home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
-
- ROBOTS' LAIR Version 1.15
- Written January, 2000 by Jim Knopf, aka Jim Button.
- http://home.earthlink.net/~jimknopf/
-
- This is Totally free software.
- No cost. No guilt. No support.
-
- SYNOPSIS:
- Escape the robots, but don't touch the walls. Multiple levels of play
- are randomly generated. Remembers your level and highest level ever attained.
- Multiple offensive weapons are available.
-
- To INSTALL:
- Hot-Sync the following files into your Palm Pilot:
- ROBOTS.prc
- PocketC.prc (Only needed if you don't already have it on your Palm Pilot.)
- This is the run-time version. Do NOT put it on if you are a programmer
- who develops using the PocketC compiler.
-
- To PLAY:
- You are the circular character somewhere in the Lair.
- The walls and pillars are high voltage. Don't touch them.
- The ROBOTS are deadly. Don't let them touch you.
- Each time you move, the robots each take one step towards you.
- You can kill the robots by cleverly tricking them into marching into
- the pillars. They will always try to follow a straight line towards you.
- You'll love lining them up and standing still while they march stupidly
- to their doom. Snicker. Crispy critters. Stupid robots! If they trip
- over each other, one will die.
- TO MOVE:
- You move by tapping the screen near the edge:
- Think of the entire screen as a compass. Tap it in the direction
- you want to move. Notice the prompting marks on
- the floor near the edges.
- Upper Left corner to move diagonally up and to the left.
- Upper Right corner to move diagonally up and to the right
- Upper Center edge to move straight up.
- (Enough, I think you get the idea.)
- To stand still, tap near the screen center, or:
- "REST UNTIL DANGER". The PageDown key causes you to Rest while the robots move
- towards you. You will stand still until a Robot comes up next to you, or until
- they are all dead. This is to avoid having to continually tap the center of the
- screen to stand still. Great sport! Sip a Coke and watch them sizzle.
- * TELEPORTING:
- There is a "teleport" square in each corner of the Lair. In an emergency,
- if you can step onto one of these, you will be randomly teleported
- to some other empty square.
- * LEAPING:
- The "+" squares near the upper left edge is a "Wild Leap" zone. It looks like
- this: +2+. The number indicates how much leap energy you have left on that level.
- Tap the Leap number to take a wild leap to some other empty square. If you do
- not use up your leap energy, it accumulates for the next level. The maximum
- number of leaps you can accumulate is three.
- * THE ZAPPER BELT
- You get a new Zapper belt on each level. It kills all adjacent
- robots when activated. To activate it, tap the "Zapper" number on the upper edge.
- It's about 3/4 of the way across towards the right and looks like this: -2-.
- The number indicates how many Zaps you have left in the belt. You get one new Zap on
- each level. These Zaps can be accumulated. If you don't use your belt, you'll
- have more Zaps on the next level. The maximum number of Zaps is three.
-
- SCORING:
- You start out initially at level 1. (1 robot). If you kill all the robots,
- you are graduated to the next higher level (one more robot
- and some more posts to hide behind). If they kill you,
- you are demoted to the next lower level.
- Each new level is randomly generated. Not all are winnable. But hey,
- that's life! The game will remember how well you are doing and will
- always start you at the level where you left off. It will track your
- "best score ever."
-
- If you get up to a really high level, I'd be interested in hearing
- about it. Send me your Best score ever along with its Proof code.
- I'll put a FAME section in this ReadMe file. Honor and glory await you.
-
- SOUNDS:
- Do you want to fight Robots in the middle of important meetings?
- You can turn off the sounds by running the Prefs program, picking
- the "general" tab, and turning off all sounds (you can leave
- "Alarm sound" on.) Now you are in stealth mode. Kill those pesky
- robots and the Chairman of the Board won't even notice! If you kill
- more than 30 robots, jump up and shout "Suck oil, you nut-buckets!"
-
- STARTING OVER;
- If you want to reset the game to its beginning level (1 robot), you must
- delete the database called "bots."
- Here's a sure-fire procedure:
- 1. Start the program called "PocketC".
- 2. Tap the Menu icon at the bottom of the screen.
- 3. Under "Applet", click "Databases".
- 4. Highlight the line that says "bots".
- 5. Tap the "Delete" button at the bottom of the window.
-
- TOP SCORES FAME BOARD: (send your score and proof code)
- Michael Remaci 223
- Ken Parker 223
- Howard Chui 182
- Juan Antonio Martinez 107
- Brian Altschul 100
- John Knopf 88
- Brett Levay-Young 84
- Roby Trotter 83
- Jerry A. Kreifels 77
- Simon Raik-Allen 73
- Geoffrey Kidd 73
- Juan A. Martinez 61
- Adam Doty 57
- Rick Bailey 43
-
- Version summary:
- 1.15 5/05/00 Fixed "last wall at level 223" problem.
- 1.14 5/01/00 Minor speedup changes.
- 1.13 2/20/00 Allow high scores to exceed 183. New max should be 223.
- 1.12 2/02/00 Proof code now works up to 32000.
- 1.12 2/02/00 Added Proof code to prove best ever score.
- Minor tweaks, should speed up a bit.
- 1.11 2/01/00 Added a "Rest until danger" key (PageDown).
- 1.10 1/31/00 The Zapper belt can accumulate up to three Zaps.
- Leaps can accumulate up to three Leaps.
- 1.09 1/30/00 Used new PocketC compiler. Gives small speed gain.
- No longer need to put "Robots.pdb" file on Palm.
- 1.08 1/29/00 Leaping and Teleporting are more intelligent.
- They try to land you in a spot with no adjacent robots.
- 1.07 1/25/00 Minor speed improvements.
- 1.06 1/22/00 Big speed improvement.
- 1.05 1/21/00 Added Zapper belt. Sped up.
- 1.04 1/20/00 Replaced sounds with "system sounds", so they can be
- turned on or off by the user.
- 1.03 1/19/00 Removed sounds for those who play in meetings.
- 1.02 1/19/00 Fixed: "Best Ever" not kept properly.
- 1.01 1/15/00 Save game status more frequently.
- Added Version number to final message.
- 1.00 1/14/00 "Best ever" score kept.
- Restarts from Last Level attained.
- Teleport pads at each of the four corners.
- Added Random-leap option.
- 0.99 1/08/00 Initial release.
-
-
- Legal:
- ------
- This software is provided as is, with no guarantee of fitness for any particular
- task. The user assumes all responsibility for its use.
-
- You can always download the current version here:
- http://home.earthlink.net/~jimknopf/
-
- Please enjoy. Send comments, suggestions, and Best scores
- with Proof codes to:
- ki7q@arrl.net
-
- -Jim Knopf, aka Jim Button
-