| The NES manual carries FCI's name and Nintendo's license, and its warranty is FCI's. | front cover (PDF p. 1)warranty (PDF p. 10)front cover (PDF p. 1) | Manual |
| In the NES manual's story, a system made long ago punishes with ruin those who open it improperly. Because the system is built to fight a multitude, humans send a single fighter against it, the AFX-6502 Zanac. | printed p. 1 (PDF p. 2), Zanac Storyprinted p. 1 (PDF p. 2), Zanac Storyprinted p. 1 (PDF p. 2), Zanac Storyprinted p. 1 (PDF p. 2), Zanac Story | Manual |
| The player flies Zanac to destroy the enemy's central base. At some fortresses the scrolling stops and the fortress has to be destroyed within a time limit shown on screen. The game has twelve areas, and clearing the twelfth shows the ending. | printed p. 3 (PDF p. 3), Zanac's Aimprinted p. 3 (PDF p. 3), How to Playprinted p. 3 (PDF p. 3), How to Playprinted p. 3 (PDF p. 3), How to Play | Manual |
| Zanac has eight special weapons, numbered from FIRE 0, which it starts with. Catching one of the numbered power chips changes the weapon, and only one works at a time. | printed p. 5 (PDF p. 4), Special Weaponsprinted p. 5 (PDF p. 4), Special Weapons | Manual |
| Both manuals describe ALC, an automatic difficulty control they credit to AI: the strength and number of enemies change with the player's attack and skill, and where enemies appear differs from game to game. Their examples: a high rate of fire raises the difficulty; each aerial object that appears raises the enemy's strength, by small steps in the Japanese manual; destroying a fortress lowers it, and missing one raises it. | printed p. 4 (PDF p. 4), Power Play Featureprinted p. 4 (PDF p. 4), Power Play Featureprinted p. 4 (PDF p. 4), Power Play Featureprinted p. 4 (PDF p. 4), Power Play Featureprinted p. 4 (PDF p. 4), Power Play Feature | Manual |
| Both manuals present ALC as Zanac's own: the US manual calls it unique to Zanac and says each game is like a new one, and the Japanese manual calls it a feature earlier shooting games didn't have, giving Zanac an endless story. | printed p. 4 (PDF p. 4), Power Play Featureprinted p. 4 (PDF p. 4), Power Play Feature | Manual |