Loadstar 234/234.d81/t.splat

Text File | 2022-08-26 | 13KB | 447 lines

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             S P L A T !

   by Johnny "The Mad Gamer" Harris


    Welcome to the 27th century. What?
You're wondering where the time went?
Weren't you paying attention?! Shame
on you. Well, while you were in that
coma, or whatever your excuse is, an
interstellar exploration ship was
making a startling discovery, ranking
right up there with elecricity,
flight, and America's Funniest Home
Videos. It seems they landed on a
planet in a faraway solar system and
discovered huge amounts of a strange,
slime-like substance.

    After finding the stuff was highly
corrosive (of course!) they found a
safe spot to set down and began
exploration, whereupon they discovered
that an accidental burst of Zorron
rays was doing some weird things to a
small puddle of slime lying next to
the landing area. It had developed a
few, er, um, unusual properties. For
one thing, it was no longer corrosive.

    Anyway, on the way home, the crew
noticed that the chef's pizzas were
much better than before. It was soon
determined that a small leak in a
Zorroned slime vat had dripped some
into the ship's galley, where the chef
had mistaken it for synthetic green
tomato sauce.

    After further testing, they
decided that the slime pizza was,
quite simply, the all-time best thing
they had ever tasted. In fact, it
turned out that by applying varying
amounts of Zorron rays, made by T.V.
picture tubes, this substance could be
used for just about ANYTHING, from
steel reinforcement to a lasting
solution to the world's chocolate chip
shortage. The crew all became
immensely rich, and television prices
skyrocketed. This resulted in a new
Golden Age of Radio, and that, in
turn, led to the state of peace and
contentment we are experiencing today.

    It also resulted in people staking
their life savings in the new,
high-yield industry of slime mining.
Which is where you come in.


--Setting Up--

    You'll need a joystick plugged
into port #2 to play. The title screen
asks you if you want to play, view the
high score table, enter options mode,
or go back to good ol' LOADSTAR. Use
the joystick to move the arrow to your
selection and press FIRE. A screen
appears asking how you want to
register your name. If it's your first
time playing ever, you'll want to
choose the first selection, and enter
your name or handle. You can either
type it on the keyboard, or use the
checkboard and the joystick to enter
it. By the way, RB means rub, and ED
means end. If you've just finished a
game in the current session, all you
have to do from the name inquiry
screen is ask to retain the previous
name. And, if you are good enough to
get on the high score table, you can
ask to choose one of the ten names on
display.

    After all that, you'll get a
message that your license has been
approved, and the game will present
you with a menu asking what assignment
you wish to begin on. Once again, move
the arrow to what you want and FIRE.
Notice that the earlier assignments
are easier, but you get more of a
reward for picking tougher ones. The
first assignments are quite easy, and
are good places to learn the game.

    After you choose, a view of a
street will appear, and a client will
say something. Then an assignment
sheet pops up, and the game begins.


--The Game--

    At the top of the screen are three
displays that tell you your score,
your time left, and how much slime you
need to collect to proceed to the next
level. In between is a message board
that gives hints and tips, and tells
you what your assignment is and what
level you're on. Below is the
playfield, which consists of a bunch
of blocks and your ship.

    The object is to harvest the globs
of slime that are flowing out of slime
producers or from the top of the
screen. Remember, before it's refined,
this gunk is dangerous. It is also
slippery, and is always sliding all
over the place. You have to use that
to your advantage.

    Your ship is equipped with a
special kind of armament that shoots
massive doses of the all-purpose
Zorron rays. When such a large blast
hits some slime, it solidifies into a
block. Remember this, as it's probably
the single most important piece of
information in this entire file:
BLOCKS ARE ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY TO
COMPLETING EACH LEVEL, LET ALONE THE
GAME. You see, blocks have several
unique (and convenient) properties:

1. Blocks are slime-proof. The goop'll
    just glide right over them.

2. If there's a nothing alongside of a
    block, shoot the empty space to
    form another block. You can then
    shoot beside that block to make
    another one, and so on. Use this
    method to make bridges to get the
    slime to go where you want it to
    go.

3. If there's nothing on top of a
    block, you can shoot it to push it
    upward. You can even shove it off
    the playfield this way. By the
    way, when you are doing this, be
    careful that your shot doesn't
    pass by any blocks on the way, or
    the shot will turn into a block
    right away and not reach its
    target. If you need to, you can go
    right up under a block and shoot
    it at point-blank range.

    There ARE other properties of
blocks, but these are the ones you
need to know to get started.

    Now the reason you're doing all of
this to begin with is to form a system
of platforms, drop-offs, walls, and
who-knows-what-else to guide the slime
into the top of a waiting transporter
somewhere on the screen. So, you see,
instead of directly moving the slime,
you've got to do it indirectly by
placing and moving blocks. Cool, eh?

    Well, life's not all pepperoni and
orange juice. No sir. There's the
matter of your boss. He's very
demanding of his employees, and has
installed a timer at your workstation.
You start out with a limited amount of
time, and get more for teleporting
slime (50 units) and for completing
levels (500 units). A level ends when
you've met a preset goal. However, the
time you have at the end of one level
is carried over into the next, so
doing very well in one stage will help
you later on.

    If some of that slime touches your
ship, not only is it destroyed and you
have to wait for another one, but the
timer deducts an extra 200 units.
Wonderful employer, isn't he? You've
probably guessed what happens if you
run out of time.

    If all of this seems like a lot to
remember, it's easier to do than it is
to describe. However, it isn't long
before other things start to show up.
Inert blocks, which look differently
from normal ones, don't do much of
anything, they just sit there, getting
in your way. Ship-only zones are
places your ship can enter, but
nothing else can. (You can't shoot
there, either.)

    Some of the hardest levels in the
game have acid dripping from the
playfield's top.  Those slime-proof
blocks are not acid-proof, so they can
ruin your plans in a hurry. The slime
itself is unaffacted by it, a strange
quirk of chemistry that can save you a
lot of trouble, if you plan things
correctly. (Inert blocks are
acid-proof too, in case you're
wondering.) There's more stuff to
find, but you can find out about them
for yourself. If an object in a level
does something special, usually you'll
be told about it.

    There will be times when you
actually make things worse with your
shots, pushing blocks out of place,
placing blocks where you don't want
them. At times like this, press the
SPACE bar and the level will be
returned to its original state, except
your score is not decremented. Your
boss doesn't believe in mistakes,
though. He'll penalize you a ship for
doing this, and the time deductions
that go with it. What a guy.


--Game Over--

    Eventually, you'll run of time --
unless you complete the 40th level.
The game will then present you with a
statistics display, a screenful of
interesting, if trivial, information
on how well you did and how you stack
up to previous players. Then you'll
get the high score list, where your
name will be added if you scored high
enough.

    Then the game screen will return
and offer you a chance to continue on
the level you lost on. Each time you
begin a new game, the program awards
you five extra credits. To use one,
simply press FIRE before the timer
runs out. Contin