Crackman in the search for his dealer
betarelease 1.1
a game by TNH
[TNH]
TNH, pronounce Teenage, consist of:
Phenomenon, coder,
TiNKer, graphic artist,
AntiLamah, musician, imaginary member.
See below for addresses.
[About Crackman]
Crackman is yet another game based upon the legendary 'Pacman', though this
clone has, unlike others, some extra features to keep your eyes aimed at
your monitor. Ermm, hopefully, that is. The game is still under development,
so check out our homepage for updates! (See below for the URL)
[HitWare(TM)]
All versions of Crackman, including thisone, are being released as
HitWare(TM)(Keurmerk)(Har, har). This sounds like shit, and there are
probably many people outthere who, while lying on the floor laughing, would
love to take their texteditor and change this into 'ShitWare'. In my
opinion, it would be very hard to do this while freaking around on the
floor, so I guess I'll just explain what it is all about. It's easy! To get
the latest version of Crackman, just visit our home page and download it.
And do not forget to sign the guestbook, otherwise Crackman won't work.
(Yeah right.) Now that is HitWare(TM)!
[The story of Crackman]
Ezekiel 25:17.
"The path of the righteous man is beset on
all sides by the inequities of the selfish and
the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the
name of charity and good will, shepherds the
weak through the valley of darkness, for he is
truly his brother's keeper and the finder
of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee
with great vengeance and furious anger those
who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers.
And you will know my name is the Lord
when I lay my vengeance upon you."
(From Pulp Fiction, 1994)
After a few years of enormous success, Pacman discovered the different
aspects of life...
His money didn't make him feel happy anymore, and he wanted to have some
excitement in his life. He decided to sell his cheesy appartment in Sillicon
Valley, and after two years of moving around different places throughout the
world, he finally settled in this relatively small town called Amsterdam.
He lived there happily for three years, got married and made lots of new
friends, when one day, when he was walking through the streets of the
red-light district, his appartment was broken into. When he came home, he
was shocked.
Not by the fact that his house was ruined, though. No, money wasn't the big
issue here. It was his wife, MS. P. who was lying there, in the kitchen. But
they found parts of her in the livingroom, too. The case still remains to be
solved. 'I'm sorry', said the doctor. There's nothing left for us to do.'
These were the words that changed the course of life for a once famous game
star.
First there was the alcohol. Litteraly litres where consumed each day by
our yellow hero. And then, on a sunday afternoon, drugs also became a part
of his life. He got addicted to it as rapidly as the youth did back in the
eighties with 'Pacman'. He bought his drugs from Peter ver Dovend, the local
dealer, who was selling 100 milligrams of crack for the same price as a
happy-meal. Pacman loved his crack, and it weren't the Resevoir Gods this
time to come up with a nice comedy title. A nearby living junkie, who
played Pacman a lot when he was a kid, soon 'doped' Pacman into Crackman.
'Har, har' responded Pacman when he kicked the fucker against his left knee.
But from that day he would be known as 'Crackman'.
On a rainy wednesday, after a long night on the cold streets of Amsterdam,
Crackman woke up late noon, with a strange feeling in his head. 'Damn!' he
shouted. He had been clean for nine hours, so it sure was time for some
crack. He walked to Peter's Crack Premises, knocked on the door twice,
shouted 'Goddamn!' and extended his middle finger to the closed door in
front of him. There was nobody there. The next day, when Crackman was
getting more and more frustrated there was nobody there either. Neither was
there two days later. He gazed through the window of the house, and, after
his eyes had adapted to the darkness, he could see a calendar on the wall
next to the television set. Saturday the first. That was three days ago! A
few days later, when there was still nobody there, Crackman freaked out. He
spit on the window eighty-four times, jumped around making chipsound noises
and screamed 'SEGA rules!' when he crossed the street. Then, finally, he got
himself together, and constructed a plan.
He decided to go search for his dealer.
[System requirements]
Crackman ITSFHD requires at least an STE with 1 MB of free RAM, and is also
Falcon compatible.
[What can Crackman do?]
This version has the following features: (in psycho-pathetical order)
* [UCDM(by Blade/NewCore)-based soundsystem -new!-], providing 4
channel stereo music and sound, even while playing. Note that
unlike 'Bombaman', the sound is not pre-emptive-priorised. (Sick
joke no. 829A :-))
* [Hardware scrolling]
* [Blitter sprites]
* [Blood], it's red and the ghosts love it!
* [AI ghosts], according to MrPink the ghosts are intelligent. Hmmm!
* [Mines], ghosts think these are candy. Wrong.
* [Drugs], Crackman likes to be hyper-active. Weeeeeh!
* [Bugs], (just sounds cool after 'drugs').
* [Hidden levelparts -new!-], with extra bonuses.
[Installing the game]
Extract the CRACKMAN.ZIP file on a disk or on your harddisk with enough free
space. This will create a directory called 'CRACKMAN' with two files in it:
CRACKMAN.PRG - The executable.
READ_ME.TXT - This text.
But it seems you already did this...
Get a beer. (...)
Now smash the left mousebutton twice while pointing at the 'CRACKMAN.PRG'
executable to start it.
[Play!]
After the game has loaded, the title screen appears, and if you wait a few
seconds, there will even be some credits! No fancy shit, though. Just kick
Fire B or spacebar to start playing, or press ESC if you are a lamer.
When the new game begins, you start off in level 1. Duh. If you have your
eyes open, you can clearly see a creature coming towards you. Don't panic,
it can't reach you while you are standing on the startingpoint.
Guide Crackman through his cruel world by using either the keypad or a
Joypad. There's nothing special about this, pressing the right button steers
Crackman to the right direction, for instance to the 'left'. Har har! In
some levels you can pick up a small device called a 'mine'. You will hear a
weird sound when you pick it up. To lay it down, hit spacebar or Fire B.
>>Don't try to eat ghosts, 'coz you can't!<<
If a ghost gets you, he'll eat you. Slowly. You'll start again at the
starting point, a cross indicates where exactly this is. The ghosts now lose
their intelligence, and just walk through the level at random. If you press
fire, you can play again. >>Be careful with your timing!<<
The aim of each level is to eat all normal and normal bonus pills in it.
Special bonuses etc. don't need to be picked up.
These are all the things Crackman can pick up:
* [Normal bonus pills], Crackman needs these as an alternative for
his Crack.
* [Bonus pills], these give some more points than a normal pill.
* [SPEED pills], makes Crackman move like F1-man.
* [Mines], a ghost on a mine is like a fish in the Rhine.
* [Extra life], one less way to die!
* [Special bonus pill], for lots of score.
Some levels contain hidden parts, ie. a secret room full off goodies to
collect or just a way through a wall, to avoid those nasty ghosts. In some
levels it's even required to go through such a wall. So keep looking, there
are nice things to discover!
[Contact us!]
If you want to report all those ugly bugs you discovered, join TNH, like
beer or just want to say 'hello!', please contact me (Phenomenon):
Via email: fenomeen@dds.nl
Via IRC, #atariscne and #atari: ph3n0
If you think the current levels are crap, or if you want to create new
levels, there is a leveleditor available. Just mail me about it. New
Crackman releases might just include YOUR LEVEL! Oh joy. ...
To get the latest Crackman release visit our homepage:
http://tnh.atari.org
and sign the Guestbook if possible.
[Now]
...load this game and try to enjoy it. Try harder!
/ÿÿÿ /
/ Phenomenon of TNH Teenage, 17-09-1998 /
/ ___/