************************************ * * * BRAINBOW - The Rainbow Puzzler * * * * By Aaron M. Fisher © 1991/92 * * * ************************************ SHAREWARE ~~~~~~~~~ This game is Shareware. That means if you like it, please send a small fee to the author at the address at the end of this document. This way, you will be helping to ensure that the author produces more top-quality games like Brainbow. RULES OF DISTRIBUTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This game can be copied for just the price of a disk, but it is against the shareware principle (and the law) to try and sell it for a profit. INTRODUCTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is an original board game, which will have you taxing your brains for hours. Brainbow is rather like a version of the pile-up Scrabble variant, ie. The number of tiles on a particular square will determine the colour of the tile on top. THE CREDITS SCREEN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Upon loading, Brainbow will display the credits screen and start a rolling text loop. As mentioned in the text, Holding down the left mouse button will stop the sequence and display the welcome message, in which case you will now be able to control the game from the gadgets. THE GADGETS ~~~~~~~~~~~ There are five gadgets in all, the first two being the most important in the whole game. BEGIN GAME - will only work once you have chosen a DIFFICULTY beforehand. QUIT GAME (From the credits screen) - This will quit Brainbow altogether and return you to Workbench. QUIT GAME (During a game) - this will exit the game and return you to the credits screen. DIFFICULTY:- EASY - As it says, it is the easiest level. Start from scratch on level 1! MEDIUM - This difficulty puts you at the start of level 25. HARD - This places you at level 50, which is damned hard. THE REST OF THE PANELS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CHANGE GRID TO - The colour of the tile in this panel is the one which you have to change every square on the entire grid to. SHAPES TO USE - This panel shows the number of shapes you have left to use on the grid. LIVES AND CHANCES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Unlike most games which only give you three lives etc., Brainbow gives you the chance to go a little further in each game. The lives are as normal, but the chances are like three 'little' lives, each lost when you fail to clear a grid or run out of time. Only when all three chances are lost are you robbed of one of your lives, in which case, three more chances are given to you. Game Over strikes when you lose your last life. In this way, there are a potential nine lives to use up before the game ends! SCORE AND HIGH SCORE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These two panels simply display the score and high score respectively. KEY ~~~ This section shows you the order in which the tiles change colour as they pile up on each square. This is the familiar rainbow order of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. But in this game, the order wraps around, ie. after violet it goes back to red and vice versa, as indicated by the dotted line. TIME LEFT ~~~~~~~~~ This is the time 'meter', along which the slider representing the amount of time left travels from right to left. Time is up once it hits the left-most side of the gauge. MEET THE TILES! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These are the ten main playing shapes used in Brainbow:- ### # # # # # # # # # ### ### # ### # # # # # # ### # # # # # # # # # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 THE OBJECT OF THE GAME ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A specified number of randomly-chosen shapes is established at the beginning of a level, and each is placed randomly on the board. As each of the shapes can have up to nine tiles, then there is a three-by-three tile area for them to occupy. But, as each tile goes onto the relevant squares, the colour of that square increases by one in the key (rainbow) order. The idea of the game is to take each of the previously used shapes and reverse the process of piling up by clicking on each shape as you think they were previously positioned, to eventually finish up with a grid of a single colour. SCORING ~~~~~~~ On each level there is a maximum bonus which depletes rapidly as time progresses. Once the bonus hits zero, it stays there. It is reset once a shape has been used. LEVEL COMPLETED ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you complete a level (all its squares are just one colour), then your score will be given an additional bonus of:- Score + Maximum Level Bonus x Number of Shapes in Level You will then move on to the next level. LEVEL FAILED ~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you fail a level (use up all shapes and still have more than one colour on the grid) then the following 'Anti-Bonus' will be drained from your score:- Score - Level Number x Maximum Level Bonus You will then have to attempt to complete that level again. OUTT OF TIME ~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you run out of time, you will not have your score depleted, but you will lose a chance. GAME OVER ~~~~~~~~~ The game is over once you lose all your lives, but if you beat the high-score your score will become the new high-score. FINAL NOTE ~~~~~~~~~~ I hope you enjoy playing Brainbow - The Rainbow Puzzler as I did writing it. Happy Puzzling! CREDITS ~~~~~~~ BRAINBOW - THE RAINBOW PUZZLER is © 1991/92 Aaron M. Fisher AMOS is © 1990 Mandarin/Jawx (Now EuroPress Software) AMOS was produced by that french master of 68000 code, Francois Lionet! Aaron M. Fisher can be contacted by writing to:- 27 Elderberry Road, Pentrebane, CARDIFF, CF5 3RG (WALES)