Scrolly NC - action puzzle game for the Amstrad NC100/NC200 Public domain by Russell Marks (rus@svgalib.org). Based on my 2003 Minigame Compo entry Scrolly Stack (for the Sinclair Spectrum), which came 11th of 37 in the 4k category. Downloaded from Tim's Amstrad NC Users' Site http://www.ncus.org.uk Description ----------- Scrolly NC is an action puzzle game. It's basically a clone of the Panel de Pon/Tetris Attack/Pokemon Puzzle League series of games from Nintendo, though here only an "endless"-type mode is available. Requirements ------------ Scrolly NC requires an NC100 or NC200, running either the builtin ROM OS, or my ZCN. If you're running under the ROM OS, you need 19k of lower memory free to run the game. (In practice, this means you may find it awkward to run it on an NC100 if you don't have a memory card.) The game will refuse to run if you don't have enough free memory in that area. Installation ------------ I recommend making a backup of the data on your NC before installing; I don't think there are any real bugs in the game, but better safe than sorry. With that out of the way... If you're using the normal ROM OS, you need to transfer the files scrolly.bas and scrolly.com (e.g. using the XMODEM or YMODEM serial transfer in the word processor's file menu). Then to run the game, do Function+B to get to Basic, then CH."SCROLLY.BAS" to run it. Obviously you can save scrolly.bas with a shorter name if you'd prefer. :-) If you're using ZCN, you just need to transfer scrolly.com. To run the game, use the command "scrolly" (without the quotes). The source code (included as scrollync-src.tar.gz) isn't necessary, it's just included for anyone who's interested. WARNING for ROM OS users ------------------------ (ZCN users can skip this part.) As you may be aware, opening binary files in the word processor will almost always corrupt them, so you MUST avoid opening scrolly.bas and especially scrolly.com in the WP. Normally files saved from Basic aren't listed in the WP, but of course, these ones weren't saved from Basic... The game itself makes some attempt to avoid the problem; when it runs, it sets the file attribute of scrolly.com to Basic, so that the WP will ignore the file from then on. But it doesn't do this for scrolly.bas, as I thought you'd be almost certain to rename that. Still, it's easy enough to do that one yourself, by just doing something like this from Basic: LOAD "SCROLLY.BAS" SAVE "SCROLLY.BAS" Gameplay -------- Once you start, there's a stack of blocks gradually rising up the screen. Your job is simple, to stop them reaching the top. If they reach the top it's game over. Apart from that, the ultimate aim is to keep going until you score 50,000 points. Do this and you've beaten the game. You don't control the blocks directly - what you do control is a 2x1 cursor. You can move this anywhere in the play area, and swap any two blocks that appear "inside" it. You can also swap a block and an empty space, to move the block into that space. Try it out and you'll soon get the idea. So what good does moving the blocks around do? Well, if you make a line of three blocks (vertically or horizontally) which are the same shape, they go "bam" and disappear. Which is handy for keeping the stack down. :-) (In fact, you may notice when you start the game that often a bunch of blocks will clear spontaneously - that's because the blocks are randomly chosen, and sometimes there will already be lines in them. Count yourself lucky, you still get the points for it...) Combos & Chains --------------- If you get more than three blocks to disappear at once, this is called a "combo". You get more points for clearing the blocks this way. If, when you clear some blocks, the blocks that fall make more lines, this is called a "chain". Again, you get more points for doing it this way (even more than for a combo). When you've got a chain going, a "x2", "x3", etc. will appear onscreen (where it normally says "x1"). Keep a chain going long enough and you'll really rack up the points. An alternative way of making chains is to move a block into the clearing space during the short delay AFTER all the blocks have cleared but BEFORE the blocks above fall (!), so that when they finally do fall it makes a line - these are called "skill chains". They can be tricky to get the hang of, and they score just the same as normal chains... but it's hard to make really long chains without them. Controlling The Stack --------------------- If you find the stack is going too slowly for your tastes, and you want some more blocks to play with to make your epic chains :-), there's a manual raise-the-stack button you can use (more on that below). The "natural" stack-rising gets gradually faster as your score gets higher, finally reaching maximum speed at about 20,000 points. Once you start getting to the higher speeds, you might want to know how you can stop the stack rising for a while. Here's how it works. When you clear any blocks at all, the stack stops until they all disappear. It isn't much of a delay, but it's better than nothing. If you get a combo, the stack stops for longer. A quick 4-block combo is a good thing to try getting in an emergency. If you get a chain, the stack stops for even longer (the length depends on the number of chains you get). If the stack is stopped and you're impatient to get on with things, just use the manual-stack-raise button - in addition to the normal stack-raising effect, it cancels any stack-stop delay you've built up. Preview Row ----------- The partially-visible row of blocks at the bottom of the stack doesn't count as part of the stack until it's fully visible. Just think of it as a kind of preview of the blocks that are on the way. Controls -------- The controls are: Q or Cursor Up up A or Cursor Down down O or Cursor Left left P or Cursor Right right Space swap the blocks Enter raise the stack manually Esc quit current game Currently there's no pause key, but you can pause by turning off the NC... :-) Hints & Tips ------------ Combos and chains are the key to high scores. It's worth practicing skill chains, in particular. If you need more blocks to get these, use the stack-raise key. The game is quite easy at the start, so you should be able to get long chains early on. As things get faster, long chains may become too difficult, so start to concentrate on shorter chains, or combos. Only go for simple three-block matches when you have to. What's The Picture? ------------------- The picture shown either side of the stack is part of a sketch I did of a tree (using a Palm). Limitations and Bugs -------------------- These are mostly obvious, but I may as well list them: - on the NC200, only half the screen is used. Sorry. - under the ROM OS, if context-saving is not enabled, turning off then on again causes the game to exit in a slightly odd way and takes a few seconds. It's ugly, but harmless. - the timing isn't too precise (as this makes it easier to support both OSes), so the elapsed time shown is a bit inaccurate. Differences ----------- FWIW, a few notes on differences from the original TA games: - only an "endless"-style mode. No time trial, stage clear, 1P/2P vs., or in fact any of the *fun* modes the real thing has. :-) (No static puzzle mode either, but I don't like that personally.) - I had some trouble getting the chain-detecting behaviour exactly right. I think I fixed most of the problems with this, but there are one or two little things you can get away with here which TA wouldn't allow. - the maximum speed isn't anything like as fast. TA veterans can expect to clock up 50,000 points while stifling a yawn. - no stack-stopped-by-combos/chains indicator, and no indication of combos. - when you get to a certain score it stops and says you've won. The original games do limit your score (to 99,999 or 999,999), but don't stop you playing just because you've reached it. - the blocks are a bit more randomly chosen in this one - TA's blocks never have lines in the initial stack. - no six-shape setting, this is five-shape easy mode all the way. - the grid is 9 lines deep, like it is in the various Gameboy versions. (The console versions use 12 lines.) - the play area is tiny, and there's no sound at all. The Originals Are Sooo Much Better ---------------------------------- Finally, if you like this game to any degree then I recommend buying one of the original games - they're excellent, and this slightly naff clone doesn't do them justice at all. :-) There are variants available for virtually all of Nintendo's various consoles/handhelds, and they're all far better than this version (mainly due to the vs. modes). -Rus.