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The Story
Excerpt from logs of Col. C. R. Neidorf senior commander, EUSA H.Q.
26th April, 2069

At first we all thought it was just space junk. Then, all of a sudden, a singular important event occurred which turned the situation from one of curiosity into that of chaos. Our space debris database did not include so much references to those particular co-ordinates, and while the old archives were being mined for information, the debris started to assemble itself into perfect mathematical formations. Our scientists noticed how the individual shapes and reflected colours were no longer random. And they kept coming, increasing, forming beautiful but threatening patterns in the surrounding vacuum.

It was too regular for all this to be pure coincidence. No longer any sign of randomness and sporadic formations. This was a clear sign of intelligent life.

It took our scientists only a matter of days to realise how big the threat was. The debris turned out to be pods of some alien life form. The relatively small size of each individual pod would have made it easy to destroy, but destroying one would pose no danger to the rest. From the reflected light chemistry of some of the transparent ones, most are calculated to be housing billions of microbes and viruses. If a single pod reached us, it would be enough to destroy all carbon-based life on our planet. After all, that's what this intelligent life really is. A microbe, a virus, a bug coming from deep within the cosmos of space. And that's why we have started to refer to it as the "COSMIC BUG".

Various agencies and individuals have already tried to eliminate the Cosmic Bug. All have failed. You have been chosen to be the next to try because your idea of bombarding the pods of the Cosmic Bug with hardened steel balls is simple, quick and cheap to implement. It has also proven to be highly effective in the preliminary tests we performed. You will also have the opportunity to trade samples of some destroyed pods for cash, after the collected remains have been sterilised by the vacuum of space and irradiated with X-rays. The cash enables you to buy weapons. Use the weapons wisely. Space mining is not very lucrative these days and the cash paid for the pod remains is not much - save them for the more difficult situations.

We have identified 100 different formations, and you have to destroy each and every one of them. We calculate to be able to send you supplies after each set of 10 of these formations are destroyed. Be warned: your task will not be an easy one.

Good luck, and may you succeed in your mission to destroy the Cosmic Bug.

Game Features
Cosmic Bug has been designed to the highest possible detail, and although some compromise had to be made where it comes to size, mostly the decision was in favour of quality. So please keep this in mind when considering the rather large file size to download.
100 action packed levels
Special level set with 50 levels designed for younger players
Bonus levels at regular intervals to give you more chance to make it to the end
18 different power-ups
9 different user-selectable weapons
68 different bricks, some of which animated
11 different fantastic backdrops
13 different cool music tracks, plus a superb intro tune
64 custom engineered great sound effects, panned for more realism
Mouse or Analogue Joystick control, or a combination of both for co-operative mode
Downloadable custom level editor to design your own levels
 

PC Hardware Requirements
To run this game you require a computer with the following minimum specifications:
26Mb of free hard disk space for game files. 
A computer with at least a Pentium 2 CPU (Pentium 3 800MHz recommended)
Windows™ 9x/2K/XP/Vista™ operating system

DirectX 7 or better (DirectX 8 or better recommended)

A good video card with at least 16Mb video RAM (32Mb recommended)
At least 32 Mb RAM (Recommended: 64Mb for Win9x, 128Mb for Win2K/XP, 512Mb for Vista™)
Sound card (with appropriate drivers installed) + speakers
A mouse (a scroll-mouse recommended for level editor)
An analogue 2 button joystick (optional)

Game Play
Control 4 bats using the mouse or joystick to deflect the ball(s) from going off the playing area. When the level starts (or when you lose a life) you can change the bat to which the ball is attached (ball glued) by pressing right mouse button or joystick fire button 2. Pressing the left mouse button or joystick fire button 1 releases the ball. Failing to do so yourself, the ball is automatically released after a few seconds.
Your objective is to destroy the bricks at the centre of the playing area. However, some special bricks can not (and need not) be destroyed to complete the level. Some bricks need to be hit more than once to be destroyed. Others ... well, you'll find out. Some bricks produce falling icons when hit or destroyed. These are the credits (Euro), positive energy (star), negative energy (skull and bones), extra time (clock), extra points (smiley), and extra lives (heart). Positive and negative energy can do various things, and you will not know what the action will be until you actually collect them. Most of the actions actually cancel out the previous one, so you have to be careful and wise.
Every 5 levels the player is allowed to save current game status in 1 of 6 different slots, or skip the save game option (nothing is saved). The special bonus levels occur after every set of 10 levels, and these give players time to collect extra credits and points, and possibly an extra life as well. But be careful: avoid the negative energy or you might end up with less credits than you started with!

The Panel and Weapons
The panel at the right hand side of the screen shows you all the necessary information.
The upper part of the panel shows the weapons icons. You need to have enough credits to buy weapons, and only icons of weapons for which which you have enough credits are displayed. Weapons can be selected by clicking the right mouse button or by pressing the fire 2 button on your joystick. When a weapon is selected it can be engaged by clicking the left mouse button or pressing the fire 1 button on the joystick. When a weapon is engaged, a vu-meter is shown next to the weapons icons. This indicates the lifetime of the engaged weapon. Some weapons have a specific time before they expire, while others can be used for a specific number of times. Some bricks disable all or part of the weapons system.
The middle part of the panel contains points, credits and lives information.
The lower part of the panel contains vu-meters which indicate the status of the level timer, positive energy and negative energy. The level timer is activated with every new level. This controls the amount of extra bonus points the player will get once a level is cleared. Once this timer stops, no bonus points are given. The function of some special bricks is also affected once this timer stops. When you collect positive or negative energy, their respective vu-meters are activated to indicate the time left before they expire.