Hector Vs. the Mutant Vampire Tomatoes from Hell

                HECTOR vs The Mutant Vampire Tomatoes from Hell
                -----------------------------------------------
                                       By
                                 Pete J. Whitby

Files that should be present:

 \hector\ hector.prg               Main game
          hector.dat               Level info
          read.me                  This file

 There may also be an optional file: 'hiscores.inf'


          _oO The 'It wasn't me, I didn't do it, Not my fault' Bit Oo_

This game has been tested pretty extensively, by both myself & some buddys, and
has found to be fine,  HOWEVER,  I  cannot  be  held responsable for any damage
incurred through using it. If it somehow trashes your disk, then 'snot my fault
! ALWAYS play from a backup & NEVER  remove the disk when its being written to.
It should work fine  on  hard  drives.  (Havn't  actually  checked this, but no
reason why it shouldn't. Works fine from a ramdisk.)

                                _oO LOADING Oo_

If running from the desktop:
The files 'HECTOR.PRG' & 'HECTOR.DAT' need to  be in the same folder. Make sure
that the disk write protect is OFF (Ie, so  you can see through the hole in the
corner of the disk) and double click on 'HECTOR.PRG' to start. After loading in
the level data, it will attempt to load the hiscore info in. If not found, then
it will use the default table & save it to disk.

Running from an AUTO folder:
Hector can be made to auto boot by  creating a folder called 'AUTO' on the root
area of the disk and placing 'HECTOR.PRG'  in it. 'HECTOR.DAT' should remain in
the root directory.

                                    *NOTE*
If you have a half meg ST, then  I  recommend  running from AUTO. If you do run
from the desktop, then you  will  probably  have  to  disable any accessorys or
anything else thet eats up any memory.

                            _oO GAME OBJECTIVES Oo_

The object of each level is to guide Hector around and destroy all the tomatoes
that are hopping/crawling around. This can be  done in a variety of ways, which
will be detailed later. Simple Huh !?

                           _oO CONTROLLING HECTOR Oo_

All movement is made with a joystick in port 1. I've tried to make the controls
as intuitive as possible, but it may take time to master them!

1: Moving about.
Joystick UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT, with no  fire  pressed,  will  move  Hector in the
corresponding direction. Pressing UP will make  Hector jump, unless He's over a
ladder in which case he'll go  up  the  ladder.  DOWN  will  make him go down a
ladder if he's over one.

2: Digging.
Yup, concealed somewhere on our hero's blue  body is a shovel. By pressing fire
and UP you can dig a hole, while  fire+DOWN  will fill in a hole. Note that you
can only dig in certain places. It's up to you to discover which ones.

3: Shooting.
During the game you may  pick  up  varios  weapons.  These are used by pressing
fire+LEFT/RIGHT. If you  happen  to  be  in  the  air,  then  Pressing fire+any
direction will use it. Shots are directed UP if you're in the air (Ie, jumping)
Try it. It's easy when you know how!

                               _oO TOMATOES Oo_

Each level has been invaded by ruthless mutant vampire tomatoes, It is your job
to exterminate these scumballs any way you can.

1: Bury 'em !
This is the main way of dealing  with  rogue  tomatoes.  Dig a hole (Fire + UP,
repeat a few times so that there  is  a  hole  in  the platform) and wait for a
tomato to fall in it. Filling in  this  hole  (Fire + DOWN, several times) will
cause the beastie to fall through and  go splut. Strike 1 tomato. Some tomatoes
are quite tough, and may have to fall  quite a long way before dying. For these
you will need to dig several holes directly below each other, wait for a tomato
to get trapped in the top one  and  bash  it  so  that it falls through all the
holes.
WARNING ! some tomatoes can escape from holes if left trapped for long enough.

2: Shoot 'em !
Certain types of gun  will  kill  tomatoes.  They  generally need multiple hits
before they bite  the  big  one.  Other  guns  will  'freeze'  tomatoes, Frozen
tomatoes can be killed by digging holes under them. The third type of gun fires
'mines' that slide along the ground. If a  mine  hits a tomato, then it blows a
hole in the platform immediatly  below  it,  hopefully  trapping it at the same
time.

3: Bounce on 'em !
Falling on a tomato's head from a reasonable height will kill 'em. You may need
to do this several times to  kill  them  outright.  The further you fall before
hitting the target, the more damage you inflict on it.


                               _oO Power-Ups Oo_

When you kill a tomato, it  will  leave  behind  a bonus of some kind. Spinning
coins are worth points. (100  or  200  for  silver,  300  for red). Weapons are
usually displayed as blue egg things  with  a  flashing icon or letter on them.
Take a look at the intro screen to  see  what they look like, this is what they
do.

                                      Gun
Fires green blob thing. Shoot tomatoes with it !

                                     Mines
Like gun, but shots don't harm beasties directly, instead, they slide along the
ground and explode when they hit one  and  blow  a hole in the ground. With any
luck the tomato will get trapped at the  same time, allowing you to go over and
slap it one.

                                    Ice Gun
If a tomato is hit  by  an  ice  pellet,  it  will  'freeze' for a few seconds.
(Enslaving it in an icecube). If you dig  a hole underneath it while frozen, it
will shatter & kill the tomato inside. Also,  try zapping a tomato with it when
its in the air, or on a ladder.

                                     P.O.W.
Any tomatoes over diggable  platforms  when  you  touch  this  will get trapped
automaticly. Rush around quick and do for 'em before they escape.

                                   Invinsable
Makes you imune to tomtoes (and  falling)  for  a  while.  You can still die by
falling on spikes & stuff though.

                                    Hi-Jump
Makes you jump really high. Usefull for jumping over / on top of tomatoes.

Each of these power ups only last for a limited amount of time, a warning alarm
will sound shortly before the time runs out

                              _oO Hints & Tips Oo_

Study the tomatoes. There are four main types: Male, Female, Queen & Berzerker.
How they react together can be important ....

Try digging a hole underneath an egg ('dropping' it)

If your timing is spot on, try  'dropping'  a trapped tomato on top of another,
moving, tomato.

When jumping on tomatoes, the further you  fall, the more damage you inflict on
it. So try jumping off from high  places  (But  make sure you don't miss !) You
may need to jump on 'em several times

You can't be killed if you are stuck  or  trapped  in a hole, and if a tom hops
over you when dangling from  a  hole,  then  you  will  drop  through ! This is
important on later levels !

Try 'Freezing' a tomato when it's airbourne (Ie, jumping) or when it's climbing
a ladder.

                            _oO Technical Corner Oo_

        The game runs at 16 odd frames per  second pretty well all of the time.
Samples are played throughout (5 khz, Not brill  quality but best I could do on
an FM without loosing  too  much  speed)  Everything  is  written in 100% 68000
machine code with Devpac 2  and  was  a  real  bugger  to assemble (Even with 2
drives) The editor used to make the levels was also written in 68000 and sports
a real cool custom windows  environment  (Not  GEM  !)  that took longer to get
working that the actual game. Its really  easy  to  use, and I think you should
get yourself a copy and start creating your own levels. See below for details.

        During play you should keep the  write  protect  OFF. This is so it can
write the hiscore to disk. If it finds it  can't do this it gets all uppity and
sulks. To reset the hiscore  table  just  erase 'hiscores.inf' or select 'reset
hiscores' from the options menu. If anyone  out  there knows how the HELL I can
detect whether the disk write protect is on or off via machine code then PLEASE
write and tell me how !!!

        The game is based on the  old  Arcade  game 'Space Panic' Although I've
warped it beyond recognition  Behind  the  simple  exterior,  there is actually
quite a complicated game engine behind  it.  It  took  ages to get the beasties
acting in a reasonably intelligent manner  &  interacting with each other. I've
always admired Andy Braybrook (Paradriod/Fire+Ice) and  always liked the way he
made his beasties interact with the  scenery and each other intelligently. I've
tried to do something similar here. Wasn't totally unsuccesful either !

                         _oO Send me your Moular !! Oo_

        Okay, this is usually the part of the read.me file where us authors try
to beg and scrounge some dosh  of  you.  Actually,  I'm not gonna do that. This
software is FREE to the PUBLIC. You can  copy it/spread it as much as you want.
Please feel free to write to me for any reason, I love getting mail !

However, For a small fee, I will  send  you  the  Editor used to create all the
levels in the game. Its really easy to  use and has lots of really nice windows
and stuff flying about. It even comes  with a nice printed manual with diagrams
and stupid piccys all over it. Well worth the dosh if your interested in making
your own levels. You also get the 1 meg version of Hector as well.

In a desperate attempt to scrape even  more  dosh together, I am also releasing
the source code. There's about 1.5 meg of  source & grapix & samples, all fully
commented and with seperate docs  explaining  how  it  all works. You'll need 2
drives, or a hard drive to assemble to disk,  and at least 1 meg to assemble to
memory. (You can just about get by with 1  drive, but be prepared for a load of
swapping !)

                                _oO Prices: Oo_

6œ5.00 Cool Editor, with printed manual + loads of examples
6œ5.00 Source code. Expands to 2 disks full of nice source & grafix
6œ8.00 Both of 'em. Editor & Source code.

                  Please make any cheques out to: 'P. Whitby'

If you want the 1 meg version  of  Hector  with  either of the above, then just
                     send me a blank disk with the cheque.

You can write to me (Either to get hold of the above, or just to say Hi !) at:

                                  P. J. Whitby
                                  18 Woodgrove Rd
                                  Henbury
                                  Bristol
                                  AVON
                                  BS10 7RE

Please, no phone callz, unless its to offer me loads of cash !

                                _oO CREDITS Oo_

Game Code, Graphics, Sound F/X ..... Pete Whitby
Additional Graphics + Beer     ..... Stu G.

Music+Music replay             ..... Jochen Hippel

Special Thanx to:              ..... Tony Bennet (UNT)
                               ..... Camy Maertens
                               ..... P.H.F



                                   Cheerio !!
                                    PjW 1993