------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I N S T R U C T I O N S F O R M O N S T A A N D M O N S T B ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. General Description 2. How to Play 3. Detailed Features 1) Maze building 2) MONSTA movement 3) Status line 4) Helpful hints 4. Differences between MONSTA and MONSTB 5. Glossary of MONSTA terms 1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION MONSTA and MONSTB are action-packed adventure games. The two are similar and for purposes of this document only MONSTA will be described in detail. MONSTB is covered in a separate section. Currently, MONSTA and MONSTB are restricted to VT100's with AVO. You are in a maze. A MONSTA is afta you. The object of the game is for you to get to the target before the MONSTA SCHLOORPs you. Walls are not displayed when you start out, but as you bump into them, they are printed. Throughout the maze there are various items that may help you on your journey to the target: Randomizers are embedded within walls and will fling you to a random location in the maze when you bump into them. Along your path are clubs which you may pick up and are used to beat the MONSTA back should he land on you. Also along your path are bombs, which are a little more complicated to use (but they are more fun). When bombs blow up, they vaporize sections of the maze. This can be very useful. 2. How to play After invoking MONSTA (system dependent), the initial board is printed and you are asked to 'Enter Difficulty Level:'. To this you should type the first letter of one of the following words: Novice, Beginner, Expert, Superman, WOW, or Impossible Type a '?' for help. You may change your entry with or . After you have entered your choice, press to begin the game. The board is a little confusing at first, but you quickly get used to it. You are represented by the capital letter 'O'. The MONSTA is the blinking diamond. You must get to the target which is the flashing asterisk. Randomizers are '?'s (question marks) Clubs are exclamation points. Bombs are '#'s (number signs) Activated bombs flash brightly; unactivated bombs do not. The first thing you'll want to do is RUN. You move two steps at a time by hitting one of the following keys: 2 to move down 4 to move left 6 to move right 8 to move up We recommend you use the numeric keypad. If at any time during the game the screen becomes disturbed, (due to a system message, for instance) you can refresh the screen by hitting . Elapsed time does not accumulate while the board is being reprinted. You pick up a club simply by landing on it. If you are carrying a club when the MONSTA lands on you, he gets beaten back to a random location in the maze, and you lose that club. If you are not carrying any clubs when the MONSTA lands on you, you are SCHLOORPed and you have lost the game. Like clubs, you pick up a bomb automatically whenever you land on one. Then you can activate it by getting a gorilla to hit the 0 key for you (if you don't have a gorilla you can do it yourself.) The bomb gets placed at your current position, and it gets activated as soon as you step off the square. The idea is to get the MONSTA to step on the bomb, causing it to explode. Avoid stepping on an activated bomb, as you will be blown to bits. In fact even if you are too near the bomb when the MONSTA sets it off, you will still get blown to bits. 3. Detailed Features 1) Maze building The maze is built by selectively erasing walls. There will always be exactly one path between any two points, until walls are blown up using bombs. Every square is accessible from every other square. You start out as far away as possible from the target, so, even if it looks like it is an easy step to the target, you can be sure it's not. Remember, in MONSTA there are no shortcuts. 2) MONSTA movement The MONSTA always moves toward you. If this alone is a choice between two moves, he will then prefer non-walls over walls. If there is still no preference, he will move along the longer axis. If neither axis is longer, he chooses randomly. The speed at which the MONSTA moves depends on the difficulty level. For instance, in beginner games, he moves once every two seconds. A move may consist of more than one step, however, and the number of steps varies, but is related to the 'P' as shown on the status line. This 'P' increases gradually every time you take a step, increases moderately whenever you get randomized, and it increases radically when he explodes a bomb (in other words, when he gets angry). He will never take more than a certain number of steps (incidentally, this number increases when he explodes a bomb). 3) Status line The status line is shown at the bottom line of the screen. A sample status line is shown below: Beginner 01:05 ?: 11 !: 2 / 3 #: 1 / 0 P: 31% ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ | | | | | | | | Difficulty Elapsed Rando- Clubs | Bombs | MONSTA Level Time mizers Carried/Left Carried/Left Speed left to be printed '!: 2 / 3' means you are carrying two clubs and three are left on the board. '#: 1 / 0' means you are carrying one bomb and there are none left on the board. 4) Helpful Hints The MONSTA only takes one step per move until you do one of the following: o Pick up a club o Pick up a bomb o Take a randomizer This is helpful in the early part of the game when you're most vulnerable. Notice you always move two steps at a time. If the MONSTA is exactly one square away from you and the path is open, you can step right over him. 4. Differences between MONSTA and MONSTB The major difference between MONSTA and MONSTB is that the maze wraps around. When you disappear off the bottom of the maze, you reappear at the top, and vice versa. The same holds true for the left and right edges. The MONSTA is still smart enough to take the shortest path towards you, even if it means wrapping around. You may be caught thinking he's a whole screen width away, when he's actually only one or two steps away! Even bomb craters wrap around. The status line is shown a the top of the screen rather than the bottom. 5. Glossary of MONSTA terms BEGINNER - see Difficulty Levels BLOWN TO BITS - End of game by bomb explosion. BOARD - The maze BOMB, ACTIVATED - (Flashing bold number sign) These explode when stepped on leaving an arbitrary sized (radius less than six) hole in the maze. Do not step on these, you will be blown to bits. (Blown to binary digits?) If the MONSTA steps on an activated bomb, he only gets flung to a random spot on the maze. BOMB, INACTIVE - (Number sign) These you pick up by passing over them. Once you have picked up a bomb, you may activate it by pressing the '0' key. You may carry as many bombs as you like. CLUB - (Exclamation point) Picked up by passing over them. Used to beat back the MONSTA when he attacks. You may carry as many as you like. DIFFICULTY LEVELS - Selected at the begining of the game, to determine the speed at which the MONSTA moves i) Novice: MONSTA moves every 3 seconds ii) Beginner: MONSTA moves every 2 seconds iii) Expert: MONSTA moves every second iv) Superman: MONSTA moves every second, but takes more steps per move v) WOW: MONSTA moves continuously vi) Impossible: MONSTA moves continuously, and takes more steps per move EXPERT - see Difficulty Levels IMPOSSIBLE - see Difficulty Levels KEYPAD - The keys that have meaning in MONSTA and MONSTB are: 0 - drops a bomb 2 - move down 4 - move left 6 - move right 8 - move up ^W - refresh screen MONSTA - (flashing diamond) Repulsive gelatinous amoeboid creature whose only desire in life is to SCHLOORP (or absorb) you MOVE - A sequence of one or more steps NOVICE - see Difficulty Levels RANDOMIZER - (question mark) Teleportaion devices (used often in desperation) which transport you, but not the MONSTA, to points unknown SCHLOORP - The sound the MONSTA makes when he absorbs you SQUARE - One VT100 character width or height STATUS LINE - Line of useful information updated continuously during the game--see above for detail STEP - Movement that's one square in length SUPERMAN - see Difficulty Levels TARGET - (flashing asterisk) Desireable treasure; haven from the MONSTA; much satisfaction is gained by placing yourself here VICTORY - You won WALL - Either a Pink Floyd album or a square in the maze where you cannot go WOW - see Difficulty Levels WRAP AROUND - In MONSTB only, the screen system where the top edge is logically next to the bottom edge, and the right edge is logically next to the left edge