OK, so you're an arachnophile? That means you like to file racks, yes? What? Scroll Racks? Toast racks? Ah, no, it means you like Spyders. Well then, my friend, you'll feel right at home in Web of Vernax. Walk with me a while and I will see if I can explain the game to you.

In this game you are a Spyder, and a very handsome one, I might add. Your aim is to survive! To do this you must catch the bugs (Vernax) that scurry around so that you may feast on them later. Web spinning is simple for we Spyders. Just point to where you want to start the web, click and hold down the left mouse button and move the mouse in the direction you want the web to go. Once you see an arrow pointing in the right direction simply release the button and away it goes. You will need to trap the Vernax within a square or rectangle of webs, however the corners of your webs don't all have to meet. You can run a longer web in one direction and then cut across the middle of it to make the trap (see figure 1 below). For the purposes of the guide, I will call a single strand a web, and the four-sided web a trap.

To get maximum points your traps should be as small as possible. However there's no point in trying for a teeny trap if you lose a life in the process. You will just have to find a happy medium between getting a big score for your capture and making sure you don't lose a life. As the Vernax get faster your traps will have to be bigger so the little darlings don't run into the web as you are spinning it, thereby costing you a life.

You can get a bonus score if you only use 1, 2, 3 or 4 webs to trap all of the Vernax on any 1 level. This is usually only possible when you have just 1 or 2 Vernax to catch. Use the corners of the screen to catch them, preferable using only 2 webs per Vernax (as in the Figure 1 above). To only use 1 web you will need to start your web just before the Vernax moves into the trap area, so it has time to run across (or down) the whole width (or length) of the screen. This one is quite tricky and you can really only do it on level 1, but you get 75 bonus points for it so you may want to try it. At least, if you miss, you can always restart the game.

You can also get a bonus when you catch more than 1 Vernax in the same trap � so if you see 2 or 3 heading in the same direction, get spinning! You will even get a little tune if you catch 4 or more in one trap. Score-wise it is better to catch multiple Vernax in slightly bigger traps than just individually in smaller traps, although, of course, catching multiples in a small trap is really good!

In Level 6 you will be introduced to the evil red Spyder. He's a nasty creature who removes your webs, usually just as you are about to trap a Vernax, of course. The only way to be rid of him is if, when he is removing your beautifully spun and strategically placed web, he ends up away from the edges so he has no webs to travel along. You can set up some traps for him by spinning a few webs that go nowhere and hoping he will choose one of these webs to remove. As you move up in levels you will encounter more and more red Spyders. It is also a good tactic for trapping Vernax too. Have four or five webs parallel to each other about and evenly spread along one side of the screen. Then as Vernax enter an area you simply have to run the final web between two of them, making the trap as small as possible. By the way, the Vernax will bounce off any webs you have spun (including the ends), but I am sure you have noticed that already. In figure 3, below, the red Spyder came down and removed the left vertical web and I was able to finish the level without his interference.

At level 8 you go back to having just 1 Vernax to trap, but he is moving considerably faster. Now you will find that your traps have to be bigger so you don't lose a life. One big downside to playing this game is that there are no breaks. There is no pause button and you don't even get to pause in between levels, the next level just starts automatically. This can be a bit of a pain, especially when you are trying to write a game guide and your time keeps running out!

Sadly, there are no codes or other tricks that I know of to aid you in this game. Please, if you find one, let me know and I will include it in a later edition of this guide, with due credit of course. Good luck, my friend. I hope you find this guide useful. Feel free to drop me a Neomail if you have any comments or extra hints to offer, I would really like that gold trophy!