home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Planaria
- by
- Bruce Powel Douglass, PhD
- CIS 70673,2715
- (608) 838-6189
- 5409 North Pass
- McFarland, WI 53558
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Planaria is FREE SOFTWARE WITH ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, AND ITS
- USE CONSTITUTES AN AGREEMENT TO WAVE ALL CLAIMS AGAINST THE AUTHOR DUE,
- DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY TO ITS USE FOR ALL INFINITE TIME.
-
- Planaria may be distributed for free provided that it is accompanied by this
- text file and is not modified in any way.
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Planaria is a kind of moving maze game in which you generate the maze. You
- follow the role of a worm eating creatures in its habitat. They provide you
- energy, resulting in your growth (a longer tail). There are different kinds of
- creatures that you may eat. If you hit anything else, including the triangular
- obstructions that appear periodically or your own tail, you die and the game
- is over. When you eat the creatures the blow holes in your tail allowing devious
- means of movement. When the tail finally catches up with these holes, they become
- filled, permanent obstructions you must subsequently avoid, so they are a mixed
- blessing.
-
- Movement is done with the keyboard arrow keys. Note that if you are travelling
- in one direction (let's say to the right) and a creature appears behind you so
- that you want to turn around, if you press the left key YOU WILL DIE because
- you run directly into yourself. You must first go up or down AND THEN left. This
- is the most common problem newcomers have with moving the worm around the screen.
-
- Keystrokes
- ----------
- As already stated, the arrow keys control direction. Other valid keys include:
- ALT-P Pause
- ALT-S (re)Start
- ALT-N New Game
- ALT-C Configure
- ALT-X Quit
-
- There is some configurability with the Configuration option; including the
- thickness of the worm, the worm and the creature update speeds (smaller numbers
- are faster).
-
- You win the game when the program cannot find a clear place to put a creature.
- You will be amply notified if that occurs.
-
- See what happens when you minimize the program.
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- If you like the game, I would be interested in knowing that so please drop
- me a line.
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- The game is free. If you would like source code (it uses the OWL library), there
- is a cost of $10 to cover mail and disk costs.
-
-