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"After nearly thirty years of research, my life's work was about to come to a close. In the end it had been luck, well, luck and a hideously expensive carpet bombing, that provided the final breakthrough. A chance hit had scattered the magics that cloaked the ancient submerged city of gold, and now all its secrets, not to mention treasures, lay bare.
The ship was in place, the diving equipment prepared; the lost nights staring into dusty volumes, the empty bottles, the wrecked marriage, nearly forgotten. In a few more minutes I would finally know if it had all been worth it."

-- Arthur D. Iverson

### The Cast

#### Mermaid

This is the protagonist. She represents everything that is good and pure and makes the game worth playing. She's out to save her people with no thought for herself. She does not eat babies in her leisure time. She is you.

#### Bubbles of magic

These are your goal. You'll need to absorb hundreds of these - spread over ten challenging levels with five state-of-the-art, beautifully rendered, lovingly crafted stages each, all packed with challenge, completely free of cost, overt or hidden - to recast the spell that will cloak what remains of your city from the grubby hands of the world above.

#### Diver

This is the antagonist, the ultimate incarnation of greed gone bad. He will stop at nothing in his pursuit of the treasures of your wrecked home. He will crush most creatures in his way as if they were flies (use this to your advantage), magic will do naught but slow him down, and as long as there is gold in easy reach he will let nothing distract him from filling his pockets... except, perhaps, a mermaid.

#### Coins

Gold scattered when your city was bombed. Each coin intercepted by the Diver will boost his confidence and his speed. While you cannot allow the weight of gold to impede your primary goal, it is suggested that you use your guiles to lure the Diver away from these nuggets lest he'll become too excited to avoid.

#### Jellyfish, Piranha and Crocofish

The three most common denizens of the deep. Lethargic, to begin with, nearly harmless. But as the game progresses, they become hungrier, faster, more aggressive. They will kill you if allowed to get close, but are easily deposed of with magic or by using the Diver as a shield.

#### Eels

These monstrous creatures fear nothing. Magic won't touch them and even the Diver is smart enough to leave them be. They will try to grab a bite of mermaid flesh as long as you are within their field of vision, but a short attention span stops them from active pursuit.

#### Stingweed

The stingweed forests around the city were a key part of the city defense, getting rid of bothersome intruders who ventured too close to the city perimeters. Without the magic of the city, it is out of control.

#### Giant crab

Stealthy and deadly, it prefers to lurk in the shadows, awaiting an opportunity to strike.

### Weaponry

Plenty of danger in the sea. Luckily you are not defenseless. You can channel a small part of the magics you collect into bullets with which you can preemptively defend yourself by terminating any potential adversary as soon as it gets within firing distance; all killing handled very ethically, of course, with a minimum of suffering and/or press coverage.

Four kinds of destructive spells become available during the game, automatically firing as you move around, as well as two less devastating but nonetheless useful triggered auras.

#### Single shot

One magic bullet at a time fired in the opposite of your swim direction. Difficult to target and provides only a minimum of offensive defense.

#### Multiple shot

Up to three bullets fired in a 60 degree angle behind you.

#### Homing shot

The same as multiple shot with the addition that you maintain enough mental control over the magics to guide them towards the nearest hostile.

#### Nova

A multitude of magic bullets launched in a a circle around you. Properly boosted, this spell provides the ultimate in defense through cataclysmic annihilation.

#### Speed, range and additional bullets

All of the above spells may be additionally improved by increasing the magics' speed and range, by lowering the recharge time of the spell, and by increasing the number of magic bullets that can be active at any one time. More on this in the "bonuses" section.

#### Repellant

The first of two triggered auras. When charged, the left mouse button activates the aura, which will keep most enemies at bay during its activation time. Activating the repellant will also nullify any other active timed effect.

#### Attractor

The second aura. When charged, the right mouse button activates the aura which will exert a pull on all magic bubbles in range, aiding swift collection. Activating the attractor will also nullify any other active timed effect.

### Controls

Simple as can be. Steer around with the mouse to grab bubbles and avoid enemies. Activate in-game buttons and auras with the mouse buttons.

### Bonuses

Some of the bubbles have their magic packed so dense that absorbing them carries side effects, some pleasant, other... not so pleasant.
The timed spells will conjure an octopus into the top left screen corner, showing the duration of the spell. A timed effect can only be cancelled by triggering an aura or by completing a level.

### Death

With an oceanworth of flora and fauna against you, death is almost guaranteed. Luckily there is no shortage of maids ready to shoulder the responsibility and potential glory of saving merkind.

#### Infinite lives

The loss of one life is merely a setback. Hit "continue" and score and weaponry will revert to their state at the beginning of the level and you reenter at stage 1. This can be done as many times as needed as you have an unlimited supply of mermaids at your disposal.

#### Ending a game prematurely

Should you decide to give the game up or postpone the rest for later, hit "give up" to return to the intro screen. If your score warrants a place in the high score list, this button will be replaced by an "enter name" button, taking you to a part of the ocean where you can record your name for posterity.

#### Recording your name

Hit the bubbles containing the characters in your name, delete a character with DEL, or the entire name with CLR. Finalize your name by popping an END.

### Scoring

You get points for collecting bubbles, killing enemies, stunning the Diver, and just plain surviving. You lose points for each golden coin you allow the Diver to take.

#### End-of-level bonuses

At the end of each sublevel a special bonus will be granted should you fulfill the required criterion. There are more than a dozen possible bonuses ranging from the simple "don't let any bubbles slip away" through the challenging "kill all enemies" to the downright odd "collect bubbles of one size only". If the targets for more than one bonus are reached, the highest scoring is the one given.

#### High score list

There is no need to repeatedly enter your name each time you improve you score, as the highest score in a session is remembered even if the stage it occurs in is replayed later due to death. Two sets of high scores are kept: "Clean" scores for games where no death has yet occured, and "Accumulated" scores, the sum total of all participating mermaids in a single game.

### Intro screen and settings

#### New game

starts a new game from level 1 at the current difficulty.

#### Continue latest

continues where the last game (at the current difficulty) left off.

#### Continue best

continues the best game round (at the current difficulty) so far.

#### Difficulty: Easy, Medium, Hard

changes difficulty levels for the game. If you manage to complete the game on "hard", you are our hero! But please don't send us your hospital bill.

#### Settings

configure the graphic settings. If the game doesn't run smoothly on your computer, turn off graphic effects to reduce the processing required.

> #### Shimmer

> toggles the water shimmer effects.

> #### Ripple

> toggles ripple effects in the background.

> #### Droplets

> toggles whether moving objects trail droplets.

> #### Stabilize

> switch on to avoid issues with tearing graphics, but leave it off if it slows down the game.

> #### Full screen

> changes between windowed and full screen mode. You can also press alt-enter at any time in the game to toggle display mode.

#### High scores

displays the current high scores. Press any key or button to return to the title screen.

#### Quit

lets you leave the game.