BLOCK ON LEGS: FIRST STEPS v1.0g Entry for the abbuc software contest 2019 By Jason Kendall (c) Kendallsoft 2019 Title screen and other artwork by RedThunder For Atari 8-bit Computers, requires 48K RAM. Supports PAL and NTSC systems Loading: Boot disk, automatically disables BASIC. Levels are loaded from disk so leave it in! You are "Block On Legs"; where you came from is unknown, maybe a chip of the old block... Your mission is unclear, but at this time instinct to collect gems is primary... My theory is that there are two types of Atari gamer: the first type like me who enjoy exploring games and work things out and then only read the manual if they are stuck or want to see if there's anything they've missed or want to maximise their score, but, if you are the other school of player who wants to know everything up-front then read on... "Block on Legs: First Steps" is a horizontally scrolling platformer. Your semi-agile character can change height! There are Various game features to explore. Falling too far or into a hole loses a life! [Start] or Fire to begin your game. [Space] to pause, move stick to resume. Move joystick L/R to walk, buton to jump either up or across. Hint you can jump up through the platforms! You have 10 lives to complete the 10 levels included on the game disk. The game will support additional levels disks; I will try and create some more soon. The ones here have been put together quickly and demonstrate most of the game features, though they are not fully tuned for difficulty and you may find that you have to restart or cheat (See below) if you get really stuck! You earn *3* extra lives after completing each level, with a maximum of 10 lives at any time. You will need to use a few lives to learn each level. There is a 10pt bonus for each life left at the end of each level. The bonus is *not* awarded if you use the following cheats: fly, use the basement, or re-spawn. Hints: Often, when you seem stuck there is Usually another route to get to a platform or item; try jumping up again to position your feet higher on the platform, get your foot right to the end of the platform etc. When you are grown you may find you can jump more easily onto a platform. Title Screen: To set game speed press [1] normal [2] slower [3] more slower! [Start] or Fire to begin play. [Select] View Game Completed Picture. x[Option] View High Score Table (work in progress) Console Keys In Game: Press [Start] if you want to restart the level you are on; you might have used up all the pills etc. Your score is reset to what it was at the start of the level. Press [Select] to level up if you are stuck on a level; this way you can explore the screens and maximise your score. There is no bonus or extra lives when doing this. Press [Option] to re-spawn somewhere on the left side of the screen! Hold in [Option] and press [Select] to abort the game. Features: to bounce into, fall off and occasionally land on! If your body ends up inside the platform jump up again before jumping left or right. to fall into, some are dark and scary. to climb, jump up at the top to land on the platform. to collect, 10pts each my precious. - you grow taller and can reach higher up but will bump into more platforms. When grown you can't make some of the tighter jumps, and You might not be able to pick up some of the lower items. You can grow even taller by collecting a second pill but wait for the first to have taken full effect first. If you lose a life you return to normal size. - you return to normal size - without losing a life! and - jump up and hit them from underneath. The un-folded platforms are also which may either help you to land on a lower platform or lose a life if the wait was too long. Extra points can be earned for expanding the platforms. "sliders" - there are switches to activate or reactivate them and another to deactivate them, drop or jump onto them and jump or drop off when you get to the other side of the screen or to a tricky platform. Sliders do not currently scroll the screen; I'm pondering on what to do with them. For now I've added in extra platforms so they are not necessary to complete the levels though they can help you to reach tricky places. I will improve how they operate at some point. I like my games to evolve and to see how they turn out and B.O.L. has turned into an interesting one, a quirky platformer with some thinking required. There are several features that make the game a bit different: checkout the unusual horizontal movement and scrolling combination and the ability to jump and scroll the screen at the edges. Also When your player's body hits the platforms he bounces off! There may still be a couple of bugs, watch out after respawning you might still be over a hole and may fall in again if you do not move: while his legs are flashing you can move over the holes. I should be able to speed up the wait between levels and make some other improvements when I get more time, including finishing off the high score table. Anyway "JUST GET THE GEMS" and have some fun. Programmed on an Atari 130XE using MAC/65, Envision, some BASIC utilityes and lots of paper! If anyone wants to do playfield / character set or player missile graphics or sound or create some levels please get in touch with me "therealbounbybob" on atariage. Have fun playing and greetings to all at abuuc and to all atari fans Lookout for the sequel "Block on Legs: A call to Arms"! Jason Supplemental: Here is some top secret debug and testing stuff that you might like to explore or use if a level is being stubborn to complete, or you just want to flat-out cheat! Press the keys in game (note: they will all be reset at the start of each level) 0 turns off fly mode, sky effect, jump and slow modes 1 speed normal * 2 speed slower * 3 speed more slower * 4 speed even more slower * also When you then press Option it will start (or reposition) the slider! 5 "Fly Mode" you can fly around the screen without getting killed - good for kids or if you are stuck! 6 "Slow" movement left/right much slower if you find it too tricky. 7 "Jump" variation 8 "Sky" dli effect also slows things down, especially with 6 pressed first. 9 "Floor" adds an underground floor "basement" to make it much easier, now you can jump back up again! - again a good one for kids. Technical: Disk uses DOS 2.5 Executable is BOL.XEX renamed to AUTORUN.SYS Loads to RAM at $2000 Level files are BOL.nnn where nnn is the level number from 001 to 010, Level files 000 098 and 099 are for the pictures and 096 is for the high score table.