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Text File | 1994-03-13 | 13.3 KB | 236 lines

▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ █▄ ▄█ ▀█▀ █▀▀ █▀▄ █▀█ █▀▄ █▀▀ █▀▄ █▀▀ █ ▀ █ █ █ █▀▄ █ █ █▀ █▀ █ █ █▀ ▀ ▀ ▀▀▀ ▀▀▀ ▀ ▀ ▀▀▀ ▀ ▀▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀▀ VIDEO GAME Version 1.02 - Public Domain ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ GAME FILES ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ mpede102.zip : Archive distribution file. Use pkunzip on mpede.zip to reconstruct the file you are reading now and the game files listed below. Retain a copy of this file as a backup. Any extra copies of this file may be deleted for it is not needed to run the game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ mpede102.exe : Micropede executable file. This is the game program. Type and enter "mpede" at the DOS prompt to play. mpede.dat : Micropede binary data file. This file stores a record of the top 20 highest scoring games played. If you would like to clear the high scores and have it start over, delete this file; when you run the game, it will be recreated. mpede102.pic : Binary data file. This contains the title screen picture. If this is not present, the game will not run. mpede.doc : ASCII text data file (this file). SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Intel 80386 or compatible CPU. Microsoft Mouse. VGA video system. (320w∙200h pixels∙256 colors, mode=19d) DESCRIPTION ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Micropede is a game of skill. Virtually no thinking is required to play this game. In fact, thinking too much while playing this game could cause your game to suffer. The action gets so fast that the best strategy is to just relax and use your first reflexes. You will have to learn to quickly and skillfully move your man using your Mircosoft mouse. With practice, you will begin to amaze yourself as you become able to manuver your man out of spots that look impossible to get out of alive. Your objective is to shoot the micropede segments and avoid being touched by anything that moves. If you are touched, you die. There are 500 levels to play. Shooting all the segments on the screen advances you to the next level. Other enemies will attack you besides the micropede segments. They include spiders, mosquitos, dragonflies, bees, and beetles. TITLE SCREEN ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ You should see "MICROPEDE" written across the top and "OPTIONS", "START", "HI-SCORES", and "EXIT" written across the bottom with the mouse pointer in the center of the screen. On the title screen are labeled pictures of the enemies and their score value. Use the mouse to point and click on one of the four choices on the bottom of the screen. "EXIT" returns you to DOS. OPTIONS SCREEN ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ From this screen you can select the level at which to start, whether you want sound effects, invincibility, and the initial number of mushrooms occupying the screen. To change an option, click anywhere on the TITLE of the option and then use the keyboard to type in the desired setting. A game's score is eligible for the high scores list only if the game started on level one and the "Invincible" option is set to "No" AND you start with 8 men. Click on "EXIT" to return to the title screen. HI-SCORES SCREEN ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ This screen simply displays the high scores. However, if you get a high score this screen will appear immediately after your game ends. You will be prompted to enter you initials and the date. Enter your initials carefully - you cannot edit them. Then enter the date (mm/dd/yy). Click on "EXIT" to return to the title screen. GAME SCREEN LAYOUT ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The top line of the screen is used to display the status of the current game in progress. Going from the left side to the right is your score, number of extra men, the #1 high score to beat, and the current level. Below the top line and above the shaded area on the bottom (the largest area of the screen) is the enemy's domain. Your man cannot move into this area. This is you man's firing range. Kill as much as you can in this area before what remains invades your space and attacks you. The bottom shaded area is your man's domain. You can move in this area only. Mushrooms will clutter the area and restrict you routes of escape. Shoot the mushrooms and all enemies that invade this area. CONTROLLING YOUR PLAYER ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The mouse is used almost exclusively throughout a game. Anytime the game freezes or pauses and hitting mouse keys fails to resume or continue the game, hit the escape <Esc> key on the keyboard. For example, at the end of each game the screen freezes so you can review the game and see how you got killed. Press escape to continue at such a point. During the game, the mouse is used exclusively to control your man. The direction the mouse is moved is the direction your man will move on screen within the confines of the shaded area delineating your man's domain. Pressing and holding down the left key causes your man to fire arrows one at a time as rapidly as possible. Pressing the right mouse key will pause the game until it is pressed again to resume. The pause key is useful for more than just taking breaks. If your man gets in a tight spot, quickly pause the game and analyze your situation. Look for a direction where your man may be able to escape. Then, while still paused, move the mouse in that direction the amount you feel is needed to get your man in the clear and press the pause key again to resume. When you resume your man will make a straight move in the direction you moved the mouse while paused. THE ENEMIES ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Refer to the title screen of the game a see displays of the enemies. ■ MICROPEDE ■ The micropede is the segmented creature that starts at the top and moves downward among the mushrooms. Shooting a segment leaves a mushroom in its place. As you shoot the segments, the remaining segments branch off on their own paths. If a segment gets trapped by mushrooms it will either eat the mushroom or it will suddenly zigzag down to the bottom of the screen. Sometimes a large column of segemnts will zigzag down to the bottom. You can clear a level fast by shooting the column as it comes down. After you kill the last segment the level increases, screen colors change, and the game continues without a pause. When a line of segments are in the shaded player area, you can kill several segments in the line in one stroke by moving close under and in the opposite direction of the segments while holding down the fire button. This technique takes some practice to get the timing right. ■ SPIDER ■ The spider will enter from one of the sides and continues movement toward the opposite side exit point. All mushrooms touched by the spider die. You may wish to leave the spiders to clear mushrooms when they are blocking your domain. The spider's movement is generally random. However, as the spider comes near your player, it can detect where you are firing. It won't move into your line of fire. For example, if while you are stationary and holding the fire button a spider approaches, it will hover next to your man until its path is clear. The spider may not hover indefinitely. If you fire and the arrow hits something, the spider may be quick to detect that the path is clear and continue. The spider could then either pass by you or attack you. When you see a spider hovering next to you and it moves up and away, move under it quickly and fire. If you move under it and fire, the same logic that causes the spider to hover next to you may also cause it to hover directly above you giving you a "lock" on it until either you kill it with an arrow or it attacks and kills you - it goes both ways. ■ MOSQUITO ■ The mosquito moves diagonally from the top and bounces off the sides of the screen. Besides getting points, if you kill a mosquito the field of mushrooms will retreat upwards and out of your domain by one row. This is of strategic value. When your domain becomes cluttered with mushrooms to the point that it's becoming difficult to move around, you may want to try killing some mosquitos. Each time you hit a mosquito, you should see all the mushrooms move up one row leaving your domain clear in at least the bottom two rows. Be careful; if you clear your domain of all mushrooms the mosquitos will cease their attack while you suffer a more severe attack by bees and dragonflies until there is at least one mushroom in your domain. ■ BEE ■ The bee will only appear when there is no mushrooms in the player domain. It moves straight down the screen producing mushrooms at random along it's path. They help resupply the screen with mushrooms. Unlike all other enemies, which all take one shot to kill, the bee takes two shots. Sometimes it may appear to take more than two since the mushrooms they yield can block some shots. ■ DRAGONFLY ■ Again, as the bee, the dragonfly will only appear when there are no mushrooms in the player domain. It moves from the top to the bottom of the screen with an alternating hemicircular left/right sway of random but confined radius. The effect is that it is difficult to predict the path it is going to take. Sometimes it will sway back and forth rapidly as it goes down the screen; and, at other times it will sway widely completing maybe one or two cycles. Just the opposite of the mosquito; if you fail to hit the dragonfly and it passes through the bottom of the screen, the field of mushrooms will advance down the screen one row to further obstruct your movement. Usually, only a few waves will attack you since you will miss many and your domain will acquire mushrooms by their and the bee's action. ■ BEETLE ■ The beetle can appear at any time. It enters on either the left or right side of the screen on one of the lowest three rows of the enemy domain. It emerges from the side and immediately goes down the edge of the screen until it reaches the bottom of the screen. Then, it proceeds on the bottom row walking towards the opposite side. After passing the center line of the screen, the beetle can suddenly at random walk up the screen and possibly run right into you; or, it will continue until it reaches one of the three lower rows of the enemy domain where it makes a 90 degree turn towards the side of the screen for it's exit run. As an added incentive to kill it, each mushroom that it makes contact with will become hardened so arrows are unable to destroy them. These hardened mushrooms can accumulate and obstruct your man's movement making it harder to avoid attack by all enemies. The only ways to clear a hardened mushroom is if it happens to go off screen or if a spider touches it. ■ WORM ■ The worm is not capable of attacking and is a sort of bonus target. It comes out the left or right side of the screen and runs horizontally on one of the lower four rows of the enemy domain towards the opposite side of the screen. ■ EARWIG ■ The earwig is not capable of attacking and is another bonus target. It comes out the left or right side of the screen and runs horizontally on one of the upper few rows of the enemy domain towards the opposite side of the screen. AUTHOR OF PROGRAM ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ After I graduated from high school in 1990, I decided to go to college at Manatee Community College, Bradenton, Fl., and major in computer science. As I entered college I had no knowledge of computers or what I was getting into. I got my first computer in Oct. 1990 and quickly learned basic. I played with basic for several months and began to see how crude a programming language it is. My first experience with the C language was with Microsoft Quick C. It was a great improvement and I started to enjoy programming. Some computer programming books that I bought helped me immensely to learn C. Here's a few of the books I found very useful: "The Waite Group's Microsoft C Programming for the PC," Lafore, Howard Sams & Company, 1989. "The Waite Group's Turbo Assembler Bible," Syck, Sams, 1991. "Programmer's Guide to PC & PS/2 Video Systems," Richard Wilton, Microsoft Press, 1987. "Microsoft Mouse Programmer's Reference," Microsoft Press, 1989. "The C++ Programming Language," Stroustrup, Addison Wesley, Apr 1992. I liked C so much that I went out and bought Borland C++ 2.0 in May, 1991. Shortly afterwards, I learned the language and started the Mircopede project. Since I'm only a novice programmer and I've had college work to do, I worked on the game slowly. Sometimes it would sit for months without a thing getting done. But finally, here it is - enjoy! ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ You may copy and distribute this game to friends etc. MPEDE102 is Public Domain software; therefore, it is not to be sold for profit by any means. Distribute the ZIP file MPEDE102.ZIP only, thankyou. Send comments, suggestions, and any *donations* to: Robert Easter 1242 Tarpon Ave. Sarasota, Fl. 34237-3741