_____/\__ ______ ___ ______ __ ___ ____ \_ _ \\ _\\_ _ \\ _\\_ _ \ / // __\/ __/ _/ __// _ \/ _ // _ \/ // // / \ \ / _/_ \_/ /_//_/_/ \_\_//_/ __ //_/\_/ \\___/ / + . . + + . . + \ \_________SMASH AGAIN WITH:________/ SPOT V1.6 FROM VIRGIN GAMES! FULL DOCS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- PUBLISHED BY VIRGIN GAMES LTD (C)1990,1991 VIRGIN GAMES INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (C)SPOT Name and Character are Trademarks Identifying Products of The Seven-Up Company,Dallas TX 1990! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LOADING: SPOT V1.6 will run on ony Amiga 500,1000,2000,2500,and 3000 with 1 Meg of memory or more, To run SPOT, turn your macine off and on again then insert the disk into the internal floppy drive(df0:). SPOT will load and run automatically. (eheheheh) CONTROLLING THE GAME: To play spot,you can use the mouse,the keyboard or the joystick to play the the game. just choose the control device that each player is to use on the Options Screen. The mause,joistick or cursor keys on the keyboard allow a palyer to move the hand which acts as a game cursor around the screen. When you want to click on an icon or select a square on the game board, move the hand over the icon or square and thn 'click' on it to make the selection . The left mause button, left fire button on the joystick or the RETURN key on the keyboard must be pressed to tell the computer that you want to click. ESC quits the current game and returns you to the Spot main menu. HOW TO DIVE STRAIGHT IN: If you are the only player and would like to challenge the computer, move the cursor over the START GAME icon and click. The game will begin with you in control of the red game pieces and a Level 1 Computer player in control of the green pieces. The animated character, Spot, will dance around the board as moves are made; you fight over all 49 squares on the board, the Secret Spot Squares facility will be active but there will be no time limits set for either you or the computer. THE OPTION SCREEN: Spot can be played by one to four players, any or all of which can be cont- rolled by the computer, and there are several timer facilities that can be used to make frantc. These game parameters are set on the Option Screen - click on the OPTION button on the Spot main screen: Here, the default settings for the game are active - this is how Spot is configured when it first loads. The four groups of three buttons at each corner of the Option Screen are used to set the options for the four players who can join in a game. as this option screen is set up for a two-player game, the two player pannels in the lower half of the screen are 'greyed out'. SETTING PLAYER OPTIONS: -CHOOSING PLAYERS- The three buttons in each player panel are used to set up attributes for the player. By moving the cursor over a button and clicking, you can change the icon it display-keep clicking on a button, and you will eventually cycle through all the alternative parameters that it can be used to control. The button at the four corner of the Option Screen allow you to tell the computer whether a human player will control that player position on the board. Player 3 and Player 4 are greyed out when you first load Spot - to call those player position into play, just click on the appropriate grey player button in the player panels at the base of the screen. Choosing Control Devices: A player can choose to use the mouse, a joystick, or the keyboard. GAME OPTIONS: -Setting Computer Skill Levels- whenever you select the computer as a player, an icon that looks like this will appear in the button that would allow you to choose between mouse,joy- stick and keyboard as the control device for a human player: The computer can play at nine different skill levels, conveniently numbered 1 to 9. Keep clicking on the skill button to cycle through until the skill level you want the computer to play at appears - 1 is the least intelligent, 9 is the smartest.... -Setting A Player Time Limit- When Spot first loads, the games is configured so that there is no limit on the amount of time the two players can take thinking about their move. You can choose to play whit the Player Time set to NO TIMER, or by clicking on this button, you can cycle through the time limits that can be set for a particular player. You can configure the game so that a player has 5,10,20, or 40 seconds in which to ponder a move. If you have activated the Timer, when the turn passes to a player a window opens on the screen and starts a countdown. If the player fails to make a move before this timer counts down to zero, then he or she loses the chance to make a move and the turn passes to the next player in sequence. NB if the player has selected a counter, but fails to move it when the timer reaches zero, that counter is lost.... SETTING GAME OPTIONS: Once the player buttons have been set up to your satisfaction, it is time to consider what global parameters you would like to set - they will apply to all the players in the game. -Controlling Your Host - SPOT- Your host during a game is the athletic character SPOT - as the turn passes from player to player, SPOT will move around the margin of the board and tap his foot impatiently next to the meter that shows how many counters the current player has turned to his or her colour. When Spot first loads, your host has been set to take a more active part in proceeding - he will leap and cavort over the board each time a counter is moved. The button in the centre of the Option Screen shows SPOT giving the 'thumbs up' against a bright green background. If you click on this button, it will toggle to show SPOT giving the 'thumbs down' against a dark back- ground you have turned SPOT off and he will not perform his acrobatics during play. -Setting a Game-time Limit For All Players- By clicking on the timer button in the player panel that relates to one of the participants in a game, you can set a time limit within which that player has to take each turn. Rather than limit the amount of time in which individual players have to make a move each time it is their turn, you can use the Game Clock to set a time limit which applies to all the players. This Game-time is in effect an allowance of time in which each player has to make all the moves that he or she makes during the game. When Spot first loads, the Game Clock button is disabled - the button which controls it displays NO CLOCK. By clicking on this button , you can cycle through the set of Game-time options:1,2,3,5,7 and 9 minutes. If you click on this button, all the timer buttons in the player panels are automatically reset to NO TIMER. The Game-Clock does not directly govern how long a game will last - what it does is set a time allowance that applies to all the players. If the Game Clock has been set, each player can take as long as he or she likes over making a move during a turn. When the game is started, the timer is set to the number of minutes you select in the Game Clock button on the Options - Screen. When the turn passes to a player a clock appears on screen showing the amount of Game-time remaining for that player, and begins counting down until the player makes the move - once a player uses up his or time her time allowance, then he or she can make no more moves in that game. -The Extra Button- When Spot first loads, the Extra button is toggled on. You can toggle it off again if you likr - but it won't affect the way the game is configured. It is in fact a bonus button for you to play with - it does nothing! ACTIVATION GAME OPTIONS: Once you have configured all the buttons on the Options Screen to your statisfaction, a click on the EXIT button returns you to the Spot main menu screen with your parametars for play set up. A summary of the Options Screen controls appears over the page. EDITING THE SPOT BOARD: When Spot first loads, the game defaults are set so that you play on the full 49-square board. There are a further 512 preprogrammed playng boards for you to enjoy - and a powerful board editing facility allows you to customise the play area to your heart's content. The Edit Board screen is accessed by clicking on the EDIT BOARD button on the Spot main screen. Squares on the playng board can be edited out of play by clicking on individually - in the picture above, a square to the top left of the board has been 'removed' by clicking on it. When you first access the Edit Board is set up so that squares can be edited out of play one by one. You can't, of course, block out the four start squares at the four corners of the playing board. -Symmetrical Editing- If you click on the SYM button on the Edit Board screen, squares that you edit out are also 'reflected' in the horizontal and vertical axes that run through the centre of the board. Clicking on the square towards the top left of the board with the SYM facility toggled on produces this board. -Using the Pre-programmed Boards- There are 512 pre-programmed boards in the game - if you don't want to design your own cutsom board, click on the SHAKE button on the Edit Board screen to call up one of the pre-programmed boards. Keep clicking on SHAKE until a board that you want to play on appears. Once you are happy with a board that you have designed or selected on the Edit Board screen, clicking on the EXIT button returns you to the Spot main screen with the board confirmed as your desired playing area. If things aren't going too well for you on the Edit Board screen, clicking on the UNDO button will immediately clear the the board for you - and you can start the editing process afresh. PLAYING SPOT: -THE GAME OBJECTIVE- No matter how you configure the game or the board, the goal is the same - to achieve domination by filling as many of the squares with your colour counter as you can. The winner is the player who has the most game pieces on the board when the game ends, which is usually when the board is full. -Taking Turns- Players take turns, starting with player 1 who controls the red counters, moving on to player 2 who controls green. If you have set up a game for more than two players, then player 3 uses blue couters while player 4 has black counters. Little meters at the corner of the game screen keep a running tally of the number of counters each player has on the board, and your host SPOT reminds you which player has the turn by standing under his or her score meter und tapping his food impatiently until the moves is made. The computer players automatically take their turns without being propted by SPOT. -Making Moves- At the start of a turn, a human player must first select the counter that he or she wishes to move by clicking on it - it will begin to flash, indicating that it is the active counter. To make the move, the hand cursor then needs to be moved over a vacant square on the board - clicking again will make the move with the selected counter, providing the move complies with the rules of the game. If a player attempts an illegal move, the computer will beep when he or she clicks on the destination square for the active counter. It is possible to change your mind as to which counter you want to move during a turn - just click on another one, and it will beckome the active counter which can be moved. -Legal Moves- Counter can only be moved into vacant squares on the board. If a counter is moved to an adjacent square, then it will clone itself - at the very laest, your score will increase by one. A counter can 'jump' in any direction over one square(which can be occuped or vocant) to load on a vocant square. If this move is made, then the counter will not clone itself and it leaves a vacant square behind. -Capturing Pieces- The real key to playing Spot succesfully is mastering the strategies involved. When a player's counter lands in an empty squares on the board it will capture any pieces that belong to other players that are in squares that are adjacent to the square in which the counter lands. You will see this happening. Cloning moves are relativly safe - jumping moves can leave a vacant square into which one of your opponents might leap, thereby capturing some of your counters. Use them with care, or you could find that a short-term gain is very quickly turned into a long-term loss. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (c) ARCATRONIC OF PARADISE on 01-03-1992 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------