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otrplace.doc
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1992-03-18
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OTHER PLACE (OTRPLACE.PRG) ST Low/Med/Hi Arcade game
Background, Instructions and Credits
Basic instructions for playing this "game" can be had by choosing INFO
from the title-screen Alert box. These are repeated below along with
some additional instructions, credits and the all important "scenario".
SCENARIO
Several lifetimes ago (in computer years) I used to play the game
"COSMIC CHASM" on the Vectrex home video game machine. It was a decent
albeit slightly bug ridden asteroids-ish game. I like games like this
but before long, I forgot it. Imagine my surprise when I recently
discovered mention of COSMIC CHASM in the works of Dr. Ohsay Kanusee.
This much maligned scholar has spent years studying the famed Alpine
Schneefink Scribblings and according to her translations COSMIC CHASM
was not really a computer game at all, but a sort of projection of and
crude interaction with events happening in some as yet unknown "other
place"!
Thrilled by her quixotic interpretation, I resolved to write a similar
program so that users of the Atari ST could also have access to this
mysterious "other place" The guidelines she gives for doing this are
wonderfully vague and highly ambiguous and so allowed my realization to
differ in a number of ways from COSMIC CHASM. For instance, while in
both of them you guide your "ship" in through a series of "caverns" to a
slightly different central cave, do something, and then leave under a
time limit; in OTHER PLACE instead of planting a bomb you retrieve
(steal) something (referred to arbitrarily as a "jewel").
As all of you who are familiar with Dr O.K.'s work already know, some of
the most important questions she has not been able to answer yet are:
Just what the heck is going on? What's the point? What is really
happening in the "other place" while you "play the game". Are you
helping or hurting the creatures of this place? Are you a pawn of some
superior being there, or are you acting under free will? Is this all
some sort of deadly, or perhaps humorous, test?
Instead of answering these questions, I chose the same out as the
programers of COSMIC CHASM and developed a scoring system that would
allow you to earn "points" and pretend that it's all just a game.
BASIC INSTRUCTIONS
SHIP CONTROL:
...KEYBOARD... ...MOUSE...
Space = Shoot P = Pause Left button = Shoot
Up arrow = Faster Right arrow = Rotate Right Right button = Drill
Down arrow = Slower Left arrow = Rotate Left
GOALS: Retrieve the "jewels" from the central cavern. Score points.
Live long and prosper. Wear nice shoes.
GENERAL: Contact with a wall, Guardian, or "central object" destroys
your "ship". Shooting a Guardian destroys it. Use drill to open doors
and to penetrate "central objects". Shooting is much easier if you use
the mouse button.
You have 25 ships and there are 6 "jewels" to retrieve. Carry "jewels"
outside the cavern complex to retrieve them. Contact with a "jewel"
will destroy a ship in 20 seconds once the shield has been exhausted.
The shield is automatic and protects you only from a "jewel". You don't
have to exit a cavern complex the same way you came in.
STUFF NOT EXPLAINED IN THE BASIC INSTRUCTIONS
You earn a few points by shooting a "guardian"; you earn more by
drilling open a doorway; and you earn a bunch more by successfully
carrying a "jewel" outside the cavern complex (more points are awarded
if you are still carrying the "signal booster" at this point). After
you retrieve all six of the "jewels", unused ships and shield time are
converted to bonus points and you "win". Your ships have unlimited fuel
and ammunition.
The appearance and manipulation of the "jewel" and "signal booster" (as
well as the use of the later) are fairly obvious and are left to the
student as an exercise. A word of caution though...the guardian most
closely associated with a "jewel" is different from the others and the
others get VERY aggressive once its eliminated.
When one of your "ships" is destroyed, a new one will be inserted (by
unknown and mysterious forces) at the most recently opened doorway
leading to the outside of the cavern complex. This will always be the
door that you originally appeared at unless you have subsequently opened
but not exited through another "way out". You will probably want to
open new ways out now and then so you can avoid having to fully retrace
your steps each time you loose a ship. CAUTION: If you're not carrying
the "jewel" and you don't just open a door to the outside but also go
out through it, you'll loose two ships and be assigned a whole new
complex. All doors look alike. Figure out which door leads where by
remembering how the different connecting tunnels are placed when the
stylized map of the caverns is displayed.
You don't need to press any keys to travel from one cavern to another.
Once you enter a transport tunnel, your movement is automatic and
unaffected by the control keys.
TECHNICAL
You may notice that it seems harder to shoot the guardians in certain
caverns than others. It is. You also may notice that game play varies
a little with screen resolution. This is because, despite my best
efforts, it does. OTHER PLACE was designed originally for ST high
resolution and game play is best in it. The easiest games are low
resolution color at the slower speeds. OTHER PLACE may well work in the
various TT resolutions (and others) as well but I haven't been able to
test it in or fine tune it for any of them.
Just erase the file HISCORES.OTR when you want to start a new high score
list.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Address comments or questions to:
JWC-OEO on GEnie
or write to...
CDeFG Games
321 J Street
Sparks, NV 89431
CREDITS
VECTREX and COSMIC CHASM are trademarks of General Consumer Electronics
OTHER PLACE was programed by Jonathan Corey using GFA BASIC v3.5E
The explosive sounds and the basic "high score" routines are based on
those in the game "ATTACK" by Ron Schaefer as published in STart
Magazine.
The fancy screen wipe routines were written by Carlos Tirado and also
came on one of the STart Magazine disks.
Artwork: None.
This "game" is provided as FREEWARE. No payment is requested. Please
include this documentation with any copies you give out.