Crawly Crypt Collection 1/crawlyvol1.bin/games/linecras/whats_up.doc

Text File | 1994-04-29 | 10KB | 194 lines

 LINE CRASH : Yet another game from the Wacko Software production line.

                      Written with STOS 2.6

                          REQUIREMENTS
  + An ST with TOS version no greater than 1.62 (This will work on  STs,
STFs,  STMs, STFMs, Mega STs and STEs. This will not work on Mega STEs,
TTs,  STs that have been upgraded to TOS 2.06 and the FALCON. If you do
not  know which type your ST is,  just run this program and see  if  it
works.  If anybody has come up with a routine to make STOS work on  STs
with TOS greater than 1.62, then send it to me, PLEASE!!!

 *** [UPDATE 17-04-1994 This will now run on STs with TOS>1.62] ***

  + A colour monitor/TV.

OPTIONAL
 + Up to eight joysticks.
 + A paralell port joystick interface.
 + Up to two 2 joystick adaptors for the STE.

NOTE :  IF YOU HATE READING USELESS STOREYLINES OR HATE PEOPLE WHO  TRY
TO BE FUNNY, JUST QUIT THIS DOC AND LOAD THE GAME.

The year :  2092,  The location :  New New York,  Mars. A new amusement
park has just opened. One of the main attractions are the hoverscooters
which float above a square arena of variable size. Unfortunately, after
the  novelty wears off,  floating about aimlessly becomes dead  boring.
This  all changed when an enterprising young lad from  Oberon  realised
that  when  you remove that weird knob on the bottom of  your  scooter,
it's fuel (liquid uranium-235) leaks out and makes a lovely mess on the
ground.  When  he  moved his scooter,  he saw that the uranium  made  a
trail.  Being  an  artistic  person,  he started to  draw  pictures  of
anything that he could think of at the time. The other people currently
hovvering around the arena who were half asleep with boredom saw  these
magnificent works of art and to wake themselves up,  they said,  "Oh my
god,  just look at those magnificent works of art!!!" Their moments  of
joy soon ended because one hoverscooters touched the uranium trails and
spontaneously exploded. The other users of the hovercraft decided to do
the  same because even death is more exciting than floating around  too
long.  The  owner of the arena,  who was already being  bombarded  with
insults  about the boredom of the place,  had to face up to the  deaths
as  well.  However,  these  two facts combined made  an  attraction  in
itself.  The people who had realises that they wasted an important part
of  their lives floating around (about twenty minutes) could  have  the
chance  to  commit  suicide this way,  but to make  it  more  exciting,
everybody had to survive as long as they could,  and the winner was the
last  person alive.  All scooters would leak their fuel in a  different
colour  and this seemed so exciting that once they  had  started,  they
wanted to kill off their opponents rather than themselves so that  they
could live to remember this.  This eventually lead to be a galaxy  wide
sport with stadiums packed with dillions of fans...

I APPOLOGISE FOR THE CRAP STOREYLINE, BUT IT WAS THE BEST I COULD THINK
UP AT THE TIME.

So? what the **** has this got to do with the bloody game?

    What  you are about to play is the computer-game  version  of  this
sport.  Only here,  the uranium trails are called lines,  and when  you
die,  you crash into either the edge of the arena or a line,  hence the
name "Line crash" (the original game had no name, but as all it's fans,
players,  etc.  often say,  "Who cares!" (somebody once thought of  the
name "Uranium-trail die" but that seemed a bit silly)). In case you
slept  through the main storeyline (I did,  and that was  just  writing
it!)  the  object of the game is using your own  line,  trap  all  your
opponent's  lines until they are forced to crash,  and making sure  you
don't crash yourself.
   This game can be played by up to eight players (Two using the normal
joysticks,  two using the paralell printer interface,  and on the  STE,
four  joysticks plugged into the two ports on the side (for details  of
how  to connect the extra joysticks,  see JOYSTICK.DOC).  On the  title
screen,  you can see which joysticks are in use. Which are being played
by droids, and which are out of play. By default, Joystick one (the one
that  plugs into the port next to the mouse) is controlled by a  human,
and  there are three droids playing.  Next to the name of each type  of
joystick  (in dark-red) is a function key (in  dark-blue).  Press  this
function key,  and the text next to it will cycle from OFF (that player
is  not  playing),  DROID  (that  player is  being  controlled  by  the
computer),  HUMAN  (that  player  is controled by  a  human  using  the
joystick indicated).  The colour of the text is the same as the  colour
of the player's line.  You can have a game consisting of no humans just
to  watch how the game can be played.  When you are playing  the  game,
move the joystick in the direction you want the line to go.  if you let
go of the joystick,  the line carries on in the direction it was going.
Do  not  move  your line in the opposite direction  to  which  you  are
currently moving as that will crash it. When your line crashes, it dies
and becomes a darker colour.  On the title screen,  there is an  option
that can be toggled by pressing F9 (if you don't want to press F9,  get
your  mother to do it for you!).  Either you can crash into dead  lines
(ALL  LINES  KILL) or you can go over them (DEAD LINES  SAFE).  On  the
title screen, pressing keys 1-0 selects the speed. 0 is the fastest and
9 is the slowest.  The computer functions just as well at each speed so
it  is more difficult at speed 0 for humans.
Pressing repeatedly on The + and - keys  on  the
numeric keypad ajust the vertical size of the arena.  In fact, using an
overscan  routine,  it is possible to have sizes greater than 200  (you
can  tell  when  overscan  is going to be used  as  the  numbers  start
flashing).  The  overscan  is not perfect and has the  nasty  habit  of
restoring the screen to normal size.  If this happens, press F10 during
the  game.  This  is likely to happen when you press a key  during  the
game,  or  have anything plugged into the standard joystickports  (even
mice that cannot keep still). As a general rule, only have screen sizes
greater  than 200 if you are not using the two  standard  joystickports
(use the STE's and the paralell ones instead).  While playing the game,
press Q to quit and W to return to the desktop.
    For  those  of you interested,  the effect on  the  LINECRASH  logo
resembles an effect often seen on the 8 bit Ataris (On STFMs,  you  can
see 128 colours, and STE owners can see in 256 colours).
   In the same folder, there is a file called LINEC16P.BAS. This is not
the complete sourcecode,  but is a miniature six player version of this
game (You cannot use the paralell joysticks)  You have to  continuously
move the joystick (including just before the start), otherwise you will
crash. The amazing thing about it  is  that  it was written in only one
line of STOS Basic!!! (it requires the STE extension).

   CREDITS :
 Programming and DOC by me (Andrei Ellman) in STOS 2.6
 François lionet and co. for writing STOS
 Asa Burrows for writing the STE extension
 Billy Allan and Colin Watt (for Writing the Misty extension)
 Niel Stuart for writing the Border removal and raster routines.
 Axe of Superior for writing Pack ice 2.4

Written using STOS 2.6,  Misty 1.8,  STE extension 3.1, and two machine
code routines for border removal and rasters.
Packed with Pack Ice 2.4

  The only other eight player game I have written to date is MAZEWAR ST

   If you are interested in writing your own 8 player games or  building
the nescesary adaptors. See the file JOYSTICK.DOC
    This  program  is  Freeware,  this means  that  you  are  under  no
obligation  what  so  ever.  Please  spread this  program  as  much  as
possible.  If you like it,  L E T   M E   K N O W !  ! !  I write these
programs  for fun,  and would apreciate any positive comments.  If  you
want some goodies or would like the sourcecode of this game,  then send
me one pound and  a blank disk to my adress.  I will  send a  disk with
both goodies and sourcecode (I will include Mazewar ST if you ask).
Please state where you got this disk from and what other programs  were
on it.  If  you say you got this disk with other wacko  software  games
(including Mazewar ST), I will send you :

The  STOS  Gamescomposer 1.73l+ (you just got STOS and you ran  out  of
game ideas, let the computer make one up)
The STOS Rewriter 1.02f (another example of artificial  insanity.  This
time, the computer can write insane stories, poems, etc.)
The  STOS  Slideshow 1.04 (show off your Degas and  Neochrome  pictures
with some amazing effects)
Galactic Prison (the first game I made on the ST and the only one I did
in GfA Basic 3.0 That's why it's crap)

My Adress :
S-Mail                        E-Mail :
Andrei Ellman                 [e-mail]
Willem Pijperstraat 63
1077XL Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Europe, Earth.

Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.
Æ

UPDATE 17-04-94

I have heard that if you run this game on a machine with 4
megabytes, it crashes frequently. If you use a software memory
emulator, or that program that STE owners use to avoid 2.5
megabyte STEs thinking that they are 4 megabyte STEs. I have
heard a rumour about a patch program that fixes this bug for
4-meg STs. If you can get it, use it.
This program has been updated with STOS FIX 3 to make it run on
STs with TOS>1.62 If you are still having trouble trying to get
this game to work on your TOS, use a program called STSFX27A.
This is available from ftp.uni-kl.de in /pub/atari/programming/STOS

Games I have made so far:
(Available by FTP on the Internet)

3d ski
Alienation
Linecrash
Mazewar ST
Pacmen
Video Games I v.0.5

I have also made:
The STOS Gamescomposer
The STOS Slideshow
STOS Re-writer

Collect them all.