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- CHASE DOCUMENTATION
- April 14-15, 1990.
- by John Wilson
- (c) Copyright 1990 by John Wilson. All rights reserved.
-
- Introduction:
- Chase is a simple game in which you avoid your opponents for as long as you
- possibly can.
-
- The action takes place on a 100 column by 40 row screen. It is completely
- filled in with dirt except for a few squares where you and your opponents start.
- Around the edge is the perma-border. You are the only person (with one
- exception, stated below in opponents) who can dig through the dirt. As you dig,
- you will leave a path in which your opponents can follow. The map will
- automatically scroll for you when you approach the edge.
-
- Opponents:
- 1) Yourself: You are displayed as a filled in happy face. You start out
- faster than any other opponent except the Speeder. Once you
- become fairly efficient at the game, you will find that you tend
- to cause your own defeat by accidently making errors.
-
- 2) Happy Guys: The Happy Guys look just like you, except they are not filled
- in. They move much slower than you. They have no intelligence,
- relying only on their numbers (40 of them) to catch you.
-
- 3) The Hounds: The 7 Hounds appear on the screen as triangles. They usually
- do not backtrack on themselves and tend to find you much quicker
- than the Happy Guys. Also, although they start out slightly
- slower than you do on straight paths, as the game progresses you
- will find they will soon be able to out run you.
-
- 4) Speeder: The Speeder will instantly be noticeable. This creature is
- easily able to out race any other object on the board. The
- main disadvantage this item has is that it is even more stupid
- than the Happy Guys. It will move almost completely at random.
- Just hope that it never gets on your trail.
-
- 5) The Digger: The Digger is, for the most part, invisible. Occasionally, he
- may display himself as a solid block. He can not directly harm
- you, but after 7 touches by Happy Guys, he moves one square
- directly towards you (digging through a wall if necessary).
-
- 6) Teleporter: There is also a strange object that randomly moves around the
- map. If you touch it the game is over. If a Happy Guy touches
- it there is a chance that the Happy Guy will be teleported
- somewhere else on the map. The Teleporter can not teleport a
- Happy Guy within 7 rows or columns of you nor appear within
- the same distance.
-
- Strategy:
- I will not give too much away here but will give you a few hints and
- suggestions.
-
- Firstly, when the map is scrolling your opponents miss their turns. Therefore,
- if you are in a tight spot with someone quickly gaining on you, you might want
- to consider heading to an area of the map that will cause it to scroll (and
- thereby gaining some distance on your pursuer).
-
- Do not be over concerned with the Teleporter. Since it does not appear within
- 7 rows or columns of you, you will probably not run into it. At the beginning
- of the game when there are very few passages, the odds of a Happy Guy being
- teleported are very small.
-
- The Digger can be a concern at the beginning of the game, especially if most of
- the Happy Guys are trapped in the Digger's area. The Digger can (when
- there are a good deal of Happy Guys around) move pretty quick. Some people
- prefer to manipulate the Digger by circling him, but I feel this is not always
- a good use of your time.
-
- To fool your opponents, you should try out various patterns. Dead ends can
- work very effectively against the Happy Guys, even sending them back in the
- direction they came from. Rooms seem to work best against the Hounds. There
- is even a pattern which can frieze the Hounds for awhile. There are also other
- ideas for passages that I will let you discover that work particularly well
- against your opponents.
-
- The main pressure, and risky time of the game, is at the very beginning. It
- is vital at this stage to create enough patterns to slow down your opponents.
- You will find it is at this stage of the game that even us experts have very
- short games.
-
- Final Notes:
- This game is freeware. Feel free to make copies and spread it around the
- world. I would appreciate any suggestions and comments on this game, so that
- in the future there can be a Chase II. Perhaps you want levels with different
- sizes of maps or perhaps different monsters to chase you. You can mail
- suggestions for me on CompuServe at user [71660,1327]. Also, as I don't have
- a colour monitor, what colours do you think would look good? Finally, my
- highest score is 9190 (not an easy score to beat).
-
- gaudeamus igitur...
-
-
-
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