Contents

Contents for Dodger Help

Dodger is a simple, yet addictive, variation on the pacman theme.

Playing Dodger

The aim of the game

Elements of the game

Controls

Using the level designer

Other Options

Registering Dodger

How to do it


Registration

Dodger is Shareware, therefore a registration fee is required if you wish to keep playing the game.

Registration costs 5 UK pounds (cash, cheque or postal order) or 10 US dollars (cash only please)

As an incentive to register you will be sent a disk by return post containing the registered version of Dodger. This includes an integrated graphical level editor enabling you to create and challenge your friends with your own fiendish levels and 13 new frustrating levels!!!

Send your name, address and registration fees to:

Ivan Mackintosh

Dales

High Street

Didcot

OXON OX11 8EQ

United Kingdom


Aim of the game

Blurb

The year is 1982 and pacman has once again managed to be zapped back inside a home computer. His only chance of escape from the evil bad guy - the one that appears in all arcade games - is to eat his way through multiple levels of mayhem thus thwarting the sinister plot to take over the world.

This may sound a simple task but there are four mean laser machines just waiting to blast pacman's hide into oblivion.

It is going to take all of pacman's skill, cunning and judgement to dodge the laser fire and to eventually reach his goal of early retirement (no more pacman games please - Pacman)


Controls

Pacman can be moved around the grid using either the cursor keys or the keys: Q, A, O and P. Once Pacman is on the move he won't stop until he can go no further in the selected direction.

At the end of each level a password is displayed. Once a note has been made of the password, pressing the return key will start the next level.

Tip: Pacman can be stopped when travelling parallel to a wall by pressing the movement key in the direction of the wall.


Level Designer

Using the Level Designer

The level designer is only available in the REGISTERED version of Dodger. See registering to find out how to register.

To start the level designer select the 'Design Level' option from the 'Game' menu. The play area will now be filled entirely with grid and to the right will be a toolbar showing all of the icons you can use to design your levels.

The toolbar contains the following tools: blank space, grid, wall, pacman, various fruit and a skull. See elements of the game for a brief description of these.

To select an icon from the toolbar simply click on the icon with the left mouse button.

To place the selected icon on the grid click on the desired grid location with the left mouse button. To draw lines with the selected icon, hold down the left mouse button, whilst over the grid, and move the mouse.

Pressing the right mouse button whilst over the grid will place the grid icon at the current position.

Up to four laser cannons can be added to the level. This is achieved by clicking the left mouse button just off to the side of the grid where a laser cannon is required. Clicking there again will remove the laser cannon.

The speed of the laser cannons is selected from the 'Laser speed' sub-menu under the 'Designer' menu. A speed of 1 is the fastest.

Once the level is designed it can be tested by selecting the 'Test level' option from the 'Designer' menu. This will allow infinite lives during testing. Select this option again to end testing.

Your new level should consist of a pacman, at least one fruit and a laser cannon to make it more challenging.

Now that you have your fiendish level you can save it by either selecting 'Exit designer' or 'New level', both from the 'Designer' menu. The new level is saved as the last level.

If you wish to design your own set of levels from scratch then rename the file 'DODGER.DAT' to a suitable backup name and run the program again. You will now notice that there are no levels. Your new levels can then be defined as before starting from level 1.


Elements of the Game

The play area is made up of seven different icons, these affect pacman as follows:

A blank space, pacman cannot move through a space;

The grid, pacman can move freely on a grid;

A Wall, pacman cannot move through a wall;

An Apple, eat this to score 20 points;

A Strawberry, eat this to score 30 points;

A Cherry, eat this to score 50 points;

A Skull, kills pacman upon contact.


Other Options

Pause: The game can be paused at any time by pressing F4, selecting the option from the 'Game' menu or minimising Dodger. To continue playing press F4.

Speed: If you find that Dodger is a little too fast then select the 'Just Training' option from the 'Speed' menu.

Sound: The sound option is switched on by default if Dodger detects a suitable sound device. This option can be switched off by selecting the 'Sound' option from the 'Options' menu. Note, the sound setting may need to be turned off if it is being played through a synchronous sound device (such as the PC speaker).

Zoom: The zoom option is switched on by default if Dodger detects the screen resolution to be 1024x768+. It and may need to be turned off if the video card is slow.