The game

The objective

In order to fully complete Repton 3, you must complete the four individual games without using the passwords, i.e. the 24 levels of Repton 3, the 40 levels of Around the World in 40 levels, the 40 levels of The Life of Repton and the 40 levels of Repton Thru Time.

Each set of characters is based upon the original Repton 3 characters, which are illustrated here. The character sets for the other three games are also shown. For the America levels, you will notice that the rock and the diamond have been replaced with a wagon wheel and a hamburger respectively. Therefore on the America level, Repton pushes the wagon wheels (as if they were rocks) and collects the hamburgers (as if they were diamonds).

To avoid confusion, the following game instructions refer exclusively to the original Repton 3 game characters.

To complete a game, you must carefully determine your routes through each level in turn, with the aim of defusing the time bomb by passing over it. However, before the time-bomb can be defused, you must first:

• collect all of the diamonds (including those concealed in safes or cages),
• collect the golden crown,
• kill all of the monsters.

Each level has a time limit and, if you do not complete it within this time limit, the time bomb will explode and you will lose a life. Repton can, however, travel backwards in time because whenever a time capsule is colected, the time bomb's clock is reset.

The games

The Repton 3 disk contains four complete games: Repton 3, Around the World in 40 Screens, The Life of Repton and Repton Thru Time.

Repton3 has a total of 24 levels in three files of eight levels each, whereas the other three games each have 40 levels in five files, making a grand total of 144 levels in 18 files!

The Prelude file is loaded automatically when the game is first loaded. The other 17 files may be loaded from disk simply by opening the game's iconbar menu, following the Load game option then one of the submenus then clicking on the game file's icon.

Playing instructions

Game elements

There are eight game levels immediately available to be played, the first of which can be accessed immediately; the other seven in each file can only be entered when the preceding level has been completed and passwords have been given. Once you have the password for a level, you can enter that level simply by pressing P on the status screen and entering the password. Provided, of course, that the appropriate game file has already been loaded.

Each level contains a series of puzzles. Many of these are interlinked and you may have to solve a number of small puzzles to enable you to tackle a large one. The puzzles may, in some cases, seem to be impossible - but we assure you that all four games can be completed.

Rocks will fall in unsupported and, should one land on you, it will kill you. You must also avoid the monsters, spirits, skulls and fungus - contact with these is fatal. When an egg falls, it cracks upon landing and a monster hatches out. The monsters are killed by pushing or dropping rocks onto them.

There may be up to eight spirits on each level. They always follow the walls to their lef tuntil they reach a cage. When a spirit enters a cage, it is changed into a diamond. A spirit may become dazed if you drop a rock onto it or collect all of the diamonds immediately surrounding it. This is to be avoided as the spirit will then move endlessly in a small circle.

Watch out for the poisonous fungus which grows incessantly, sealing your fate. Trap it by surrounding it with rocks if you can, or you may never live to collect the golden crown. (It's poisonous to monsters too.)

Your route may be blocked by a safe. If so, you must locate a key which will open all of the safes on the level, revealing a diamond within each.

Each level may have a maximum of four transporters. They cause you to be rematerialised at some other location on the level, but each transporter can be used once only.

Scoring

Starting the game

Click Select on the Repton 3 icon or select Play game from its iconbar menu.

Game controls

P (Status) Enter a password Space (Status) Play the game S, Q (Status, playing) Switch sound effects on or off 1-4 (Status, playing) Select a tune 0 (Status, playing) Switch off the music M (Status, playing) View the map (levels A to E only) Return (Playing) View the status screen End (Status) Store your position Tab (Status) Recall the last stored position Escape (Status, playing) Kill yourself (useful if trapped) R (Status, playing) Restart the game F10 (Status, playing) Exit to the desktop

You can also use a joystick to control Repton.