Loadstar 214/214.d81/t.bhr

Text File | 2022-08-26 | 6KB | 203 lines

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          Blockheads Revenge
   Program & Text by K & R Slaminko
     Sound & Music by Steven Judd

   The concept of this game is so
incredibly simple that I was tempted
to skip writing these instructions
entirely. If you want to jump right
into playing it, go ahead. You won't
have much trouble figuring it out.

   Blockheads was the first program I
ever wrote for Loadstar. It was a
"falling blocks" program with some
interesting twists, and ran on the
128's 80-column screen. As my first
published effort, I've still got a
soft spot (in my head) for the little
square-faced guys (my wife assures me
that all Blockheads are male. Or was
that the other way around?) Either
way, you now get Blockheads Revenge
where they make thier C64 debut,
albeit in a somewhat different game.

   Before I get into the instructions
I want to acknowlege the contributions
of Steve Judd. Steve provided the
sound effects and music that accompany
this game. He also figured out how to
keep Zip 64 from messing up the system
interrupts so his music wouldn't get
distorted. And he suggested some very
worthwhile improvements to the
gameplay. If you enjoy Blockhead's
Revenge, it's largely due to Mr.
Judd's excellent work. Thanks, Steve!


 Instructions
 ------------

   Aim your cannon (using a mouse in
port 1, joystick in port 2, or cursor
keys) and press fire (left mouse
button, joystick  button, SPACE or
RETURN key) to launch a blockhead. The
little bugger will travel upwards,
bouncing off the side walls, until he
runs into something on the play field,
whereupon he will get stuck.

   If his new position creates a
string of 3 or more blockheads of the
same color, the entire string will
poof out of existence. Additionally,
any blockheads which become
disconnected from the top of the
playing field as a result of the
removal of the string will also be
eliminated, regardless of color.

   There's a 1-shot lookahead: the
next blockhead is shown just to the
right of your cannon.

   You aren't competing against the
clock in this game, though it might
feel that way. Instead, the entire
playing field marches down one row
after a certain number of shots. The
green & red bar on the right shows
how many shots remain until the next
marchdown. If any  blockheads are on
the bottom row when it comes time to
march, you lose. It is, therefore, a
good idea to keep the bottom row
empty. At higher levels, the number
of shots per marchdown decreases.

   You can delay a marchdown by
removing blockheads via the unlinking
method (breaking all connections to
the top). The marchdown counter will
be set back a little for each
blockhead eliminated in this fashion.
Completing a string does not, by
itself, delay marchdown though of
course that's the only way to unlink
something.

   Some of the higher levels will
contain tombstones in addition to
regular blockheads. These can only be
removed by unlinking them.

   There are 3 ways to proceed thru
the game. If you select any one of the
6 difficulty levels, you will return
to that level (with a different
layout) after each game when you
choose to play again. Select
Progressive play and you'll start at
beginner and progress through
successive levels until you either
solve them all (not likely!) or die
trying. Finally, you can choose to
play any of the 50 designed puzzle
levels. Unlike the randomly generated
levels, the puzzles will be the same
each time you play them. Solve a
puzzle and you'll move onto the next
one.

   Although you can use a mouse,
joystick, or keyboard to aim and
shoot the cannon, and to select from
the in-game menus, you must use the
keyboard for these other functions:

  N New game.  Returns you to the game
    select screen.

  U Undo last shot (unless it ended
    the game).  This is a cheesie way
    to get a good score.  You only get
    one extra chance to remake the
    shot.  There's a score penalty for
    using Undo.

  H Display the help screen.

  Q Quit the game.


   You also need to use the keyboard
to respond to Y/N prompts for
quitting or continuing.


 Scoring
 -------

  1 point just for successfully
    launching a blockhead.  If you can
    push a button, you won't get shut
    out.

 10 points for each blockhead that you
    remove as part of a string.

 25 points for each that you
    disconnect from the top.

-25 Each time you use Undo.

 Plus you get a bonus for completing a
level. The size of the bonus depends
on how many shots you fired: fewer
shots = higher bonus.

   A high scores file is kept although
any score that was obtained with an
Undo will be flagged.


   Strategy: pretty simple.  Keep the
bottom of the screen clear, try to
make shots that unlink blockheads
(both to delay marchdown and for the
higher scores this generates), and
practice those bounce shots.

   I've noticed that the cannon
sometimes jumps to a new position
after a shot, but only if I'm using a
mouse. Since it's often desirable to
fire multiple shots in the same
direction, you should keep an eye on
your cannon in case one of these jumps
happens to you. If it gets too
annoying, switch to joystick or
keyboard control.

 K&RS

 [Dave's Afterthought:] Kate and Ron
may be new to you if you do not use
the C-128, where many of their great
games reside. This, in my humble
opinion, is the best of the lot. The
canon metaphor is brilliant.

 All this only goes to prove -- there
are still literally thousands of new
and/or improved games to be designed
for the C-64. Kate and Ron have not
completely emptied the sack!

 DMM