home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
PC Answers 1995 August
/
ISSUE18.ISO
/
share
/
mrpac
/
read.me
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1994-09-20
|
5KB
|
99 lines
Welcome to Mr Pacford V1.0
----------------------------
This file contains information on playing Mr Pacford and also some
suggestions to try if you are having trouble getting the program to run
correctly. For information on the licensing of Mr Pacford please see the file
LICENSE.DOC. For information on how to register Mr Pacford please see the
file REGISTER.DOC. For a complete shipping list of files you should have in
order to run Mr Pacford, please see the file SHIPPING.LST.
Before getting down to the nitty-gritty details, a few messages of thanks.
Thanks go to...
-----------------
Firstly (and quite rightly so), thanks go to Simon Booth for writing the
Unchained toolkit and teaching me a hell of a lot about ModeX programming as
well as loads of other things too numerous to mention.
Secondly, thanks to Phil Hignett for knocking up the level development tool
which was used for all but about three of the levels.
Third, thanks to the SoundBlaster Freedom project, who I don't have a contact
address for, but whose routines I used for the sound effects in Mr Pacford.
Next come the beta-testers and in particular Keith, whose twisted brain
allowed him to get further in the game than any of the other testers.
Finally, almost all of the sound effects in the game were converted from
".WAV" files found in various Public Domain Libraries and Bulletin Boards
over the years. I don't have any contacts for the originators of these files,
but thanks go to all for putting their work on the Public Domain.
OK, on to the game
--------------------
First of all, I should just say that Mr Pacford is really Really REALLY hard
to finish all the way through. You will need a brain like Einstein, the
reactions of a fighter pilot, and the dexterity of Anthony Gatto (the world's
greatest living Juggler). Good Luck.
The aim is simple, just clear all of the pink pills from each of the levels
in the time allowed. In order to do this, you usually have to move objects
around the screen to create a route to the pills.
Use the cursor keys to move left and right and to jump (using the up arrow
key). To jump left and right, you can either use both the left or right
arrow key and the up arrow key at the same time, or you can use Home or PgUp
on the numeric keypad. I would recommend you try both and stick with the one
that feels best.
When controlling Mr Pacford, you should be aware that he will only change
direction when he is touching the ground between bounces. This means that
wherever possible, you must plan the route ahead and press and hold the keys
in advance. This is one of the things that makes Mr Pacford the super-mean
"sort-the-men-from-the-boys" type of game it is.
At the end of each level, you will drop to the bottom of the screen. If you
land on the "X" that will be at a particular place (different for each level
but always achievable) then you will score extra points and be awarded a
digit from an access code. Access codes can be entered from the Options
menu (press F10 whilst in the main screen) and will allow you to start from
level 5, 11, 16 or at the final part of the game.
Other controls that work in the game are ESC to restart the level and
CTRL+ESC to quit the current game and return to the main screen (ALT+ESC
and SHIFT+ESC also work for this). If you need to exit really quickly from
within the game you can use CTRL+F12 which will take you right out to DOS.
Good Luck.
Technical Help
----------------
If you are having trouble running Mr Pacford, the following information might
be useful.
You must have a machine equipped with VGA graphics to run Mr Pacford.
If Mr Pacford won't run at all, or crashes out after a short while, check that
you have all the files required for the game (for a list of files see the
text file SHIPPING.LST). If you still have problems, try running the game
without sound effects (type "MRPAC /sh" at the dos prompt).
Two of the PC's I tested Mr Pacford on seemed to have unusual keyboard
handlers. If you find that Mr Pacford runs, but does not respond to keyboard
controls, then the only way to run it will be in a Dos Shell under Windows.
If you plan to do this you MUST run Mr Pacford without sound effects (see
paragraph above). You shouldn't swap out of the Dos Shell and back in again
as this may cause screen corruption. You may find that the scrolling is
slightly jerky when run from within Windows.
If Mr Pacford runs slowly on your machine it may be because you have a slow
machine or it may be because you have a slow video card. Either way I'm
afraid your stuck with it, sorry!