Double-click on the !Cycles icon in a filer window, and turn up your volume!
At the title page, press the middle mouse button (Menu) to see the credits, or to start the game, press the left mouse button (Select), then click on START on the right of the screen.
THE OBJECT OF THE GAME...
On the left of the screen you will see a large, white square, with a background coloured in several shades of grey. This is the playing area.
When the game starts, two lines will appear in this area, and move towards each other.
Player 1 steers the pink line, and player 2 steers the purple line.
Each player has to avoid colliding with themselves, each other, and the edge of the square.
The lines will be continually moving.
If player 1 collides first, then player 2's score will go up by 10.
If player 2 collides first, then player 1's score will go up by 10.
When one player has collided: to start the next round in the game, press one of the fire buttons, or click on "START".
The first player to get to 100, wins (This value can be changed. See OPTIONS below).
KEYS...
Player 1:
Left - Z
Right - X
Up - F
Down - C
Fire - G
Player 2 :
Left - 1
Right - 2
Up - 6 (All of player 2's keys are on the numeric keypad)
Down - 3
Fire - +
OTHER FEATURES...
On the right of the screen you will see a panel.
Below the logo, you will see each players scores.
Below that there are three boxes. The first has three icons in it: "RESET", "START", and "OPTNS". The second only has "MUSIC TOG", and the third has "DEMO".
At the bottom of the panel is "QUIT"
"RESET" when clicked on, resets the game, wiping the scores, and the playing area. Note: the current settings (eg: level, speed, etc.) are not reset.
"START" when clicked on, starts the next round in a game. This can be used instead of the fire buttons. If a game isn't currently being played, then clicking on this will start one.
"OPTNS" when clicked on, brings up the Options panel, which is described below.
"MUSIC TOG" toggles the music on and off.
"DEMO" gives you a demo of the computer playing itself. When one player has crashed, the demo will end.
"QUIT" when clicked on, quits the game!
OPTIONS...
On this panel there are three boxes.
The first concerns the current level. The default is 1.
To alter the level, click on one of the arrows. The arrow pointing right increases the level number, and the arrow pointing left decreases the level number.
There are nine levels in total, and levels 2 and up have obstructions on the screen.
The obstructions have to be avoided, but you can have fun trying to weave in and out of the gaps!
The second box is for the speed. The default is 1.
You alter the speed in the same way by clicking on the arrows.
There are 3 different speeds, with 1 being the slowest, and 3 being the quickest.
The third box concerns the score which has to be achieved, for a player to win. The default is 100 (represented by a 1 in the panel).
Again you alter it in the same way as before.
The maximum is 900 (represented by a 9 in the panel).
The last box has two icons in it. They are labeled "P1" and "P2".
Clicking on "P2" selects the two-player game, and clicking on "P1" selects the one-player game. The two-player game is the default.
In the one-player game, the computer plays as the second player, controlling the purple line. The keys for the first player are unchanged.
When playing the two-player game, you may find that speed one is too slow.
If this is the case, change the speed to two or three as decribed above.
When you are happy with the settings, click on "OK", and you will be taken back to the main panel.
CUSTOMISING...
!Cycles can be customised to be set up how you want every time it is loaded, removing the need to immediatly go to the options panel.
Load !Edit (or your favourite text editor), and open up the !Cycles directoryby holding down Shift, and double-clicking on the !Cycles icon.
Double-click on the text file called 'Prefs'.
You should now see something like this in a window:
Preferences for !Cycles
:
Level:1
Speed:1
First to (x100):1
Number of players:2
You can now change the four options to what you like. Bearing in mind the ranges of the numbers:
Level:1-9
Speed:1-3
First to:1-9
Number of players:1-2
Note: Only change the numbers. Don't delete anything else, or the program won't be able to read the Prefs file successfully.
If you enter numbers outside the ranges for any of the options, then you willbe told when the program has loaded, and it will default to the standard number for that option.
When you are happy with the Prefs file, save to back into the !Cycles directory under the same name. Double-click on !Cycles, and the game should load set up to how you have specified it.
CREDITS...
Press Menu at the title page.
Thanks to Dave McCartney of The Datafile for suggesting the one-player game.
MISC...
This software may be copied freely as long as no profit is made, and none of the files are altered or tampered with in any way.
Look out for my other programs in the Public Domain: !Buggy, !Tiles, !Enigma.
