Squirmer Help

Introduction and Overview

Playing

Menus

Controlling Your Ship

More About Squirmer


Scorpion

This is the Scorpion, who occasionally scurries across the screen.


Introduction

Squirmer is a cool game that brings the speed and fun of a Centipede-like adventure to Windows.  If you have played Centipede before, you will probably not need any instruction to play, but Squirmer has a lot of improvements over Centipede, so it would probably do you some good to find out what's new.

When you play Squirmer, you'll see something like this:

Click on different parts of the picture to see what each thing is.


Squirmer

This is the Squirmer, your arch-enemy.


Mushrooms

These are Mushrooms, which confuse the centipede.


Snail

This is a Snail, who gives you special powers.


Cocoon

This is a Cocoon, that your friend the butterfly has dropped.


Butterfly

This is the Butterfly, DO NOT SHOOT IT.


Spider

This is the Spider, and he will kill you.


Mini-Spaceship

This is your Mini-Spaceship, your vehicle among the critters.


Flea

This is a Flea, a sower of mushroom spores.


Score

This is where your score is tabulated.


Level Indicator

This is where you look to see what level of play you have battled to.


Remaining Ships

You start out Squirmer with the mini-spaceship you are flying, plus 3 in reserve.  This indicator shows how many ships you have left.


Title Bar

This tells you that you are playing Squirmer.


Menu Bar

This bar contains the menus you use to configure, start, and learn about Squirmer.


Window Control Menu

This is the usual menu which allows you to move, close, or minimize Squirmer.


Minimize Button

This downward facing arrow lets you minimize Squirmer so you can answer your mail, or whatever.


Playing Squirmer

You and your spaceship have been miniaturized by cosmic rays containing shrinkons and cast into a garden by the sneeze of a family member.  You land in a mushroom patch, dank and pungent.  Beyond the mushrooms, you see a rustling movement through the swaying tree-like fronds of grass.  It comes a little closer, and you are horrified to note that it is a Squirming monster, with segment after segment of hideous appendages, and it is coming after you.

But what is this to the left?  It's a gigantic spider, as big as a house, but not quite as friendly.  You clear away a few of the mushrooms, but along comes a nasty, industrious flea, who likes to plant mushrooms.  Your only hope is to start shootin' and keep shootin until the bugs stop coming.  The problem is, there are about a million times as many bugs in the world as there are people, especially shrunken people like you.

It'll be a tough fight, but you aren't totally alone.  Once in a while a snail pops up from behind a mushroom and rewards your courage by granting you special powers.  You may see a scorpion now and then, too.  Occasionally, a butterfly flaps by and drops cocoons which are a deadly weapon against your evil insect foes.

So, with nothing else to do at this size, you dive into the fray, hoping to make those bugs wish they hadn't tangled with such an intrepid mushroom-patch warrior.  Leave the fly swatter.


Menus

Game

New Game

Pause Squirmer

High Scores

Exit Squirmer

Options

Input

Animation Speed

Sounds Enabled

Help

Squirmer Help

About Squirmer

Registration


Controlling Your Ship

There are three ways to control your mini-spaceship as you pilot it through the deadly underbrush:

Joystick:  The stick moves your ship in the usual way, and the primary button fires.  You must configure your joystick for it to work with any Windows game, including Squirmer.

Keyboard:  If you are one of the brave souls who likes the feel of keys under your fingers, here's the way it is.  the arrow keys move you in the implied direction and the spacebar fires.

Mouse:  Simply move the mouse to move your ship and fire with your primary mouse button.  One word of caution:  if you move the mouse cursor out of Squirmer's window, your ship will not move until you get it back into the window.


Those Crazy Joysticks

If you are having trouble with your joystick, or if the joystick option in the Input popup menu is incorrectly grayed, here is the most probable way to set everything straight:

To use a joystick with Squirmer, it is highly recommended that you have a Windows joystick driver.  One that is free and which works is the file IBMJOY.ZIP, which can be acquired from many anonymous ftp sites.  This program will configure your joystick to run with Squirmer.


More About Squirmer

Squirmer was written by Christopher Cifra.

The graphics and sounds were engineered by Aaron Washington.

This help file was written by John Chiaverini.

It is our hope that you enjoy Squirmer.  If this is the case and you want to see more games like it, please support us by checking out what you can do in the Registration menu item under Help.  Thank you for playing Squirmer.


Christopher Cifra

Email:  cgc3@po.cwru.edu


Aaron Washington

Email:  ajw7@po.cwru.edu


John Chiaverini

Email:  jac17@po.cwru.edu


New Game Menuitem

This option begins a new game of Squirmer.  You can also hit "n" on the keyboard to start a new game.


Pause Squirmer Menuitem

This option toggles the pause mode in Squirmer.  When this option is checked, the game will be paused.  To resume play, uncheck the menuitem, or hit "p" on the keyboard.


High Scores Menuitem

This option brings up a dialog box which lists the ten highest scores achieved on your copy of Squirmer.  This dialog box contains the names of the players who have made it into the top ten, along with their scores.  The Reset Scores button resets the top ten scores to zero.


Input Menuitem

This option brings up a popup menu which allows you to choose the method with which you control your Mini-Spaceship.  The choices are Use Joystick, Use Mouse, and Use Keyboard.  Only one of these options may be selected at a time.


Exit Squirmer Menuitem

This option quits Squirmer and unloads it from memory.


Animation Speed Menuitem

This option brings up a dialog box which allows you to change Squirmer's animation delay if it is too slow or too fast on your computer.


Sounds Enabled Menuitem

When this option is checked, you will hear all of Squirmer's sound effects.  Sounds are enabled by default.


About Squirmer Menuitem

This option brings up a dialog box which contains information about the authors of Squirmer.


Registration Menuitem

This option brings up a dialog box which tells you what you can do to show your appreciation for Squirmer.


Squirmer Help Menuitem

This option starts this help file.


Squirmer

Point Value:  10 per segment

Comments:  This is your constant nemesis, the Squirmer.  When this segmented meanie runs into a mushroom, he turns around.  When you hit a segment, it turns into a mushroom.  If you split him into two or more pieces, each piece goes its own way, so look out.


Mushrooms

Point Value:  1

Comments:  You must hit a mushroom 3 times to destroy it.  When you hit a segment of the Squirmer, it turns into a mushroom.


Butterfly

Point Value:  -20

Comments:  This guy is your friend, so don't shoot him.  He comes across the screen from time to time dropping cocoons, which help you defeat the baddies.


Cocoon

Point Value:  0

Comments:  The butterfly drops these to aid your cause.  If you shoot one, it explodes into a flurry of bullets to destroy your enemies.


Spider

Point Value:  100

Comments:  Now here's one mean garden-dweller.  He chases after you, and doesn't give up until you get rid of him.  The spider gets faster as the game progresses.


Flea

Point Value:  50

Comments:  This guy is a real sower of seeds.  He flies down at you, planting mushrooms in his wake.  This can clog the garden up considerably.


Scorpion

Point Value:  200

Comments:  The scorpion does not appear until the fifth level, and he scurries across the screen quite quickly.  You get a lot of points if you can track him down, though.


Mini-Spaceship

This is your ship, which you pilot through the mushroom patch.  It is equipped with a gun, but you gotta be quick to hit all the critters who are after you.  From time to time, you may see a snail pop up.  If you hit it, your ship will get one of three special powers (randomly assigned) for a limited time:

Spread Gun:  This gives your ship a gun which fires three bullets a shot, instead of one, and they spread out for more effective bug blastin'.

Laser:  This gives your ship the power of a laser.  When it is fired, it goes through everything, burning bugs rather effectively.  Your bullets look like a red laser beam when you have the laser.

Invincibility:  This will make your ship impenetrable.  No enemy can harm you while your ship is invincible.  Your ship looks like this while you have this power:

You can have only one special power at a time.


Snail

Point Value:  0

Comments:  This critter is your best friend.  He pokes his head above a mushroom every once in a while, and if you shoot his mushroom while he's on it, he'll give you special powers to help you defeat your foes.