The Pack Rat (c) 1992 - by Steve Blanding Game Documentation System Requirements: The Pack Rat is a 256-color four-way scrolling arcade game. The heavy use of 256 color animation in this game taxes the limits of most computers. As a result, this game requires at least a 386 micro-processor with a VGA compatible graphics card. The game plays best on at least a 25mhz 386. If the game appears sluggish or jerky then you may want to use the F8 key to shrink the game window. Just push F8 while the game is playing. If it still plays too slow, push it again. You might also try removing the score window by pressing F10. If you want to enlarge the game window, push F9. How to Play the Game: In this game, you become The Pack Rat, a debonair little rodent with a predilection for shinny little things. Your goal is to collect as many baubles as you can. As you move through each level, you will face challenges and obstacles as you work to collect baubles and find your mouse hole so that you can advance to the next level. Each level may have more than one mouse hole, each of which will take you to a different level, so make sure you look everywhere or you might miss something. Points are gained by collecting baubles and completing levels. Every time you complete a level you gain 500 points. The various baubles are scored as follows: Buttons.............10 points Silver Coins........25 points Gold Coins..........50 points Cookies............100 points Cheeses............250 points You start the game with three lives and you gain a new life for each 10000 points you score. You loose a life by falling off the bottom of the screen, falling in water, getting electrocuted, getting caught in traps, or being caught by an enemy rat. You control The Pack Rat by using the arrow keys and the CTRL and ALT keys. The left and right arrows move The Pack Rat to the left and right. The CTRL key causes him to jump. The ALT key can be used to push objects -- just hold down the ALT key as you run into the object. You can look up by pressing the up arrow and look down by pressing the down arrow. But be careful when looking down, the down arrow will occasionally dislodge a block you are standing on. A block may also be dislodged if you jump on it too hard or too many times. As a general rule, if there is nothing on the other side of a block, it might not be very solid. Only bricks are so solid that they can never be moved. HINT: Not everything is what it seems. Some things on the screen are illusionary. You can walk right through illusionary bricks and you will not be killed by illusionary water. Illusions often conceal hidden rooms or bonus points. Keys used during game play: F1 - HELP! F2 - toggle sound on/off F3 - pause the game F8 - shrink the game window (do this if the game plays too slowly) F9 - grow the game window (do this if you want to see more at once) F10 - hide the score box (use to gain a little more speed or to see behind it) <- - move left -> - move right up - look up down - look down and possibly dislodge the block beneath you CTRL - jump ALT - push K - kill The Pack Rat (do this if you get stuck) ESC - abort the game How to Build Your Own Levels: To build your own levels, you first need to enter the level editor. The level editor allows you to edit levels one level at a time. Levels are 64 tiles wide and 64 tiles high. They are identified by number and can have any number from 0 to 9999. The game always starts play on level 0. Be warned that if you save a high level, then the editor will create a file that contains space for that level plus every level with a number less than that, whether you have created them or not. Therefore, if you save a level as level number 100 then you will have created a file containing at least 101 levels! That would be an extremely large file. The default levels for The Pack Rat are compressed to save disk space but any levels that you create using the level editor will not be compressed. This can result in some large files so be sure that you have plenty of free disk space if you set out to design your own levels. You build a level by selecting a background color, placing tiles, selecting the Pack Rat's starting position, and saving the level to a file. Press the B key to edit the background color. The number at the bottom of the screen will be highlighted. Use the + or - key to increase or decrease the color value or you can enter the number using the number keys. Press enter when you are satisfied with your selection. Press the V key to select the level you wish to edit. Select the level number the same way as you selected the background color. Once you have selected a level number you can use the S key to save your level in that slot or you can use the L key to load the level that is saved in that slot (if one exists). The F key allows you to enter the name of the file you want to edit. The default name is "PACKRAT". (All level files are saved with the .LVL extension.) To place a tile, first select the tile you want by pressing the key that appears beneath the tile on the menu and then use the arrow keys to move the cursor to the desired location and place the tile with the enter key. To select from the upper row of tiles use the shift key. Press the space bar to clear your selection (enabling you to erase tiles with the enter key). When you place a mouse hole you will see a number in the upper left hand corner of the mouse hole. This number is the level that will be reached when the player goes through this mouse hole. Put the cursor over the number and press the + or - key to change this number. Press F1 within the level editor for a help menu. Press Q to leave the level editor and return to the main menu. About The Pack Rat: This game was begun in the fall of 1991 as a test-bed for a new graphics engine that I was developing in my spare time. Now, more than a year later, the game sports a completely different graphics engine and the game has steadily evolved in to what you see before you. Because The Pack Rat was never really intended to be more than a test-bed for my graphics engine, some details such as sound card support, joystick support, and mouse support were left out. I debated whether I should even release this project but I finally decided that in spite of its short comings it turned out to be a rather entertaining game. I figured that I might as well share it with the world and let you enjoy it too. As it turns out, The Pack Rat is not really a very good showcase for the graphics engine that runs under the hood. The graphics engine is actually capable of performing much more complex animation without serious degradation of performance. I intend to move on to much more exciting projects now that I'm done working on The Pack Rat. How to Register: The Pack Rat is being distributed under a concept called shareware. This is a copyrighted program; however permission is granted to freely copy and distribute this program so long as the following conditions are met: 1. This program must always be distributed with the following files: PACKRAT.EXE -- the code for the game PACKRAT.001 -- the default levels (encrypted) PACKRAT.TXT -- this documentation REGISTER.FRM -- the registration form 2. The program and its accompanying files may not be reverse-engineered, modified, decompiled, altered or tampered with in any way. If you have enjoyed this game, you are encouraged to register it with the author by sending $10 along with a completed copy of the registration form to the following address: Steve Blanding 8501 Willows Rd. #222 Redmond, WA 98052 In return for your registration, you will receive the most up to date version of this game (which includes the level editor) in addition to any other shareware programs the author may have released. Disclaimer: This game is an independent work that is not affiliated with any software publishing organization. The author assumes no responsibility for any damages that might be caused by the execution of this program.