Jetpack is 32-bit clean, System 7 compatible, supports required Apple Events, and is
background friendly.
How to Play:
In Jetpack, you control a little blue-suited man wearing a jetpack. The
little man can walk left or right, and can turn on his jetpack to fly upwards.
You must guide your little man through a series of dangerous mazes. Why? I dunno.
My next game will have a qool story.
Anyway, you start each maze at a door, and must walk and fly through the maze to find
a key. Your jetpack uses fuel for thrust, so you must replenish your fuel supply by
picking up fuel pods that are scattered around the maze. Once you have the key,
return to the door and you will travel to the next maze.
Of course, it isn't that easy, since there are things in the maze that can kill you.
There are three kinds of nasties: Guards, Wall Sweepers, and Fireballs. Guards
randomly patrol the centers of the corridors. Wall Sweepers travel along the walls.
Fireballs bounce around off the walls. Touch any of these and you're dead. No, you
don't have any weapons. Just avoid the nasties, get the fuel and the key, and get
out.
If you die, you are returned to the door if you have any men left. If you had the
key when you died, it stays wherever you blew up.
A couple of notes:
While you are standing inside the door, the pillars will glow and you will hear a
whirring noise. Nothing can hurt you while you are inside the door. Look before
you move.
You can fall as far as you like and landing won't hurt you. Likewise, neither will
bumping your head on a wall above you. You also can't impale yourself on the pointy
end of a wall. Only the nasties can hurt you.
Scoring:
You get 100 points and 100 fuel units for each fuel pod you pick up, 500 points
for picking up the key, and another 500 points for exiting a level.
From the moment you enter a level, a Time Bonus begins to count down. When you
exit you collect whatever is left.
If your Time Bonus is greater than zero, you may collect the following bonuses:
-- Survival Bonus
If you did not die during the level, you receive 50 points for each nasty in the
level.
-- All Fuel Pods Collected Bonus
If you got every fuel pod on the level, you get 250 points for each fuel pod.
-- Fuel Conservation Bonus
If you did not waste fuel, i.e. you did not pick up more fuel than you could
carry, you get a bonus of 100 points for each fuel pod you picked up.
An extra man is awarded every 15,000 points.
Menus:
Apple Menu:
About Jetpack -- this brings up an About Box with copyright info, how to
register, etc.
File Menu:
New Game -- Play a game!
Open Level File -- Allows you to select an alternate predefined level file to
play. When the game starts up, it automatically looks for the file
"Jetpack Levels" in the same directory as the game. If it isn't available,
the random setup is used.
Close Level File -- Closes the current level file. You don't need a level file
open to play. If you have a level file open, the game will use the levels
inside, otherwise it will generate random levels.
Start At Level -- Lets you start at whatever level you like. Disqualifies you
from a high score.
Abort Game -- Ends the current game. Allows name entry if you have a high score.
Quit -- Exits the program. If you are in the middle of a game, a confirmation
dialog will appear.
Edit Menu: unused
Commands Menu:
Detonate Jetpack -- If you are out of fuel, trapped, or just suicidal, this
command will kill your current man.
Pause -- Pauses the game. Select it again to resume.
Options Menu:
Controls -- Set which keys you prefer to use to control your man.
Sound -- Toggles the sound on and off.
Music -- Toggles the background music on and off. If sound is off, this command
is disabled.
Messages -- Toggles the messages on and off. This really only applies to the
snide remarks; informative messages will still appear.
Music Volume -- This is a submenu where you can set the relative volume of the
background music. The sound volume is set by the control panel sound volume,
the music volume is a fraction of the sound volume, from 1/5 to full.
Erase High Scores -- If you can't beat 'em...
Allow Background Tasks -- If this is checked, (it is by default) background
processes will be given time.
Shortcuts:
While in attract mode, pressing any key will cycle between the title screen, demo mode, and scoring screen.
When you exit a level, holding down the thrust key will make the bonus countdown much faster.
About Level Files:
This is kind of confusing. The game comes with a level file called "Jetpack Levels".
When you start the game, it tries to open this file. This file contains some
predefined levels that could be considered a complete 'scenario'. If the file can't
be found, or if you close the level file, all levels will be randomly generated.
If you register and get the level editor, or if some kind soul posts other level
files on the net, you can open these other files to play the levels within. Each
level file has its own private high score list, and there is also a high score list
for random play. The displayed high score list belongs to whatever level file is
currently open, if any.
Among randomly generated levels, some are Open Levels, with few walls, some are
Twisty Levels, with lots of intersections, and some are Death Levels, with tons
of nasties.
Shareware:
Jetpack is shareware -- it may be freely distributed, but not for profit. Please
register your copy by sending me a check for $10 and a 1.44MB disk. When you
register I will send the disk back with a copy of the level editor and some other
level files. If you prefer, I can e-mail them to you instead if you have an account
on the internet. If you register, all bugfixes and updates are free. If you can't
afford $10, or you are filthy rich and want to heavily support shareware programming,
send me what you think the game is worth.
My address is:
Mark Bradley
10031 Pleasant Lake Blvd
Apartment P-12
Parma, Ohio 44130
My internet account is by712@cleveland.freenet.edu
Please send all bug reports, comments, or whatnot to this account.
Known Problems:
Jetpack was originally designed to run on screens with 640x480 resolution or higher.
I've modified it so that it will run on smaller screens, but the vertical size of
the window is reduced so the player doesn't see as much. This also causes problems
with the demo mode, where some objects that are being pointed out can't be seen, and
with the scoring screen, where most of the hints are not visible. Also, on a
classic size screen (512x342) the bottom of the about box is cut off. If you have
a monitor 640x480 or bigger (13" color or bigger) you won't have these problems.
Acknowledgements:
Thanks a whole heap to my beta testers -- I feel a lot more confident about releasing this after all your help. Big thanx to Ingemar who gave me lots of great suggestions, Ian who told me "You'll never finish it." back when I was first designing it for X, and Stephanie, who put up with my never leaving the keyboard.
Oh and,
If you are interested in seeing the original X version, I believe the source code is archived in the comp.sources.x or comp.sources.games parts of wuarchive.wustl.edu.
