I put a quarter into a newspaper dispenser the other day, and inside the door was this message: “Your conscience is my only protection.” Truth is, a lot of people think nothing of taking more papers than they pay for. But somebody depends on that money for his or her living. Maybe if the thieves knew the paper person personally they’d be less inclined to steal. I don’t know. Conscience seems to be in short supply nowadays.
Sometimes I wonder just what it would take to get everyone who uses my games to send in the shareware fees. Do they understand that those fees make up a significant portion of my rather meager income? Why do people who’d never consider shoplifting a piece of software from the computer store think nothing of using shareware without paying? The one is no more or less legal than the other. I suppose it’s just that one is easier to get away with. That doesn’t make it less wrong, just less risky. There’s no way I could afford to prosecute anyone, even if I had the heart for it.
Your conscience really is my only protection. Very few who use this game will send in the registration fee. I’d like to ask you to be the exception. If you like it and keep it, please send the $5. It’s not much. If you don't plan to keep it, spread it around. If there's something wrong with the game, please let me know. I’ll fix it.
I originally loaded Color Rhodes onto America Online. The compatibility limitations were described (as best I understand them) in the comments associated with it on that service. I know how frustrating it can be to spend the time and money to download something that just won’t work with a certain hardware/software configuration. I apologize if Rhodes won’t work well on your system, but I only have so much control over how it’s distributed.
Also, there’s just no way I can predict with complete certainty the way an application I develop will work on all systems or how it will interact with other software running on a machine. As a shareware developer, I simply haven’t the test facilities available to commercial companies, and examples come to every mind of how even they often fall far short of perfection. Computer programming is, alas, still very much an art. That said, though, I’ll tell you Color Rhodes runs very well on my IIci under System 6.07 and better. IT ABSOLUTELY REQUIRES 8-BIT COLOR!
Shareware companies may distribute Color Rhodes, provided, of course, nothing is changed, proper attribution is made, and that the payment of shareware fees is urged. I DO NOT consent to its distribution if customers are charged for the program itself. The usual custom of charging by the disk, when bundled with other similar programs, is fine.
All that’s quite a prelude for what’s really just a little toy. But you’d be surprised how necessary it is. Weird world!
Okay, Color Rhodes is yet another maze game. The object is to get the Rhodes Scholar through the hedge maze at Oxford. (Name him whatever you want. “Bill” comes most immediately to my mind. That’s what I’ll call him.) But Bill is unusually dull for a Rhodes Scholar. He’ll need your help to maneuever through the different levels of the maze. (Levels? Okay, so it’s not real authentic.) What you want to do is see how far you can get him before he runs out of patience. If you do well enough, you might get to be a Rhodes Scholar yourself.
Bill starts at the top of the maze and tries to get to the exit at the bottom, but he gets confused easily. If he runs into the hedge, he’ll turn and try another way. (Running into hedges makes Bill impatient.) It’s not uncommon for him to end up going in circles. Sometimes you have to add or remove a piece of the hedge to help him get where he wants to go. To do that, just click in the window. If a hedge is there, it will disappear; if not, it will appear. (You can’t mess with the border hedges.) Adding and removing hedges, though, takes quite a toll on Bill’s patience, since it’s an obvious demonstration that he can’t find the way himself. (Adding is quite a lot less taxing than removing. Add hedges instead of removing them if you can.) If you succeed in getting him to the exit, the next level will slide up and you’ll start again. When he moves to another level, Bill’s confidence grows, and so there’ll be a little increase in patience, depending on the level. But, because of his now higher expectations, hitting hedges or having hedges added or removed causes greater impatience than before. When he finally runs out of patience, the game’s over. If you’ve maneuevered him through enough levels, you’ll be offered a Rhodes Scholarship of your own.
You’ll notice red, blue, and silver pills. These are “patience pills” (available by prescription only). If Bill swallows one, his patience increases. The silver pills are the best; blue, a little less effective; and red, least effective. Here’s a recommendation: don’t make Bill go out of his way to swallow pills. They often don’t have enough benefit to warrant the extra aggravation. It’s usually best to have him take only the ones he can get to easily.
The menus aren’t complicated. Under the Apple menu is the standard “About” option and desk accessories (or, whatever you have in the Apple Menu Items folder for System 7 and above).
“New” under the File menu gets you a new game. It gets a new maze, resets patience to 50000 and the level to one. In effect, “New” is a way to start over. If Bill isn’t moving, “Go” gets him going. If he’s not, the same item (now called “Stop,” as you might guess) pauses him. Select “Quit” in the unlikely event you’ll ever want to stop playing.
The Edit menu is for desk accessories. It means nothing to the game.
The first item in Options is “Rhodes Scholars.” It will get you a list of the ten highest scorers. “Clear Rhodes Scholars” will clear the list. You can turn the sound off and on with the “Turn Sound Off” and “Turn Sound On” item. The last item brings up the maze editor. I’ll discuss that more later.
The Speed menu menu determines how fast Bill will move. I really meant this let you configure Rhodes for your system. For my IIci, (25 megahertz) I like the setting at about 4 or 5. For an fx or Quadra (no guarantees it will work on those machines), it would probably need to be slower because they’re faster. Try out different settings to see what you think’s comfortable. The speed has no bearing on scoring. WARNING: For an extemely fast machine, a fast setting might be hazardous. I had to slow it down a bit because on the “Fastest” setting my IIci would outrun the Sound Manager, which caused a variety of nastiness. If you must try it at high speed (I’m talking to those with the fast machines), turn the sound off first. (Options menu)
I’ve set the Color Rhodes’ partition to 640K, somewhat higher than it needs. If you’re trying to conserve memory, you can set it as low as 256K. If you’re looking for better performance, set it higher. This is done using the ”Get Info” dialog under the File menu in the Finder.
THE MAZE EDITOR
Color Rhodes lets you add, delete, or edit the mazes it uses. To get to the maze editor, select “Maze Editor” from the Options menu. When you do that, you’ll notice that the Maze Editor menu appears in the menu bar and that Bill and any patience pills disappear from the maze. The window will lengthen a little at the bottom to make room for some controls. You’ll see a list of ten maze icons there, with the one for the current maze surrounded by a gold box. To the right of the list is a number telling you which maze in the list is being edited. If you click on one of the icons, you’ll see it selected with a gold box and the maze will appear above in the window. Below the list of maze icons is a standard scroll bar. Use this to go to the maze you want to edit. At either end of the scroll bar are more numbers. The left one shows which maze the left icon represents; the right number shows which maze the right icon showing represents.
When the cursor is up in the maze, it turns into a cross. If you click on a hedge, it will disappear. Click on a blank space, and a hedge will appear. You can’t get rid of the hedges along the sides. The game depends on them being there. Also the top and bottom of the maze must have one and only one opening. The editor won’t let you close the only hole in the hedges there. It also won’t let you make more than one.
The Maze Editor Menu
“New Maze” adds a new blank maze to the end of the maze list. When a maze is first created, it has only the hedges along the sides, with one opening each in the top and bottom. You can fill in where you want the rest of the hedges. When you have your maze the way you want it, select “Save Maze.” “Delete Maze” deletes the currently selected maze from the Color Rhodes’ resource fork. “Fill” fills the middle section of the maze with hedges; “Erase” gets rid of them. Neither “Fill” not “Erase” have any effect upon the side hedges. When you’re finished editing, select “Exit Maze Editor.” You’ll return to the game.
When you leave the maze editor, you’ll return to the maze you last selected, so if you want to resume with the maze you were playing before invoking the editor, make sure to reselect it before exiting. NOTE: The patience pills will not be in the same place they were before you invoked the editor.
ANOTHER NOTE: When you’re using the maze editor, all menus except the Apple menu, the Edit menu, and the Maze Editor menu are dimmed. Bear in mind that the maze editor has no Undo function. The Edit menu and all of its items remain enabled for desk accessories only.
Have fun! Don’t forget the $5!
If you think it’s worthy of comment or you have a problem, I’m “Logogrip” on America Online, or
