home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
The Game Master (3rd Edition)
/
The Game Master 3rd edition.iso
/
files
/
game_ega
/
slither
/
slither.doc
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1988-12-05
|
5KB
|
119 lines
SLiTHER
By Brian Jamison
You, the poor idiotic snake, have been captured by a mad college
student and injected with his experimental SUPER GROWTH potion.
Luckily, the idiot never remembers to close the cage door.
You escape... but beware! You are so hyped up on the drug that
your already tiny brain is short-circuited to uselessness. Only pure
instinct remains. You hurdle forward in search of food.
Fortunately, lots of delectable, overfed lab rats lie around,
basking in the warm flourescent lights of the lab.
Eating one will catalyze the drug pumping in your veins, and
cause you to grow, leaving behind a deadly pile of rat bones, fur
and poison snake skin.
If you should be unlucky enough to run into anything other than a
rat or eat a 'pile' (and it WILL happen..), you will die a quick
snakely death.
REQUIREMENTS:
An IBM compatible (an AT or better is HIGHLY recommended)
An Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA)
or a Video Graphics Array (VGA) with EGA compatibility
Any version of DOS 2.0 through 3.3
A bit of hand-eye coordination.
PLAYING:
Cursor keys control the snake's movement.
You cannot reverse direction.
Touching anything but a rat ends the game.
When the snake reaches a length of 850 you advance to the next level.
There are four progressively difficult levels.
After the fourth level, levels are generated randomly.
The faster the speed, the higher the score.
Space Bar -- 'coils' the snake... ONCE per level.
F1 -- help screen/pause game
F2 -- toggles sound
F9 or + -- speeds up the snake
F10 or Ins -- slows down the snake
Esc -- ends the game
STARTING UP:
You can change some of the defaults when you first load Slither
by following the format-
SLITHER [length] [sound <ON> or <OFF>] [mode <E>xpert or <N>ormal]
[length] is the STARTING length of the snake, 50 being the default length.
Maximum start is 600, minimum 25.
[sound] is either ON or OFF. Default is ON.
[mode] begins the game in Normal or Expert mode. Expert mode uses very
difficult randomly generated mazes. Default is N.
Example:
SLITHER 200 OFF E
gives a start length of 200, no sound, and starts in expert (random) mode.
HISTORY:
"Slither" is of course another slight variation on the old classic
"Snake". I remember playing Snake on the ol' CP/M clunkers we used to
have back in high school, back when "graphic mode" meant using periods
and cursor blocks in clever ways.
A few full-sized video games have come out over the years featuring
one snakelike theme or another, but I've never seen any decent version
out for the IBM.
Recently, I downloaded a game called SNAKE (oddly enough) that was
reputedly in EGA. (I won't dignify the author here)
When I started the game, BOY was I suprised! "EGA" turned out to
be normal text mode in sixteen colors!
That was challenge enough for me. I thought it wouldn't be too
tough to write Snake in TRUE EGA mode, give it a few twists, and take out
some 'features' I disliked (foremost begin an absurd thirty second
"PLEEEASE send me money!" delay).
'Slither' was the result. My primary goal in creating this game was
to have fun. It's my first game, so expect some quirks.
Slither was written in Turbo Pascal 4.0 on a 12mhz AT.
FINALLY:
SLITHER is Shareware. That means it is NOT free. You can give it
to your friends and upload it wherever you like, so long as it isn't
commercially sold.
If you don't like it, delete it.
But if you DO use it more than a couple of times, scratch off a
quick check for $10 (or more) and send it to me- Not only will you be
entitled to free upgrades (and there WILL be upgrades) but you'll have the
satisfaction of knowing that you are fueling my growing desire to write
more games like SLITHER.
To encourage this, I'll tweak the program this way or that for
registered users who send in an additional $10. (For example, if you
want a version with a snake that gets smaller if you miss a rat, a
version without snake 'piles', or the 'key' for making new levels,
I'll gladly do it).
Please remember that this is only version 1.0 and there are bound to
be bugs. If you find one, or have some other suggestion, PLEASE
let me know.
ADDRESS ALL DONATIONS, COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS TO:
Brian Jamison
608 Santa Clara Avenue, #5
Venice, California
90291
CompuServe ID: [72321,534]