This is a game for getting rid of all that frustration that certain companies, persons and organizations cause you. A bunch of suggested skunks are provided, but you can also make your own.
Disclaimer: We do not encourage mistreatment of innocent animals!
Using the game
This game is similar to the "Wack-a-mole" games you find in some amusement parks, where moles peek out of holes and you should hit them before they go back in again. That's exactly what you do here, with the difference that it isn't moles, but symbols for whatever you feel like hitting for the moment.
Hit any key or click in the game window to start the game. You can pause the game at any time by hitting any key.
The game goes on until you have missed ten objects – or until you have had enough.
The hard part is to aim. The hammer moves with some kind of 3D-like perspective, so it takes a little practice to learn which hole it is above.
The score is the number of objects you hit. However, a special feature of the game is that you can change the scoring to whatever you like! If you think that more score is better, so have it your way! You can append as many zeroes to the score as you like (well, until the score display gets too crowded), or words. So, instead of getting one point per object, you can get 100 gazillions! Great, isn't it? Next time someone brags about getting over ten millions in Doomenstein or whatever, you just say "bah, I got 146 megafantazillions in Smack A Skunk!" - and you really did! At least that's what it says on the screen!
Installing your own skunks
Of course you want to smack some skunks of your own life! Good skunk objects include a picture of your boss, of irritating neighbors, logos of companies that cheat or skimp on service etc, the icon of a program that often crashes (hopefully not Smack a Skunk), a picture of an annoying brother or sister, of your worst teacher, of food you just hate but have to eat anyway… a symbol of anything that simply deserves it!
Here's what you do:
Create the picture in a drawing program. All pixels that you want to be transparent must be white. Don't make it too large; somewhere between 32 and 64 pixels wide is good. Copy it to the clipboard.
Switch to Smack a Skunk. Select "Paste". If "Paste" is disabled, start the game and pause it. The picture appears, following the mouse. (If nothing happens, you probably forgot to copy the picture to the clipboard, or the picture is so big that it can't be loaded. Try again.) Click it into the slot it should have in front of the smacking table.
If you want to try the extra skunks included with the game, you can open them with SimpleText or just about any other drawing program.
If you make some really good skunk images, please submit it to us for possible inclusion in future Smack a Skunk releases!
System requirements
You must have a 640x480 pixel screen and 256 colors. (Sorry if you don't - there are some good reasons, believe me!)
A 68LC040 processor or better is strongly recommended.
Smack A Skunk is free for personal use (freeware). Unmodified copies may be freely distributed. Modified copies may only be distributed with permission from at least one of the copyright owners.
In other words, if you feel like hacking this game to something else, i.e. to look different, you may only distribute the changed copy if we think it is ok. You can write to me at ingemar@lysator.liu.se.
Credits
Made by Ingemar Ragnemalm, Folke Söderström and Susanne Ragnemalm. We made this game in a few days at the very end of 1996.
Game design: Folke and Ingemar.
Graphics: Folke and Susanne.
Skunk images: Ingemar, except "La bomba" which is based on an icon from a joke program called "Insatiable sex".
Sounds: Folke and Ingemar.
Game programming: Ingemar.
Essential programming libraries:
Sprite Animation Toolkit with add-ons by Ingemar. (This game is really a test platform for a lot of new, so far preliminary add-ons for SAT.)
OneEvents by Ingemar.
UserDITL by Folke.
Developed with Think Pascal (where the good debugger is).
Compiled for the PowerMac with CodeWarrior.
Check out ftp://ftp.lysator.liu.se/pub/mac/games for updates and new releases.
