Sunny 1,000 Collection/SUNNY1000.iso/Files/W31/Puzzle/GOLDPUSH.ZIP/GPDOC.TXT

Text File | 1995-09-06 | 11.1 KB | 222 lines

GOLD-PUSHER 1.2
by Erich Friedman, Daniδl Vree and Willem Vree.

GoldPusher is a game with a mixture of puzzles, strategy and action.

Latest version for PC and Mac on:
  http://carol.fwi.uva.nl/~wimv/gold-pusher.html

Features:

- *166* rooms with action, strategy and difficult puzzles.
- solutions for all 166 rooms: sit back and watch.
- record your own solutions.
- create and edit your own rooms
- 5 monster-types, each with different behaviour and intelligence.
- choose your own order to complete the puzzle- and arcade rooms.
- save feature remembers which rooms you have completed
- snapshot feature can take you back into the middle of a puzzle
- topscore
- game window scales with your monitor
- fast color animation
- lots of sound effects
- 9 graphic help screens

GoldPusher requires MSWindows 3.1, consumes 2 MB of RAM,
Graphics in 256 colours. 8-bit Soundeffects.

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ShareWare:

Whith the unregistered version you can play the first 20 rooms.
The first 15 rooms are educational. They teach you how to play
GoldPusher, but some of them are already quite difficult.
The real challenge starts at room 16.

Send $10, your full name and address to:

    Willem Vree
    PObox 1188
    1200 BD Hilversum
    Holland

and I'll send you the regsitration code that unlocks all 137 rooms
with new monsters, action and fascinating puzzles.
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Guide to the game:

- goal
In the game you are the "gold pusher", a funny little man who, for
some reason, wants to push a pot of gold on top of a small "rain bow".
When goldpusher succeeds in pushing the pot of gold on the rainbow,
the puzzle is solved, you get a bonus and you move on to the next
room.
However reaching the rainbow may be extremely problematic. There are
voracious monsters hunting for goldpusher and the pot might get easily
stuck by all kind of obstacles.

- pushing rocks and balloons
To help GoldPusher to complete his job there are rocks and balloons,
which can also be pushed around. They can flatten the road to the
rainbow or they can kill monsters. There is a kind of gravity, which
only affects the rocks. When a rock falls down and a monster happens
to be in the way it gets killed. The balloons do not fall, they rise,
and again, when a monster is hit by a rising balloon it dies.

- lifting the gold pot
Also Goldpusher is killed by a falling rock, or when he tries to lift
a rock. Actually, he manages to lift the rock a little bit but then
his force yields and he is crushed by the full weight of the rock.
Remarkably enough, GoldPusher is not killed by a rising balloon. He
can force a balloon down. He can even lift the gold pot (or a rock) by
pushing it on a balloon (or pushing the balloon under the pot) and
then pushing the pot upwards. He manages again to lift the pot a
little bit, but now, immediately, the balloon comes to his aid and
prevents the pot from falling back on GoldPusher and killing him.

- crushing rocks and balloons.
GoldPusher is quite strong. When he pushes a rock which can't move any
further (against a wall for instance) the rock falls to pieces and
vanishes. The same happens of course when GoldPusher pushes a balloon
which can't move. GoldPusher cannot break the iron rocks and the gold
pot.

- using the spades (space bar or zero-key on numeric key pad)
Another help for GoldPusher in some rooms are the "spades". He can
pick up spades and throw them in the direction his nose is pointing.
When a spade touches a monster, it freezes the monster for some time,
so it can't move and hurt GoldPusher. Another use of the spades is in
filling holes, so that the gold pot can be moved across the holes,
where it would otherwise get stuck. Also spades can be used to capture
monsters by blocking their way in e.g. a corridor. A monster cannot
pass a way which is blocked by spades or rocks.

- monster intelligence
There are five kind of monsters in the game: snails, orcs, spiders,
icebears and rock-piercers. The snails are slow and move in straight
lines. Only when they find their way blocked, they try other
directions, with a strong preference (75%) for a turn into the
direction where you (GoldPusher) are standing. So when a snail is
moving freely and you are standing next to it, but not in its way, it
won't attack you.
The orcs move like the snails but much faster. Icebears move like orcs
but they can also push rocks and balloons! The rock-piercer moves like
a snail, but it crushes all rocks and balloons it comes across.
Finally spiders are the most intelligent monsters. They constanly look
where you are and try to find you. When they find their way blocked
they will try all kind of possibilities to get around the obstacle.

- choosing rooms (Alt-f-b, or item "Start At" from file menu)
In the title bar of each room you can see how many points you can
collect. Because the rooms can have very different characteristics
(arcade action, strategy or just a puzzle), you can choose freely
which ones you want to solve, according to your taste.
Once a room is completed, the player has the opportunity to choose any
other room, although the game automatically increases the room-number
and presents that one as the next puzzle. To choose another room, a
menu command is available. A completed puzzle can not be solved again,
to prevent a player to increase his score by solving the same puzzle
over and over.
When a player tries to change rooms in the middle of a puzzle in
progress, the player is punished by loosing 50 bonus points. The effect
is the same as aborting the current puzzle and then choosing another room.
One can only switch puzzles without the bonus penalty at the beginning
of a puzzle, before the first move is made (the game is then paused
and GoldPusher is flashing).

- taking a snapshot (just pause the game: P, alt or click mouse)
Some rooms contain more than one difficult part. When you solved a
difficult passage, you can pause the game. Automaticly a snapshot
of the actual game situation will then be taken.
When GoldPusher dies in the next difficult part (or when you abort
in a hopeless siuation), you don't have to redo the room
all over again, but you are taken back to the position of the last
snapshot taken.
When you are repositioned at a snapshot, but you want to restart
from the beginning, use the abort command (again).

- scoring and screen lay-out.
The scoring follows a simple scheme. Every room completed adds a bonus
to the total score. This bonus depends on the difficulty level of the
room. Each monster killed also adds a small bonus depending on the
"intelligence" of the particular monster.
When you get killed you loose 50 bonus points.
The total score is in the top left corner. In the bottom right corner
the number of spades you picked up is counted.
The bonus points earned in a room only become permanent when the room
is completed succsfully. That is, if GoldPusher is killed, you loose
all bonus accumulated in this room and you return to the situation
at the beginning of this room, minus 50 bonus points. (or you return
to the situation saved in a snapshot, minus 50 bonus points)

- saving and loading (Alt-f-s and Alt-f-o, file menu: save and open)
Only at the beginning of a new puzzle, thus when the previous puzzle
has been succesfully completed, you are allowed to save the game. A
dialog box is presented with four save-buttons. Each save button can
store one saved game. So up to four different games in progress can be
saved.
Loading a game can be done at any time. However, a saved game can only
be loaded once!. This has to be that way, otherwise the concept of
earning and loosing bonus points has no meaning. If one could load a
saved game over and over again, one would immediately reload a saved
game as soon as one would run into a deadly situation.
The snapshot feature allows you to save a snapshot in the middle of a
room. However you can only return to the snapshot when you die or
abort (and loose 50 bonus points). A Snapshot is not remembered
when you save the game.

- keys and mouse
GoldPusher can be moved using keys: h,j,k and l. h is left, j is down,
k is up end l is right. As an alternative the numeric keypad can be
used. The arrow-keys also work. Another alternative is using the
mouse. When the item "mouse-control" in menu "help" is enabled,
GoldPusher will try to follow the mouse-cursor. I do not recommend
mouse-control because it is less accurate then key-control when fast
reactions are required.
Spades are picked up by walking over them. Hitting the spacebar throws
a spade. A mouse click or pressing 'Alt' or 'P' pauses the game.
Only then the menu-bar can be used.

- hints
Many rooms have a title containing a hint how to solve the puzzle.
When you know how monsters behave, you can use this knowledge to guide
them to a place where you can trap them or kill them. E.g. you know
that a snail will turn with high probability into your direction when
it bumps into something.
Many unexpected tricks can be played in the physical reality of
GoldPusher. To find it out is part of the fun of the game. E.g. you
can throw a spade in the air just in front of a passing icebear. The
icebear is not hit by the spade, but it bumps against the flying spade
and thus changes direction. In some puzzles you have to use this trick
to guide the icebear to the right place. This trick requires precise
timing. If you throw too late the ice bear will be hit by the spade
and is lamed. If you throw too early the icebear won't bump and won't
change direction. Another trick is to use the spade as an umbrella
agains a falling rock.

- using the editor
To edit one of the 166 rooms, select the 'Edit Room' item from the
game menu. You are presented with a dialog showing the current room,
a panel with monsters and a panel with wall pieces.
First click in one of the panels to select a monster or a wall piece.
Then click somewhere on an empty place in the room to place the
selected item. To clear an item just click on it and it disappears.
Dragging with the mouse in the room repeates the last action (i.e.
clearing or adding an item) on all places the mouse moves over.
The spinbutton in the edit dialog changes the background pattern.
Pressing the save button saves the cahnges to the room PERMANENTLY.
There is no undo. Pressing cancel does what it is supposed to do.
Both the save and cancel buttons close the edit dialog, and you
can continue playing in the edited room.
When you are not registered the changes you make are not saved. You
can, however, play with the modified room.

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Puzzles 17-20, 53-120 and 123-166: Erich Friedman
Artwork and puzzles 1-16, 21-52 and 121-122: Daniδl Vree
Programming: Willem Vree
Mail comments to Internet: [e-mail]
Shareware fee: $10 to W. Vree, PObox 1188, 1200 BD Hilversum, Holland
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