POPMAN INSTRUCTIONS. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NB: The disk MUST be WRITE-ENABLED or the progam may hang with a blank screen when attempting to save to the disk!! POPMAN is a fast-paced action game for the AMIGA computer. It offers 65 pre-defined games and the ability to design your own games, and will provide many months of enjoyable play. Dedicated to all Lode Runner fans everywhere! Before you do anything else, MAKE A BACKUP OF THE DISK and put the original away for safe keeping. All play should be done on a copy of the original without the write-protect tab set, as POPMAN frequently writes data to the disk. Throughout this manual "playing disk" will refer to a copy of the original disk. HOW TO PLAY You control a small man whose job is to pop all the balloons on the level. You may move in all four directions by walking along floors, climbing ladders, falling, and moving hand-over-hand along rails. The floors are composed of bricks and cement blocks. You may use your digging gun to blast away bricks when it is convenient. They will be removed for a short time, and you will be able to get at balloons which are buried. Cement blocks are permanent and may not be blasted away. Once you have popped all the balloons on the level, exit ladders may appear and you will be able to leave by going to the top of the level. You will then be transported to a new level, and you will be given another life. To make play more difficult, there are enemies on most levels whose job is to prevent you from popping the balloons. If an enemy touches you, you will lose a life---so avoid them! Enemies may move just like you can, but they are unable to dig through bricks. Enemies may become trapped in a place where you are quite able to escape from with your gun. Enemies cannot fall through dug bricks-- they become caught in them for a while. You may then walk over them. If a brick solidifies with an enemy in it he will be killed, and another will drop from the top of the level to replace him. It is safe to walk along on top of a moving enemy; he will be unable to reach up and grab you. You also may be killed by a brick that solidifies with you in it. Whenever you lose a life, the level is reset and you must start over, if you still have more lives. When your last man is killed, the game is over. Enemies often pick up balloons in an attempt to prevent you from popping them. They will become tired of carrying them after a while and will drop them. If an enemy is killed carrying a balloon, it is popped for you and you don't have to worry about it anymore. Also if an enemy falls down from within a blasted brick, his balloon will be popped. Enemies are a mixed blessing. Sometimes you must trick them into doing your work for you, and other times they are a potent danger that serves only to hinder your efforts. MODES OF OPERATION DEMO MODE POPMAN starts out in DEMO mode, where you see a game in progress. There are these tiles on the right side: "GO!", "ED" and "BYE". Clicking on "GO!" (or pressing G) will begin a game. The "ED" tile (or pressing E) takes you to edit mode where you may create and experiment with your own levels. Bye returns you to the CLI. PLAY MODE These tiles are available: "KILL", "MAN", "LVL", "UP" and "EXIT". "KILL" kills the current man. Sometimes you will be trapped in a situation where you are alive yet unable to escape or kill yourself, and "KILL" kills this man for you. "MAN" gives you an extra man, if play gets too hard and you want to continue. "LVL" allows you to continue play at a specific level, and "UP" skips to the next level. "EXIT" aborts the current game and POPMAN will return to DEMO mode. Click these tiles with the mouse, or use the keyboard and type the first letter of each command. Eg: "L" for level. Type H to view the current High Scores. These scores are automatically saved onto the disk in DF0. EDIT MODE POPMAN is a versatile game. You are not limited to the 65 levels which came with it; you may create your own. EDIT mode allows you to make and try levels. You may save and load levels from your playing disk, although there is a chance you might write over the original levels. It is a good idea to create a special disk for your personal levels by copying POPMAN to it and creating a directory "LEVELS". In EDIT mode you will see all the types of blocks on the left of the screen. You may pick which type you are working with by clicking on one of them. You may then modify the level with the mouse. These tiles are available in EDIT mode: "TRY","UP", "LD", "SV", "CLR", and "EXIT". "TRY" allows you to play-test a level. "LD" and "SV" will load and save to arbitrary levels. "CLR" will fill the level with the current type of tile. "UP" will load the next higher level than the last one loaded or saved. "EXIT" exits back to DEMO mode. When creating levels, some guidelines must be followed. You may not have more than five enemies on any level. You may only have one player. On the top line of the level you must have at least one empty square, to allow enemies to appear. Make sure the level can be finished by play-testing it. You must also have a ladder to exit to the next level. KEYBOARD AND CONTROLS You may use keyboard keys to have the same effect as tile operations. Within any mode, typing the first letter of any of the tiles will do that tile's function. For example, hitting 'M' in PLAY mode gives you a life, 'E' in DEMO mode causes POPMAN to enter EDIT mode, and so on. In EDIT mode the numeric keys will select the square type you are working with. This is very convenient, as you will not have to move the mouse back and forth and waste time. The mapping is as follows: ~ Empty 1 Diggable brick 2 Cement brick 3 Ladder 4 Rail 5 Fake brick (white bricks) 6 Exit ladder (white ladder) 7 Balloon 8 Enemy 9 Our hero, you 0 Hidden monster. Try to use either three or none of these. (They are symbolised by bricks with a white question mark). - Flashing balloon. Try to use either three or none of these. (A flashing balloon has the small star on it). Also one more point: hitting 'K' in any play mode, including DEMO mode, will abort the life. Control is gained via the joystick in the right-hand port. Since the joysticks only have one button, digging is done in the last direction your man moved. Another way to dig is by using the numeric keyboard. Infact, the best combination is to dig using the left hand on numeric keys 7 & 9, and the right hand controlling movement with the stick. Joystick technique is also important! Move the stick to the right to move right BUT centre the stick BEFORE moving it up to climb a ladder, etc. SCORING Entrap/kill -250 Balloon 100,200,400 Complete level 1500 Hidden monster's hat 4000 Flashing balloon 8000 No killing 10000 No entrapping 20000 ADVANCED TOPICS POPMAN records the last play of any level in PLAY mode. In DEMO mode, these recordings are played back, so you may view your performances. By pressing 'L' in DEMO mode, you can select which level to demo. Currently you may select only levels one to three to demo. 'K' will simply kill the man and go on to the next level. This is an excellent way of understanding the game and its strategy! The recordings are placed in the levels directory. They consist of the level number followed by an 'M'. Levels are the level number followed by an 'L'. You may run POPMAN off any disk, even the RAM: disk. You must copy POPMAN and POPMAN.info to the device. You must also make LEVELS and DATA directories, and copy the DATA files from the original disk. The DATA directory contains files that POPMAN needs for execution. Some are the raw sound files, and others are graphics and animation pictures that can be modified, if you wish to change them. Make sure to save as an IFF file of 320 wide by 200 high, 32 colors. It is a good idea to share your LEVELS with the rest of the world. Upload them to BBS's, mail them to Public Domain distributors, or send them to me on the original disk when you want an upgrade. Make a "MYLEVELS" directory and copy your levels into it. This will ensure that levels will circulate, so we may all enjoy each other's creations.