AXIS
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By Ross McNaughton, October 1993.
Requirements: 512K ST/STE, TOS 1.62 or lower, colour, mouse controlled.
AXIS is a puzzle game set on a grid of 54 tiles. Each tile is divided along
the diagonals into four coloured segments, e.g. __
|\/|
The object is to match up the adjacent faces |/\|
of all the tiles, by 'reflecting' them across ÿÿ
the horizontal, vertical and diagonal axes. This takes place against a strict
time limit.
There is always a solution; the computer generates a solution first, then
scrambles it using only legal moves, so it is always possible to get back to
that solution. The chances are that there will be plenty of other solutions,
any one of which will do - you don't have to find the one that the computer
started with.
There are three levels of the game, the level represents the number of moves
the computer uses to 'scramble' the tiles. The time limit also changes; on
level 1 it works out at just under 7 minutes, on level 3 it is about 5
minutes.
The main screen consists of the game grid, five icons on the right hand side,
and an orange bar along the bottom. The top four icons represent reflections
on horizontal, vertical and the diagonals respectively. The bottom icon (red
cross) lets you abort a game by clicking on it with both mouse buttons. The
orange bar shows the time remaining.
I've designed the controls to be as flexible as possible, which means they're
a bit confusing for the first couple of games.
One tile and one action icon are always highlighted.
Clicking with the right button on a tile or icon makes this the highlighted
one.
Clicking with the left button on any tile performs the highlighted action on
that tile.
Clicking with the left button on an action performs that action on the high-
lighted tile.
After testing the game for a while, I find the easiest way is to right-click
on each tile to highlight it, then left-click on the actions. However, this is
probably not the quickest way.
Each game lasts until you either run out of time, or complete the game by
matching up all the tiles. If you complete the game, you will be shown how
much time was left and how many moves you took.