Copyright: Copyright 1993 Herby Derby Productions


 Watch Out, Willi! Help Index

The Index lists all Watch Out, Willi! Help topics.

To learn how to use Help, choose Using Help from the Help menu, or press F1.

Overview

How To...

Play the Game

Create Worlds

Create Custom Graphics

Commands

File Menu Commands

Game Menu Commands

Edit Menu Commands

Options Menu Commands

Help Menu Commands

The WILLI.INI Initialization File

How to Register


Overview of Watch Out, Willi!
Overview

Watch Out, Willi! [WOW] is a fast-paced strategy game.

You are Willi, a slightly deranged caveman, and you are hungry. Too hungry for your own good, as a matter of fact. You need to guide Willi through the lands he encounters and eat all the cabbages without letting any rocks fall on your head. And you need to do it fast!

Before you start a game, you need to load a world by selecting "Open World..." from the File menu. After loading, select a difficulty level - Practice mode (no time limit), Beginner, Intermediate, or Expert. The time starts running after you first move.

Guide Willi around using the mouse or the keyboard. Willi can move in all eight directions, including diagonally.

If Willi eats the dirt out from under a rock it will fall until it hits a wall, dirt, or a cabbage. If the falling rock(s) hits another rock, it will fall off to the side. If a rock falls on Willi, he dies and you must start over.

In general there are five lands to every world. Watch Out, Willi! saves the fastest times for each land.

Note:	Watch Out, Willi! also lets you design your own lands. Select "Edit World" under the Edit menu.

See Also

Playing the Game

Creating Worlds


Playing the Game

To Load a World

From the File menu, choose Open World. The select the world file (extension .SCR) you wish to load. If you wish to start off on a certain level, choose Play Level > from the Game menu.

Starting a Game

The clock will start when you first move Willi. If you have a game in progress and would like to start a new game, choose New Game from the Game menu or press [F2].

To Move Willi

Click the screen in the desired direction, or use the numeric keypad. If you are using a mouse and do not have Quick Mouse checked in the Options menu, you will need to click once for each square you want Willi to move.

Note:	Willi cannot move diagonally between any combination of walls, rocks, or cabbages. For example, Willi can move diagonally between dirt and rock or dirt and wall, but not between two cabbages or a rock and a wall.

To Eat a Cabbage

To eat a cabbage, simply move Willi over the cabbage. Once you eat the last cabbage Watch Out, Willi! will automatically advance to the next land.

To Push a Rock

You only push one rock at a time, and only if there is nothing on the opposite side of the rock. Even dirt prevents you from pushing a rock. If you push a rock and it falls a distance onto another rock it will fall off to one side.

What Are Those Extra Willi's!?

Sometimes there will be more than one Willi in the land, your "brothers." You can eat them just like cabbages, and you probably should  if a rock falls on one of them, youdie.

See Also

Overview


File Menu Commands

New World

Replaces the current world with 5 blank lands. Only available when in edit mode. If you've made any changes to the current world, Watch Out, Willi! asks if you wish to save your work.

Open World... [Ctrl+O]

Lets you select a new world to either play or edit. If you're in edit move and you've made any changes to the current world, Watch Out, Willi! asks if you wish to save your work.

Save World   [Ctrl+S]

Saves the current world under its current name. If you created the world from scratch and haven't saved yet, WOW opens the Save As... dialog box instead (see below).

Save World As... [Ctrl+N]

Lets you save the current world under a new name. The default extension for WOW world files is ".SCR".

Load New Graphics...

Lets you choose new graphics. Several alternative graphic files are included with WOW.

Exit

Exits WOW

You can exit at any time, even in the middle of a game.

See Also

Creating Worlds

Creating Custom Graphics

Game Menu

Edit Menu

Options Menu

Help Menu


Game Menu Commands

Note: the Game menu is only available when not in edit mode.

New Game [F2]

Resets the current land and stops the timer. The timer starts when you move Willi.

Play Level >

Lets you select to play any of the world's lands. Automatically starts a new game.

Practice Mode

Lets you practice the level without a time limit. After completion, WOW will set you to Beginner mode and urge you to try it again.

Note:	If you are in the middle of a game, switching to Practice Mode will have no effect until you start a new game.

Beginner/Intermediate/Expert

Sets the amount of time you have to finish the level. The defaults are 200 for Beginner, 100 for Intermediate, and 65 for Expert, although some lands may be different. A higher difficulty setting does not give you bonus points or anything like that, it just makes the game harder.

Note:	If you are in the middle of a game, switching to any of the three difficulty settings will have no effect until you start a new game.

Best Times...

Open a dialog box which displays the best times for each of the current world's lands.

See Also

Playing the Game

File Menu

Edit Menu

Options Menu

Help Menu


How to Register

To register this copy of Watch Out, Willi!, send $10 + S&H to:

Chris Nokleberg

4315 Norris Rd.

Fremont, CA  94536

You'll get the latest version, five new worlds, and all the Visual Basic 2.0 code used to create this program.


Edit Menu Commands

Edit World   [Ctrl+E]

Selecting this item switches WOW into edit mode and activates the rest of the menu items in the Edit menu. To switch back to play mode, deselect this menu item.

Undo Changes   [Ctrl+Z]

If you've made any changes since you last saved the current world then this item is selectable.

New Land...

Opens up a dialog box which lets you choose to add a certain number of lands before or after a certain land.

Remove Land

Deletes the current land.

Set Time Limit...

Lets you modify the default time values. If you enter 200, the time limits will be twice as long (200%) of normal; if you enter 50, the time limits will be half as long (50%), and so on.

Land Name...

Prompts you to enter a new name for the current land. If you save the world without entering a name, the land will be called "<untitled>."

See Also

Creating Worlds

File Menu

Game Menu

Options Menu

Help Menu


Options Menu Commands

100% Zoom/200% Zoom

Changes the size of the WOW window. 100% is the smallest window allowed, and is approximately 300 x 180 pixels.

Custom Zoom

Lets you enter a custom percentage for the size of the window. 100 is the smallest value allowed, 800 the largest. The graininess of the graphics increases with window size.

Open on Startup

If this item is selected, the next time you start WOW the Open dialog box will automatically appear.

Save Settings on Exit

If this item is selected, the settings will be saved automatically when you exit the program.

Random Graphics

If this item is selected WOW will choose an alternative set of graphics each time you load a world.

Note: All icon files with an extension of ICO in the current directory will be treated as alternative graphics files.

Quick Mouse

If checked, you do not need to click every time you want Willi to move in a particular direction. Instead, you can simply click and hold where you want Willi to go and he'll follow a straight line there.This is most useful for long, straight movements, because Willi doesn't go around corners very well.

Sound

Toggles the sound effects during gameplay.

Note: Sound is unreliable and doesn't work on all systems.

Save Settings

Immediately saves the current user settings  size of the window, alternate graphics sets, and Option menu settings.

See Also

Creating Custom Graphics

File Menu

Game Menu

Edit Menu

Help Menu


Help Menu Commands

Contents

Opens this help file to the Table of Contents.

Using Help

Explains how to use this help file.

About...

Show information regarding Herby Derby Productions and registration.

See Also

How to Register

File Menu

Game Menu

Edit Menu

Options Menu


Creating Custom Graphics

Using the Load New Graphics command in the File menu you can select a standard icon file (extension ICO) to replace the default graphics of Watch Out, Willi!. Several sample alternative icons are supplied with WOW. The layout of the icon is fairly simple:

The order of each element in the icon is crucial, because if they're out of order you'll end up will walking walls and falling Willi's.


WILLI.INI Initialization File
The Initialization File: WILLI.INI

WILLI.INI, located in your WINDOWS directory, contains all user specification for WOW.

Keyword	Description	Possible Settings
Xmag	Magnification of window horizontally	Minimum 1, maximum 8
Ymag	Magnification of window vertically	Minimum 1, maximum 8
SkillLevel	Current difficulty setting	0 (practice), 1-3 (beg. - expert)
AlternateGraphics	Path of icon file	Full path
OpenOnStartup	State of "Open On Startup" menu item	-1 (checked) or 0 (unchecked)
Sound	State of "Sound" menu item	-1 (checked) or 0 (unchecked)
QuickMouse	State of "Quick Mouse" menu item	-1 (checked) or 0 (unchecked)
RandomGraphics	State of "Random Graphics" menu item	-1 (checked) or 0 (unchecked)
SaveOnExit	State of "Save Settings on Exit" menu item	-1 (checked) or 0 (unchecked)
StartupDir	Open and Save dialog box default path	Full path [and unneeded name]
FILENAME.SCR	Best times for each land (3 digits each)	ex.: 041049037023006
Note:	If you want to load a world at startup, simply add the path and filename of the world to the command line. For instance, to load INDIANA.SCR, the command line would be something like "D:\GAMES\WILLI.EXE  INDIANA.SCR."


Creating Worlds

To create a world, you first need to be in edit mode. To change to edit mode, select Edit World from the Edit menu.

Creating your own world is fairly simple. To draw dirt, rocks, Willi's, cabbages, or walls, simply choose the appropriate button on the editor button bar:

Then, while holding the left mouse button down, drag the pointer around the screen. To erase an object (leaving empty, black space), hold the right mouse button down.

Tips on Creating Lands

When WOW loads worlds, it scans for Willi's, starting in the upper left hand corner and ending in the lower right hand corner. Your Willi (the one you control) is the last one it reads, so be careful when placing more than one Willi.

It is very easy to create a world which is impossible to solve. Avoid mistakes like requiring Willi to go diagonal between two walls (it's not allowed). And make sure that each land has at least one Willi and one cabbage.

The main focus of Watch Out, Willi! are the puzzles, not the time limit. Don't decrease the available time by too much.

See Also

Creating Custom Graphics

Edit Menu