PC Format Collection 6

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Text File | 1994-12-10 | 18.9 KB | 476 lines

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If you enjoy playing this small demo of it, then I'm sure that you would agree that a price of just £3.00 for the full version makes it VERY good value! If you register for the full version of this game, you will receive the COMPLETE version of this game, with many features not incorporated into this shareware demo version. Some of the features included in the FULL version are:- * NO Time Limit per game. (Of course!) * 30 or 50 credits per game (Enough for at least 15-60 minutes playing time per game!) * Hi-Score entry and Saving of Hi-Scores enabled. * Sound ON/OFF toggle (Very useful in certain places!) * Boss Key (To quit the Fruit Machine ULTRA fast!!) * The REELMAKER Program, to create brand new random reels whenever you like! * FOUR versions of the game! (30 / 50 credit versions of both the 286 and the 386/486 versions of the game!) * Clear, printed instructions for the fruit machine! All this can be yours for the VERY low price of £3.00!. This, by the way, covers all costs for the game. (The packaging, postage, AND printed instructions for the game, as well as the obvious cost of each diskette!). There's no need even to send a self addressed envelope - it's all paid for. I can even supply the fruit machine on either 3 1/2" or 5 1/4" disks! Not only that, but, if ordering more than one copy (for friends, maybe, or even as a group order?), then the price of each copy drops down to just £2.50! (What I save in postage, goes right back to you!) So, if you do like this game, but would prefer a fully functional version, then please register for the full version! - All you have to do is send a cheque or postal order for payment of your order, along with an order form (There should be on supplied with this game), or even just the required details on a sheet of paper, to the address below! All orders are greatly appreciated, as I am not making a penny from this shareware version! - Who knows, if enough people register THIS fruit machine, then I may start producing them on a regular basis! Thanks for taking the trouble to read this, and I hope you have as much enjoyment playing my Fruit Machine, as I had creating it. Denis Evans. 30, Arley House, 20, Sheldon Heath Road, Sheldon, Birmingham, B26 2DQ. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT NOTE **** If running FRUITBANK on a 486 dx2 machine, then you will probably find that the game runs faster if you turn your turbo OFF. This is due to the way that the processor is Double Clocked (to improve the speed of the computer), and so the timing routines work faster if this is turned OFF! GAMEPLAY / LOADING INSTRUCTIONS ------------------------------- To start FRUITBANK, simply move to the directory in which FRUITBANK is stored, and type:- FRUIT <RETURN> The Game will now load. (If there are any errors whilst loading, you will be informed, and an appropiate (and hopefully helpful!) error message will be given.) If you have a VGA/MCGA graphics system, then a title screen will appear. If a key is pressed, then loading will continue immediately. If no keys are pressed, then the game will continue loading in 5 seconds. Once the game has loaded, you will see the FRUITBANK logo, and a Title/Hi-Scores screen. From the Title/Hi-Scores screen, Pressing `ESC' will return you to DOS, while any other key will take you into the game! NOTE : If at any time the game could NOT load the hi-scores, you will hear a trilling sound informing you of this. Also, when first loading, if the game could not find any hi-scores, you will hear a trilling sound. This sound may vary in pitch from time to time. When the game first loads, you may hear the trilling sound play twice - This will be the game informing you that it could not find any hi-scores, and also could not create any!. IN-GAME KEYS ------------ Cursor keys Move cursor Left/Right/Up/Down around buttons Space/Enter Press currently selected button (IF FLASHING) F1 Show `Win Amount' help screens F2 Toggle sound effects On/Off. (Registered Version Only!) F10 Quit to DOS instantly (Could come in useful!) (Regd Ver. Only) ESC Quit to title/hi-scores screen (When the START button is flashing) (N.B. - If you quit your game, your score will be ignored!) PLAYING THE GAME ---------------- You start each game with 30 credits, which will decrease by one each time the START button is pressed. Once all credits have been used, the game is over, where, if you did really well, you may have a hi-score! When START is flashing, pressing it will spin the reels. Once stopped, you will either have a win, or, if you don't have a win, you may have some features. IF YOU SPUN A WINNING COMBINATION --------------------------------- If a win was spun, then, if you didn't get the jackpot (£4.80), you will have the chance to gamble the amount that you have won. You will notice that the amounts below and above the amount you have won are now flashing. If you do not wish to gamble your win, simply move to the COLLECT button and press it. If, on the other hand, you wish to gamble for more money, move to the GAMBLE button, and try to press it as the amount ABOVE the current amount won is lit. If you were successful, the amount you have won will now increase, and you can either gamble again or collect your winnings. You can continue gambling until you have either won the jackpot, or have stopped the light on the amount BELOW your currently lit win. Once gambling is finished, START will flash, and pressing it will spin the reels again. IF YOU DID NOT SPIN A WINNING COMBINATION ----------------------------------------- If there are any symbols with numbers on the win-line, then the numbers are added up, and the appropriate number of letters in the word, `FRUITBANK', are lit up. if any letters were already lit, and held, then the appropriate new letters of the word `FRUITBANK' are lit up. If any question marks `?' are on the win-line, then the player has a chance to gamble for all of the letters. The GAMBLE button will light, and the remaining unlit letters of the word `FRUITBANK' will flash randomly. When GAMBLE is pressed, all of the letters up to the one that was lit when GAMBLE was pressed, will light up. If ALL of the letters are lit, then the player has got a feature!. If not, then you will be returned to a flashing START button, where you may have the chance to HOLD any reels, and may also keep your lit FRUITBANK letters, if the FEATURE HELD light is lit! If you managed to light up all of the FRUITBANK letters, then the feature types will flash, and once GAMBLE is pressed again, will stop on the feature that was last lit. The feature types are explained on the following pages. THE CASHPOT ----------- This is not a feature in the sense of the four features below, but is still a feature nonetheless. Each time a `ú' symbol appears on the winline, another 50p coin is added to the CASHPOT (The 15 coins in the bottom left of the screen). If all of the coins are now lit, you will automatically win the CASHPOT. The £7.50 will be added to your score, and the CASHPOT will be reset to one coin (50p). FEATURES -------- There are four special types of feature. These are CASHPLUS, SUPERNUDGE, SPINAWIN, and STOPAREEL, all explained below. All features will automatically give you a chance to REPEAT the feature. The GAMBLE button will flash, and the REPEAT feature will light up. The YES/NO lights underneath the REPEAT light will flash in turn, and pressing GAMBLE will stop them flashing. If the YES light was lit when you stopped them flashing, you get the feature again!. If NO was lit, however, you will be returned to the flashing START button. CASHPLUS -------- The coins in the cashpot will flash, the GAMBLE, STAKE, and COLLECT buttons will be activated, and the computer will automatically bet one of your coins. Pressing COLLECT will collect the amount of coins that are lit (not flashing) and half of the coins that are flashing. This is because when STAKE is pressed, ONE lit coin is replaced by TWO flashing coins, so that collecting only gives you back your original amount of coins. i.e. - If 5 coins are in the bank, then pressing STAKE five times will give you 10 flashing coins, so that if you press GAMBLE when they are all lit, you will effectively double your money. If they were not lit, however you would lose your original 5 coins!. If GAMBLE is pressed, and the flashing coins are lit, then you will win them all, and get the chance to gamble for more (Unless you have got all 15 coins, in which case they will be added to your winnings!). If the flashing coins were unlit when GAMBLE was pressed, however, all of the flashing coins will be lost, and the remaining coins are added to your winnings. Each coin is worth 50p, giving a possible jackpot of £7.50. SUPERNUDGE ---------- When chosen, the numbers on the NUDGE strip (far right) will flash randomly until GAMBLE is pressed. Once pressed, you can either press COLLECT to use these nudges, or GAMBLE for more. The numbers above and below the amount that you stopped the flashing on will flash, and once again the aim is to stop the flashing light on the amount ABOVE your currently won amount, where this will now be the amount of nudges that you have. You can keep gambling for more nudges, either until you manage to get unlimited nudges, collect the nudges you have so far, or stop the flashing light on the LOWER amount. If you obtained any nudges, then you can now use these to try to align a win. The six NUDGE/HOLD buttons will flash, and pressing one of the top three buttons will nudge the chosen reel up, while pressing one of the lower three buttons will nudge the chosen reel down. If a win has been got, you can GAMBLE it or COLLECT it as you would any normal win. You will then have a chance to REPEAT the supernudge feature. If you got a REPEAT, then the reels may randomly spin, and you will have a chance to nudge again. You can keep repeating the feature until you lose on the REPEAT, where you will then be returned to the START button N.B. - ANY win will automatically STOP the nudge feature, so keep an eye out for low winning combinations, and avoid them if you can get higher ones!. SPINAWIN -------- A nice easy one, this - The computer will automatically spin the reels, and give you a random 3-symbol win. When the winnings have been added to your score, you will then have a chance to REPEAT the feature. STOPAREEL --------- The COLLECT button will flash, and the computer will spin the left-hand reel 5 times, pausing for around 1.5 seconds after each spin. When you see a symbol that you would like the computer to try and match a win with (i.e. The Double Bars), simply press COLLECT. The computer will then bring reels 2 and 3 down until it finds a matching symbol. Bear in mind though, that if the computer comes across the matching symbol on reel 2 first, then it will stop, effectively giving you a 20p win! NOTE : Any matching symbols that are ALREADY on the winline will be held automatically, giving you a 3-symbol win for that symbol! If, after the FIFTH spin, you have still not pressed COLLECT, then the computer will match up a win for the symbol that is now on the left-hand reel. WHEN THE `HOLD' BUTTONS ARE FLASHING ------------------------------------ When the three HOLD buttons are flashing, then pressing a FLASHING button will cause it to stay lit. Pressing a LIT (Not flashing) button will cause it to flash. When START is pressed, any reel whose HOLD button is LIT (Not flashing) will be held, and will not spin. NOTE : If a win is spun that is higher than £2.00, then there will be slightly less chance of getting a `HOLD' on your next turn. ENDING THE GAME --------------- If you wish to quit to the title screen, then pressing ESC whenever START is flashing will quit to the title screen. Note, however, that doing this will cause the game to ignore any score that you may have got! (So don't do it if you've got over £100!) If, on the other hand, you have no credits left, then pressing any key will take you to the title screen, where, if you have a good score, you may have a place in the hi-score table. (Registered version will save allow hi-score saving!). If you did get a hi-score, you will see a grid of letters, and a blue cursor. If you DID get a hi-score, then simply move around the letters, and press ENTER or SPACE to add the chosen letter to your name. If you make a mistake, move to DELETE (The Left Arrow), and press SPACE or ENTER. Once you have entered your name, move the cursor to the ENTER symbol (Bottom Right), and press SPACE or ENTER once more. The maximum length that you can input is 12 characters. Once input, the hi-scores will be shown, and saved. IF THE BOSS SHOULD WALK IN (Registered Version only!) -------------------------- Don't Panic! - just press the F10 key, and you'll be back in DOS, ready to re-enter whatever application you're SUPPOSED to be using!. (NOTE : This quickie way out is only available from the hi-scores screen, and the game itself - NOT the initialisation/loader routine!) HINTS & TIPS ------------ When gambling for a higher win, if you wait a while before pressing the GAMBLE button, then you will notice that the speed at which the win amounts are flashing decreases gradually, then resets to its fastest. If you can time your gamble when the flashing has slowed down, then you will have a better chance of winning. The above technique also works for CASHPLUS, in that if you wait a while the speed at which the cashpot is flashing while move out of step for one flash, then carry on flashing normally for 4-5 times. The object this time, however, is to press GAMBLE at any time that the coins are lit, BEFORE or AFTER the one "step" which isn't synchronised. Also remember - On SUPERNUDGE, make sure that you try to miss any low wins if it is possible to obtain a higher one, by skillful manipulation of the reels! *------------------------------* | | | | | | | Have Fun!!! | | | | | | Denis Evans | | | | | | | *------------------------------* ------------------------------------------------------------------- TECHNICAL INFORMATION --------------------- Each reel consists of around 500 symbols, the exact quantity per reel remaining constant for every game. The reels are large so as to give a much more even chance of getting a low win, yet a lower chance of getting a high win. The positioning of the symbols can be randomized every time that the game is loaded, effectively giving an infinite variation on them. Storing the reels in this way effectively gives three PHYSICAL reels (i.e.- as opposed to random symbols being generated every time START is pressed!), which will behave exactly like the reels of a true gambling machine. I have developed a pseudo-multitasking environment for this game, using BASIC (and NO assembly language!), consisting of intricate timing loops, and `slack time' usage, as at most parts more than one thing are apparently happening at once. For instance, when gambling, you are able to simultaneously move your cursor around and press buttons while the gamble amounts and cursor are flashing, as well as the buttons that are enabled at the time, in this case GAMBLE and COLLECT, whilst also being able to press F1 in case help on the win amounts is required!. The timing for the gamble, button flashing, and other time crucial routines, is calculated from the system timer, and so should remain constant on any machine (except, of course, where the machine is slow, and only just finishes its task outside the strict timing limit that I have allocated for it). Being written in QuickBasic, and with NO assembly `helping hands', smooth scrolling the reels was out of the question. Instead, I have simply scrolled the contents of the visible window by one symbol position for every move. The result may take a little bit of getting used to, but once a game has been played, you will notice when the reels are scrolling up or down, especially when they slow down at the end of a spin. As the resulting program was larger than QuickBasic would allow, I have had to split it into two parts. The first of these is the initialisation routines, graphic loading, and reel and graphic screens setup routines. The other section is the game itself, and the hi-scores/title screen section of the game. In addition to this, there are a LOT of graphics to the game, so memory was very tight, forcing me to have to use the BRUN45.EXE runtime file supplied with QuickBasic, in order to keep the variables and data in memory when switching between the two game modules.