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2022-08-26
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ROTATION CRAZE
by Chris Chamblin
NOTE: VICE Emulator users will have
to turn on True Drive before running
this program. I don't know why. It's
just one of those "computer" things.
For information on how to get True
Drive to work, check out "Emu-Letter"
in the LOADSTAR Files.
DMM
It's the middle of winter. Your
house is covered in snow. You've been
stuck there for two weeks without
food, water, or Bewitched re-runs. You
know if you don't get help soon,
you'll go totally insane (if you
aren't already). What do you do? Play
"Rotation Craze"! Soon to be America's
favorite pastime. Better than Rubik's
Cube ('cause it's easier). Just plug
in your LOADSTAR disk and away you go.
THE RULES
---------
The rules are very simple (so have
your eight year old grandson read them
and explain them to you). A picture is
sliced and diced into twelve pieces.
The pieces are mixed up. Your job is
to put the pieces back into place and
display the picture. Sounds easy? If
you were Lt. Commander Data, maybe!
The only way to move pieces is to
rotate them around six axes.
Here's an example. This picture
has only 6 pieces and 2 axes:
1 2 3
x x
4 5 6
The pieces are numbered 1-6 and
the axes are labeled x. Let's call the
left axis x1 and the right x2. If you
were to rotate clockwise on the x1
axis, the puzzle would look like this:
4 1 3
x x
5 2 6
Look close to what's changed. Now
if you rotate counter-clockwise on the
x2 axis, you get this:
4 3 6
x x
5 1 2
Pretty neat concept, eh? Well,
there are two things different about
the actual puzzles.
(1) the letters don't actually
appear in the puzzle, instead the
numbers are replaced by the picture
pieces, and
(2) the puzzle is 4x3 instead of
3x2.
CONTROL
-------
When you first load the program, a
menu with all the puzzles will appear.
Those with RC. prefixes are the
puzzles, those with SG. prefixes are
saved partially solved puzzles. To
learn movements, start with the puzzle
called RC.NUMBERS.
JOYSTICK MOVEMENT
-----------------
LEFT/RIGHT/UP/DOWN - move arrow from
axis to axis
HOLD FIRE LEFT - (this means hold
down the FIRE BUTTON and push the
joystick left) - it moves pieces
counter-clockwise.
HOLD FIRE RIGHT - moves pieces
clockwise.
KEYBOARD MOVEMENT
-----------------
CURSOR KEYS - moves arrow from axis
to axis.
SPACE BAR - rotates pieces clockwise.
OTHER COMMANDS
--------------
H - This brings up a help screen.
V - View picture. This displays the
picture in its solved state.
S - Saves a game you have not
finished. It will be saved with an
"sg." prefix.
Q - Quit game. This quits the game
you are currently working on and
returns you to the menu for selecting
a puzzle.
SOME HELPFUL STUFF
------------------
Start with the puzzle RC.NUMBERS
until you've learned the moves of the
game. If you don't know what goes
where, press V to see the solved
puzzle.
If the puzzles start to get too
easy, try RC.CIRCLES for a real
challenge (don't use the V command on
this one).
MAKE YOUR OWN PUZZLES
---------------------
If there is a pic you think would
make a great puzzle, all you have to
do is use STB PRINT (from LS #205) to
compress it into a .SHP file, rename
it with an RC. prefix, and save it to
the game disk. That's it!
You can use the "intro.shp" file
from Side One of any LOADSTAR disk
just by renaming it with a unique name
and an "rc." prefix. WOW! A new puzzle
every month!
There are only two things to keep
in mind:
(1) The lower 8 pixel rows are not
displayed.
(2) The puzzle is divided into 80x64
pixel sized pieces (40x64 for
multi-color). Don't have any pieces
that are exactly alike (for instance,
all black), or the puzzle might look
solved but the program will not call
it solved -- until you swap the pieces
that look exactly alike.
There are several pictures on the
disk, including a couple of
never-before-published pics by Walt
Harned ("bad day" and "eyes of doom").
There's even an old pic of Knees
Calhoon when he was an enforcer for
Old World Software, Fender's very
first global conglomerate.
Well, I'm sure you're excited
about getting to the game. I sure hope
the snow melts before you starve to
death.
CC
FENDER'S POSTMUMBLE: Chris sent us
this nifty program back when the
weather was cold. I couldn't wait
until Winter '94 to publish it so I
just leave it up to you to get in a
shivering mood even though it's 100
degrees as I'm writing this, and maybe
80 when you're reading it.
I just wonder how Chris knew about
the six day period last winter when an
ice storm knocked out our power. No
heat, no lights, no TV (!), no
LOADSTAR. I never want to go through
anything like that again!
FT
DAVE'S NOTE: Not only are we having
100 degree weather in Eastern Colorado
right now (Summer, 2002) but we are
over 7 inches SHORT on rain. (Our
annual average on the eastern prairie
is 14 to 16 inches -- so this drought
is [hurting]!
Fireworks have been banned all across
the state -- except for the "fire
work" in four forest fires that burn
out of control in the mountains.
Sure, Rotation Craze is a great cold
weather challenge. So why do we keep
publishing it during the dead of
summer?
DMM