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Hello again! Welcome to Megapede 1.1-SW (C) 1992 Robert Dytmire. This
program is SHAREWARE and may be distributed freely as long as the two
.DOC files are UNCHANGED and INCLUDED with the program. These Docs are
split into two sections. 1) Playing Megapede and 2)Techie Talk 2.0.
The is another .DOC file on registering megapede, please read it.
1.1 Vs 1.0
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Version 1.0-SW of Megapede is best regarded as a Beta version. I
apologize to anybody who go ahold of it. Vr 1.1 fixes the following
bugs and adds some more features. NOTE: Vr 1.1 will NOT run correctly
with vr. 1.0's support files. Delete the old files!!
* The man will no longer be trapped by mushrooms during a growth
wave.
* The fleas will not overlay onto DDT's nor will they lay those
weird mushrooms on the lower left corner of the screen.
* The speed of the game has been set to 3 Vsyncs for overall
smoothness and playability. The child's mode has been changed to
4 Vysncs.
* The Child's Mode has fewer things coming at you and more leeway
versus timing than vr 1.0.
* There is now an extra life sound effect song.
* The Med/Low res flip problems are resolved.
* The sampled sound now cuts off during select level.
* DDT shutdown problems have now been corrected.
* Big Bug's pattern flicker has been resolved.
* The display was changed into a more logical (if not more eye-
pleasing) format. This allows for the registered version to have
more compatability.
* More mushrooms were added for better(?) visuals.
* The game has had a LOT of internal bug fixes. This is not
noticable unless you get the registered version.
Thanks go out to Dave Munsie and Ari Feldman for thier help in
troubleshooting and playtesting this game.
1: Playing Megapede
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Megapede requires 1 meg of memory. It plays from med or low res but not
on a mono system. It SHOULD run just fine on a Mega STE,TT and all
versions of TOS but I will not guarantee this 'cause I can't test for
anything but the STE and TOS 1.6.
Playing: The Joystick in port 1 controls movement. You cannot move
your man through a mushroom or flower and your movement is restricted to
the lower third of the screen. The fire button starts the game and
fires your shots. You have only one shot at a time.
If you happen to have Version 1.5-REG of Megapede then the 2nd player
can start the game and play with a joystick in Port 0. BOTH players are
active AT THE SAME TIME for twice the action!!!
DDT: To help increase your firepower you can shoot the various DDT
bottles on the screen. When hit, it will explode into a large cloud of
posion that will kill everything that hit's it. You can only have 1 DDT
exploding at a time (More would really slow down the game!) so the game
will ignore all DDT hits during a smoke cloud. This is NOT a collision
error.
Pieces: The mushroom come in two flavors, posioned and regular.
Posioned mushrooms will send a Megapede segment rushing to the bottom of
the screen. Note the color change of the Megapede when it hits a
posioned mushroom. The flower is created from regular mushrooms by the
Ladybug. It is invincible and cannot be shot through. Spiders, Ants
and DDT clouds will effect Flowers. Bees really like flowers.
Creatures
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Megapede- This multisegmented creature will move back and forth across
the screen. When shot, it will create it's own mushroom. When it hits
a posioned mushroom it will go crazy and drop like a rock. The megapede
will also regenerate segments once it gets to the bottom so watch out!
Mushroom Mite- These creatures drop down laying Mushrooms as they go.
These creature speed up every time they are hit and take three hits to
kill. Don't get too close when trying to tackle one.
Spider- This creature is the only one that can come from below the
screen to get you. It's value varies depending on how close you are to
it when you shoot it. They eat Mushrooms and Flowers so sometimes they
can be helpful.
Bee- This creature swings back and forth searching for a flower. When
it finds one it dives straight down in glee.
Silverfish-Move diagonally back and forth. This creature tends to end
up killing you more often than not. Be careful!
Inchworm-This creature crawls accross the screen posioning mushrooms.
It's worth quite a bit to kill one.
Snail-This creature crawls slowly accross the screen. When hit the
Megapede will slow down to a crawl. VERY helpful on upper levels.
(NOTE: The Megapede segments will NOT slow down until it's next bounce)
Ant-This creature moves from one side of the screen to the other
charging flowers to mushrooms.
Spiker-This creature is REALLY dangerous!!! It takes 6 shots to kill and
it speeds up with every shot. It's best not to try for this guy.
Swarm Waves- Every 4th level is a Swarm Wave. This is a good time to
clear mushrooms and gain lives.
Big Bosses- Every 10th Level has a Big Boss creature. Every time you
are hit by a Big Boss you are immune for about 2 sec. USE this to your
advantage!! Some bosses re-generate parts of themselves if you wait
too long.
Every creature has it's own special sound. Learn it, as the upper
levels will not allow you to see every launch. (You'll be too busy!)
If you get beyond level 40 then the game gets even harder, Mushroom
Mites lay more mushrooms, The megapede takes more hits to kill, ect..
The Child mode will slow the whole game down, increase the shot's effect
area (Making it easier to hit stuff) and limit the amount of things
attacking the player. This mode has a seperate high score table so you
hot shots won't take advantage of the easier game.
Selecting a higher start level will NOT get you more DDT's but it WILL
give you a cleaner board.
2) Techie Talk 2.0
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Oh how the winds of fate change! I had decided to finish DROPIX ST 1st
and then Cyberdroid and THEN Megapede. But after I finished the Beta
version of Dropix ST I recieved word that my samples may be held up (I
STILL haven't recieved them!). I decided to get a good start on
Megapede and ended up finishing it!!! So instead of Dropix, I'm
writting the Docs for Megapede. To all registered users of Mrs.
Munchie, don't despair! Dropix is finished and simply awaiting some
sampled sound before I release it.
Speaking of Registered users, THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH!!! I have had a
great response (Considering U.K. users have not been able to participate
until now..more on this) to Mrs. Munchie. If you don't have vr. 1.40-SW
of Mrs. Munchie GET IT, I have fixed all movement bugs in this latest
version. If the poor control turned you off in the older versions, try
Mrs. Munchie again with the improved control and REALLY enjoy it!
Dropix is really neat, although the smaller kids in the Beta test group
had a lot of trouble with the Attack menu. For those who haven't heard,
Dropix is a 2 player Tetris clone that allows you to collect power rocks
and use them to throw different powers at your opponent (Sort of Tetris
meets Gods!). The game will have a sampled, sequenced, soundtrack
playing to keep you company.
Ok, there's more....
Megapede is the fastest thing I've written yet, I hope you enjoy it.
The Game is running 33 16x10 4 bit-plane fully clipped sprites with a
190 scan line background redraw and collison checking and no less than 3
VSYNCS. The game runs at 2 VSYNCS most of the time, only slowing down
to 3 when I go over 30 sprites or so. Not bad for GFA Basic, huh?
Well, Ok.. I am using DSA's new GP Graphics engine to help me along.
This product should take the ST world by storm!! Finally you can get
some REAL speed in an environment that's easy to use. NOTE: For more on
VSYNCS see my DOC file with Mrs. Munchie...most experienced programmers
will know what I mean and should be impressed. The game will NOT slow
down with two players at the same time, even though this adds two more
sprites and two more collision checks to the game.
As an aside, GFA Basic is really slowing me down in this game. The Move
Megapede routine is a real drag, with a couple of if-thens per segment
(If you don't already know it, If-thens should be avoided at all costs
during game design).
This game has no hidden screens like Mrs. Munchie (which has 8 NOT
including the "Treat Mazes"). I just didn't think they belonged in a
game of this type..I hope you agree. For those of you still wondering
how to access the hidden screens on Mrs. Munchie just eat two unusual
things last, say two power pills or a dot then a power pill. These
screens will really show off the depth of my previous game.
I would like to support the Falcon with quality shareware but I am leery
of investing $1500.00 or so to purchase a system that users may not
support. I think Atari is making a halfway decent move with this new
system, it's about time that they joined the SVGA world and jumped ahead
on computer design again. The ST/STE systems a very solid but the
displays look a bit dated...the time has come to get back into some real
power computing. Let me know if you plan to support the Falcon.
Now for the greetings:
All my supporters: Thanks Again!!!
ST Format: Hope you like this one better.
All ST USERS: Support you shareware!!
Cory Chapman:Still don't know where you are!
MACE: Thanks for the nice meeting guys!
PHAST: My Atari Home.
DEMO Groups: Please send new demos my way!!
User Groups: You can get a copy of my latest game for FREE...contact me!
BBS's: See Above.
Disk Mags: If you want to publish this game...please drop me a line
(Mike Goodman will help you out if time is a question).
Goodman's: The BEST shareware house in the U.K.!!
Mr. Minter: LookouthereIcome! Your still the man to beat!
Techie note: This game runs FASTER in 60hz than 50Hz. This is because
it runs at 2 VSYNCS in both 50 and 60Hz and I limit the Max speed of the
game to 2 VSYNCS. This goes against traditional thinking that the game
will run faster at 50Hz.
Please read the Reg.DOC file also on this disk!
Peace folks!
Rob........ |
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