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- Additions/Modifications in Peter's Quest v. 1.2
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Here is a list of the most recent changes and additions that I have made
- to my game, Peter's Quest. Please read! I hope most of the changes are for
- the better.
-
- If you encounter any additional bugs or have a suggestion for me, please
- feel free to write. I'd love to hear from you.
-
- David W. Meny
- 2923 Carmel Way
- Fairfield, CA 94533
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- ADDITIONS IN V. 1.2:
-
- 1. OPTIONS! After completing a level, you are now taken to an options
- screen where you can use the coins you have collected to buy options
- that will make your game easier or just fun to play!
-
- Available options include:
-
- a) Extra Time.....Adds 20 seconds to the timer for each level.
- b) Super Speed....Makes Peter run faster and jump longer horizontally.
- c) Super Jump.....Makes Peter jump higher.
- d) Coin Detector..Shows you the location of all the coins on each level.
- e) Extra Man......Adds an extra life to your current game.
- f) Key Detector...Show you the location of the key if the key is on
- the current level.
- g) Walk on Water..Prevents Peter from dying when he falls off the bottom
- of the screen. With this option, he will be able to
- walk across the bottom of the screen.
- h) Porc. Immunity.Enables Peter to walk through or on top of the
- porcupines without dying.
- i) Rocket Pack!...Allows Peter to fly around the screen collecting
- hearts! (Note: with this option, Peter will not be
- able to jump)
-
- After purchasing these options, they will last until your current man
- dies. Also, options can be added to each other, so experiment, and
- have fun!
-
- These options are not available on the hard difficulty level, because
- they make the game a lot easier to complete! On the hard difficulty
- level, when you get 10 coins, you automatically get a free man, like
- in the previous versions. So if you find the game too easy with the
- the options, play with difficulty set to hard!
-
- 2. Command line arguments to prevent the loading of the sound and music
- files has been included. This allows the use of the game on machines
- with limited memory. These arguments are:
-
- -m Prevents the loading and playing of the background music.
- -s Prevents the loading and playing of the sounds.
-
- NOTE: 512k machines should run the program with the command "PQ -m -s",
- or use the included PQ512k icon which invokes the game with these
- options.
-
- 3. Some of the text such as "Game Over", "Get Ready", "Player 1", etc. were
- made larger, to stand out.
-
- 4. A splash sound is now played whenever Peter falls beneath the screen
- bottom.
-
- 5. Three new files are required for the game to run correctly:
-
- sounds/thrust sounds/splash graphics/options
-
- Make sure these are in the correct directories before running the game.
-
- 6. When a high score is now obtained, the high scores list is now
- displayed right after your initials are entered. A blue bar also
- signifies the position of the obtained high score. High scores also
- now display the difficulty level with which each score was obtained.
-
- 7. Menu options and choices can now be selected with either the joystick
- or the mouse. This allows the entire program to be directed using
- solely the joystick, so no more switching between the mouse and
- joystick is required.
-
- 8. All game menu options and choices have been implemented with a common
- look and feel.
-
- 9. The sound player was modified to allow all four channels to be used
- for sound, even if the background music is playing. The music will
- resume on any specific channel as soon as the sound playing on that
- channel finishes.
-
- 10. A new joystick routine was implemented, hopefully for more accurate
- results.
-
- 11. The game was tinkered with to try to speed it up. A little extra speed
- was obtained.
-
- 12. A fix was implemented to try to fix the occasional screen flash that
- occurs if the music is playing. It did not cure the problem; just
- reduce the frequency.
-
- 13. A new, smaller (!) icon was created for the program.
-
- Dated: November 20, 1991
-
- *****************************************************************************
-
- Additions/Modifications in Peter's Quest v. 1.1
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- ADDITIONS (in no specific order):
-
- 1. BACKGROUND MUSIC!!!!!!! (courtesy of Teijo Kinnunen) There are two new
- files in the "sounds" directory: "menu.song" and "game_play.song".
- These are songs in MED Module format (Teijo Kinnnunen's music program -
- version 3.10 is available on Fred Fish disk #483). You can change the
- background music by simply copying a new song over these files
- (make sure it was saved in the Module format and keep the same
- filenames). This feature lets you play any of the innumerable songs
- in ST-MOD/NoiseTracker format that are available, simply by loading
- them into MED and saving them in the Module format.
-
- When music is playing, the game uses only the upper two channels to
- play the sounds; if there are more than four tracks in the
- "game_play.song", the game will overide a music channel just as long as
- is needed to play the sound.
-
- If you turn music off, the game will use all four channels to play
- sounds.
-
- 2. Peter now ducks (or squats) whenever the joystick is pulled down. He
- will also check for anything in a block at the same time, if he is on
- top of a block.
-
- 3. In a two player game, if the other player is dead but hasn't continued
- when the first player beats Brutus, the other player will be given the
- chance to continue his/her game (this is more like a bug fix! It should
- have been this way in the first version!).
-
- 4. A "Peter" now appears next to the high score of anyone who has saved
- Daphne.
-
- 5. Hearts now graphically "pop" when gotten.
-
- 6. "Rising scores" (I couldn't think of any other way to describe it!) now
- appear whenever Peter gets a heart, coin, mushroom, or key.
-
- 7. The status bar will flash red when time is getting close to be up (from
- 10 seconds left down to 1 second left).
-
- 8. A bonus is given for each additional man you have at the end of the game
- when you save Daphne.
-
- 9. Keyboard input is now trapped in the "Player ##, Get Ready" screen, but
- not acted upon (they are simply thrown away). This is to safeguard
- against multiple strikes of the DEL key.
-
- 10. If the game window is inactivated (such as when you pull down the screen
- and activate another window on the Workbench screen or on a custom
- screen), the game automatically pauses (if it isn't already) and the
- heart sprites disappear so that they will not get in your way when you
- are doing other work. They will return when the game is reactivated.
- My game does not free up the hardware sprites however! So please do not
- try to run other programs that require the hardware sprites while
- "Peter's Quest" is running; weird things may happen (most likely a
- system crash!).
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- CHANGES (in no specific order):
-
- 1. Difficulty level now selects number of men to start with, not amount of
- time to complete level. Five men for easy level, three men for medium
- level, and two men for hard level.
-
- 2. The status line now shows a graphic reprsentation of a coin and Peter's
- face for the coins gotten and men left counter (instead of C01 and M01).
-
- 3. The DEL key is now used to kill off only the current man. The ESC key
- is used to kill of ALL men!
-
- 4. The porcupines' noses were changed from blue to brown (wow!).
-
- 5. Whenever the top high score was beaten, the system would crash. This is
- now fixed.
-
- 6. The main menu is now accessed through the mouse instead of the joystick.
-
- 7. The color palette was made brighter.
-
- 8. The game now runs from and returns to Workbench correctly.
-
- 9. Attempts were made to make the game play faster. However, no really
- noticeable speed increases occurred.
-
- 10. The game used to "recurse" for every level and new game (bad, bad, bad
- programming on my part!). This would cause a system crash after
- sufficient amounts of playing. This has been fixed!
-
- 11. The pause feature now incorporates a Wait() command so you can return
- to Workbench and my program shouldn't eat up 99% of the CPU time.
-
- 12. Time is now measured in real-time seconds.
-
- 13. The sound files are now in raw data format for faster loading and
- playing.
-
- 14. Scoring has been changed slightly. Scores should be lower on average.
- See the "Docs" file for complete scoring information.
-
- 15. Sound and music can now be toggled on and off during pause mode.
-
- 16. The "invisible crevices" have been replaced with small rock ledges.
-
- 17. You can now turn around successfully when you are on the very edge of
- a block or ledge. Previously, you would fall.
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- KNOWN PROBLEMS/SPECIAL FEATURES:
-
- 1. There is a little, random screen "flash" when the background music is
- playing. I believe this is just the result of an inconsistency between
- my animation routines and the music player. If it bothers you, simply
- turn off the music (press M).
-
- 2. It is possible to land on a porcupine and live, but it requires
- excellent timing and is very rare. I know of this "special feature"
- but have decided to leave it in for those daring and skillful game
- players.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Dated: March 17, 1991
-