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-
- Mac Invaders
- A Tesseract Software Production in 1995
-
- The Story So Far:
- It started back in 1984, when the Macintosh was first introduced. Its
- advertisers said that it was "user friendly" because it had overlapping
- windows and used a mouse. So it seemed, for a time. Until someone tried to
- open the box. You see, it couldn't be done with just a regular screwdriver,
- it required an industrial screwdriver, and even then, you needed a special
- tool called a "spreader" to actually open the box.
- This was necessary, because if anyone found out what was inside, it would
- horrify the entire civilized world and put Apple computer out of business
- forever. Inside each box was a human soul, directly from the butt-burning
- coals of Hell.
- It was all part of a deal that Steve Jobs made with Satan himself. It went
- something like this:
- 1. Until Steve's sister died, the computers would be manned by actual dead
- people. This was why the computers were so user friendly at first, because
- it actually had people controlling the CPU's. This is also why they were
- so slow and made so many mistakes.
- 2. When the sister died, she would go to Hell, and the Macintoshes innards
- would then be replaced with actual computer chips, including the ones that
- had already been sold.
- 3. Right before Steve died, Satan would artificially cleanse all of the evil
- from him, so that he would go to Heaven.
- 4. Once that happened, all the Macintoshes would be under Satan's control.
-
- Well, now the year is 2013, Steve is dead, and the computers are rampant,
- destroying all that you have come to know and love in this world. You realize
- what you must do. You man your PC and prepare to fight off the hellspawns.
-
-
- How to Play:
- Gameplay is very simple. Once you have started a game, use left and right
- on the keyboard to move your computer to the left or the right. When you
- press CTRL, you will fire. There are also some cheat codes and a way to get
- the harpoons that you fire to originate right below the enemies instead of
- where you are. But I won't go into those details. It's pretty simple to
- find though, I doubt that you will have a problem.
-
-
- About the program:
- This program totals about 1000 lines of Borland C source code, with the
- tiniest bit of inline assembler (mainly when I was too lazy to figure out how
- to use int86 again). The graphics were all drawn in Deluxe Paint ][e.
- Back when I was living in Princeton (not Green Acres :P`), I wrote the
- original version of this game called "Blaster". I hear it had a small cult
- following (because of the theme of the game, I'm sure not the quality), but
- never did anyone directly tell me that they liked it. Once I was referred to
- as Jim "Blaster" Crawford, but that was all. Anyways, about a year later I
- moved to this shitty place and since it's fairly equivalent to Hicksville, I
- had nothing left to do but code. My hatred of Macintoshes was higher than ever
- (still going strong), and I got back to this project. Now let this be a
- lesson to ye: I may not start Mac Invaders ][ for another year unless I get
- some mail. So write!
-
-
- Special thanks go to:
- Alan Nash, my programming mentor
- Robert Nolet, one of my close friends back in Princeton whom I have not
- corresponded with yet in over eight months although I had promised to
- before I left :(
- Adam Harvey, (Cecil the Snake), Sysop of The Far Site BBS
- Sami Tammilehto, (Psi of Future Crew), for his SP2 source code from which I
- ripped the VGA detect routine, and his Mental Surgery source code, from
- which I based my KB input routine
- Grant Smith, (Denthor of Asphyxia) he who wrote the Asphyxia demo trainers.
- I don't think that the trainers have helped me any in this game, but I
- used his ideas in some of my other programs and he has been helpful in
- general
- Joe Savino, for his help with the internet
- And finally (fairly equivalent to greetings): <-- Not a frown
- Christopher Martin, David Durica, Bill Tonn, Sean Kennedy, Stiles Weston
- Russell Gentile, Peter Whittlsey, David "Big" Johnson
-
-
- Getting the source code:
- Send me five U.S. dollars and I'll give you the complete source code for
- MACINV.EXE. Make checks out to Jim Crawford. Send it to the snail mail
- address found at the end of this file.
- A reminder, that's only one way to get the source. You can also try
- winning my friendship and I'll probably give it to you for free. Plus, I'll
- always be willing to share techniques with the less knowledgable (not that
- there really are many people less knowledgable about games than me, but it's
- worth a shot). So write anyways!
-
-
- Registration:
- Send me something in the mail (a letter, postcard, etc.) or some email and
- you can consider yourself registered. If you send a SASE with a stamp and a
- disk (or about two U.S. dollars), I'll send you an update on what's going on
- at Tesseract Software, and a beta version of what I'm doing next, or
- something. You can also get info directly from The Far Site BBS, or by
- emailing me.
-
-
- Bug Reports:
- If you can get a bug to appear at will, repeatedly, give me info on it
- and I'll do what I can to fix it.
-
-
- My next project:
- Well, for awhile I was going to do an enhanced breakout clone. But then
- I got stopped by a mode-X limitation. Then I was going to to a parody of
- Mortal Kombat, but handling the overhead for all the sprites and differences
- between characters got to be too much for me. For awhile I was going to do
- a Space-Harrier type game (Mac Invaders ][, actually), but I had to cut the
- texture mapped background due to my slowslowslow routines, and then it didn't
- look very good at all. Mac Invaders was my biggest project ever, and the one
- that lasted the longest in my mind (if you remember, the beta version back
- when it was called "blaster", came out back in 1993, but noone ever said any-
- thing to me about it, so I didn't begin the new version until late '94). I
- need to think of something that can top it, and I'm still working on it. I'll
- have to think about it.
- At the point I'm writing this, I've thought about it. I have a fairly
- clear idea about how Mac Invaders ][ is going to go. It involves the Smurfs
- conspiring with the Macs to give taking over the world another shot (Binky
- and the Brain theme song plays here). Back when Tesseract Software was doing
- intros I promised to do a game involving Smurfs decompressing in spacesuits.
- This will be that game.
-
-
- Distribution sites for Tesseract Software:
-
- The Far Site BBS: (609) 921-9450
- Sysop: Cecil the Snake
- Location: Princeton, NJ
-
- If you want to become a dist site, write to me. Chances are, I'll accept
- with no difficulty.
-
-
- Contact Addresses:
- Send email on
- The Far Site BBS: Pfister
- Prodigy: SMRJ94C
- Internet: rrooks@gate.net
- Snail mail:
- 518 Jennings St
- Green Acres FL 33463
-
- And DO send mail, please, for ANY reason.
-
- - End of File -
-