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- Documentation for the Game of DALEKS by David S. Rose
-
- AUTHOR: Johan Strandberg
- VERSION: 0.3 DATE WRITTEN: April 2, 1984
-
- A positively addicting strategy/action game in which you attempt to
- out-maneuver dozens of tiny robots who are intent upon achieving your
- destruction. If in the process of this they happen to collide with each
- other, both miscreants are destroyed. The longer you stay alive,the more
- of them collide, and the higher your score.
-
- RULES
- -----
- The object of the game is to survive, while avoiding the Daleks. The more
- Daleks that perish in the process, the higher your score.
-
- The game works in rounds. First it is your move, and you can go to any one
- of the eight spaces immediately surrounding you (indicated by the arrows),
- or you can stay in the same place. You move by using either the mouse or
- the keyboard. For the former, just point and click. For the latter, the
- keyboard direction grid is laid out as follows:
-
- Y U I
- H J K
- N M ,
-
- As soon as you have moved, the Daleks take their turns, following the
- same rules (although they will always move, never staying in the same
- place.) They will always move toward you, and all the Daleks move
- simultaneously.
-
- If a Dalek ends up in the same place as you, you die, and the game ends.
-
- If two Daleks run into each other in the course of their move, they both
- perish and turn into a pile of scrap at the point of their demise. This
- scrap pile is lethal to other Daleks if they run into it.
-
- You have three tools to help you in your escape, which can be used either
- from the menu or from the keyboard: The Sonic Screwdriver is usuable once
- each round, and emits a squeal which immediately kills any Dalek in any of
- the eight spaces immediately adjacent to you without leaving a pile of
- scrap. It can be activated by pressing S on the keyboard.
-
- The Teleporter is usable as often as you dare, and simply picks you and
- puts you down somewhere else on the board. If you teleport on top of a
- Dalek, you die. It can be activated by pressing T on the keyboard.
-
- Finally, there is your Last Stand, which is an accelerated way of standing
- still while the Daleks keep moving toward you until either (A) they get
- you, or (B) they all run into scrap heaps or each other. If the former, the
- game ends, if the latter, you proceed to the next screen. This can be
- activated by pressing L on the keyboard.
-
- When you manage to kill the last Dalek on the screen, you get a new screen
- with a greater number of Daleks, and a rejuvinated Sonic Screwdriver. The
- game ends when you are finally killed, and if your score is halfway decent,
- you are asked to enter your name in the High Score list.
-
- When (or if) you finish the game, COMMAND-N will start you off on a New
- Game, and COMMAND-Q will Quit the game and return you to the desktop.
-
-
- GAME STRATEGY (Courtesy of Chris Allen, ICCA Forum)
-
- During the first 2 or 3 rounds, use the Sonic Screwdriver only if you can
- kill 2 or 3 Daleks. The Teleport is better here, because the Sonic
- Screwdriver kills without leaving scrap piles, which are the main cause of
- premature mortality among Daleks.
-
- The key to all rounds are the scrap piles of Daleks. Get as many as you
- can, and you can hide behind them. If there is a pile between you and all
- the Daleks, you may use Last Stand and survive (keeps you from having to
- wait to kill them all).
-
- The more crowded the later rounds are, the more the key of the game becomes
- running as long as you can before Teleporting. The Daleks get so crowded
- that there are scrap piles everywhere. Use Sonic Screwdriver if it will
- allow you to run further, thus causing more Daleks to crash into each other
- trying to reach you.
-
- Teleporting is OK if there are many scrap piles and few Daleks, since you
- will never Teleport into a pile.
-
- NOTES
- DALEKS was written during the middle stage of the Macintosh development
- project, when Johan Strandberg was at Apple.
- This game is based on an old game of similar design called "Escape"
- The High Score scoreboard is not saved when you Quit.
- For an interesting demonstration of the 3-D routines in the QuickDraw ROM
- package, select "About Dalek" from the Apple menu.
- The highest score reported so far is a score of over 7,000. Most good
- players will routinely score in the 1,000+ range.
-
-