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Atari Mega Archive 2
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Atari Mega Archive CD - Volume 2.iso
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thello.txt
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1995-04-22
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Killer 'thello is a game for the Atari 8-bit (that's Atari Classic to
you, stranger) that I wrote for Antic back in 1988. The game WAS accepted for
publication but due to some very strange circumstances was never published
(first they mislaid it, then when they found it again, they thought it was for
the ST...).
Regardless of its history, it is an amusing little number; even though
it's more fun to watch than actually play.
Since it would be a shame to completely waste a perfectly good
8-bit program, I'm releasing it as post-ware. If you like it, send me a
post-card. Here's the address...
Snail Mail
Mark T. Price (sg)
2144 Loma Drive
Hermosa Beach, CA. 90254
E-Mail
mark@godzilla.Quotron.COM
The original documentation follows. This information is also given
in ATASCII in the file THELLO.DOC.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Killer 'thello
By Mark T. Price
Like chess, Othello is a thinking man's game. Like
chess, it has an enormous number of possibilities that must be
weighed before each move. Like chess, every piece on the board
must be taken into consideration. Like chess, moves must be
planned ahead and your opponent must be second-guessed.
And, like chess, all hell breaks loose when you tell the
players that they don't have to take turns.
Killer 'thello is a computer adaptation of the classic
board game Othello (also known as Reversi) where just that
happens. Like Killer Chess from the February 1988 Antic, each
player moves as fast as he or she can to overwhelm their opponent
with speed as well as cunning.
It should be noted that Greg "Assembly is EVIL" Knauss
had absolutely nothing to do with the design or writing of this
game, although he wishes he did.
TYPING IT IN
Go ahead, I dare you.
MAKING SELECTIONS
When the title screen for 'thello appears, you can select
human or computer control for each player and you may also set
the number of players on each team. That's right, Killer 'thello
is played with teams. Up to four on each side, with a maximum of
five players total.
Notice that the word "White" in the upper left hand
corner of the screen is highlighted. This means that all
selections made will affect the White team. To make selections
for the Black team, press the space bar. This toggles the
highlit team between Black and White.
The game defaults to two human players, one on the White
team, and one on the Black. To add a human player to the current
team, press the SELECT key. The number next to each '+' cursor
indicates the joystick that will control that player. The number
of human players in the game is limited to four due to the avail-
ability of joystick ports. If you try to play with more than two
humans on an XL or XE, players 1 and 3 will be controlled by joy-
stick 1 and players 2 and 4 will be controlled by joystick 2.
To add a computer player to the current team, press the
OPTION key. A 'C' will be placed next to the new cursor indic-
ating that this is a computer player. The number next to the 'C'
is the level of that computer player. Press the numbers 1 to 9
to change this. One is the equivalent of a beginning Killer
'thello player, and nine should easily defeat the most exper-
ienced.
Since only five cursors can appear on the screen at any
time, you will not be able to select, for instance, four humans
if you already have two computer players. To remove players,
simply press the respective key; SELECT for human, OPTION for
computer until all the players of that type are gone from that
side. Then, add back the number you want (remembering that the
space bar will toggle you between the Black and White teams).
The game will not let you remove all of the players from a team.
PLAYING THE GAME
Pressing the START key will begin the game. The game
will give the person who does this a chance to get ready by
printing "READY . . . SET . . . GO!" on the screen. Each team
starts out with two disks already laid out on the board.
Moves in the game lay disks on the board. In order for a
move to be valid, there must be some number of the opposing
team's disks between the new disk and one of your old ones.
There can be no empty space in this line, but the lines can be
either horizontal, vertical, or diagonal. When this is done, all
of the opponent's pieces in between your new and old disks are
flipped to your color.
To make a move, move your cursor to a valid spot using
the joystick and press the trigger. If the move you attempted to
make is not valid, your cursor will be returned to the "Penalty
Box" where you started the game. This can be very costly in
terms of time, so be careful! The computer players begin to move
as soon as the game is started and never make illegal moves.
The score in the game is the number of disks of your
color. It is shown with the numbers in the upper left and lower
right hand portions of the screen.
The game ends when all of the spaces on the board are
filled or neither team can make any legal moves. Whichever team
has the highest score wins (Stunning new concept in computer
games). After a short while the title screen will reappear and
you may play again.
ANOTHER ONE?
So, there it is, Killer 'thello. Can Killer 'nopoly be
far behind?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A couple of comments:
Greg "maddog" Knauss (Author of Killer Chess) DID think this was a
pretty neat program, but he hated the method I used to set up the players (I
really don't like it much either, but I couldn't think of a simpler method.
It was a BITCH to get it working right too).
Can Killer 'nopoly be far behind? You bet it can. REALLY far...
P.S.:
There's a bug in the code that doesn't check to see if you're on the
playing area when you try to make a move. It doesn't crash, but it results
in some strange moves when you do it. If you're especially industrious, you
can try to fix it. The Mac/65 source to the game is included in the archive.