CHOLO
Solution

Firstly, some general tips: do not save game positions on the Cholo disk - there are `hidden' files on it and you can wreck it; save the game whenever you get another robot; the map is pre-war and is not accurate; take great care by water's edge; always transfer as many programs into robots under your control as often as you can; stay away from Manic Mine and Sladek Robot Factory until heavily armed; guard robots on bridge, at airfield and at Manic Mine are only ones that will shoot on sight, others wait until you fire.

More specific tips: some robots have cannons fixed at different heights; return IGOR to CYBER 1 when you gain access - there is more in memory than first appears; shoot FLYING EYE as it descends, not when on ground; it is safer to go round Church anticlockwise; check all 'dead' robots; take care going too far east or near edge of maps, bugs in game can cause it to lock up.

So, the solution! You start as RAT - exit building and take over HACKER, return to start building, interface with computer and read/store PasslTXT and RadarPRG. Return to RAT, get FLYEYE (South east of start building), take over and explore city - note aircraft at northern end of airfield, club house on golf course and radio-active island (location X=008, Y=010).

Fly to Logic Island and land on teleport pad, drive HACKER to Group Pier and teleport pad, robots will change places. Enter Church with HACKER and get SurveyPRG (run to get control of cameras FELINI and RIDLEY) and ReadmTXT. Running cameras will allow you to survey the unmapped island.

Reverse teleport instructions to return HACKER to mainland. You now need to cross bridge - there are two possible ways. Firstly, use RAT, cross at full speed, firing and dodging guards or, more elegantly take HACKER across and swop to another robot when damage indicator shows 75% damage. Explore generally with this other robot for a couple of minutes and return to HACKER - auto repair will have repaired damage. Repeat as necessary. AUTODOC is NE of bridge if needed.

Enter Club House and find computer - past it in the alcoves are dead robots. The last of these is GORT - take control. Go to Science Institute (two computers there) and get control of SHIP then locate it by shorter pier in western harbour (dock ship at 45%). Get GORT on board ship to uncharted island, dock and disembark, hack into computer and read programs AtmosTXT (gives location of entrance to underground bunker just north of start position) and C-C-CTXT, which explains that KOKE COLA is an unstable bonb) Locate KOKE, get control, return to ship and pier (use the other one), then go to airfield.

Get control of PLANE (just bump into it) and take off. Fly to bunker cap (the area shown by Manic Mine on the pre-war map) - through the gates and crash into pyramid shaped building.

Congratulations - you have now completed Cholo! However, this solution is not necessarily the only one - parts of the game can be played in different orders and you'll need to experiment a little to work out when it is best to swop robots, save your game position and discard programs as no longer necessary.

This solution originally appeared in "Disk User", published by Argus Press.

Scanned in by dllm@usa.net
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