The Goal
In RESCUE FROM POSEIDON'S GATE™, you are the deep diving expert and troubleshooter aboard the USS-RV POSEIDON - a deep sea research vehicle on loan to the ICPC for submarine data cable repair.
The Amphitrite mini-sub has gone down in dangerous waters behind the rock formation known as Poseidon's Gate. To make matters worse, a mild seaquake has stirred up a frenzy of sharks exactly where the Amphitrite went down.
The mini-sub was compromised, and the slightest bump by a frenzied shark could cause damage ranging from a small air leak to explosive decompression. Any amount of damage would be bad for the crew, and those are your friends down there!
On this terrible day the mini-sub was working so deep that all of the air hose on the vessel would not be enough to reach them.
The game is played in five phases.
Phase 1: Direct your Diver on a controlled descent to the sea floor 100 fathoms below. Manage your air use, and watch out for dangerous sea creatures. Phase 2: The Sea Floor at that depth is like another planet. You will learn how to hop in your direction of travel, floating through the water similar to the way the astronauts traveled on the moon. You still need to manage your Diver's air supply, and watch for new creatures crawling in the mud. Your task is to direct your Diver to explore the sea floor to find the rock-wall entrance to Poseidon's Gate where your ship's mini-sub is stranded. Phase 3: Float over the boulders to the hidden Shark Grotto protected by Poseidon's Gate. Defeat a seemingly unlimited number of frenzied sharks to release your mini-sub. Phase 4: After releasing the mini-sub your Diver needs to return to the safety of the surface and your ship. Navigate in the opposite direction to find the ship's anchorage. Since the Diver's suit has a negative buoyancy (always drifting toward the sea floor), the only way home is to find the anchor chain and climb it! Phase 5: Direct your Diver to climb the ship's anchor chain - ascending through another collection of dangerous sea creatures - desperately hoping to find another air tank as your Diver's air threatens to run out!
Game Registration
Pressing JOYSTICK LEFT from the Title Screen starts the game registration process. You can register your unique copy of the game, enabling access to owner-exclusive features of the Audacity Games Web Portal, such as high score submission and management of your Audacity game catalog.
Point your smartphone's camera at the QR Code™ displayed and follow the link to our registration page. Log in (or create an account) to take ownership of your copy of the game in our servers. You only need to do this once for each copy of Casey's Gold that you own.
Press JOYSTICK RIGHT from the Title Screen to start playing.
Practice or Play
All Audacity Games® products keep track of your game's score. If you do really well you can post a score to our Global High Score Board. This is done using your smartphone and an on-screen QR Code™ following the final STATUS display.
Poseidon's Gate allows you to practice the different phases of the game until you are ready to play the game all the way through. You can make that choice on the SELECT screen to the right of the TITLE screen.
You can only submit a high score if you play the game through from beginning to end. Choose FULL GAME on the SELECT screen.
Note the the FULL GAME starts on Phase 1 of the adventure. So to practice "The Descent" simply choose FULL GAME.
While practicing, certain aspects of the full game are not available. For example, the Gold Crabs leave all of their treasures behind so you can't tell which of them have been hoarding shiny things. Don't spend too much time practicing... When you feel confident, go for it!
Basic controls
The JOYSTICK CONTROLLER is held with the RED BUTTON in the upper left position.
The controls for the game are fairly standard, but vary slightly in each Phase of the game:
Phase 1: The Descent
Starting just below the surface of the water your Diver descends 100 fathoms to the sea floor. If no JOYSTICK CONTROLLER is used your Diver drifts slowly downward. You can slow the descent with JOYSTICK UP, but your descent is inevitable.
Move side to side to dodge dangerous creatures or to collect treasures.
Keep an eye on the depth gauge at the bottom of the screen. The left number is your Diver's depth. The right number is the depth of the next air tank.
Phase 2: The Sea Floor
Once you reach the bottom you will navigate by hopping. Your suit has a negative buoyancy and will always drift toward the sea floor. Look for friendly sea creatures that might give you a little boost above the bottom, but even they can be fickle about helping you.
The depth gauge is replaced by a map of the seafloor with a red bar indicating the location of your Diver.
Phase 3: Shark Grotto
Your mini-sub, the Amphitrite, is mired in the mud just inside Poseidon's Gate at the bottom of Shark Grotto. Frenzied Sharks are circling above the sub preventing them from returning to the surface. Using your harpoon gun you can discourage each shark and send it away. Nine hits per shark should do it. There are ten sharks in the immediate vicinity - get rid of them all to complete Phase 3.
Phase 4: Retrace Your Steps
Rescue accomplished! Return to the ship. But that is easier said than done. Since your suit has a negative buoyancy there is no way to float back to the surface. Even if you reach the coordinates where the ship dropped you, you can't go up from there.
Once you reach the drop-off point, continue further along the sea floor. If you can locate the ship's anchorage you may be able to climb the anchor chain to the surface.
Phase 5: Climbing the Anchor Chain
Climb the anchor chain to return to the surface and safety of your ship. You can use your harpoon gun, although to do so you have to let go of the chain and begin to drift downward again. Note also that while climbing your Diver is a sitting duck without the ability to move left or right. Plan your encounters with dangerous sea creatures accordingly.
If you time it right you will reach the surface in time to see the rescued Amphitrite successfully lowered onto its berth on the deck of the USS-RV POSEIDON!
Sea Creatures
While on your mission you will encounter a number of sea creatures, some dangerous and some helpful. With a few notable exceptions these creatures can be killed by a harpoon. In most cases you don't get any points for doing so, but it gets harmful creatures out of the way for a bit.
Beneficial Creatures
Goldfish
Collect each Goldfish for 50 points.
Seahorse
Watch for the rare and valuable Seahorse. Each is worth 5000 points.
Sunfish
Sunfish can offer a boost of buoyancy based on their direction of travel. This species of Sunfish is armor-plated. *** DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SHOOT ONE ***
Approach Sunfish carefully - their boosts (both up and down) may push you somewhere you don't want to be.
Gold Crab
Gold Crabs are able to feed your Diver much-needed air. As long as he is touching a Gold Crab your Diver's suit air will get a boost (in exchange for a "get out of my way" shove downward from the crab). Use this boost to manage air reserves while in between air tanks.
Gold Crabs also collect treasures and will give them up if harpooned. But you have to kill him to get it so he will no longer be able to provide any air boost.
Not every Gold Crab has been so lucky as to find treasure, but every Gold Crab can boost your Diver's air.
Hazardous Creatures
Jellyfish
Jellyfish swim around lazily, but once they catch sight of your Diver they attack. Some species are faster than others. Fortunately they can be shot with harpoons, but their slightest touch immobilizes your Diver and sucks air from his suit.
Certain species swim in packs, also attacking when your Diver gets close. These can not be killed. You must nimbly dodge around or between them to reach safety.
Electric Eels
Electric Eels hide just out of sight and launch an attack if your Diver is sighted. They can zap your Diver and take away air. Shoot them if you can, but that requires a sharpshooter's accuracy.
Rock Crabs
Rock Crabs are poisonous! Their slightest touch is death! They crawl along the sea floor so carefully hop over them.
Sharks
A frenzy of sharks guard Poseidon's Gate. A shark bite will steal as much as one third of your air, so it is best to avoid being bitten. Nine harpoon hits will send a shark running away. It is important to notice that each harpoon hit causes the shark to reverse direction. Since you are only worried about the shark's 'bitey end', use this fact to keep those razor-sharp teeth as far away as possible.
Treasures
Some of the sea creatures, most notably the Gold Crabs are attracted to shiny things. A favorite pasttime is to swim around under tourist boats and gobble up valuable items that have been dropped overboard. (Did you ever guess where those lost items went?)
These creatures give up their treasures when harpooned. But use this knowledge wisely... Certain creatures have other values during game play. Don't shoot them until you no longer need their help.
Diamond Ring
Bling Necklace
Bag of Cash
Gold Watch
Scoring
Scoring is based upon the objects you collect, although a bonus is given for releasing the mini-sub. Shooting enemies does not add to your score. To view your score progress, press the GAME SELECT to display the Status Screen.
On the Status Screen you can view the following:
Also shown at the bottom of the STATUS screen is your game's unique Serial Number.
When displaying the Status Screen, Press the GAME SELECT once again to display the Game Guide's QR Code™ and once again to return to the game.
High Score Submission
You can quit the game at any time to submit your score. Submitting a score ends the game - you can't return to the game but will have to start over.
To QUIT, from the STATUS screen press UP on the JOYSTICK and RIGHT to select YES, then CLICK.If you have been playing the FULL GAME, at the end of the game the FINAL status is shown, allowing you to do a two-step Score Submission.
Step 1. Press RIGHT once and scan the QR code to log in to your account. Allow the Audacity Games mobile website access to your device's camera.
Step 2. Press RIGHT again and scan the next QR code to submit your score.
Online Guides (PAUSE)
To view the Online Guides during the game:
1. Toggle GAME SELECT to display the status of your game, including elapsed time, score, and other details.
2. Toggle GAME SELECT a second time to display a QR Code™. The specific guide will change based upon where you are in the game.
3. Point your smartphone's camera at the screen to access the online context-specific guide page.
4. Follow the link to view the guide on your mobile device.
At various places throughout the game you can access specific guides with hints to help you play the game! Except for the speedrun timer, the game will be paused any time a QR Code™ is displayed.