INFECTION A DIGITAL WIZARDRY Production !!!!! This game is FREEWARE !!!!! For Julia,Becky & Abby - Love Forever. About six months ago , I read a review of a game which never made it onto the streets - This is my attempt at a similar game. ABOUT INFECTION Infection is a board game similar to OTHELLO but in the same instance totally different to OTHELLO. It is a game for 2-4 players. Any of which can be HUMAN or one of 2 computer levels ( CPU1 & CPU2 ). The objective of the game is to eliminate all opponents, or in the event of the board filling up, have the greatest number of cells (pieces) left. Each player is given 1 cell which starts in their relevant corner. It is from this single cell that the player must infect the board and all opponents. LOADING As you will have probably guessed, loading is just a case of switching on your computer and inserting the disk. The system will the load the disk into Workbench. Simply Double-click on the icon to load and run. TITLES The title sequence gives you one of three options. PLAY - Play a game using the current settings ( upon loading for the first time, the default is for 4 HUMAN players on a single game - level 1) OPTIONS - Call the options screen (see below for more details). QUIT - Exits the program. Click on any of these will cause the screen to drop out, simply click the mouse button to skip this. PLAYING Clicking on 'PLAY' from the Title Screen or 'Go' from the Options Screen will bring up the board using the current settings. When the board starts to appear, it will splerge in from the top. To skip this, simply click the mouse button to flick the screen in. OBJECTIVE The object of 'INFECTION' is to eliminate all opponents cells. This is done by moving your cells around the screen and 'infecting' neighbouring cells. ( ie. Whenever you move a cell to a new location, any neighbours that cell now has will become infected with your own colour. These cells then become yours to do with what you will. ) In the event of the board filling up completely, the player with the greatest number of cells is declared the winner. THE BOARD The board is a simple 7x7 grid. On later levels, certain spaces are blocked out with solid blocks. These cannot be moved or landed upon. They can, however, be jumped over. In the event of a player passing twice, all their cells will turn solid and close the board up further. You will also notice several pulsing squares on the board - These are called `infection Pads` - See below. MOVING Movement can be performed in one of two ways :- 1) Any cell can split to a neighbouring space (ie Leave a cell in the original space and occupy the new empty square.) 2) Any cell can jump 2 spaces into an empty space and leave an empty space behind. If movement is to be performed by a HUMAN, the pointer will appear. The info panel at the bottom will indicate who is to play. The outside of the pointer will also change to the relevant colour. To move, simply click on the cell you wish to move - a revolving ring will appear on top. If the wrong cell has been selected to move, click on the cell you do wish to move. Once you have decided upon which cell to move, click in the empty space you wish your cell to occupy. Movement can only be to any square immediately surrounding the cell, or any square 2 spaces away but lying in a straight line from the cell. Selecting another colour cell, or a empty space not in range will give you the message 'ILLEGAL SQUARE'. If you are unable to move, You must PASS - see below. PASSING When you reach the position of not being able to move, or you think it might be advantageous to stay put for 1 move, you must 'PASS'. This is done by pressing the 'SPACE BAR'. The system will then proceed onto the next player. If you make two passes, you are deemed to be out and all of your cells will be changed to solid blocks. You will then have to sit out the rest of the game. The single digit on the info panel is the number of passes the player has made. INFECTING... Whenever you move a cell to an empty square, all of its neighbours will be infected with your colour. ( During GAME TESTING this has led to some heated arguments - Players think they can team up against the CPU or another HUMAN. All this goes out of the window because at one point, somebody is going to have to start infecting other players. ) If you land on an `Infection Pad`, infecting is done differently. All other cells horizontally and vertically from the pad will infect to your colour. You can, if you wish, turn these pads off when playing. INFO DISPLAYS In each of the players corners is a info panel with the following info:- The two digit figure is the number of cells the player currently has. The single digit figure is the number of passes the player has made so far. At the bottom of the screen is a large silver box. This box is used by the system to display all important messages (ie. Who is to move, who is out, the winner, etc...) QUITTING To actually end the game early, simply press 'ESCAPE' to abort the game. The final score screen will appear and inform you that all scores are zero. Simply click to go on. OPTIONS The 'Option Screen' will allow you to adjust the settings for a game. THE PLAYERS You can set each colour to be played by any of the following :- HUMAN - Speaks for itself. CPU 1 - Player is the lowest computer setting. CPU 1 will go for the highest possible score he can get, regardless of what is lost is subsequent moves. CPU 2 - Highest Computer setting. CPU 2 will again go for the greatest cells he can capture, but will take into account what he will lose if he has to jump. If CPU 2 can take all of an opponents cells in 1 move, he will do this above anything else. OUT - Player does not play in game. PS - This is my first real attempt at AI so its not perfect ! PLAYING ORDER The playing order can be adusted to taste. To swap positions of two colours, simply click on one colour. It will then be surrounded by a shimmering box. Then click on the second colour to swap. Selecting the same colour to swap with will simply cancel the swap. LEVEL There are 9 preset boards to play on. They increase in difficulty with strategic positions blocked out. To select a new level, simply left click on the board, it will then scroll up to the new board. Right clicking will change the board down again. Whilst scrolling through these boards, you will probably notice a large question mark. Playing with this selected will tell the computer to design a random board for you to play on. BE WARNED !!! - strategies gained on the fixed boards go completely out of the window with this option. !!!! GAME TYPE This allows you to set the game to one of the following :- ONE OFF - Play a single game of INFECTION on the selected board. CHALLENGE - Challenge needs at least 1 HUMAN player. Play always starts on board 1. Once the board is complete for whatever reason, players then move onto the next board until all boards are complete. If all HUMAN players a removed from a particular board, the game will go on to the next board. This is to save time instead of watching the CPU fight it out. All HUMAN scores are added together & displayed at the end. CPU scores are irrelevent. OTHER MENU On both options screens, this will bring up the other screen SOUND Gives you a choice of Sound FX On or, wait for it .... OFF!. INFECTION PADS Lets you turn the `Infection Pads` on or off, depending on whether or not you rather play a proper strategic game. GO This kicks in the game using the current settings. Trying to leave the options screen with only 1 player set ( whether HUMAN of CPU ) will not be allowed. THE CREDITS Design, Coding & Graphics - Gary Dunne. If you want to drop me a line, contact me on :- Gary Dunne, 4 Ely Way, Luton, Beds. LU4 9QN WE HOPE YOU HAVE AS MUCH ENJOYMENT PLAYING INFECTION AS WE HAD PROGRAMMING AND TESTING THE GAME.