83 lines
4.5 KiB
Plaintext
83 lines
4.5 KiB
Plaintext
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Xchomp, Version 1.1
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INTRODUCTION
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Hello, and welcome to xchomp. Xchomp is a game closely patterned after
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Pac-Man(tm) that runs under the X window system. I've tried to make the
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game as close as possible to the original Pac-Man. However, I have not
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seen a Pac-Man arcade machine for years, so all the elements of the game
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have been recalled from memory. Also, I've added something which I
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always felt was missing from Pac-Man, namely several different mazes.
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INSTRUCTIONS FOR PLAYING
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The point of this game, as in all arcade-style games, is to amass the
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highest possible score. However, some may find that the fun in the game
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is in trying to reach the highest possible level. At least, that's what
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I thought was fun about the original. You, the player, are the circular
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mouth moving around the maze. Your opponents are the four ghosts following
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you around. Touching a ghost will cost you a life. When you start each
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level, the maze is filled with dots. Eating these dots (by simply going
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over them), gives you 10 points for each. You must eat all the dots on a
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maze to advance to the next level.
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On each maze, you will also find several large flashing dots; these are
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the power-dots. Eating one of these will add 50 points to your score,
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and temporarily give you the ability to eat the ghosts. While the ghosts
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can be eaten, they are white (transparent), they move at a reduced speed,
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and they try to run away from you. When they turn back to a solid color,
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they are back to their normal state, and they return to following you
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around. They won't become solid suddenly; they will flash for a couple
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of seconds to warn you. While they're flashing, you can still eat them.
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Eating a ghost adds points to your score, and the number of points is
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momentarily displayed on the screen. This action turns the ghost into
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a harmless pair of eyes. In this state, the ghost moves very quickly,
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seeking return to the ghost box in the center of the maze. Once it gets
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there, it is "reborn", and goes back to chasing you around the maze.
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The levels of the game are designated by symbols. The first few levels
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are "fruit" levels, that is, they are designated by little pictures of
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fruit on the bottom of the xchomp window. For example, the first level
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is the "cherry" level. Once in a while (twice on every level), the
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symbol corresponding to the current level appears in the maze. It will
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stay there only for a few seconds; eating it adds a number of points to
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your score. At the higher levels, this is a very significant number.
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In any case, when you eat a fruit, or other such symbol, the corresponding
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point value is briefly displayed on the screen.
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Reaching a score of 10,000 awards you an extra life.
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GAME CONTROLS
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This is strictly a keyboard-controlled game. The arcade game had very
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simple controls -- one four-directional joystick. In xchomp, all control
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is through the arrow keys. Hitting an arrow key in xchomp is equivalent
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to pushing the joystick in the corresponding direction and holding it down;
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the player on the screen will continue moving in its current direction
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until motion in the specified direction is possible, in which case it will
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switch to that direction, or until it hits a wall, in which case it will
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stop and wait for a key press corresponding to a valid direction. If this
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sounds complex, forget it, and just play the game. I believe you'll find
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the controls pretty natural. It can be thought of like this: the player
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on the screen will always try to move in the direction of the last key
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pressed, and if it can't, it'll keep moving in the direction it's moving
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until it can. Only one key press is remembered -- the last one. Don't
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hold down the keys; just hit them; otherwise, there may be times when
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you're pressing two keys at a time and the second one won't register.
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The game can be paused by pressing the space bar or by iconifying the xchomp
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window (the latter definitely works on Sun and DECwindows servers). While
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the game is paused, you can abort it by pressing 'R'. This will return
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you to the title screen. Pressing 'Q' will cause xchomp to terminate. If
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you iconify the xchomp window, the game will be in the paused state when
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you de-iconify it.
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---
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+--------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------------+
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| | Polygen Corporation | UUCP: |
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| Jerry J. Shekhel | Waltham, MA 02254 | {princeton, mit-eddie, |
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| | (617) 890-2888 | buita, sunne}!polygen!jerry |
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+--------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------------+
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