C.E.T.A.S.

Cybernetically Enhanced Tactical Aquatic Systems · the very first game for MAD-65 · public beta

It is the year 1942. German U-boats are mercilessly destroying Allied ships across the Atlantic Ocean. Traditional naval engineering has failed. In desperation, the United States government makes one final gamble: they pull 86-year-old Nikola Tesla out of a hotel in New York and grant him unlimited funding along with a secret laboratory deep beneath the ocean surface.

Tesla rejects the idea of building conventional metal warships. He claims the ocean possesses its own energy, and that the ideal conductor for his technology would be a living, powerful creature. The choice falls upon a gigantic sperm whale — an alpha male whose entire pod was annihilated by German depth charges. The whale burns with a desire for revenge.

Together with a team of trusted Serbian scientists who escaped occupied Europe, Tesla subjects the whale to radical modifications. He merges the creature's extraordinary biological sonar with his own inventions based on alternating current and wave resonance. Thus, the C.E.T.A.S. — Cybernetically Enhanced Tactical Aquatic Systems — is born: a living warship guided and powered by Tesla's genius.

CETAS is a horizontal underwater shooter packed with action, enemies, explosions and boss fights. Take Tesla's living warship into the Atlantic across six levels of Nazi war machines — dodge the terrain, tear through mechanical sea beasts with lasers and sonar weapons, and turn the enemy's own mines against them. Six bosses stand between you and the Reich's final weapon.

Authors:

• Rafal Dudek - concept and graphics
• Mateusz Matysiak - game design, mechanics and code
• Maro Szczerski - music

About this BETA release:

CETAS is a complete game. Everything that was planned is in it: 6 levels with 6 bosses, the full enemy roster, all weapons and pickups, five music tracks, a level-by-level story, a hall of fame and two ways to finish the game.

This is a BETA release. It is meant for testing and feedback: balance, timing and presentation may still be adjusted before 1.0. It is not a demo and nothing has been cut - the whole game is here and can be played through to the end.

Things that are worth reporting:

• Anything that crashes, freezes, or drops back to the desktop.
• Graphics or text that flicker.
• Sound that cuts out or sticks on a note.
• Enemies or any objects appearing and disappearing for no reason
• Anything that feels unfair rather than hard.

Send reports to mm{at}codepainters.com Please say which version you played and what you were doing at the time.

How to play it

You do not need a physical MAD-65 console. The download contains the game plus madsim, a simulator that runs the whole machine on your Windows PC.

1. Download the ZIP and unpack it anywhere.
2. Run madsim.exe from the unpacked folder.
3. Play with the arrow keys.

No installer, no dependencies, nothing written outside the folder. Delete the folder to uninstall.

Controls

The arrow keys and Right Ctrl are wired to joystick port 1 — exactly what a real MAD-65 joystick would send.

Known issues

• [None reported yet.]