Factorman
---------

Released status unknown: Game seems very simplistic - possibly incomplete
Copyright 1983 Miles Laboratories, Inc.
by L. K. McNamara
Anidata, Inc.
Blackwood, NJ

Title screen says: (C) 1983 Cutter Biological
then: Set Skill Level (1 to 9)

Gameplay
--------

You control Factorman in a room with three exits (?) at the top of the room denoted by question marks. Bottom left of screen shows your score and bottom right shows number of lives.

Move Factorman with your joystick and press the fire button to release your ball. Once released, the ball will bounce off the walls until it hits Factorman or enters one of the three exits. If the ball enters an exit, one of three things will happen:
- The exit will close and the ball will begin / continue bouncing
- The exit will close with a red bar and you will lose 500 points (if you have them)
- You will enter a maze where you will earn points and a bonus for reaching the finish

If you enter the maze, your block will move along the maze by itself, the only control you seem to have is at a junction point. If your block enters a dead end, the maze portion will end and you will go back to the room.

If the ball hits you (Factorman), you will see an injury message and see a bottle of blood (?) at the bottom right. Follow the on-screen prompts. If you see the message "Get Factor", you must move Factorman to the bottle before time runs out. At this point, you will be shown a short medical / biology presentation. After the lesson, you will notice you have lost a life and be returned to the room.

Notes
-----

The medical presentation seems to be the same every time which can become tedious and boring although it seems you can press the START key to advance through it. Another reason to suspect this is an unfinished prototype.

At the higher levels, once you release the ball, Factorman moves at an incredibly slow pace leading to him usually being hit. In addition, the maze portion is sped up.

Also on the higher levels, you are shown multiple choice questions after the presentation, although it doesn't seem to affect the outcome as to losing a life.

Looking through the .car file with a hex editor seems to show there are only four questions in the game. Another sign of an early release / prototype?

The previous owner has no recollection of where he / his family obtained the game. We inquired as to any relation to Cutter Biological, Miles Laboratories, Anidata or the author, L. K. McNamara but there was none.

Archived - National Videogame Museum (J. Hardie) 5/22/2023
