====== ====== | | P S Y C H O S Q U A R E S | | | V1.0 | | V1.0 | | | Coding, GFX, Sound Effects | | ====== By Shane R. Monroe ====== Copyright 1993 By Dark Unicorn Productions Released Date: 4/10/93 CREDITS: ---------------------------- | Animated Unicorn Artwork | ---------------------------- Charles Caffrey ---------------------------- | Original Game Conception | ---------------------------- Magic Bytes --------------------- | Music Inspiration | --------------------- ZZ Top ------------------ | Morale Support | ------------------ Karen Monroe ------------ | Catering | ------------ Frito Lay and Pepsi-Cola Corp. ------------------------------- | Distribution and Great Name | ------------------------------- Dark Unicorn Productions ----------------------------------- | Distribution and D.U.P. Support | ----------------------------------- Blittering Heights BBS (803) 760-6376 ---------------------------------- | AmigaWorld Contact and Support | ---------------------------------- Peter Olafson -------------------------------- | Best Dang Computer Ever Made | -------------------------------- Commodore Amiga, Inc. Psycho Squares Copyright Notice: The code, documentation, digital speech, and graphics are owned exclusively by Dark Unicorn Productions. All rights reserved. The Evaluation Version of this program is freely distributable as long as all files are left unaltered during distribution and no monetary compensation is gained other than the moderate cost of the media and duplication time. Under NO circumstance is the Evaluation Version to be included in ANY public domain or Shareware reseller collection without expressed WRITTEN permission from the author, with the exception of the Fred Fish disk collection which may include the Evaluation Version to his great collection. The Registered Version is authorized for use by the purchaser only and is fully copyright and not distributable in any way, shape, or form. You may purchase the Registered Version (which includes two player support, GED support, and contains all thirteen levels) by sending a money order, cashier's check, or personal check (remember, these take two weeks to clear PRIOR to shipping; blame the banks) for $5.95 to: Shane Monroe c/o Dark Unicorn Productions 1225 Boonehill RD Suite K-5 Summerville, SC 29483 I may be contacted on the Blittering Heights BBS or on Genie (E*Mail name: S.Monroe1). Thank you. ------------ | The Game | ------------ Playing Psycho Squares is easy. There is an eight by eight grid of boxes on the play field. Each box has a number in it ranging from 1 to 11. Each number is red (indicating a positive value) or white (negative value). Behind the boxes is a picture. Each player removes boxes in turn. Player one can only remove boxes from the current horizontal row, while player two is then forced to take a box from the current vertical row. As each box is taken, the point value in the box is added to or subtracted from the player's score. This process is repeated until all the boxes are gone or there is no box for the player to take in his row. He who has the most points wins that particular round. There are thirteen rounds to the game, each with a separate picture behind the boxes. How the picture gets displayed depends on the type of game you are playing. One Player vs. Computer - Every box taken by the player reveals that piece of the picture underneath it, while boxes taken by the computer are covered by the Psycho Squares cover box. If the player wins the round, the play field is cleared so that the picture is fully viewable. Should the computer win, the round is over and what you see of the picture at that point is what you get! Player vs. Player - Every box taken has a 70% chance of being covered by the Psycho Squares cover box. The other 30% reveal the piece of the picture underneath. Regardless of the winner of the round, the picture is not displayed in full. Take notice, however, of what each partial picture looks like and decide which one you would truly like to see in full because at the end of the game, he who wins get his pick of a picture to view in full! The game may not sound simple reading about it, but trust me, after a couple of rounds, you will understand the game mechanics fully. ----------------------- | System Requirements | ----------------------- Psycho Squares requires at least one megabyte of memory and has been tested to run on the Amiga 500, 600, 1000, 2000 and 4000 under V1.2, 1.3, 2.0, and 2.1 of AmigaDOS. It should have no problems working under 3.x and 4.x of the operating system. If you find that it doesn't, please drop me a line. The game has been tested to run fine under a VXL-30 accelerator. A mouse is required for game play. This game uses a great deal of Chip RAM so if you have the old 500 (without the one meg Fatter Agnus alteration) or 1000, you may have troubles running it. The game checks your Chip RAM situation and will load the sound effects according to the amount it finds. If you wish to use all the sound effects and find you are short Chip RAM, here are some things to try out: * Upgrade to one meg of Chip RAM. You'll be glad you did. * Boot off the original Psycho Squares disk. It is set up to use minimal Chip RAM before program execution and should take care of the problem. * Close all windows, tasks, and other programs that may use Chip RAM. * Reboot your machine. Chip RAM tends to get fragmented and although you may have a full meg of it, there may not be a big enough chunk for Psycho Squares to allocate. Psycho Squares will happily install on your hard drive (shame on game companies who don't support hard drive installation; may the game players of the world tie you up, pour honey on your eyes, and bury your head in an anthill). Simply make a separate directory for Psycho Squares and copy all the files to it. You may then double click the icon to start. You will have to use an ASSIGN command to tell the program where to read the files. To do this, simply add a line to your startup sequence: ASSIGN PSYCHO_SQUARES: --------- | Menus | --------- MAIN MENU Use the mouse to move the highlighter to the Psycho Squares cover box next to the menu option and press a mouse button to select it. ONE PLAYER- Starts a one player game. TWO PLAYERS- Starts a two player game using the selected input device for player two. The device may be changed under the OPTIONS menu. The default is the joystick. OPTIONS- Takes you to the OPTIONS menu. PSYCHO SQUARES INFO- This will tell you a little about the program, its author, the Registration information, and more. Please look at this at least once. EXIT TO AMIGADOS- Exits Psycho Squares and returns you to the operating system. OPTIONS MENU PLAYER TWO INPUT DEVICE- Instead of the Psycho Squares cover box in front of this option, you will see a small icon showing the current player two input device. Selecting this option toggles the device between joystick and keyboard controls. COMPUTER A.I.- This option toggles the computer's intelligence. NOVICE will give you a decent challenge during game play where as the ADVANCED is truly difficult. GRAPHICS EXPANSION DISK- This menu item shows the current graphics expansion disk (GED) in use, if any. << INTERNAL >> indicates you are using the default graphics included with Psycho Squares. << EXTERNAL >> denotes you are using a GED instead. Clicking this option allows you to select a GED or reset to using the internal graphics; just follow the on-screen prompts. RETURN TO MAIN MENU- Return to MAIN menu. --------- | NOTES | --------- EVALUATION USERS If you are using the Evaluation Version of Psycho Squares, you may have noticed a few things are not quite functional. This version is limited to three levels of game play, no GED options and is playable by only one player. This program is Shareware and as such I would like to be paid for my efforts. By offering this 'playable' evaluation copy, I provide you with a means of 'try-before-you-buy'. By buying the Registered Version, you support my programming efforts by providing me with money to feed my wife and child (okay, I have a 'second job' for that) but it DOES keep my wife happy (read this as MORE COMPUTER TIME FOR SHANE). When you do purchase the Registered Version, I will send you a fully working copy of Psycho Squares with all thirteen levels, GED support, and two players options. Your support also encourages the release of more GEDs. REGISTERED USERS Thank you for purchasing Psycho Squares. I am sure that you will find many rewarding hours of game play ahead of you. Your support of Psycho Squares didn't end when I sent you your disk. If you should have ANY problems or abnormalities with it, please let me know. It is your right as a Registered Owner to get bug fixes made to your game. You may send mail to the above address, contact me on GEnie, or get ahold of me on Blittering Heights. As a Registered User, you will have access to the Dark Unicorn Support Area on Blittering Heights. You must still call and be validated (I am the Co-Sysop so it won't take long.) and then leave me mail to apply for access to the DUP area. Please include your registration number for faster access. Updates, bug swats, and more are available here, as well as tech support. Do drop in and see us! We'd love to have you. We also feature a programming forum, debate forum, on-line games, and lots more and we are proud to be 100% Amiga only! Graphic Expansion Disks GEDs will be available, periodically, by myself and through the Blittering Heights BBS. I will probably not allow PD distributors access to them, so you will have to get them from me. Don't worry; Registered Users will be notified by mail when they are released. The going price will be $2 per GED. Right now, the only one available is the R-Rated "Luscious Ladies" GED which has thirteen beautiful naked women levels. Parents, preachers, and evangelists beware; this is not a tame disk so don't order it if you are not into that sort of thing. When ordering this GED, please sign that you are over 18. Thanks. Keeps the C.O.P.s (Committee Opposing Porn) off my back. Sorry, ladies, there are no current plans to make a 'male' GED, but if I get enough mail (no pun intended there) I will create one. Hey, its a sick world and I'm a happy man. I have plans to make other GEDs as well, including themes like movies, famous people, animals, dungeons and dragons, sci-fi, and more. Look for these in the future. The Future of Psycho Squares So what is planned for the future enhancements of Psycho Squares? Well, since I tried to do it right the first time, there isn't a whole lot more to do, but here are some ideas. * A stronger computer algorithm for players who really have got the hang of the game. * Different controls selectable for player one. * Two player 'team' mode against the computer. * File transfers(!) while playing remotely. * A GED construction set. * Enhanced sound effects and music for one meg Chip RAM users. * A top ten high score table. Most importantly, I want to hear the ideas from you, the users. This game is for you, so please tell me what you want. I'll be listening! Information on Dark Unicorn Productions Dark Unicorn Productions was started by myself and member Dale McBane (look for our disk catalog utility POWER-CAT, coming soon to a BBS near you) to distribute our programs. Over the last year, we have added others to our group. We are a group of artists, each different in our own ways. Charles Caffrey does specialized artwork. John Graham composes music and programs. Dale and myself make an art out of programming. We are a group who lives and breathes the Amiga and don't want it to die along with the Atari ST. We are all working on separate projects (myself on Psycho Squares, Charles and John on a new arcade game, Dale and I on POWER-CAT) but we share the same goal; to bring you the best quality Shareware for your Amiga, and to support our products to gain 100% satisfaction. That is why we have a BBS support area. To make it easier for you to talk to us. We are a people organization and without you, there is no us. Look for more Dark Unicorn products in the months to come. Oh, just to stop the rumors before they start, "Dark Unicorn" has nothing to do with devil worshipping, Satanic rituals, or anything like that. The idea come from the game ARCHON from Electronic Arts. If you are not familiar with the game, it is a fantasy chess game where the pieces are animated (much like BATTLE CHESS) but when you go to take a square, you must physically fight the other player with your joystick. One player plays the Light Side and one player plays the Dark Side, each one has a unique set of pieces. Loads of fun. Of all the pieces on the board, we all concede that the unicorn is the most powerful piece. The unicorn belongs to the Light Side. The Dark Side has a Shapeshifter which assumes the shape of the piece that it is fighting. Therefore, the more unique and powerful piece on the board is the Dark Unicorn. Hence the name. We like it. Notes to Pirates Yes, there are those of you out there who will steal the registered version of this game and pass it out to the whole world. May the fleas of a thousand camels infect your armpits and a flock of seagulls strafe your car. 'Nuf said. I hope you all enjoy the game and may purchase other Dark Unicorn products from us in the future. Remember, don't be a stranger; we want to hear from you. Shane Raistlin Monroe 4/10/93 Addendum: Note: To toggle multi-tasking press AMIGA-M during game. To go to AmigaDOS at any time, press CNTRL-C. To end a game in progress, press the CTRL when it is Player One's turn. There is a hidden 'cheat' in this game. Can you find it? The first person who finds it gets a free registered copy of Psycho Squares! Good- luck!