TechnoVenture V1.25b by Ben Marty Copyright ©1994 (Last update July 4, 1994) This program was written using AMOS Professional. The compiled program is freely distributable but the author retains all rights to the program and profit distribution thereof- NOT to be sold for a profit (ie. excluding the charge of a disk and copying - $2 or so). For information or registration (see below for list of benefits), I can be reached at: 1410 Post Ave.; Holland, MI 49424; U.S.A; Phone: (616)-399-4934 Internet: marty@cs.hope.edu And here's where I beg for your registration. PLEASE, if you enjoy this game, be honest and send the $10 (U.S.) registration fee. Hey, not only are you doing what is required, but you GET something out of it too! When you register you get the following: Latest version of TechnoVenture (1.25b as of 7/4/94) A very nice TechnoVenture map editor An automatic TechnoVenture map generator The AMOS Pro SOURCE CODE for BOTH the GAME AND BOTH EDITORS! Another map or two to play with All this just for paying for something you've already used! Please consider the following: How long is a movie? How long will you or have you already played TechnoVenture? How enjoyable is pizza? How enjoyable is TechnoVenture? How much does it cost to go to a movie? How much does it cost to go out for pizza? How much is the registration fee for TechnoVenture? How much additional time of enjoyment will you get for registration? How illegal is it to break federal copyright laws? 2 more: How often do you pay to see a new movie movie or video? How often to you get to play TechnoVenture? New maps do come out, probably free too! In addition, you'll be showing a struggling college student what his work is worth and I thank you sincerely. To register this program, send $10 (US) to the above address requesting the registration of TechnoVenture. I will send the diskette (you don't have to) with everything mentioned above. The following files must be included when distributing this game: TechnoVenture Default.Map TechnoInfo.txt TechnoSprites.ABK TechnoVenture.ABK Music.ABK TechnoFX.ABK libs/AMOS.Library Instructions: Joy stick: Up: Jump, Use jet pack (jump jumps higher on up-arrow blocks) Left: Run and aim left Right: Run and aim right Down: Enter door, Plant bomb if in conjunction with button Button: Read message (usually marked by sign post), Plant bombs if in conjuntion with Down, turn on/off Energy beams with wrenches, fire energy gun (if owned and energized) if in conjunction with left or right. Keyboard: The four arrows between the numeric keypad and the main keypad correspond to the four main joy stick directions (they can be used in conjunction with each other). The right ALT key is the equivalent of the fire key. "L" will load a different map (a new game or a saved game). "S" will save the game under a given name. "K" will kill you and place you at the position where you entered the screen "R" Rearranges the inventory. The two possible states are 1) visible at the bottom of the screen and 2) invisible until requested by... "V" displays the inventory if it is hidden. It reamins visible only as long as you hold the "V" key down. "Q" Quits the game immediately (if that doesn't work CTRL-C should). "P" Pauses the game until a key is pressed. "M" Toggle music off/on. "F" Toggle sound effects off/on. "T" Begin/end motion tracking. "D" Begin/end motion replay. "]" Increase speed (Default is 1 Wait, Max. is 0 and may be jerky) "[" Decrease speed (Minimum is 5 Waits) Inventory: Your inventory can contain the following: Red Key cards to open red doors Green key cards to open green doors Blue key cards to open blue doors Wrenches to turn energy beams on and off Treasure with which you may pay for keys and wrenches that need to be payed for (indicated by an arrow pointing from treasure to the item within a small icon.) The number of lives you have Bombs (used to blow up barrels) A jet pack followed by the amount of jet fuel A pickaxe An energy gun followed by the amount of energy Shields (protect you from monsters for a short while) Swords (kill monsters if you touch them) Magnets (allow you to walk through arrows) Moving objects: Platform: Stand on this to travel wherever the platform goes. Bubble: Moves in continuous pattern and kills you if you touch it Water blob: Moves from one end of a platform to the other and back, deadly. Arrow: Shoots up to a limited range whenever you move above it. (not the green arrown in a block, but a different up arrow) Also deadly Rolling droid: Rolls to the left and right and tries to stay directly above or below you. Kills if you touch it. Fire: Moves back and forth in a limited range and always tries to stay on the same vertical position of the screen as you and, of course, kills. Objects on the screen: Every energy beam is powered by an orb on one or both ends. Standing by the orb and pushing the button turns it on or off. Beams are not deadly and you may walk on them, but you cannot go through one. Moveable steel blocks are recognizeable by the two small supports on the bottom. You may move them left by getting on the right side of them and pushing left. You can push them right similarily. When pushing, you need not be directly next to it, but may be one row above or below it. After pushing it, if there is nothing holding it up, it will fall down and kill any monsters it falls on. You may also stand on top of one if it is in the middle of the air and ride it down slowly. Pole-raised platforms are usually red held up by a white pole which you usually cannot go through. Standing on the red platform will lower it as you ride down. Arrows are usually green in a silver block and may point up, left, or right. They will cause you to move in the indicated direction. Barrels are recognizeable by the rings that stick out around them at certain places. Placing a bomb next to a barrel will blow up the barrel. It will also blow up any monsters around, crumbling blocks, and YOU! Crumbling blocks are recognizeable by the cracks in them. They crumble in three visible stages (including the original state) and then disappear. Sectioned blocks come in four pieces and will automatically be destroyed when you touch them if you have a pickaxe. Treasure comes in two forms. The golden spheres lying around and the red spheres growing in trees may be picked up and used to pay for items. Message posts usually indicate a message you can read be standing directly in front of the sign and pushing the button. The message will appear scrolling at the bottom of the screen until you press the button or until the message has finished scrolling. Doors may or may not be visible. Some are automatic and some you must press down to enter. They may transport you to another section or another place on the same screen. Jet fuel is recognizeable as a translucent orange orb. To use the jet pack, just press up and hold up as long as you want. Every time you slow down, the rockets will fire again and use another jet fuel. But if you run up against a ceiling, watch out because the jet feul starts going fast! Gun Energy appears as a blue orb surrounded by energy arcs. Each orb is worth one shot with the gun. A pickaxe, a jet pack, and an energy gun will likely appear only once in the game since once you have it, you keep it. There are two types of deadly blocks. Fire and Skull & crossbones will kill you, no way out: shields don't help and guns or swords don't kill. Shields and swords are explained in the inventory section above. The number of magnets used to pass through a section of horizontally directed arrows (they do not work against up arrows) can be determined by adding up the number of columns which would have an effect on the player arrow-wise. So if "<" represents a left arrow, "#" represents ground, and "P" represents the player, it would take 13 mangets to get through the following scene: ##### << < << P << < < ###<###<######### 111 1111111111 Where each "1" represents a position of a loss of 1 magnet. The final "1" exists because the center of the player can stand in that column while the arrow can still affect the left side of the player. Note that when running at full speed in the direction of the arrows, you will not lose any magnets, but when walking more slowly, even in the direction of the arrows, you will lose magnetism. Secret Blocks: Any block you can see may be a secret block. This is how secret passages may exist. For every solid block, there is an equivalent block wich can be walked through. There may also be solid blocks where you don't expect. *** NEW *** Secret Blocks! As of version 1.25 there are a new version of secret blocks with a totally different function. These also may appear in any form (that of any other available block), but when you hit one from underneath, it pops up something above it. IT WILL ONLY APPEAR IF YOU ARE PRESSING UP AT THE TIME YOU TOUCH IT. Note that it APPEARS to be a certain block and is actually a question block. So if a certain block does not function the way you expect it to, you can probably count on it being a new secret block. It may interest you to know that a blocks "true colors" can be revealed with a bomb. Every block in the radius of the explosion will be exposed for what it really is. A "New Secret Block" is always a question block. After the contents of the block are released, however, the block will permanently become what it appeared to be. Motion tracking: This feature is new as of version 1.25. It allows you to begin tracking motion AT A SPECIFIC PIXEL and then save the motions to a file when you are done. This motion file can be loaded in and re-played. Although you can begin the re-play from any point, there will probably be no point in replaying from any pixel other than the one from which it was recorded. This is a good way to distribute a solution with any map created with the TechnoVenture map editor. Due to the precise nature required for motion tracking and replay, sprite motions have been redone in version 1.25. Now instead of a fixed speed of sprite movement with periodic updates depending on how fast the game is running, the sprites move AND update at the same speed as the player's movement. For this reason, when the player is performing complex operations, the sprites may move slowly as well as the player, unlike in previous versions where the sprites simply updated slowly causing a skipping effect. The only variation may be with the horizontal movement of the fire and energy gun. I have not fully tested the synchronization, but suspect it may be possible that these movements could be slightly off as they are controlled under a different movement system. Hints about moving: You will notice that you have inertia so although you stop moving in a direction, the robot will continue for a short distance due to it's inertia. Also note that the height of the jump is constant and has nothing to do with the length that you hold up (except of course in the case of a jet pack!). You may notice it's very hard to fall down some skinny holes because you have to be at just the right pixel alignment. Therefore in making the map I try to remember to avoid these, but you should be aware of the precision needed to get through skinny holes. One way to align yourself correctly in such a situation is to run into a wall aligned with the edge of a hole. Then you should be able to go through without a problem.