Lunar Craters is patterned after an age old classic ‘Chinese Checkers. Our version of this exciting little game offers a few additional options to further your enjoyment. The game board has a 3 dimensional appearance that looks as through it broken away from the moon. Many planets, stars, and comets grace the heavenly skies giving the illusion of a galactic size game board floating through space. Some mighty eerie sounds emerges from your Macintosh upon starting the game. If you are deep space voyage is interrupted by dinner (or something) you may save the game and continue your experience in another time.
LUNAR CRATERS History...
One of our employees started writing the code beginning 3/03/93 6:00 PM. He was out on a Saturday browsing through some of the local antique shops. He came across an old (I guess it was made of a heavy cardboard) Chinese Checkers game board. This sparked an idea. How about adding a little Sci-Fi tilt to this old game. We decided to spruce it up a bit and release it to some bulletin boards as SHAREWARE. This is the first release version 1.0 with digitized sound. Not much testing (officially) has been done, so if bugs arise, please let us know.
Which Macs can play LUNAR CRATERS...
As of this version (1.00), LUNAR CRATERS will only run on color capable Macintosh systems. There are two reasons for this; First, the graphics in their present form, do not look very well in pure Black and White (although they look fine in gray-scale). A second set of graphics would have to be created to provide a more pleasing look. Secondly, Additional code is needed to perform the Black and White graphics routines on a non-color machine.
Who is playing LUNAR CRATERS...
We would like to know who is playing LUNAR CRATERS. Please send us a postcard, letter or Email (Online-America, send to ProSoft) letting us know what you think of the game. This is SHAREWARE, so registering your copy is greatly appreciated. It does take time for our people to produce a well written game, and the more people that pay the modest registration fee, the more games we can make available to you. Your ideas, suggestions, comments, New Games?, etc. are indeed valuable to us, so send them along with your registration. Thank You...
Game Objectives...
LUNAR CRATERS follows the same rules as the standard Chinese Checkers game. Starting out the game, marbles are sitting in opposing triangles. The object is to transfer all your marbles to the opposite triangle in place of your opponents marbles.
A marble can only jump one position per turn. An exception to this is when the marble jumps another marble. In this situation, a marble may jump multiple times. Remember you can only jump one marble at a time, that is, a marble - space - marble - space, etc.
There are times when the macintosh may not know if you desire to make additional jumps or not. Just click the mouse button on the marble you last moved to terminate your turn. When the up-arrow cursor is displayed you are expected to choose (pickup) the desired marble to be moved. If the down-arrow cursor is being displayed then you are expected to pick a spot for your marble to jump to.
HELP...
****** Apple Menu ******
The About box is located here. This simply displays a dialog box telling you a little about us and LUNAR CRATERS. Hit a carriage return button or click on the ‘OK’ button with the mouse to dismiss the dialog box and return to the game.
****** File Menu ******
The first menu selection starts a NEW game. The player can also use the command key combination ‘N’ with the same effect.
The second menu selection LOADs the previously saved game. Again the player may use the command key combination ‘L’ instead of the mouse.
The third menu selection SAVEs the current game. You may save your game at any point and as often as you like. LUNAR CRATERS can only save one game at a time, so saving a game will erase any previously saved game. The player may use the command key combination ‘S’ instead of the mouse.
The fourth menu selection ENDs the current game. The players will be asked if they desire to SAVE the game at this point. Again the player may use the command key combination ‘E’ instead of the mouse.
The last selection on the File menu Ends the current game, QUITs the program and returns you to the Finder.
****** Feature Menu ******
The first two items are Hierarchical menus. The first of the two allows you to choose one of four animation speeds (None, Slow, Medium, Fast). By default animation speed is set to medium. If ‘None’ is selected, the marbles will simply be moved from one location to another without visually jumping.
The second item allows you to set the sound volume to your liking. When you QUIT the program, the original sound volume of your system is restored.
Next on the menu is ‘HELP FILES’. You are there now.
‘MENU OPTIONS’ displays a simple dialog box that briefly explains the menu options available to the player. Hitting the ‘OK’ button dismisses the dialog box, returning you to the game. Selecting the ‘HELP’ button will bring this ‘HELP’ file to the screen.
‘PLAYER OPTIONS’ also displays a dialog box. The players may select from two (2) to six (6) players. The names and their respective colors will be displayed as you choose the number of players. A player may change their color by clicking the mouse on their name and choose a new color from the selection along the right edge of the dialog box. If a player chooses another players color, the other player in turn will receive your old color.
As a solo player you may play against the computer. To play against the computer, type ‘Computer’ in place of a players name. the Mac will understand that you want it to play this position. The computer may play several positions at the same time if so desired. When the Mac is playing more than one position at a time, you may append additional characters to the name ‘Computer’, such as ‘Computer 1’.
If desired for demo purposes the ‘Computer’ can play against itself with as many as six positions. If you have the ‘Computer’ playing in the number one (1) spot, you must make the first move for it. This allows you to run a ‘Computer’ demo, depending on your first move with different outcomes.
‘TALLY SHEET’ allows you to see the tallies (Wins/Losses) for the last six players. Other information presented here tells the players colors and the number games played since you last started the program.
If desired, you may clear or erase all current tallies by selecting the ‘CLEAR’ button.
***** SPECIAL NOTES *****
1) Lunar Craters will play on most any screen size, but it has been optimized for the Apple 13 inch high resolution monitor. On other size monitors (larger monitors tend to be more of a problem), the areas in which the marbles are placed on the game board may not line up very well. The game is still playable, just not perfect. We wanted players to be able to take advantage of a larger screen size if they have it.
2) Lunar Craters will run under MultiFinder without any major problems provided the minimum memory is increased to 900K. The default setting is 400K, which is fine for the standard (MultiFinder turned off) Finder. To reset the minimum memory for an application:
a) Select the application (Lunar Craters) by clicking on the application’s Icon once.
b) Do a ‘Get Info’ by pressing the command key sequence ‘Command I’. This will display a dialog box telling you a few things about the program (size, type, creation date, etc.).
c) In the lower-right corner of the dialog is a small rectangular field requesting a new memory size. The number should be set to about 400, change it to 900.
d) Click in the close box located in the upper-left of the dialog box. This will close the ‘Get Info’ box and return you to the ‘Finder’.
e) Now double click on the ‘Lunar Craters’ Icon to start the game.
3) Remember this game is intended to be run on a color system. We plan on releasing an updated version that should run equally as well on all current Macintosh systems.
4) By registering ‘Lunar Craters’ will receive a password by US mail, that will allow an unlimited number of plays. And that registration box will never rise it’s ugly head again!!!
Please register your copy with ProSoft Inc. at the address below. The registration fee is ten dollars ($10.00). If you desire for a twenty dollar ($20.00) fee, we will send you completely documented source code written in Think Pascal. ENJOY!!!
