300 Favorite Games/300GAMES.iso/94/drobos.man

Text File | 1994-07-30 | 12KB | 296 lines

Jouni Miettunen * [e-mail] * Oulu * Finland * Europe * 1994
31 July 1994                                          DROBOWHOIDS(6)

* NAME          * MOVING AROUND     * STAYING ALIVE * TO DO
* SYNOPSIS      * LASTSTAND         * SCORING       * CREDITS
* CONFIGURATION * ONE TO ONE        * FILES         * AUTHOR AND POSTCARDWARE
* DESCRIPTION   * SONIC SCREWDRIVER * BUGS
* WEAPONS       * TELEPORTING       * HISTORY

* NAME
    DRoboWHOids 1.3 - a game of logic

The name is derived from the following words: Daleks, robots, Doctor
Who, androids.. The main object was to create an original name that
wouldn't already exist. It seems that not only all the wheels have been
reinvented, but also all the good names have been reserved. I call the
game as drobos, please feel free to do the same.

    What's in a name? that which we call a rose
    By any other name would smell as sweet.
            William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)

* SYNOPSIS
    drobos

* CONFIGURATION

- 8088/8086 compatible processor.
- Standard VGA w/256k VideoRAM using 640x480x16 mode.
- Mouse is supported, but not required.
- Pc speaker sounds (yes, they can be disabled :)

If environmental variable CDTMP is set to point to some directory and
the current disk is write-protected, the score is read and saved into
the CDTMP directory. If current disk is not write-protected, then CDTMP
is ignored and the current directory used.

* DESCRIPTION

The drobos game idea is better known as "unix robots" or "Mac daleks",
so if you're already familiar with it, you might skip to STAYING ALIVE.

You are on an open field surrounded by hordes of weird creatures called
either "robots" or "daleks" depending whether you've ever seen the
ancient "Dr.Who" tv series. If you have, then they are robots..

Actually you are a famous science fiction movie star being surrounded by
a spaceshipful of fans from Andromeda. All they want is some souvenirs:
an autograph or a leg, your choice. You start with a pencil (== Sonic
Screwdriver), but unfortunately it gets lost after the first round of
signatures.. So better start using your legs, while you've still got
all of them.

Ahem, back to real life: daleks want you. Yes, they really want you and
you really don't want them to get you. That's it: run for your life.
...but wait, there's nowhere to run! Daleks are all over the place and
you can't get out. This game doesn't have a Happy Ending (TM), you're
doomed even before the game starts, but you might as well make your end
an event to be remembered and take as many daleks with you as possible.

* WEAPONS

You have several kind of weapons: Sonic Screwdrivers, mindless running,
teleporting and as the most important your keen perception, ingenuity
and cunning. It might also help, if you were born lucky. Very unlikely.

Each time you materialize on a new level you'll be given one more Sonic
Screwdriver by some mysterious whim of fate. An interesting detail is
that if you never teleported during the previous level, you'll be given
an extra Sonic Screwdriver, too. Why.. it just seemed like a good idea.

Most of the time you'll be busy running away, but sooner or later you'll
be trapped in an impossible location. That's when you give up all the
hope, close your eyes and perform a teleport in time and space. You'll
probably find yourself somewhere else with new problems. Please note
that this does NOT work in Real Life (TM), the old problems do remain.

The best weapon is your brilliant mind and superior intelligence. The
daleks are rather simple-minded creatures and since all they think about
is you they won't notice anything else. By choosing wisely your steps
and making tactically correct manouvering movements you will be able to
get daleks crash into each others leaving behind a "scrapheap" and then
force the rest of surviving daleks walk blindly into them and their end.

* MOVING AROUND

When you take a step, the daleks take a step. All of them.

Daleks always move towards you, so that they move on diagonal lines
until they are on the same horizontal or vertical line as you are. This
information is vital to maximize your span of life, so please take a
moment to think about it and how to best use it into your advantage.

    ...

Thank you. Now I'll describe your moving possibilities:

You can step into any 8 surrounding squares, if they are free. You can't
walk on a scrapheap, a dalek or out of the field. However, if there's
nothing behind a scrapheap, you can push it forward and step into its
place. You also can take a step on the place, where you already are.

You can use keyboard numberpad (I do):

(7) home - up left    (8) up arrow - up    (9) page up - up right
(4) left arrow - left    (5) spacebar - stay    (6) left arrow - right
(1) end - down left    (2) down arrow - down    (3) page down - down right

If you keep down the shift key, while pressing a direction key, you'll
keep on moving to the selected direction until you run into something or
get dangerously close to daleks. This operation is safe and provided to
speed up the less interesting movement phases.

Please note the buttons at the right side of the screen: you can use the
"hot keys" to press buttons from keyboard:

    a - About    e - Exit    l - Laststand
    b - Best    n - New        o - One to one
    c - Card    q - Quiet    s - Sonic Screwdriver
                    t - Teleport

I can assure you that it is just a pure co-incident that the highlited
letters of the last menuitems seem to form the word "lost". Please don't
let that affect your playing.

With mouse you move the cursor on the square where you want to go and
press the left button until your character has reached the square. Be
careful with this, you might get killed on the way to the target square.

You can also click on arrow squares at the bottom right corner.

* LASTSTAND

Selecting Laststand will mean that you stand on the current place until
the end: either you die or all the daleks die. It is highly recommended
to select a safe place before doing Laststand.

* ONE TO ONE

With this feature you can wait on your current place until one or more
drobos reach your neighbourhood. The automatic play will be interrupted
as soon as you get into any danger. The operation is safe for you and
provided just to speed up the routinely parts of the game.

* SONIC SCREWDRIVER

You can use Sonic Screwdriver once per level to destroy all daleks in
the 8 neighbouring squares, scrapheaps are saved. Using it also means
taking a step on the current place.

* TELEPORTING

When you get into an impossible situation, you can teleport. Teleporting
is guaranteed to move you into a safe place, however there might be a
dalek standing right next you. Since teleporting is considered same as
taking a step, you would be captured by that daleks right away.

The first teleport of each level differs from the rest by being "safe".
There will be a sonic screwdriver kind of effect just before and after
the teleport, even though no Sonic Screwdriver will be used. Wisely used
this can be a very useful effect and safe your valuable Sonicdrivers.

Beware: teleporting can damage your health (National Board of Health).

* STAYING ALIVE

The key to success is the way daleks move: always towards you, always on
diagonal lines until they reach horizontal or vertical line you're on.
By moving sideways you can control a bit _where_ the daleks will collide
and it's your advantage to create as many scrapheaps as possible.

Get them into a line behind you and walk at the side of the field. When
you teleport you are likely to get into a position, where you can get
them to collide easily.

When you walk around, select your path so that as many daleks as
possible will collide into a scrapheap on their way towards you.

When you reach a scrapheap (or rather a cluster of them) stay with it
and always try to get it between you and the daleks.

As long as you can go into some direction, go there. Teleporting is the
very last way of escaping.

    @ = you        D = dalek    # = scrapheap

Don't move, just stay on current place (Laststand):
         D
        D D        D
                #        #
         @        @        @

Wait and move behind a scrapheap:

        DDD
                #D        @#
        @        @

Take a step right to get all three at the same time:

        DDD
                 #
        @         @

Step up left to create scrapheap and then down right behind it:
        D
         D        D
         D        @#        #
        @                @

Down right to collide first 2, back and keep stepping in place (spacebar):
         DDDDDDDD
        @        #DDDDDD        @#DDDDD
                @

* SCORING

You get 10 for every destroyed dalek, except in the Laststand mode it's
15 points to encourage you to use it. The Sonic Screwdriver gives 20
points per dalek. For each survived level you'll also receive a bonus of
100*level points.

* FILES

drobos.exe    the game itself, you really need this one
icons.pcx    the characters
arrows.pcx    the arrow controls
drobos.man    manual - this file
readme.not    some misc notes
warranty    there's no warranty
file_id.diz    short description for BBSs
jouninfo.txt    Have I made anything else? Yep, some!
vendor.txt    distribution conditions

* BUGS

None known, but I have a feeling I forgot something..

* HISTORY

1.0    this was probably the first stable development version.
1.1    I desided to release it after all.
1.2    2 games: Classic and Survival. Real good one.
1.3    the Survival half of version 1.2.

* TO DO

I'm happy with the result, so this is it. That's what I said also the
last time.

After having talked with Yaron, I desided to write a new version, but
since we didn't quite agree on details, I integrated 2 games into one
program. Well, due some unfortunate backup procedures I lost the source
of version 1.2 and have now rewritten half of it. I'm almost happy..

One day I might add the Classic half (see 1.1), twice as fast daleks,
solid and/or movable obstacles on field, different field shapes, more
logic for drobos movement, more and better weapons..

But I really doubt it. Drobos was meant to be a simple relaxing project
between some more demanding plans. It's still a simple game, but coding
did get a bit troublesome.

* CREDITS

I am most grateful to Audrey deLisle for being first to comment. For
more credits please see the About dialog in the game, eg. this game is
more like a Mac daleks than a unix robots(6). Still it's the same game.

The following people have been most kind to test this game, making sure
it works most of the time and suggesting changes and additions to it:

    David Leadbetter (Australia)    Jari Karjala (Finland)
    Ronny Wester (Sweden)        Henry Huang (USA)
    Yaron Shoham (Israel)

* AUTHOR AND POSTCARDWARE

I made this game and now I'm giving it away for free. I do keep all the
copyrights, but you have the "right to use" without any further notice.
However if you liked the game, you are encouraged to send me a postcard
and let me know that you exist, how the game really should work and if I
should waste my time writing more such ridiculous programs..

Of course I'd be more happy with flattering praising, but I'll take any
feedback. So far I've got 3 cards for drobos. Well, _I_ like the game ;)

    DRoboWHOids 1.3
    c/o Mr. Jouni Miettunen
    Rautatienkatu 20 A 10
    FIN-90100 OULU
    FINLAND - EUROPE

31 July 1994                                          DROBOWHOIDS(6)
Jouni Miettunen * [e-mail] * Oulu * Finland * Europe * 1994