lives

The number of delivery craft you have remaining.

Level Timer

How long you have taken to complete the level.

Space Pizza includes Time Attack leaderboards, allowing you to compete against other pizza couriers around the world.

No pressure.

04 / Rankings

Scoring

Online leaderboards are available for four different categories:

Normal Game
Normal Game - Time Attack
Expert Game
Expert Game - Time Attack

In the standard game leaderboards, your objective is to earn the highest score you can while completing your deliveries.

Time Attack is all about speed.

Every second counts as you compete against other players to record the fastest completion times for each level.

You can view the latest scores and rankings here

Uploading your scores requires an internet-capable ZX Spectrum Next.

Yes, your Spectrum can now boast about your pizza-delivery skills on the internet.

What a time to be alive.

05 / Advanced Assignment

Expert Mode

Finished the Normal Game?

Feeling confident?

Perhaps a little too confident?

Expert Mode contains the same levels and objectives, but Central Catering Command has quietly removed several important health-and-safety measures.

Changes include:

No landing-pad checkpointsCrash and you may have rather more flying to redo.
Half the Shield EnergyBecause apparently having protection from lasers was making things too easy.
Stricter landing speedsYou must touch down more carefully if you want your ship, and the pizzas to remain approximately ship-and-pizza shaped.
More demanding physicsYour craft is slightly trickier to control, requiring greater precision when navigating the asteroid.

Expert Mode is intended for experienced pilots who have mastered the Normal Game.

Or players who enjoy a challenge (or suffering!).

06 / Hazard Database

Obstacles

The asteroid complex contains a surprising number of things capable of ruining both your spacecraft and somebody’s dinner.

Portals

Portals transport your ship instantly between different parts of a level. Don’t get too comfortable, though, when you re-materialise, you’ll need to regain control of your ship quickly!

Very convenient.

Probably safe.

Almost certainly tested.

Repulsers

Repulsers generate powerful forces that push your ship away.

They are extremely useful pieces of technology.

Just not for you.

Stalactites

Some stalactites are unstable and may fall when you fly underneath them.

If you see one shaking above you, this would be an excellent time to be somewhere else.

Lava Balls

These extremely hot balls of molten rock periodically shoot out of pools of lava.

Avoid them.

Pizza should be served hot.

Pilots should not.

Lifts

Industrial lifts move continuously up and down throughout parts of the installation.

Time your movement carefully and avoid being crushed.

The lift operators have been informed of the situation.

They have chosen not to respond.

Vertical purple laser beam between rock walls

Laser Beams

Laser barriers switch on and off at regular intervals.

Watch their timing and fly through when it is safe.

Flying through while they are switched on is technically also possible, but tends to produce considerably worse results.

07 / Galactic Rankings

Leaderboards

Think you’re the fastest pizza courier in the galaxy?

Prove it.

Online leaderboards allow players with an internet-capable ZX Spectrum Next to upload their scores and Time Attack results and compete against other players.

Glory awaits.

Probably.

View Boards

08 / Personnel File

Credits

Published By: Atomic Windmill
Coding By: Gary Pinkett
Pixel Art By: Gary Pinkett
Music By: DJ H0ffman
Sound Effects By: Tim Drew
Level Design By: Gary Pinkett and Tim Drew
Production By: Tim Drew and Gary Pinkett
DVD Inlay By: Vicky Lamburn
Play-Tested By: Cody Hoffman
Eric Nelson
Tim Drew
Dustin & Stephanie Pundt
Xebec
Havie & Little Hav

Links

Atomic Windmill Space Pizza