The previous version of this game (0.99 gamma) was a 2D platform game featuring George, a strange animal accidentally created from an elephant and a starfish (read the story below to see how this happened), there were 184 individual frames used to animate him.
Its main characteristics were huge levels, top secret areas, lots of stuff to collect, insane bonus levels, cute animation, stereo sound effects and music, incredible graphical effects, doors, swithes, teleports, deadly traps, poison and fire, water pools, lots of monster characters and peanut ammo to shoot at them.
The new version is featuring a bigger and more beautiful George, more and better graphics (walls drawn in 3D perspective) and animation, more realistic movement, many unique worlds, springs, ladders, special abilities to collect, new types of peanuts and other fun stuff.
The behavior of the enemies was improved using genetic algorithms as part of a faculty project, which made the game much harder.
Since the author hasn't worked on the game for a very long time, he decided to discontinue the project for a while and upload the latest version for all the world to see.
Next version will probably be for Windows 9x using directx and the characters will probably be 3D rendered.
System requirements
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486DX or better processor. Pentium recommended.
VGA graphics card, capable of 320X200 resolution in 256 colors.
MS-DOS or Windows 9x's in MS-DOS mode. Might work under Windows 3.x or 95, at least without sound. Doesn't work under Windows NT or OS/2.
8M RAM. Uses only about 320k conventional memory. You also need both EMS and XMS memory (works with EMM386 with the RAM option or QEMM, not tested with other expanded memory managers, but should work).
Sound card is recommended. George uses MIDAS Sound System which supports Creative Labs Sound Blaster series (1.0 through SB 16 and AWE32), Gravis UltraSound (regular, MAX, and Plug and Play, with native Interwave support), Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum series (PAS, PAS+ and PAS16), Microsoft Windows Sound System and compatible cards using the Crystal/Analog CODEC. But George has only been tested on SB16 and SB AWE 32 and was designed on a system using SB16.
Installation
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Just unzip the archive file to a new directory named George. Type GEORGE to start the game. The game will first ask you a few questions about your sound card. If you don't have one, select "no sound." Otherwise select your soundcard and configure it. You'll probably just need to confirm the selections. If you have a pentium, you should select the highest sampling rate, stereo and 16bit. If you don't and experience problems, you'll probably need to make some compromises. To change the sound card configuration type SETSOUND at the command prompt.
Programming information
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George the Starfish Elephant was programmed in Turbo/Borland Pascal and assembler. Graphics was drawn (where not scanned) in several graphics editors, including a few specially created for George.
Copyright information
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This game is copyright (c) by Marko Kavcic.
This version (1.21) of George is freeware.
Note:
You may (and are encouraged to) freely distribute it as long as you make no modifications to the game and the supporting files.
The authors are not responsible for any damage it could cause to your hardware or software or even your health.
You may NOT make modifications of any kind to this game.
This game is looking for a publisher/producer/distributor/sponsor. If you are interested, let me know.
Contact information
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e-mail (preferred):
Marko.Kavcic@campus.fri.uni-lj.si
snail-mail:
Marko Kavcic
Poljanska 17,
SI-1000 Ljubljana
Slovenija
My home page:
http://www.slosite.com/~markok/
Problems and solutions
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- If the music is corrupted or the game is too slow (it should run at 25 frames per second), use SETSOUND utility to decrease the sampling rate (better not under 22k). You may also need to use mono or 8bit or both. If this doesn't help, consider no sound option.
- Let me know if you have any other problems. This is a testing version, so some problems are possible. Although there are no known bugs at the moment.
Instructions on how to play the game
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Use Left and Right Arrows to move left and right. Press Space to jump. You can shoot (actually blow) peanuts (If you have them) with Alt. Up and Down Arrows control the peanut while in the air. P is used to pause the game. Esc will cause a game over.
Bananas, eyes and rabbits increase your score.
Drink magic potions to see some special effects and increase your score.
Pick up peanut boxes to get ammunition.
Hearts give you health.
Beware of anything that looks sharp or moves around. If it moves, try shooting at it. If it screams, you can kill it. But be careful not to use up too many peanuts.
Don't stand in fire or poison or you'll lose your health rapidly.
Don't stand still for too long or George will get bored, then he might fall asleept for a moment and lose some health.
Get out of water before you run out of air or you'll die.
Arrows will show you around on a first few levels.
Warning boards with skulls will tell you there is a trap nearby. Shots can show you where.
Use switches to open doors, teleports to move to distant places.
Knock on snails to activate restarting points, so you won't have to start each level all over again if you die.
Find exit to get to the next level. There are also some fake exits possible. If you can't reach it, go find another one.
To get to the bonus level you need to collect every banana, eye and rabbit on a level.
There are lots of secret areas. Find them to increase your score and get other useful bonuses.
Do not give up too easily. George might get so depressed that he will delete some files on your disk.
Never criticize the game. George might hear you. He might format your hard disk.
Do play the game as often as you can. This will make George very happy and he might show his gratitude by scanning for computer viruses.
Do make copies of the testing and freeware version of this game and distribute it as far as you can.
Do not make illegal copies of the commercial version (if and when released). It is forbidden and mortally dangerous, because of the little daemons that will escape out of the commercial version and strangle you with your own bowels, if the game is not copied according to the secret procedure, known only to the author.
Do order the full game for not yet known amount of dollars. This will make George even happier (not to mention the author). He would be so thrilled that he would allow you to play the game for a long long time.
Never make any kind of changes to this game. It might kill George and you'll go to jail for manslaughter. Or it'll make him so mad, that he will implode your monitor.
Never delete this game. This is equal to murder. And the ghost of George will haunt you forever.
Do try to find secret cheat codes by typing on the keyboard, you won't find them anyway.
The story of George the Starfish Elephant
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It all started in a little town called Elephant not very far from a nuclear power plant. In the town they had a secret laboratory, a zoo, a kindergarten, a school, mayor's house, a swimming pool, 175 houses, 342 citizens and a lot of empty rooms. Their main source of income was tourism. T
