Night Owl 6/Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso/002a/volcano.zip/VOLCANO.DOC

Text File | 1991-06-15 | 11KB | 203 lines

                                VOLCANO HUNTER

                                By David Smith
                    (c) 1984-1991 Informative Technologies
                          1718 M Street NW, Suite 292
                            Washington, D.C. 20036
                              FAX [phone]
                             CompuServe 71311,2334



PLAYING THE GAME

   You are HUNTING HARRY, the last person left in a town taken over by Druts.
(A Drut is a monster that usually lives inside the earth near volcanos.)
The town you live in just happens to be near a volcano.  The dreaded Druts
have been mining the volcano for its gold, but they have run into a problem.
They ran out of fuel for their machines to mine the volcano.  So they robbed
the city of its precious fuel supply and they plan to keep it.  It is your
duty to infiltrate the volcano and retrieve the stolen fuel, while killing
the Drut monsters who will try and stop you.  It may take you a while to find
all the fuels because there are over 200 screens in this adventure.

GAME CONTROLS

   You may control HUNTING HARRY in this game with either the keyboard of
joystick. The up arrow causes HUNTING HARRY to climb a ladder if he is in
front of a ladder or to jump up if a ladder is not present. The down arrow
causes HUNTING HARRY to climb down ladders if a ladder is directly under him.
The right or left arrows cause HUNTING HARRY to walk right or left and if
pressed at the same time as the up arrow it will cause him to jump in the
direction pressed.
VERY IMPORTANT .... The space bar in this adventure is used to drop the bombs
that can kill Druts. They are also dangerous to HUNTING HARRY. Learning to
drop bombs properly is a very important skill needed to stay alive. The bombs
that you drop are "Timed" bombs. You are able to set the length of time the
bombs will sit on the ground after you drop them before they explode. You
press the space bar down and then release it to drop a bomb onto the ground.
You should then get away from the bomb because it is about to explode. The
amount of time that the bomb will sit before they explode is aproximately
equal to four times the length of time you hold down the space bar before
you release it. You may drop as many bombs as you like. Just watch out.

   Up Arrow........................Climb up if a ladder is present.
                                   or jump up is a ladder is not present.
   Down Arrow......................Climb down is a ladder is present.
   Left Arrow......................Walk left.
   Left Arrow + Up Arrow...........Jump to the left.
   Right Arrow.....................Walk right.
   Right Arrow + Down Arrow........Jump to the right.
   Space Bar.......................Drop a bomb.
   P...............................Pause the game.
   C...............................Continue the game after a pause.
   Alt+PrintScreen or SysRq........Quit or exit the game.

OTHER DANGERS
   The volcano is a very dangerous space to be walking around. Some of the
hallways have been filled up with water. You may still enter them, but you
have a limited amount of air.  The amount of air that you have left is shown
with the AIR gauge line at the top of the screen. When you have run out of
air you are dead.
   The volcano is also still active. There is a vein of lava flowing up
through the middle of it. The area around the flowing lava is very hot and
you will not be able to stand the heat very long. There is a HEAT gauge line
at the top of the screen. It shows how hot you are getting. When you get too
hot, you'll die.
   You also wil have to watch out for drop offs. If you walk off a ledge, you
will fall to the ground and splat. There are gaps in the hallways in and
around the volcano. You are able to jump most of these gaps. But some of them
are too wide to jump across. You will have to find other ways to get to the
other side.
   The most important danger to watch out for is the Druts. They will kill
you when they make contact with your body. They won't attach you every time.
Sometimes they will stop right beside you and wait for you to mess up.

SCORING

   Points are awarded for several actions.

   For every screen explored.......................................20
   Killing a Drut Monster........................................5-45
       The more direct hit scores more points.
   Getting a Fuel..................................................50
   Getting a Gold.................................................200
   Getting a Beamer...........................................200-100
       Fuels and Golds are gotten by going behind them.
   Returning a Fuel to the city's basement.......................2000
       Fuels are returned by getting them from the
       volcano and climbing down into the fuel storage
       basements that are under the city's buildings.

STARTING THE GAME

   When the game begins, HUNTING HARRY is in the top of the highest
building in the city. You will see a conveyor belt moving to the left. At
the end of the conveyor belt is the top of a ladder. Move HUNTING HARRY to
the end of the conveyor belt at the top of the ladder and press the down
arrow key. This will take HUNTING HARRY down into the city. There are more
buildings to the left of the city and the volcano is to the right. There is
a fuel storage basement in the bottom of this building. It may be a good
idea to stay inside the buildings at first in order to learn how to control
HUNTING HARRY. The Druts can't get inside the buildings and you will be
semi-safe there.

THE HISTORY AND TRIVIA OF VOLCANO HUNTER

   This program was designed and programmed by David Smith during 1982-1983
for the Radio Shacks line of TRS-80 computers. A program has recently become
available that allows programs written for those computers to be emulated
on the IBM PC and compatible computers. The TRS-80 emulator program is
available on the LDOS forum of CompuServe as file TRS80.ZIP.
   Volcano Hunter originally fit into 16K of memory on the TRS-80 (including
the 200+ screens) and was written in Z80 assembly language.
   The list of people in the high scores list were also in the original
TRS-80 high score list. Judy, who is list in the high scores from 1984,
became my wife in December of 1990.
   The game is a too slow to play on anything slower than a 16Mz 386SX. In
the original game on the TRS80, I had to slow it down because it would run
too fast.



Magazine Review from 80 Micro
-----------------------------

Amazing Adventures East of Java

Spider-like Drut monsters have stolen the city's fuel supply. As Hunting
Harry, you get eight chances to explore the Drut's volcano and retrieve
the stolen fuel cells. Harry must evade the monsters and other obstacles
before he can return the cells to the basements of the city's buildings
and win the game.
   This is the scenario for Volcano Hunter, an ingenious machine-language,
arcade-style adventure game. While Volcano Hunter doesn't require fast
reflexes, it's notable for the 200 graphics screens that comprise the giant
maze through which you travel. You control the game with the arrow keys and
space bar of a joystick. The time bombs you drop by pressing the space bar
blow up Druts but can kill Harry too, if you don't drop the bombs
strategically.

Overcoming Obstacles

   As you guide Harry through the maze, you encounter new obstacles with
each new screen. You don't see adjoining screens until Harry enters them
so remembering obstacles becomes a key skill to successful play.
   Conveyor belts, water, and the volcano itself are all obstacles for
Hunting Harry. The conveyor belts move him from one part of the maze to
another, but they become an obstacle when they take Harry in the wrong
direction.
   Other obstacles that Harry must avoid are the drop-offs. Sometimes the
drop-offs are on the next screen which is unseen. Harry must jump just before
entering that screen in order to be safe.
   The Druts have filled some of the maze with water. Harry's air supply,
the level of which is displayed at the top of the screen, lets him travel
through water, but when his air runs out you lose one of your men. Similarly,
another gauge on screen measures body heat: If Harry remains near the vein
of hot lava that flows through the active volcano, his body heat rises to a
fatal level.
   The Druts themselves are the most serious obstacles. They kill Harry on
contact and appear just about anywhere. Some areas in the maze are safe from
Druts: They can't get inside the buildings though they might appear on top
of or beside them. Druts can't enter designated peace zones nor can you drop
bombs there. But the Druts can appear in groups and surround you. Sometimes
they don't attack right away, waiting until you make a mistake and walk
into them. If you're patient, they can go to sleep and you can walk right
past them.

How to Score Points

   You garner the most points by bringing back the fuel cells--worth 2,000
points each--to the city's basements. Transporting fuel cells successfully
is the only way to get a high score. Getting fuel without returning it to
the basement nets you only 50 points. You can collect all the fuel you want
before returning to the basement, so you only have to make one return trip.
Knowing you skill limitations is important since many of the same obstacles
are present on the return trip.
   Getting the gold that the Druts mine in the volcano gives you 200 points.
A beamer (you'll know it when you see it) gives you 100-200 points. For
every screen explored you get 20 points. Killing a Drut monster gives you
from five to 45 points. A direct hit with your bombs scores more points than
an indirect hit.

Documentation, Sound, and High Scores

   The instructions provided with the game are minimal. For one thing, the
documentation doesn't explain the pause feature. After much trial and error,
I discovered that pressing the P key pauses the action, while pressing the
C key continues the game. The sound effects are nice but not necessary for
play. My final criticism of Volcano Hunter is that you can't save high
scores, something you routinely expect in a game of this quality.

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