TRICKY CUBES does not aim to attract people whose
interest in computer gaming is mainly concentrated on increasing
their high scores by permanently hitting fast moving and noisy
targets, though it requires quite some skill in joystick handling to
successfully pass through all six screens. The challenge of TRICKY
CUBES is more in the strategic approach to find the most economic
and the least time consuming path to reach the final goal of the
game. Therefore, people who consider a 'fast thumb' to be the most
desirable attribute for a successful 'high-score' should be warned
that they may find TRICKY CUBES somewhat slow. Others though will
find it quite a challenge.
THE GAME
The goal of TRICKY CUBES is quite simply to
manoeuvre a little character - let us name him 'Clumsy Pete' -
safely through six different screens and to pass and erase all sixty
cubes placed on the screens, in the shortest time possible.
This does not sound too exciting nor particularly
tricky, but the secret with these cubes is that some of them, when
touched and erased, only increase the score whereas others
additionally open and/or close downward chutes. This can either
facilitate the straight continuation of Clumsy Pete's path to reach
the next cube or may result in a longer and more risky deviation.
Involuntarily falling down a chute may force Pete to use a dangerous
moving bar to continue his path. It may even happen that once a
chute is opened or closed it remains so until the end of the game
and some of the cubes will be out of the reach of Pete. This is
where the challenge begins and is why we call those cubes 'tricky'.
It is unlikely that you will manage to complete all six screens
before finding out how some of the cubes influence the entrances of
the chutes. This is the way to gain experience in leaving certain
cubes untouched in the early stage of the game and only erasing them
when the most favourable order is evident.
When beginning the game, or upon entering a new
lap, the starting position of Clumsy Pete is always situated on
screen No. 1. Each screen provides six transitions to adjacent
screens that can be passed at any time. This is illustrated in the
accompanying printout of screen No. 2.
Screen 2
The horizontal transition steps to adjacent
screens are preset to a value of 1 and the corresponding value for
vertical transitions between screens is 2. For these initial
conditions, the following transitions to adjacent screens are
possible with the starting screen always being No.1:
3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4
5 6 1 2
3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4
5 6 1 2
3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4
This configuration applies only to the first lap after booting the
game. When the 'GAME OVER' display appears after either the number
of lives equals zero or the allowed time has elapsed or when all
cubes have been successfully erased, the next lap is enabled through
pushing the START key. Then, the horizontal and vertical screen
transition values are randomly chosen allowing for a total of 16
additional variations of adjacent screen configurations. Only the
starting position of Clumsy Pete remains unchanged, it is always on
screen No. 1. Each time the game is played therefore, alternative
strategies are required and consequently the player is forced to
memorize the changing screen configurations.
MOVEMENT
The movements of Clumsy Pete are easy enough.
Movements to the right or to the left on the girders as well as up
and down on the ladders are enabled by pushing the joystick into the
desired direction. The trigger causes Pete to jump for cubes. Cubes
touched will disappear from the screens until the end of the game.
Upon contact with a moving bar Pete will be
automatically lifted up or taken down as long as no joystick signals
cause him to leave the bar. To disembark from this platform requires
spilt second timing by moving in the direction of an adjacent
girder. If you miss that fraction of a second the number of lives
will be reduced by one.
SCORING
The scoring of TRICKY CUBES is as follows:
10 points are awarded for touching and erasing any
of the cubes. Once all ten cubes are removed from one screen you are
rewarded with a bonus dependent on the time indicated on the
display. This time dependent scoring encourages special strategies
to complete individual screens in the early stages of a game rather
than following the most economic path to remove all 60 cubes.
Track of the actual situation is kept by
displaying the major features at the top of the screens. Upon
STARTing a new round, time countdown starts at 2800 time units. The
number of lives still left and the actual score are also shown. If
you want to know which screen Clumsy Pete is actually moving in you
should have a look at the upper left corner of the display.
Additionally, once you have removed the last cube from a screen, the
number of this screen together with all screens completed so far is
indicated in the right part of the score display. This allows for
quick information about the screens still to be cleared at any stage
of the game.
PLAY IT!
This is almost everything you must know about
TRICKY CUBES. Now you only have to play it and you will find out for
yourself whether it really is tricky or not. I hope that you will
have as much fun trying to solve it as we (the game was programmed
together with my 16 year old son) had developing it and making it
tricky.
When firstly trying to get through to a 'happy'
end you might get the impression that it is very unlikely to succeed
in erasing all cubes before the time has run out. Believe me that it
is not impossible (nor is it very easy!) to manoeuvre Clumsy Pete
through all handicaps until the screen finally turns into the 'GREAT
SCORE' display. When you have succeeded in reaching the GREAT SCORE
you should try Listing 2. This is the 'ultimate' challenge!
THE LISTINGS
There is nothing very particular about the
listings. Together with the list of variables and the program
breakdown they are more or less self-explanatory. Just type in
listing 1 correctly and save it to disk or cassette. If you are
using disk use a filename such as "D:CUBESONE.BAS". Now
you simply have to RUN the game as described above.
For all those who after some practice have managed
to see the 'GREAT SCORE', and then tend to share our opinion that
TRICKY CUBES really is tricky and challenging enough to deserve it's
name, we have added listing 2 which contains six completely
different and much more sophisticated screens. This advanced version
is what we consider to be the 'real challenge'.
If you feel encouraged by the initial version to
also experience the advanced level, take the time to type in listing
2 as a separate listing and save it using the LIST command. If you
are using cassette type LIST "C:" to save it to tape. If
you are using disk type LIST D:CUBETWO.BAS". Next CLOAD or LOAD
Listing 1 and then ENTER Listing 2 by typing ENTER "C:" or
ENTER "D:CUBESTWO.BAS". The two listings will then merge
into one and you are ready to RUN the advanced version.
It would be interesting for us to know how long it
took until you saw the 'GREAT SCORE' of this version without
changing the time units set at 4000. It is possible.
PROGRAM BREAKDOWN
| 10-40 |
initial title |
| 50-210 |
main loop |
| 220-300 |
which screen next |
| 310-390 |
erase cubes and display score |
| 400-420 |
player movement in chutes |
| 430-490 |
player on moving bar |
| 500-610 |
player dead |
| 620-800 |
open and close chutes |
| 810-1470 |
main title, game over, once more |
| 1480-2780 |
screens 1 to 6 |
| 2800-2990 |
print cubes and chute opening |
| 3200-3250 |
display list |
| 3260-3340 |
PM initialization |
| 3350-3400 |
character set from ROM to RAM |
| 3410-3460 |
positions for cubes and bars |
| 3480-4180 |
DATA |
VARIABLES USED
| ANZ |
No. of lives |
| BP(SCR) |
horizontal position of moving
bars |
| CC(n) |
flag for opening and closing
chutes |
| CHM$ |
routine to move character set |
| GS |
flag to print START or not |
| HS, VS |
screen transition values |
| NCB |
new character set base |
| NAM$ |
title string |
| PMOV$ |
Tom
Hudson's PM mover
(ANALOG
Computing) |
| POS |
actual player shape |
| PB$ |
shape of moving bar |
| PH$ |
player on ladder or jumping |
| PL$ |
player moving left |
| PR$ |
player moving right |
| PT$ |
player in chutes |
| SCR |
actual screen No. |
| SC |
score |
| TIM |
time units actually left |
| TSC |
number of screens completed |
| WL(SCR) |
flag for cube positions |
| X, Y |
actual player position |
| XC, YC |
cube positions |
| XL, YL |
flags for cubes to be erased |
| YB |
vertical positions of moving bars |
| ZB |
step width for bar movement |
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