I dedicate this game to every person who has been separated from their family or loved ones during the tragic corona virus outbreak of 2020. We miss you dearly.

Instructions

Virulent is a turn-based game where you use action points to manage a viral outbreak on earth. The story is that the earth is hit by asteroids carrying a deadly virus, your task is to launch missiles to prevent any more infections, while administering remedies to infected countries and cure them.

Mute

Press control + m to mute/unmute audio.

Controls

To highlight a country, choose a remedy or select an asteroid:

up, down, left, right arrow keys.

Actions

To open country details or press a toolbar button:

Press the X key.

Shortcut key

Press the Z key.

On all screens you can use the Z key as a shortcut instead of using the toolbar.

• On the Regional screen, it opens the remedy screen if a remedy can be applied.
• On the Remedy screen, it applies the selected remedy.
• On the Radar screen, it launches a missile.
• On the Command screen, it ends the turn (only when no more actions can be performed).

The Toolbar

The toolbar is located at the bottom of the screen. Use the arrow keys to highlight a button, and X to press it.

On the Command Station screen, press the down key to focus the toolbar at the bottom. To return to country selection, press the up key.

Instructions are in-game. Choose the Help toolbar icon to read them.

History

Virulent is a remake of an Atari game called “Epidemic!” by Steven Faber (1982).

I started the project in July 2020 for the Pico-8 fantasy console. It took 4 weekends to complete. I referenced the original game manual to derive the game mechanics. I updated the world data to reflect modern country names and statistics, and added three new countries - Madagascar, Southeast Asia and South Africa.