This game is shareware. If you like it, please send me $10 or whatever contribution you can make to: David Ashley 395 Sierra Madre Villa Pasadena, CA 91107 USA Send comments to the above address or to EMAIL: dash@netcom.com Feel free to upload it anywhere, but do not modify any of the files. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ QUICK NOTES: targis is the executable--run from CLI or click on the icon from workbench. Your current directory must contain the DATA and LEVELS directories. CONTROLS: on keypad dig LEFT move UP dig RIGHT 7 8 9 move LEFT move DOWN move RIGHT 4 5 6 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ HISTORY I wrote this game back when I was living in Berkeley, circa 1987. It is similiar to the coin operated version of one of my favorite games. This game was never ported to the Amiga, so I wrote this. After writing it, I then tried selling it myself. I sent in new product announcements to Amigaworld--at that time the game was called PopMan. The graphics were much different (cheesier). I used sprites for the moving characters. There was no animator. The level editor was still there, however. After selling a grand total of 6 or 10 games for $20 each, I was contacted by some people at a company called Incognito software. We fixed up an agreement where I would get 20% of the gross, and they'd publish the game. They had artwork created for the box, and printed up a simple manual (see text below). I also added various options for the new version (which was called Targis.) The features included: removing the sprites and replacing them with blitter objects, adding more bitplanes for more colors, putting in type-in- the-word protection (which was pretty simple--one of the questions was DO YOU LIKE TARGIS? to which the answer was obviously YES). It was a better product all around. Incognito was run by two incompetent and borderline crooked individuals, and I never really saw a profit. I think the game sold about 3000 units, but there were lots of returns. The artwork on the original box looked like a kid had done it with crayons. They had also botched other games by other programmers, such as Brian Vodnik's Kingdoms of England (the box was actually beautiful on this one--they just were crooked about money), and Michael Sinz's SnakePit. Other games they did were FootMan and Vyper. Another company had originally published those titles but Incognito took them over. Brian Vodnik eventually sued Incognito and there was some settlement. He then went on to create other titles such as Race Across America and Kingdoms of England II. Michael Sinz eventually released SnakePit, and it appears on a Fred Fish disk. Following in the same tradition, I am finally releasing Targis (aka PopMan) to the shareware arena. Maybe I'll make some money at it--probably not, but at least this great game can be enjoyed by everyone now, and the world will be a better place... An interesting note: To create this archive I took one of the original disks out of one of the copies I had of the game, and I had to crack the game just like a pirate--I thought that would be easier than digging through all my disks to find the source. This version is just a slightly modified copy of the one that Incognito sent out. I took out the protection and modified the copyright notice that appears on the bottom. Enjoy this game. Create levels, trade them with friends, draw new graphics- send me copies of anything interesting. David Ashley June 24, 1993 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ORIGINAL MANUAL: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- TARGIS GAME INSTRUCTIONS Targis placed the memo-chip in its reader. His mission, secret until now, was about to be revealed to him. He had traveled several light-years in his small robot-piloted ship, its cloaking device keeping his presence secret from the Snixian Empire and its clone agents as he orbited the planet Valenta in the Varda system. His hand trembled slightly as he placed the memo-chip in its slot. What he heard confirmed his suspicions; he knew his task would not be easy. He also knew that the Earth Defense Directorate would not have sent its best agent to perform an easy task. "The Snixian Empire has captured the advanced rocket research base on Valanta," the memo intoned, "and its agents are packaging parts in stasis pods for shipment back to their home base on Snix. We are not officially at war with the Snixii, so we cannot mount a large-scale assault, but we cannot allow this advanced technology to fall into their possession - that is why we sent you, Targis." A hidden drawer opened in the center console, triggered by a signal from the reader, revealing an odd-looking weapon. "You have one weapon available to you - a digger gun. The structure of the base is made from a local material known as organoplast, which won't burn, but is toxic when vaporized. The digger gun melts organoplast, but its molecular memory causes the bricks to return to their former shape very quickly. The digger gun won't work on the concrete blocks. Watch for the pseudoplast bricks - they look real, but you can fall through them. Although the Snixii have bypassed parts of the base security system, other parts are still operational. The system has been remotely programmed to aid your mission, but are only partly functional. The rooms have been isolated to impede the Snixii, but when you gather all parts in a room, the system will reveal an exit. If YOU get there first, the clones cannot escape. Watch out for the clones! They have no arms, but their clawed feet and sharp teeth are deadly! You can land on top of them safely. They will sometimes keep a stasis pod with them, so if you don't see any more pods, but no exit appears, you will have to recover the hidden pod. We know of 200 rooms, but there are rumors that a number of new rooms were built by members of the base team. That is all we know for sure - good luck!" The robot-ship's planetary navigation system suddenly came to life. The computer system locked onto the rocket base far below. The small ship headed into the atmosphere and began its automated descent... "Targis is a fast-paced action game for the AMIGA computer. It offers 200 pre-defined levels and the ability to design your own levels and characters, and will provide many months of enjoyable play! BACKING UP THE DISK Before you do anything else, MAKE A BACKUP OF THE ORIGINAL DISK and put the original away for safe keeping. All play and modifications should be done on a COPY of the original without the write protect tab set, as Targis frequently writes data to the disk. Throughout this manual "playing disk" will refer to a COPY of the original disk. HOW TO USE TARGIS FROM WORKBENCH Place your playing disk in one of the drives, then click on the "Targis" disk icon. After the window opens, double-click on the "Targis" icon. If you wish to use a subdirectory with custom levels from WorkBench, it must have a drawer icon for "extended selection" to be used. While pressing and holding either [SHIFT] key, single-click the desired custom-level drawer, then double-click the "Targis" icon. This will cause Targis to get its levels from the specified directory. HOW TO USE THE TARGIS DISK FROM CLI From CLI ("CLI>" indicates any valid CLI prompt), you must: CLI> cd targis CLI> targis -- or -- CLI> run targis you may want to "run" Targis if you want to play Targis while multitasking; it keeps the CLI window that it's launched from open for other commands. The selection of custom levels works from CLI too. An example: CLI> targis df1:mylevels The game will come up in DEMO mode, where some of its features will be demonstrated. On the right side of the screen are gadgets which will cause Targis to switch to its various modes of operation. [DA: This note is from me (Dave Ashley). The original docs were wrong-Targis takes over the display. However it doesn't disable multitasking--you can be downloading a big file in the background while playing Targis. When you exit from the game it frees up all its resources.] HOW TO PLAY TARGIS You control "Targis", an agent whose job is to recover pods of stolen parts from the lair of a group of alien agents. You must recover ALL the pods on a particular level to finish that 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 disintegrate for a short time, and you will be able to get at stasis pods which are buried. Cement blocks are permanent and may not be blasted away. Once you have gathered all the pods on a level, exit ladders will appear and you will be able to leave by going off the top of the level. You will earn another life and be transported to a new level. To make your job more complicated, there are enemies on most levels whose job is to prevent you from gathering the parts-pods. If an enemy touches you, you will lose a life - so avoid them! Enemies move just like you, except that 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 the top of a moving enemy; he has no hands, and will be unable to reach up and grab you. You may also 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 stasis pods in an attempt to prevent you from recovering them. They will become tired of carrying them after a while and will drop them. If an enemy is killed carrying a pod, it is gathered for you and you don't have to worry about it anymore. Also if an enemy falls down from within a blasted brick, his pod will be yours. 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 NOTE: A letter enclosed in brackets [] indicates pressing that keyboard key. Most gadgets in most modes have keyboard shortcuts, usually the first letter of the desired command. DEMO MODE Targis starts out in DEMO mode, where you see a game in progress. These gadgets are on the right side: a picture of a projector, a picture of a die, "GO!", "RG", "ED" and "BYE". Clicking on the PROJECTOR gadget or pressing [A] will enter the animator. the DIE gadget or [D] will enter random play, clicking on "GO!" will begin a game. The "RG" gadget or [R] will restore a saved game, the "ED" gadget or [E] takes you to edit mode where you may create your own levels and experiment with them. "BYE" or [B] exits Targis. Pressing [L] will allow the specification of which level to demo. Pressing [H] will show the high score list. PLAY MODE These gadgets are available: "SG", "KILL", "MAN", "LVL", "UP", "Paws" (pause), and "EXIT". The "SG" gadget or [S] saves the current game. Since sometimes you will be trapped in a situation where you are alive yet unable to escape or kill yourself, "KILL" or [K] kills this man for you. "MAN" or [M] gives you an extra man, if play gets too hard and you want to continue. "LVL" or [L] allows you to continue play at a specific level, "UP" or [U] skips to the next level, and the PAUSE gadget or [P] are used for pausing play. "EXIT" or [E] aborts the current game and Targis will return to DEMO mode. EDIT MODE Targis is a versatile game. You are not limited to the levels which came with it; you may create your own; in fact, some players find as much enjoyment in the creation of levels as in the playing of them. The EDIT mode allows you to create and experiment with your own 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 targis to it and creating a directory "LEVELS" or "MYLEVELS". The best way to do this is to copy the "Empty" drawer from the Workbench disk to the desired disk, then rename it. This will allow your new levels to work from workbench as described earlier. 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, or selecting one with the number keys. You may then modify the selected level with the mouse. These gadgets are available in EDIT mode: "TRY", "DN", "UP", "LD", "SV", "CLR", and "EXIT". The "TRY" gadget or [T] allows you to play-test a level, "DN" or [D] will go to the next lower level, the "UP" gadget or [U] will go to the next higher level loaded or saved, "LD" or [L] will load from the "SV" or [S] will save to arbitrary levels. "CLR" or [C] will fill the level with the current type of gadget, and "EXIT" or [E] 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. The brick with the question mark in it is where a hidden monster might be found. When this is dug in PLAY mode, a monster might come into existence. The bonus rocket part he holds is worth 4000 points, so trap him and take it when possible. It is standard practice to place exactly three hidden monsters where they are least likely to cause the player harm. For example, on the bottom row of bricks, the left or right end is a good place. If a player is being chased by enemies, and he digs to trap one or more of them, he does not want to accidentally find a hidden monster. Hidden monsters are not required. They are just an addition to add some spice to the game. Once the hidden monster has been dug up, another will not appear unless the level is restarted by the player's death. The stasis pod with the enlarged glint is the bonus pod. If the player is able to get this before all other pods on a level, it is worth 8000 points. It is also standard practice to place exactly three of them, if any are desired. It should always be possible to get the flashing pod first. Some levels are not appropriate for the flashingpods, as the level may dictate that a certain pod be gathered first. In that case, the player does not have a choice in the matter. Getting the flashing pod first should be challenging, and should require some thought. It may require that enemies move pods out of the way for you before you have a clear path to it, or you may have to do some tricky digging. A few notes about fake bricks (pseudoplast) are in order. It may be very tempting to use fake bricks in places where they are a nasty trick on the player, forcing them to sacrifice enough men to learn where the fake bricks are in order to use and avoid them. While it is sometimes fun to watch someone else play and suffer through one of these fake-brick levels, actually playing it is another matter. It becomes annoying, frequently getting fooled and trapped. Also, fake bricks are not clever. A good rule to follow about fake bricks is to only use them where the player can recover safely from finding one, or where the player can postulate their existance. It may be possible to use the fact that certain bricks logically must be fake in order to get at certain pods. SOME TIPS ON CREATING GOOD LEVELS >> Play test the level to make sure it is possible to solve and enjoyable to play. Chances are, if you like the level, other people will too. If there are certain levels that you like in particular, try to determine what components of them you find most attractive, and use those features in your own levels. >> Avoid tedious levels, where a simple process must be repeated over and over, perhaps with a chance of death on each pass. >> Timed and/or ordered digging is always a challenge, especially to an experienced player. They usually require thought and skill to figure out. >> Using enemies to get at certain pods is also clever. Some levels require that an enemy be placed in a specific place. Other levels require walking on enemys' heads. Still other levels require massive killing of enemies to get balloons for you (warning: trapping and killing each enemy costs 250 bonus points). >> Remember that if a level has enemies and is completed without trapping, the player earns 20000 points. If it is completed without killing, it is worth 10000 points. Do not always force killing and trapping onto the player. Trying to complete levels without trapping and killing is a good challenge. It is not always easy; it may require a good deal of thought. >> Hidden monsters and flashing gold are nice features. Try to put in three of each. >> Examine the levels that come with the game for ideas and guidelines. Feel free to modify any level that comes into your hands. Levels evolve, and it is the little changes that come only from continued playing that perfect them. >> The best levels are the ones that require a lot of thought, and a fair amount of skill. KEYBOARD AND CONTROLS As noted above, you may use keyboard keys to have the same effect as gadget operations. Within any mode, typing the first letter of any of the gadgets will do that gadget's functions. For example, tapping [M] in PLAY mode gives you a life, [E] in DEMO mode causes Targis to enter EDIT mode, and so on. The main exception to this is the [A] key, the shortcut to the animator represented by the PROJECTOR gadget. In EDIT mode the numeric keys will select the block 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 block 1 Diggable brick (organoplast) 2 Cement brick 3 Ladder 4 Rail 5 Fake brick (pseudoplast) 6 Exit ladder [will appear when all pods are taken] 7 Stasis pod 8 Enemy 9 Targis (your player) 0 Hidden monster. Try to put either three or none of these. - Flashing balloon. Try to put either three or none of these. Also one more point: tapping [K] in any play mode, including DEMO mode, will abort the life. You may use the keyboard for input in PLAY mode. The number pad works as follows: 4 Move left 7 8 9 6 Move right Ldig Up Rdig 5 Move down 8 Move up 4 5 6 7 Dig left Left Down Right 9 Rig right Other keys: < dig left > dig right 1 Move up (not number pad) 2 Move down 3 Move left 4 Move right Alternatively you may plug a joystick in the second port and use that. Since joysticks only have one button, digging is done in the last direction your man moved. SCORING Entrap/kill -250 Pod 100,200,400... Complete level 1500 Hidden monster's part 4000 Flashing pod 8000 (If you get this before the other pods) No killing 10000 No entrapping 20000 ADVANCED TOPICS Targis 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. [K] will simply kill the man and go on to the next level. 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 Targis from any disk, even the RAM: disk. You must copy "Targis" and "Targis.info" to the device. You must also make LEVELS and DATA directories with drawer icons, and copy the DATA files from the original disk. The DATA directory contains files that Targis 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 them as IFF files of 320 wide by 200 high, 32 colors. Remember that you may specify what directory contains levels when Targis is invoked, either from workbench or CLI, as noted earlier. It is a good idea to share levels with the rest of the world. Upload them to BBS's, mail them to public domain distributors, or send them to our BBS. Make a "MYLEVELS" direcotry and copy your levels into it. This will ensure that levels will circulate, so we may all enjoy each other's creations. SPECIAL THANKS GO TO THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE Ron Hunsinger for help with the algorithms for enemy movement. Kevin Oster for designing and testing many of the levels. Alex Morando for designing and testing some of the levels. ANIMATOR The grid of boxes are all the poses for a single character. The 12 by 10 array is read from left to right and top to bottom. Each row represents a different movement, in the following order: Stationary Climbing ladder Falling Walking left Walking right Left on rail Right on rail Spare Spare Spare Clicking with the left mouse-button in one of the figures will allow editing of that figure. In the lower right corner is a palette displaying all 32 colors available. The color table can be modified by selecting a color and moving one of the sliders in the 3-column RGB display. Note that the game will ignore any color changes, as it uses the color table from the "data/gfx" file. You must change the data/gfx file's color table for the game to notice the change. The gadgets on the bottom left do various useful things. Their keyboard equivalents ar ein brackets [] and the images are described in parenthesis() where needed. From top to bottom and left to right, their functions are: [M] (diagonal arrows around a box) moves figure to a new box. The currently specified figure will be copied into the next box specified. [U] (Undo) Undoes the last modification to the current figure. [C] (Clr) clears the current figure [R] reads in the file specified in the text input area at the top of the screen. [S] plays back an animation strip SEQUENCE. Animation is done by selecting a list of figures that will appear in the strip. The playback is terminated by clicking on this gadget again. [W] writes out the file specified in the text input area at the top of the screen [RIGHT CURSOR] (Right Arrow) shifts the figure right [UP CURSOR] (UP arrow) shifts the figure up [DOWN CURSOR] (DOWN arrow) shifts the figure down [LEFT CURSOR] (LEFT arrow) shifts the figure left [X] (left/right arrow) flips the selected image on the horizontal axis (left/right) [Y] (up/down arrow) flips the slected image on the vertical axis (left/right) [D] (curved dotted line) DRAW mode. [F] (pouring can) FILL mode [T] Test to see what the game will look like. Fallow by entering GFX, MONSTER0, MONSTER1, or MONSTER2 to the prompt "TEST FILE?" in the text input area at the top of the screen. This causes the animator to change Targis' internal definitions of the specified figures. (Empty gadget ) non-functional spare [O] (nine squares, 3x3) Toggle pattern duplication. This allows patters like the diggable bricks to be created, as the current figure will be duplicated nine times in a 3x3 array in the upper right. [P] Pick color. Click on this gadget, then click on the color you want to pick. [1]-[8] The last eight gadgets are various brush shapes. The SHIFTed CURSOR keys scroll the entire 14x12 array around withing the internal 20x16 storage area. The boxes stacked in the tall strip to the right of the image blowup specify the animation speed. Selecting a higher box results in faster animation sequencing. The player's speed is normally at setting #2, and the enemies' speed is normally at setting #3. The box to the right is the TV (display area). Clicking on this will display its contents in the larger box. Animation is displayed in the TV. Exit the program by clicking the "exit" gadget on the right side of the screen. The program does NOT SAVE to the disk automatically on exit. You MUST use the "W" gadget to SAVE the file. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I didn't include the warranty and disclaimer that Incognito had, and their advertisement for other products. Their list was Vyer, FootMan, SnakePit, Atredes BBS, Atredes Terminal, Opticks, SkyPaint.