The Icon Bar: SunBurst hints, tips and walkthrough

Below is a selection of hints and a walkthrough for VOTI's 2d space game Sunburst. These were written by
Jeffrey Lee, with contributions from the game's author, Owain Cole.

Hints & Tips

If you come across a mine field and believe some mines may be cloaked, do not despair - any cloaked vehicle can be detected by pressing R,T or Y. Just
keep pressing T to find where the nearest mine is. Probably a bug. Also, mines only damage your shields - if you have no shield charge left, you will
not be destroyed.
If you come across some rockbouys, be warned - attacking them will usually produce 2 "guard ships". Also, you may encounter four ships which appear to be flying so the converge at one point in the rockbouy fleet. One or more of these may attack you, but you can hide in between the rockbouys. This way, when they attack, they will hit the rockbouys and the guard ships will rescue you. There is usually enough space for you to do a subspace jump in between the rockbouys and the fleet of ships.
All cargo can be scooped up, regardless of your ship.
Watch out for "snake" or "alligator" fleets of ships - these will follow you round, and when you get close enough, they will attack. You can usually outrun them and jump away though.
To speed things up, increase engine power to maximum where possible. But
don't forget to recharge your shields and lasers!
Go into "battle mode" when attacked by a large fleet - increase shield and laser power to almost maximum. Speed is not usually needed in such a situation. If you are going under, run away and increase shield power to maximum. If its already at maximum, panic.
If you find an Ancient, do not be afraid to destroy them - they are quite useful. For every shot they take, a cargo pod is ejected out its back. Handy if you have weak lasers, like on a shuttle, as you can get a good 30 pods. But, because you're in a shuttle, you can only hold 12.
SAVE almost every time you dock - a large fleet or impossible mission might just be round the corner. But, if you are not quite sure what youre doing, save each under a different name.
If you are having a battle outside a station, make sure you have docking permission - if you shoot the station by accident, you will still be allowed in if you had permission to dock first. If you do get locked out, just jump away and return to the station. They will have forgotten.
Do not be afraid of traders - either Sirius and Kosmos fleets, or asteroid miners. They will only attack if attacked. Remember, not everyone is out to kill you.
Destroying mines (not by running into them!) will give you a 25 credit bonus. This can be very handy if you are desperate for cash.
In the alien system, if you jump into a sector with a clump of free-floating cargo, be warned! These are most probably mines!
Although they may not look it, auto-pilots are very useful... for instance, you can dock at a station, enter a jump gate, follow someone you're attacking (& completely blow them to itty bitty pieces), scoop cargo, and destroy asteroids. I press either T or Y after something gets destroyed/scooped. This way you can easily wipe a sector clean. Try it.
I don't really know why you would want to know this, but... Stations can be destroyed by mines, and I think anything can go through a hyperspace jump (I tried an asteroid once). Also, if you press J and then spin round in circles, you can stay in that sector for ever... You can even head towards one edge of the screen, turn round just before you reach it, and then turn round again. Using this method you can edge through the sector, and if you get in trouble just stop turning. You only leave the current sector when you go off the edge of the screen.

Walkthrough

How to complete Sunburst in 45 easy steps...

Set course to Research 1
To speed things up, jump to the right, not to the left - remember, the map "wraps round". Avoid contact with other ships (i.e. do not attack any)
Dock at the Imperial Jump Station, and play 'Please Dont Shoot' to get the hyperspace upgrade. Reaching level 6 will give you 1000 credits, level 7 will give you 2000, and level 8 or above will give you the upgrade. It can be done, even on a 17 inch monitor! Make sure you save the game before you play, as you will probably have to reload after losing...
Leave the station, and hyperspace to the void. Fly over (go down the map) and dock at Research 1.
With your cash, buy some missiles. I recommended at least 2 'butchers', maybe more if you have some spare money.
Save the game! do it often! This is your last warning!
Leave the station, and go and kill Pestilence. He should show up on your system targets list, along with the others. Save the butchers!
Kill Death and Famine.
Destroy Logic Bomb using the butchers you bought, and anything else you need to use.
Destroy War.
Return to the Imperial HQ, and buy some more missiles, and again, at least 2 butchers.
Destroy the Rainship, using the butchers.
Dock at Poliniss Home Station.
Fly over and meet the Tristar. Dont bother trying to kill it; it is invulnerable.
Go to Oasis, but make sure that you have low cash and missiles, otherwise a little feature of the game will kick in. If you are doing too well, the game gets harder. I think that if you have lots of cash when you go to Oasis (I tried this - try lower than 1000. Should be easy.), a large fleet of Imperial ships catches you and blows you up. Do not but missiles though, as they seem to catch me when I stock up. I suggest filling your cargo hold up with expensive cargo. Then, when you reach Oasis, you can trade it in, at a relatively low loss.
Kill about 100 more people to reach level 9 (in the status window from the iconbar menu), so you can get a good job at Fortress. You need about 137 kills in total.
Fly over to Fortress, and you will be given the task of catching the
Hyang.
Catch up with the Hyang (this is easy with the Hyperspace upgrade).
Head to the Virain Hyperjump and save the game. Play Snake Eyes, until you have about 65,000 credits. I suggest you only play when there is a 500 credit stake, and save the game every time you go up 5,000 credits.
Upgrade! buy everything! (except a cloak - you cannot). Win2000 is even for Windoze haters, and some could say it is an accurate representation.
Wipe out all the ships on the shipping list you were given when you got
the Hyang.
Wipe out the ships that come near the jump station.
Head back to Oasis.
Visit Jak at Poliniss Home Station.
Go the the Hyperspace jump, stupid!
Fly to the void (Explanation - the void is desolate, ridden with radiation. Anyone staying there would need radiation shields. It is also a good place for underground operations, such that a ship-stealer might carry out.).
Catch the Hyang again.
Get to the nearest station, and quick! Avoid contact with all other
ships!
Sell something to get cash to repair the ships systems.
If youre not already there, head to Oasis.
Head to Nimbus.
Gamble the extra 35,000 needed to upgrade your ship again.
Upgrade!
Rendezvous with the Leviathan, and enter the jump gate.
Once in the alien system, enter the alien jump gate.
Destroy the 4 'spikes'.
Head to the alien research station.
Destroy the station. It is advised that you pick off the guarding ships one by one - If you attack one, only that one retaliates. Attack the station, and they all will.
Subspace jump away from the station site.
Head to Nimbus, gamble up to 65,000 again, and upgrade.
Head to Research 2, and dock to pickup SunBurst.
Head to the launch site.
Dont bother about Research 1 - it is impossible! If you go there, they want you to destroy about 20 ships so the shield-less transporters can make it.
Head to the jump station, and enter the gate!
Boo hoo. You single handedly destroyed the alien attack force, 7/8s of the Poliniss, Imperial and Virain life, and probably almost everyone on Earth. Unless their attacks fail, of course.

Cheat codes

CHEAT	Produces a little message from the bartender.
VOTI	A nice new Kosmos, but no cloak. This can let you safely get to Oasis, I think.
CASH	5000 extra credits.
JUMP	I think this is the hyperspace upgrade. Anyway, it can let you safely get to Oasis if you keep getting caught by the Imperials.

All codes are entered in one of the bars - just buy the relevant drinks, so the code is spelt out at the bottom of the screen. The first letter of the drinks name is added to the code. To activate, leave the bar.

I have also 'found out' some undocumented keys; to activate, hold down '-' on the keypad, and the corresponding key:

P	Save player. It will be as 'player' in the SunBurst directory. Set it's file type to &7DB, and you can load it as a normal save file. This allows you to save when not docked (although a new sector 'scenario' will be created when reloaded).
O	Save ship. I'm not sure what to do with this yet. Saved as 'Ship' in the SunBurst directory.
SPACE	Save screen shot. It is saved as a random number from 1 to 1000, in the SunBurst directory.
K	Kill everything in the current sector. Don't worry if you destroy a station - just jump away and return.
D	Enters debug mode (Sends *debug to the CLI). I don't think there's a way out without quitting SunBurst.

The above codes should work, although changing the keys may stop them. Also, I know how to get the hidden ship for free... But that involves some changes to the program. It's bad enough me telling you these hacked cheat codes.

At the moment I know something about the secret mission; it starts with you docking (presumably at Research 1), and getting caught by Shotgun and Dribble, because you owe them money. But I have not been able to trigger this off, hacking or not.