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Now That's What I Call Games 1
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Now That's What I Call Games (1993)(Multi Media Machine)[!][CD32-CDTV].iso
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tsch
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ins.doc
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1993-09-10
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12KB
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345 lines
Tsch
The Plot....
It was the year 1991. On a small blue/green
planet that locals referred to as Earth, a
vast number of humanoid beings (some of them
hairy) were busily programming GAMES. These
games involved tasks set around a simple
basic plot. However, there was one game
released in this year that broke all
universal rules as we know them, for....
though it is hard to believe, this particular
game had no plot whatsoever. It was a purely
abstract entity only barely existing in this
plane of reality. The disk you have inserted
into your computer contains this game. BEWARE
OF QUANTUM JUMPS CAUSED FROM LACK OF PLOT.
The Game....
In Tsch, you must guide your ship,Bob
across numerous levels attempting to collect
a certain number of 'Jewels' (For want of a
better name) whilst avoiding other more nasty
blocks. Other blocks scattered around the
levels have varying effects upon Bob, ranging
from reversing control to increasing gravity.
Thats about it really. Sorry
What you will see..
Upon loading you will be greeted with the
Tsch title screen, backed by some strange,
swirling dots and a haunting tune.(At this
point pressing F5 will switch Competition
Mode on and off. See later section about
this.) If you wait a few moments, this screen
will switch to one showing and naming the
various types of blocks you will meet in the
levels. If you wait a few more moments the
title screen will return again. You can then
go along waiting for as long as you want but
nothing more interesting will happen and I
imagine you will probably tire of that
shortly. Once you have, you may want to press
your fire button to proceed into the game
proper...
The next screen you will see describes the
level you are about to play. An example of
this would be...
ENTERING LEVEL 01.
NICE EASY INTRO.
THE SPEED IS SLOW
THE STROBE IS SHEEP
GRAVITY IS OFF
TSCH TSCH!
The first line declares the level number. The
next is the name of the level, which might
give you an idea of what to expect.(Maybe!)
The speed follows, which varies from TEDIOUS
(Very Slow) to WILD (Wild!). The strobe
rating tells you just how often the screen
will glow brightly and make you lose
concentration. The three levels of Strobe can
be adjusted with the keys F6,F7,F8 which,
respectively give the following effects...
GNU - Hardly any flashing lights at
all.Really boring and only useful when
hungover.
SHEEP - Normal mode. The screen glows when
you hit the sides of the screen or you hit a
block. Really nice,this mode...
LLAMA - Special mode often described as
"Fureaky" or "Aaagh turn that off." It is
very difficult to actually play the game with
this mode on.
Gravity describes how strong gravity is on
the level. "Tsch Tsch!" is the ritual
greeting of Beings all over the continuum.
Again you can spend many hours playing with
these buttons if you are that way inclined
but I doubt it will be that enjoyable.
Therefore the best idea is to press your
sticky button to progress into the game
proper-proper.....
The first thing you see of the level is
called the flyby in which Bob flies past the
whole level at high speed so that you can
plan ahead for the moves you will need. Do
Not Panic. Bob can not be destroyed at this
stage. Clever players will use this stage to
position Bob ready for the level ahead.
At the top of the screen is an info. window
which describes, from left to right, the
number of jewels to collect to complete this
level, your present score and the number of
lives you have left.
Once the whole level as passed, Bob will slow
to the appropriate speed for that level and
you can now proceed to play the game.
As explained earlier, the simple concept of
Tsch is to collect 'Jewels' and avoid the
Killa blocks. Admittedly, later levels expand
on that concept but the basic structure
remains the same. The first level is simple
in the extreme. There are six jewels to
collect (They're the ones with diamond shaped
thingies in the centre.) and two Killas to
avoid. (They're the filled in blocks.) Once
you've got used to Bob's inertia this level
should be as easy as falling over after large
amounts of beer.
Oh and by the way, you can press 'P' to pause
the game at any time during a level. A second
press will resume.
Should you hit a Killa block, you will lose a
life and be returned to the level
introduction text. It also means you will
have to go about collecting all the Jewels
all over again. Sorry, but thats just the way
it is.
Should you successfully collect all the
jewels, you will be advanced to the next
level and an appropriate level bonus will be
added to your score. You will then return to
the level introduction text describing the
next level. Fun isnt it?
Thats the general procedure and the only
difference will be if you should lose all of
your lives. In this case, you will proceed to
the high score table, where you can enter a
short self-congratulatory message if your
score was good enough. From then, return to
the title screen by pressing your fire button
and start all over again.
The Blocks
The graphics and names of all the Tsch blocks
are shown on the title screen if you wait a
bit. Below though, is a full description of
the effects of each......
Jewel : This is what you have to collect to
finish the level.
Killa : These blocks you must avoid for risk
of losing Bob. If you were to ever see a
Killa block on your local high street report
it to the council immediately.
Bouncy : Hitting these blocks from the side
causes Bob to bounce off in the opposite
direction. (Hence the name.) However, Bouncy
blocks can be thwarted if Bob repeatedly
bashes against them, as they are made of a
strange plasticine-like substance which will
eventually give way. It is also wise to note
that Bouncy blocks only affect vertical
speeds. Therefore, if Bob was to enter the
block whilst not moving up or down, he can
pass through unhindered.
Gravity : Hitting a gravity block,
strangely enough, increases the gravity on
the level you are on. In the first few
levels, there is no gravity at all so you
can happily leave Bob to glide around without
worrying about him falling to the floor.
However, once gravity is activated you will
have to continually compensate by nudging
your stick upwards. (Or.....) Hitting more
than one gravity block means that gravity is
increased more and consequently you will have
to adjust your control. The effects of
gravity blocks last until the end of the
level.
Ice : Normally, the strange quantum level
that Bob inhabits is affected by
friction,thereby stopping him from bouncing
around uncontrollably. However, hitting an
ice block causes a temporary quantum shift
which means that Bob often does bounce around
uncontrollably. In the particular reality
that this shift forces Bob into, there is a
distinct lack of heat that will force all the
blocks on the level to frost over.
However,being a vastly intelligent
manipulator of parallel universes
(Universi???) Bob shortly corrects the
situation.
Reverse : The reverse block is another
reality manipulator. However, where Ice is
a quantum shifter, Reverse is a quantum
reverser. (Well i never.) The Reverse block
creates a temporary Esrevinu, which to the
outside viewer will appear to be totally
backwards. This will consequently affect
the control of Bob, and moving up with your
stick will cause Bob to move down.(And vice
versa)
Jail : The Jail block is a mechanical block
that when hit, hunts around the inside of
your Amiga disconnecting certain lines.
Invariably this causes your joystick to be
useless and the colour to fade from your
picture. Another interesting side effect of
this block is to activate an Ice block
thereby losing friction. Therefore, Bob will
continue to move in the direction in which he
hit the block. Luckily, one of Bob's many
talents is that of being a first-rate
computer repair being and shouldn't take too
long to fix the fault.
Accelerator : The accelerator is in fact a
warbling double spronged fractal quantum
accelerator (Double sludded) which will
accelerate time. However, it is widely known
that the Warblingdouble spronged fractal
quantum accelerator (Double sludded) uses the
rather dodgy Wofting-Underhung-Andlewang
circuit which means that on occasions it
doesn't work. Generally though, hitting one
accelerator increases the level speed once
and hitting another increases it again....
Generally......
Decelerator: The decelerator's common name
is Tim and Tim is a kind, friendly being
whose sole purpose in life is to counterract
the horrible effects of people activating
warbling double spronged fractal quantum
accelerators. Tim's a very laid back bloke
who just likes things to be a bit more
mellow,man.
Life : Life gives you an extra Bob. Sorry but
thats all that it does.
Competition Mode
Competition mode is activated by pressing F5
on the title screen. The current state is
indicated by a little message at the bottom
of the screen. Basically, competition mode
means that once you have got so far, you
don't have to play all through the lower
levels when you die. The mechanics are that
if you complete three levels the Competition
pointer is moved to that third level. Then
when you die you restart from that level. e.g
When you complete level 3 the competition
pointer is set to level 4 so that you can
miss out the first three levels. From there,
the pointer is next reset when you complete
level 6, and is set to level 7. If however,
you get to level 6 but fail to complete it
then the counter remains at level 4 and you
willhave to start there again. This might
seem tiresome but otherwise its much too easy
to get passed even the hardest levels just by
non-stop attempts. When you turn competition
mode off, the level counter is reset back to
level 1 so this is what you must do if you
decide to start again from the beginning.
Other Stuff
I hope you like the game. From the reaction
of mates, once they've got into playing the
game they've found it pretty addictive. Its
definitely an '"Aagh ya (??)" then another go
' type game. God knows its made me want to
chuck the Amiga quite a few times. Playwise,
if you can get to around level 20 without
competition mode you're doing good. Any
scores in the top 3 are pretty good too. If
you have any comments about the game
(especially nice ones) please contact me at
the address spread all over the disk.
Other Non-Tsch Stuff
Games For May is a new company started to get
some money to programmers and get good,cheap
games to the public - using shareware as the
main medium. We've been inspired by Jeff
Minter/Llamasoft and the great software he's
managed to bring out over the years. Just
look at 50% of £25 games that aren't a tenth
as good as Llamatron.(And hopefully
Tsch.)Hopefully we'll have more software soon
providing reaction to Tsch is encouraging. If
you've got a game that you think would be
suitable for shareware please contact us,
because we'd like to build a good catalogue
of shareware games for release. Releasing a
shareware game with Games For May would mean
better distrubution,better registration
follow-up and better 'advertising' and you'll
still get most of the registration fee.
Please contact us at the address given if
you're even vaguely interested.
Right, that's it, don't do too much of it,
whatever it is, and have fun.
TSCH TSCH!
MiG Oct 1991. 245,Hubert, Selly Oak,
Birmingham B29 6ES. U.K.