This is a minor game of strategy and a major game of reflexes. In this game you will control a “THING” like hand holding a serving tray at the bottom of the playfield. You use the mouse to move the tray.
At the top of the playfield is a rather over productive chicken (probably on steroids or something). This chicken will lay 20 eggs that will appear at the top right corner of your playfield and begin rolling to the left. At some point, entirely random in this case, the eggs will begin to fall towards the bottom. It’s your job to catch these eggs with the serving tray before they hit the bottom.
If you succeed in your task, you will be rewarded with the number of points that particular coloured egg was worth. If you miss the egg, you’ll hear a splat sound and notice that your “STATUS EGG” will change in appearance. If you miss 6 eggs during the game it’s all over for you and you’ll never be allowed in another kitchen.
Of course, the longer the steroids work on this chicken, the faster the eggs are going to fall. You’ll notice this as the levels get higher even when using EGGERs EASY level.
Egg Values
Each of the solid coloured eggs are worth a certain number of points.
YELLOW - 5 points
RED - 10 points
GREEN - 15 points
BLUE - 20 points
WHITE - 50 points
Prize Egg Values
There are also two multicoloured eggs in EGGER. The first is a purple spotted egg. This egg, when caught will either reward you with 250 points OR will repair your egg status by one level. If your egg is not broken at the time you catch this egg you will receive the points, otherwise you will get the egg repair.
The second egg is an orange spotted egg. Catching this egg will reward you with 500 points or it will repair your egg status completely (providing your egg needs repair). You always want to try to catch this egg at all cost!
Pausing or aborting a game
If you want to abort a game in progress, which means you won't make the high scores list, press A. To pause a game in progress, press ESCAPE or P. Pressing ESCAPE or P again will resume the game.
EGGER Levels
As with most arcade games, as the levels get higher more eggs will appear on the screen and start falling. Even at the highest level (setting at “HARD”) there is sufficient time to catch the eggs if you are really, really, really good with the mouse. If not, well, splat…
Depending on the level of difficulty you have set in the OPTIONS menu, play will only advance to a preset level. Once that has been reached, EGGER will cycle back and start again, but at one level higher than the previous start. For example, with the EASY setting you will have 10 levels to get through. If you make it all the way, EGGER will cycle, but starting with level 2. If you make it again, you’ll start at level 3. And so on until you are playing only at level 10.
Of course all this assumes that you aren't breaking all six of your eggs as you go. When that happens the game is over.
About EGGER
EGGER was inspired by a personal friend, who just happens to be the editor of a poultry trade magazine in Canada. It was brought to you by me. A guy with a slightly warped sense of humour and too much idle time on his hands.
This game is “GRINWARE”. In other words if you get a grin or a chuckle out of playing it, or you find it keeps the kids amused while you watch TV, that’s all the charge there is for using it. If you feel you have achieved a truly great score, or want to write to me to tell me how many sleepless nights you have had because of a sore wrist caused by EGGER, feel free to do so (but don’t expect any sympathy; I had to write and test it).
If you program in FutureBasic™ and you’d like to see how EGGER was done, the source code is available for $4 on disk.
