Assassins - Ultimate CD Games Collection 4/Assassins 4 (1999)(Weird Science).iso/docs/puzzles/robo_quest.doc

Text File | 1992-09-02 | 14KB | 273 lines

 RoboQuest was written by me, JIPsoft,
 in September 1997  January 1998 in AMOS.

 This is the documentation file for my glorious programmable maze game,
 RoboQuest. Here's the topics...

    Overall                     what's the game like?
    The Main Menu               what you'll see first
    Playing the game            what you'll spend most of your time doing
    Blocks and items            the stuff the world is made of
    Using the robots            you want to use them, don't you?
    The program editor          the really exciting programming bit
    Music support               play that funky music
    Requirements                all righty, here's what I require...
    SEND ME MONEY!              yes, you heard me.

 RoboQuest is a game where the basic aim is to use 4 separate robots to
 collect all the diamonds from a map. A map is made of 40*40 squares,
 which can consist of both a base block and an item on top of them.
  The robots are accessed with a programming language. This is covered
 more specifically in the programming language manual. It is impossible to
 play the game without programming the robots at some point.
  Included is a program called RoboEd, which is used for creating and/or
 altering the RoboQuest maps. However, to save your creations, you must
 register the game. This program is explained in the RoboEd guide file.
  More specific information is covered in the following nodes.

 When you first load the game, you'll see a nice logo picture and five
 buttons. These are, from left to right:
     Play the game. You must have a map file loaded to do this.
     Load a map file from disk. Use only genuine RoboQuest map files.
     Delete a file. Any file, not just RoboQuest maps.
     Statistics. All sorts of information for the trainspotters.
     Quit the game. But why would you want to do that?
          Click on any of the buttons and you're away!

 RoboQuest is played from the playing screen, unsurprisingly. This screen
 has lots of different areas. The biggest area in the left side of the
 screen is the map window, where you can see a bit of the map. Note that
 you can only see squares which you have explored, unknown squares appear
 gray.  To the right side are the robot control buttons. Pressing the
 "Edit" buttons takes you to the program editor, while pressing the "Run"
 buttons runs the robots' programs. Below are control buttons for saving
 or quitting the game, and loading and playing music modules.
  In the bottom right corner are the map window scrolling buttons. The
 arrows scroll the map window around, and the central button focuses on
 the robot you last used to do something.
  In the extreme lower edge is the text output screen, independent of the
 playing screen.This is where all the text output of your programs appears
 The output screen uses high resolution (80 columns), and 16 colours.

 The aim of the game is to collect all the diamonds on the map and place
 them onto diamond deposits. To do this, you must have your robots go all
 around the map and pick up and drop items. Note that each robot can only
 carry 1 item at a time, and has a fuel supply, which depletes every time
 the robot moves.  When you have collected all the diamonds on the map,
 you will see a completion message. If the map file is password protected,
 you will also be given the correct password.
  The robots are controlled with commands, which are explained in the
 manual of the programming language. It is impossible to control them
 directly, unless you write the routines yourself.
  The main input device is the mouse. You will, of course, need the
 keyboard for inputting your programs. The joystick is only an optional
 input device for use when running the programs.

 RoboQuest squares consist of a block part (underneath) and an item part
 (over). There are 16 blocks and 8 items. These are, as follows:

 Blocks:
  Empty. The robots can't enter this space at all.
  Floor. The basic block, travellable just fine.
  Weak floor. When the robots pass this, it weakens, until it becomes
   empty space, which is inaccessible.
  Arrows. Allow travel only in the direction they're pointing in.
  Water. No robot can enter this square without carrying a boat, or having
  another boatcarrying robot in the square already.
  Desert. No robot can enter this square without carrying air conditioning
  or  having another air conditioning carrying robot in the square already
  Locks. Only openable with the corresponding keys, which disappear after
  opening the locks.
  Message blocks. These contain special messages, which the robots
  automatically read and store in a special system variable.
  Teleports. Purple squares. These act as doors to other parts of the map.
  If the robot is not carrying a teleport ring, the teleport functions
  automatically. Otherwise, the robot can use it at will.
  Pyramids. Like empty space, totally inaccessible.
  Diamond deposits. Blue squares with yellow markings. Dropping diamonds
  onto these progresses the game.

 Items:
   Nothing. Selfexplanatory, really.
   Diamond. The basic item. Grab this and get to a diamond deposit to drop
   it off. The diamond disappears in the process.
   Fuel. Brown circles with "F" written on them. Each of these balls
   contains   51 units of fuel, which can boost the robots' fuel supplies.
   Keys. Open locks.
   Boats. Travel on water.
   Air conditioning. Turquoise circles with "AC" written on them.Travel on
   desert.
   Teleport rings. While carrying these, the robots can avoid being
   automatically whisked away when stepping on teleports.

 RoboQuest uses 4 separate robots, which can be programmed with a special
 programming language. The robots can move around the map and pick up or
 drop items.
  Each robot has a control panel on the playing screen, having the "Edit"
 and "Run" buttons, and a fuel indicator (from 0 to 255), and a cargo
 indicator. The cargo can be one of eight (well, seven really) items.
  Each time a robot moves, it uses 1 unit of fuel. If it runs out of fuel,
 it cannot move. However, it can be refuelled if another robot drops it a
 fuel container, which the robot then picks up and uses.
  Each robot has a unique program consisting of 100 lines, which can be up
 to 64 characters long. However, the variables are shared between all
 robots. The program is what actually controls the robots.
  When running a program, the mouse is inoperable. This will be shown with
 the mouse pointer becoming a clock. However, programs can read the
 keyboard and the joystick (if you have one). When the program has finished
 the mouse pointer becomes an arrow and the mouse is operable once again.

 The program editor is on a separate screen from the playing screen. It is
 in high resolution (80 columns) and has some buttons, an information line
 and of course the program area itself.
  You can use the mouse or the keyboard to use the editor. Clicking on
 buttons activates their functions, and clicking on the program area moves
 the cursor. You can also use the function keys F1...F9 to use the buttons.
 Here is an overview of the buttons and keys.

 The buttons:

    Save. Save your program to disk.
    Load. Load a program file from disk. Only the first 100 lines get used
    and only the first 64 characters from each line.
    Delete. Delete a file from disk.
    Clear. Clear the current program from the editor.
    Test. Check the program for syntax errors, without actually running it
    Run. Actually run the program.
    Store. Store the program in a special memory clipboard.
    Recall. Recall the program from the special memory clipboard.
    Exit. Go back to the playing screen.

 Keys to use:

    Cursor keys: move the cursor around.
        with shift: move the cursor up or down one page.
        with ctrl: move to the first/last bit with text in it.
        with alt: move to the edges of the program.
    Tab: move to the next tab position.
        with shift: move to the previous tab position.
    Backspace: delete the character to the left of the cursor.
        with shift: insert a space into the row.
        with ctrl: erase the row and move all subsequent rows one row up.
    Delete: delete the character underneath the cursor.
        with ctrl: erase the row.
    Return: move to the beginning of the next line.
        with ctrl: insert a new row into the program.

 All "printable" keys (with an ASCII code of 32 or more) add text into the
 program. You will see a "*" in the information line next to the program
 name to tell you the program has been modified.

 RoboQuest can load and play modules from disk. The game supports three
 tpyes of modules: ProTracker, MED and AMOS. The modules are recognised
 automatically upon loading from disk. You can use the "start/stop music"
 button on the playing screen to start or stop the music module.
 If your module file is faulty, it will not be played. Note that with AMOS
 banks, the file must only contain one bank. If the file erases the data
 RoboQuest needs to have in memory, the game will automatically end.

 Simple, really. All that is required is:
  An Amiga computer (any model >500).
  At least 1.2 megabytes of free memory.
  A mouse (and a keyboard, but most Amigas already have this).
  The presence of the data files RoboData1.abk and RoboData2.abk.
  A map file if you wish to actually do something in the game.
  A basic (pun intended) knowledge of programming to actually do something
  useful in the game.
  Electricity. Not for you, silly, for your Amiga.

 So far, I have had a few registrations for my earlier games, Excavation
 and Cubical Worlds, but for some mysterious reason none for my last game,
 Mr UFO. Anyway I've carried the keyfile system over from Mr UFO to this
 game.  The version of RoboQuest itself included in this release is the
 full one. However, the ShareWare version of RoboEd (the map editor) will
 refuse to save maps. To register the program, you need a keyfile.
  Keyfiles are written personally for each person registering the game.
 The person's name is included in the keyfile, and can be up to 20
 characters long. Keyfiles can also be password protected to prevent
 unauthorised people from playing the registered version of the game.
 To use this feature, submit a password of up to 20 characters when
 registering.  You can buy a keyfile for Mr UFO, RoboEd, or both. Here are
 the possible registration methods:

 Method of registration                      SEK   FIM   DEM   USD   GBP

 1 keyfile only, by email                    10     7   2.30  1.30  0.80
 Both keyfiles only, by email                15    10   3.30  1.80  1.10
 1 keyfile only, on disk 1)                   17    12   4.00  2.20  1.35
 Both keyfiles only, on disk 1)               22    15   5.00  2.70  1.65
 1 keyfile only, on disk 2)                   25    17   5.60  3.10  1.90
 Both keyfiles only, on disk 2)               29    20   6.60  3.60  2.25
 All of my games, on disk 1)                  32    22   7.30  4.00  2.45
 All of my games, on disk 2)                  47    32  10.60  5.80  3.55

 1) You supply your own disks (1 DD disk for keyfiles, 2 DD disks for all
    games)
 2) I provide disks for you

 If you register by "all games", you get the following games:
 The Butterflies!, Self Defense, Maze Mania, Fantasy Trade,
 The Secret of Arcturus, Super Daleks, Lactose Intolerance, L, ZombieZ,
 Strateq, Excavation, Cubical Worlds, Mr UFO and RoboQuest.
 All of them will be registered versions, of course. That's only 2.29
 SEK, 1.57 FIM, 0.52 DEM, 0.29 USD or 0.18 GBP per game! Where else can
 you get games this cheap? Not from many places, that's for sure.

 If you want to register, please email me at: [e-mail]
 Or write to me at:
    Joona Palaste
    Toppelundintie 3B 19
    02170 Espoo
    Finland

 I am looking forward to your registrations!


 JIPsoft equals yours truly, Joona Palaste.
 Here are his current statistics:

 Age: 21 years
 Nationality: Finnish
 School: Student at the Helsinki University,Department of Computer Science
 Computer: A1200 with 6 MB memory & 1033 MB HD
 New girlfriendtobe: Laura Kalli (although don't tell her that)

 I have also released other games, such as:

     Self Defense, a text adventure
     Lactose Intolerance, an arcade game
     Super Daleks, another arcade game
     The Secret of Arcturus, a semiRPG
     Strateq, a Chess derivative
     Excavation, an underground arcade/strategy game
     Cubical Worlds, an exciting arcade/puzzle game in glorious 3D!
     Mr UFO, a "gravity flight" type game with 8 levels

 I am also a parttime member of the RRR team. See any RRR production for
 details.

 Some people wonder why I still use AMOS. I often wonder the same too. To
 put it shortly, AMOS is a simple, but quite powerful language.Its biggest
 downside is its inability to function on a standard Intuition screen,
 not having to open a nonsystem screen all the time. But I'm happy that I'm
 not the only person in the world to program games in AMOS. Just read the
 Readers' Games part of Amiga Format, and you'll see lots of other AMOS
 games. Well, a few, at least. Too bad EuroPress has totally forgotten
 about AMOS's existence. A hint for EuroPress: A real PC version of AMOS,
 unlike that stupid Klik'n'Play, would certainly get you more buyers.
 Ask François Lionet, he's sure to have some vague recollection of AMOS
 hidden in a corner of his mind, despite years of drinking French cognac
 trying to forget it. )

 The big news of 1997 was, of course, that the Amiga is back. Woohoo.
 Gateway2000 are trying to market the Amiga. Like Viscom tried before them.
 And Escom before them. Will they succeed? Maybe in the UK, or Germany, but
 I still doubt more than 5 Amigas will be sold in Finland in the next
 decade, and of these, more than half will come from the UK or Germany.
 The diagnosis: people in Finland don't know the Amiga exist. The suggested
 cure: * ADVERTISE THE BLOODY THING ON TV AND IN NEWSPAPERS! * Really.
 How hard is it exactly to get the product name mentioned somewhere?
 Somewhere where a person who has less than 10 years of Amiga experience
 could see it? Too hard, it seems. A pity.