SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
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Intel 80386 or compatible CPU.
Microsoft Mouse.
VGA video system. (320w�200h pixels�256 colors, mode 19)
DESCRIPTION
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Micropede is a game of skill that is like the old arcade games, Millipede
and Centipede. You will have to learn to quickly and skillfully move your man
using your mouse. With practice, you will begin to amaze yourself as you become
able to manuver your man out of spots that look impossible to get out of alive.
Your objective is to shoot the micropede segments and avoid being touched
by anything that moves. If you are touched, you die. There are 500 levels to
play. Shooting all the segments on the screen advances you to the next level.
Other enemies will attack you besides the micropede segments. They include
spiders, mosquitos, dragonflies, bees, and beetles.
TITLE SCREEN
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You should see "MICROPEDE" written across the top and "OPTIONS", "START",
"HI-SCORES", and "EXIT" written across the bottom with the mouse pointer in the
center of the screen. On the title screen are labeled pictures of the enemies
and their score value. Use the mouse to point and click on one of the four
choices on the bottom of the screen. "EXIT" returns you to DOS.
OPTIONS SCREEN
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From this screen you can select the level at which to start, whether you
want sound effects, invincibility, and the initial number of men (shooters). To
change an option, use the the up/down arrows to select an item. Use the
left/right arrrows to change an item's setting. Sound can also be toggled
on/off during the game by entering 's' at the keyboard. A game's score is
eligible for the high scores list only if the game started on level one, if the
"Invincibility" option is set to "OFF", and if you start with 8 men. Highlight
"Exit" and press enter to return to the intro screen.
HI-SCORES SCREEN
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This screen simply displays the high scores. However, if you get a high
score this screen will appear immediately after your game ends. You will be
prompted to enter your initials and the date.
GAME SCREEN LAYOUT
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The top line of the screen is used to display the status of the current
game in progress. Going from the left side to the right is your score, number
of extra men, the #1 high score to beat, and the current level. Below the top
line and above the shaded area on the bottom (the largest area of the screen)
is the enemy's domain. Your man cannot move into this area. This is you man's
firing range. Kill as much as you can in this area before what remains invades
your space and attacks you. The bottom shaded area is your man's domain. You
can move in this area only. Mushrooms will clutter the area and restrict your
routes of escape. Shoot the mushrooms and all enemies that invade this area.
CONTROLLING YOUR PLAYER
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The mouse is used almost exclusively. Anytime the game freezes or
pauses and hitting mouse keys fails to resume or continue the game, hit the
escape <Esc> key on the keyboard. For example, at the end of each game the
screen freezes so you can review the game and see how you got killed. Press
escape to continue at such a point.
During the game, the mouse is used exclusively to control your man.
The direction the mouse is moved is the direction your man will move on screen
within the confines of the shaded area delineating your man's domain. Pressing
and holding down the left key causes your man to fire arrows one at a time as
rapidly as possible. Pressing the right mouse key will pause the game until it
is pressed again to resume.
The pause key is useful for more than just taking breaks. If your man
gets in a tight spot, quickly pause the game and analyze your situation. Look
for a direction where your man may be able to escape. Then, while still
paused, move the mouse in that direction the amount you feel is needed to get
your man in the clear and press the pause key again to resume. When you resume
your man will make a straight move in the direction you moved the mouse while
paused.
THE ENEMIES
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Refer to the title screen of the game a see displays of the enemies.
� MICROPEDE �
The micropede is the segmented creature that starts at the top and moves
downward among the mushrooms. Shooting a segment leaves a mushroom in its
place. As you shoot the segments, the remaining segments branch off on their
own paths. If a segment gets trapped by mushrooms it will either eat the
mushroom or it will suddenly zigzag down to the bottom of the screen. Sometimes
a large column of segemnts will zigzag down to the bottom. You can clear a
level fast by shooting the column as it comes down. After you kill the last
segment the level increases, screen colors change, and the game continues
without a pause. When a line of segments are in the shaded player area, you
can kill several segments in the line in one stroke by moving close under and
in the opposite direction of the segments while holding down the fire button.
This technique takes some practice to get the timing right.
� SPIDER �
The spider will enter from one of the sides and continues movement toward
the opposite side exit point. All mushrooms touched by the spider die. You may
wish to leave the spiders to clear mushrooms when they are blocking your
domain. The spider's movement is generally random. However, as the spider
comes near your player, it can detect where you are firing. It won't move into
your line of fire. For example, if while you are stationary and holding the
fire button a spider approaches, it will hover next to your man until its path
is clear. The spider may not hover indefinitely. If you fire and the arrow hits
something, the spider may be quick to detect that the path is clear and
continue. The spider could then either pass by you or attack you. When you see
a spider hovering next to you and it moves up and away, move under it quickly
and fire. If you move under it and fire, the same logic that causes the spider
to hover next to you may also cause it to hover directly above you giving you a
"lock" on it until either you kill it with an arrow or it attacks and kills you
- it goes both ways.
� MOSQUITO �
The mosquito moves diagonally from the top and bounces off the sides of
the screen. Besides getting points, if you kill a mosquito the field of
mushrooms will retreat upwards and out of your domain by one row. This is of
strategic value. When your domain becomes cluttered with mushrooms to the point
that it's becoming difficult to move around, you may want to try killing some
mosquitos. Each time you hit a mosquito, you should see all the mushrooms move
up one row leaving your domain clear in at least the bottom two rows. Be
careful; if you clear your domain of all mushrooms the mosquitos will cease
their attack while you suffer a more severe attack by bees and dragonflies
until there is at least one mushroom in your domain.
� BEE �
The bee will only appear when there is no mushrooms in the player domain.
It moves straight down the screen producing mushrooms at random along it's
path. They help resupply the screen with mushrooms. Unlike all other enemies,
which all take one shot to kill, the bee takes two shots. Sometimes it may
appear to take more than two since the mushrooms they yield can block some
shots.
� DRAGONFLY �
Again, as the bee, the dragonfly will only appear when there are no
mushrooms in the player domain. It moves from the top to the bottom of the
screen with an alternating hemicircular left/right sway of random but confined
radius. The effect is that it is difficult to predict the path it is going to
take. Sometimes it will sway back and forth rapidly as it goes down the screen;
and, at other times it will sway widely completing maybe one or two cycles.
Just the opposite of the mosquito; if you fail to hit the dragonfly and it
passes through the bottom of the screen, the field of mushrooms will advance
down the screen one row to further obstruct your movement. Usually, only a few
waves will attack you since you will miss many and your domain will acquire
mushrooms by their and the bee's action.
� BEETLE �
The beetle can appear at any time. It enters on either the left or right
side of the screen on one of the lowest three rows of the enemy domain. It
emerges from the side and immediately goes down the edge of the screen until it
reaches the bottom of the screen. Then, it proceeds on the bottom row walking
towards the opposite side. After passing the center line of the screen, the
beetle can suddenly at random walk up the screen and possibly run right into
you; or, it will continue until it reaches one of the three lower rows of the
enemy domain where it makes a 90 degree turn towards the side of the screen for
it's exit run. As an added incentive to kill it, each mushroom that it makes
contact with will become hardened so arrows are unable to destroy them. These
hardened mushrooms can accumulate and obstruct your man's movement making it
harder to avoid attack by all enemies. The only ways to clear a hardened
mushroom is if it happens to go off screen or if a spider touches it.
� WORM �
The worm is not capable of attacking and is a sort of bonus target. It
comes out the left or right side of the screen and runs horizontally on one of
the lower four rows of the enemy domain towards the opposite side of the
screen.
� EARWIG �
The earwig is not capable of attacking and is another bonus target. It
comes out the left or right side of the screen and runs horizontally on one of
the upper few rows of the enemy domain towards the opposite side of the screen.
PROGRAM HISTORY
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This version, version 1.40, of Micropede is FREEWARE. The previous
release, version 1.02, is PUBLIC DOMAIN. You will now notice the copyright
message too. I've decided that I should at least retain my rights of
authorship over Micropede by adopting the class of FREEWARE for the game.
New for Version 1.02: (First public release as PUBLIC DOMAIN, 3-13-94)
1) Added a loop counter based means of controlling game speed.
Game will still run too fast on 486's.
2) Added exit message with my name & mailing address for feedback.
3) NOTE: Game originally made around 10/91 then sat on my computer
occasionally getting poked around with. This game has been written
as I've learned programming (a learning project) and is the first
program of any significance that I've made. It would have been
released to the public sooner if I'd had a modem - I finally got a
modem 10/93. When I got around to it, I made the above additions to
what I had and then released it via upload to AOL as version 1.02.
New for Version 1.40: (6-25-94 FREEWARE)
1) Added interrupt driven PC-Speaker sound.
2) Synchronized screen updates with the vertical refresh of the
VGA monitor. This is a simple and effective means of controlling
game speed. If it works better, the next release will
manage variable game speeds through the modified clock tick ISR (INT8).
3) Rewrote the options menu. The mouse is no longer used by it.
Instead, a video mode 1 text menu is used.
4) Eliminated floating point math routines - rewrote the pallete
initializer functions. Reduced program size by maybe 10k or so.
5) Added functions to test PC for required hardware needed by
Micropede: CPU and video system identification; mouse sensing.
Added commandline arg "-notest" to disable all hardware tests.
6) Improved the intro screen graphics a little. This still needs work!
7) Changed program to FREEWARE class and added copyright notice.
8) Changed extra man to every 50,000 points (was 30,000).
9) Added bonus rounds at every 5th level where all but the micropede attacks.
DISCLAIMER
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Micropede comes "as is" from wherever you obtain it. There is NO
WARRANTY, NO GUARANTEE and NO CLAIM OF FITNESS for any particular purpose
attached to the Micropede program and it's related materials and documentation.
By choosing to use Micropede you accept all responsiblity (and you explicitly
do not hold myself, Robert B. Easter, reponsible and/or liable for damages) for
any and all direct and consequential damages that may occur as a result
thereof.
Permission is given to:
1) Freely distribute Micropede in unmodified form.
2) Use Micropede for as long as you like - no payment is required.
AUTHOR OF PROGRAM
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Anyway, the game is free for everyone to play for as long as desired.
Most likely the game will run fine for you as it has for me. But there's always
the chance it may not or that you received a tampered or virus-infected copy.
No payment is required. However, a nice little donation of a few bucks or
whatever would be greatly appriciated and will encourage me to write more
software! :) Please send me your comments & suggestions:
Robert Easter
1242 Tarpon Ave.
Sarasota, Fl. 34237-3741
or (Internet Email)
RobertE209@aol.com
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