LOST IN MY SPECTRUM V1.2 - 20.01.2013 ===================================== Made by Alessandro Grussu for Firenze Vintage Bit 2012. Authored with Jonathan Cauldwell's Arcade Game Designer. Foreword ======== LIMS started as a study experiment with AGD, also conducted thanks to Paul Jenkinson's superb tutorials hosted on his blog (http://www.randomkak.blogspot.co.uk/p/agd-video-tutorials.html). Soon I decided that this first try would become a full-fledged game - my first Spectrum game ever! Therefore I wanted to dedicate it to Firenze Vintage Bit 2012, the forthcoming retrocomputing and retrogaming event held in Florence on the 1st and 2nd of December this year, as to thank the organizers for their invitation (which I sadly had to decline). I hope it will be as fun to play as it was for me to design! What's new in version 1.2 ========================= - Fixed a bug which could prevent the player from negotiating level 14. - The first five levels and level 7 have been slightly modified in order to make them more accessible, thus allowing the user a more balanced gaming experience. - Various optimizations of the inner game script. What's new in version 1.1 ========================= - Only one file to load for the 48K as well as for the 128K and later Spectrum models. - Fancy turbo loader. - Redefinable keys. - Kempston and Sinclair (port 1) joystick options. - "Continuous jump" bug fixed. The game ======== Alessandro has played too much with his Spectrum and now he is trapped inside his "wonder machine"! It's up to us to try to let him out of there. LIMS is a Manic Miner styled game, that is to say - if there's still someone around who doesn't know it! - it is made up with several screens containing platforms as well as, usually, some items to collect in order to get through the exit leading to the next level. Such items are guarded by characters whose touch makes Alessandro lose one of his seven lives. The same happens in case of contact with some parts of the scenery - spikes, hooks, pointed balls etc. Someone will ask: why 'usually'? Well, there are some levels (see the description of each one of them below) which are different from that! Alessandro will also lose a life if the countdown in the lower part of the screen will reach zero. Controls are very simple and refer to the standards of this kind of game: Q left W right P jump Keys are fully redefinable every time '1' is pressed in the menu screen. Pressing '2' will activate the Kempston joystick option, while '3' will select Sinclair joystick (port 1). Pressing "5" will start the game. It is possible to change direction while jumping. Alessandro can also fall from any height without this causing him to lose a life. Levels ====== 1. EASY PEASY As its very name says, the opening level of LIMS is the most accessible as well: 'as easy as drinking a glass of water' - an Italian saying. In fact, in order to activate the exit you must pick up some glasses filled with water! 2. WACKY JOYSTICKS Here we find some joystick frantically moving by themselves! Collect them in order to pass to the following level. 3. A GREEK DREAM It's night time. Jumping on Ionic columns and on clouds we must grab the Moon, accompanied by some stars, taking care not to be caught off guard by the warriors. A reference to the classical Greek civilization, the cradle of Western philosophy. 4. THE ACID CAFE A really "acid" place - in fact, the lower part of the level is almost entirely occupied by a vat containing some acid green substance! Forced direction platforms appear here for the first time in the game. Take the cup of hot coffee to unlock the exit. 5. COLD WAR Caught in the middle between East and West, we must collect the peace symbols (two for each side) in order to escape the helicopters and go on. The "icy" setting is obviously a pun on the level name. 6. HOMAGE TO MONDRIAN Surprise! Platforms, items and exit are invisible. Luckily there are no dangers lurking about. A clue: platforms are hidden in the black lines. A little tribute to the notorious Piet Mondrian (1872-1944). 7. SPECTROPHENIA A clear reference to the Who's Quadrophenia album (1973) and to Franc Roddam's film (1979) based upon it. Starting from the cliffs of Brighton, our task will be to find not some Lambrettas but some lovely C5s! 8. REVENGE OF THE JOYSTICKS The joysticks found in the second level revolted against Alessandro and called some others as a reinforcement! To escape we must grab the joypads, that will help us to unlock the exit. Beware the vertical currents! 9. CAREFUL WITH THAT AXE, EUGENE This level is naturally a re-imagining of Eugene's Lair in Manic Miner, but the title also refers to the well known Pink Floyd track recorded in different versions at the end of the 60s. Now Eugene does not surround himself with WCs anymore, but with dangerous two-headed rotating axes. Items to pick up are also inspired by those found in the Lair. The exit is not explicitly shown - but it should be fairly obvious! 10. IN THE COURT OF THE MANEKI NEKO Two levels in one for the most 'Japanese' section of LIMS! On the left, we must negotiate some hazardous platforms to reach the 'Daruma' doll at the top, which will activate the little Maneki Neko placed in the top right corner. Getting there won't be easy because we must go back to the start and then climb up the Big Maneki Neko, without knowing where the climbing points are! 11. SUB SPECIE AETERNITATIS The Latin phrase means 'under the aspect of eternity' and in Baruch Spinoza's (1632-1677) philosophy indicates the way of thinking about and seeing reality not upon particular impressions but according to an objectively rational - and therefore universal - point of view. In this case, however, 'eternal' is the sleep of those who rest in the cemetery Alessandro stumbled upon. To get out we must collect all the crosses and reach the exit placed in the mass grave, avoiding the skulls. An evil winged creature - inspired by the Ghost Demon found in Heartbroken, a 1989 Spectrum game by the Shaw Brothers - harasses us; but with all of its might, even it can't get through some elements... 12. WIR SIND DIE ROBOTER The whole level has to do with Kraftwerk, the legendary electro-techno-progressive German band. The title ('We are the robots') is taken from 'Die Roboter', a song from the Die Mensch-Maschine album (1978), also known in its English version, 'The Robots'. The pseudo-3D graphics ostensibly refer to the back cover art of the record, which in turn is inspired by the works of El Lisitskij (1890-1941). Items to pick up are small 'Kleinempfänger' radios, the same featured on the cover of Radio-Aktivität/Radioactivity (1975), while the exit depicts the logo of German highways, from Autobahn (1974). 13. THRO' THE WALL REVISITED A remake of the BASIC bat-n-ball game placed at the start of side B of the Horizons tape distributed with first Spectrums. The style is influenced by Arkanoid: the bat resembles the Vaus pod, the items are small balls, and the only enemy is a spinning Penrose triangle taken, like Eugene, from Manic Miner, namely from the 17th screen (The Warehouse) of the second version of the game, the one published by Software Project - which in fact had such an 'impossible figure' as a logo. In order to go on, once all balls are collected, Alessandro must return to the bat where he was at the start of the level. 14. DISCO CLIVE Uncle Clive feels like dancing! Bring him some records and in return he will lead us to the next level. But remember to keep an eye on the notes! 15. COINCIDENTIA OPPOSITORUM One Alessandro was not enough, we control two of them this time! The screen is divided in two parts; there are no exits, enemies are few and it's enough to collect the T'ai Chi T'u symbols placed in both of them. It all looks simple... but try to command one of the two Alessandros and you will notice that the other one will move at the same time! The Latin expression means "coincidence of opposites" and is a quote from Nicholas of Cusa (Nikolaus von Kues, 1401-1464). He maintained that while man, as a finite being, is conditioned by the principles of identity and non-contradiction, God, being infinite, is beyond any dualism (true/false, dark/light, male/female etc.). This means that in God, as in human intellect - which according to Nicholas represents the faculty of intuition -, the opposites coincide. 16. SPECTRES IN THE MACHINE The exit is near! There are no more items to get, we only have to guide Alessandro up to the multi-function port (edge connector) placed at the top right. Spectres will however hinder us... The title, beyond the connection with the Latin word 'spectrum', hides another philosophical quote. Gilbert Ryle (1900-1976) critically defined 'the ghost in the machine' the belief - stemming from René Descartes's (1596-1650) matter-thought dualism - that conscience would be a sort of 'ghost' wandering inside the body. On a side note, 'Ghost In The Machine' is also the title of an album by The Police (1981) - listen to it, it's great. 17. EPILOGUE ...a little final surprise! Versions ======== 128K version has a brief tune in the welcome screen and some AY sound effects (well, two in fact). Sources of inspiration ====================== - Manic Miner - Bouncing Bomb Redux - Eugene Lord Of The Bathroom - Heartbroken - Pyjamarama - Gloop Troops - Thro' The Wall - Arkanoid II Revenge Of Doh Tools used ========== - Spectaculator 7.51 - Arcade Games Designer 3.2 - Melbourne Draw - BAS2TAP 2.5 - Tapir 1.0 release 09/06/07 19:50 - XnView 1.99.5 - Foraits Multiload - WAV2TZX 0.6 - ZX-Paintbrush 2.2.9.6 - Laser Compact 5.2 The game uses ZX7 compression conceived by Einar Saukas and improved together with Antonio Villena and FrankT. Legal notes =========== Release under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Italy (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/it/deed.en You are free: to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work to Remix — to adapt the work Under the following conditions: Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes. Share Alike — If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one. For comments, informations, compliments, criticism, insults etc. ================================================================ Visit my website (Italian only, sorry): http://alessandrogrussu.altervista.org