Planaria by Bruce Powel Douglass, PhD CIS 70673,2715 (608) 838-6189 5409 North Pass McFarland, WI 53558 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Planaria is FREE SOFTWARE WITH ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, AND ITS USE CONSTITUTES AN AGREEMENT TO WAVE ALL CLAIMS AGAINST THE AUTHOR DUE, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY TO ITS USE FOR ALL INFINITE TIME. Planaria may be distributed for free provided that it is accompanied by this text file and is not modified in any way. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Planaria is a kind of moving maze game in which you generate the maze. You follow the role of a worm eating creatures in its habitat. They provide you energy, resulting in your growth (a longer tail). There are different kinds of creatures that you may eat. If you hit anything else, including the triangular obstructions that appear periodically or your own tail, you die and the game is over. When you eat the creatures the blow holes in your tail allowing devious means of movement. When the tail finally catches up with these holes, they become filled, permanent obstructions you must subsequently avoid, so they are a mixed blessing. Movement is done with the keyboard arrow keys. Note that if you are travelling in one direction (let's say to the right) and a creature appears behind you so that you want to turn around, if you press the left key YOU WILL DIE because you run directly into yourself. You must first go up or down AND THEN left. This is the most common problem newcomers have with moving the worm around the screen. Keystrokes ---------- As already stated, the arrow keys control direction. Other valid keys include: ALT-P Pause ALT-S (re)Start ALT-N New Game ALT-C Configure ALT-X Quit There is some configurability with the Configuration option; including the thickness of the worm, the worm and the creature update speeds (smaller numbers are faster). You win the game when the program cannot find a clear place to put a creature. You will be amply notified if that occurs. See what happens when you minimize the program. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you like the game, I would be interested in knowing that so please drop me a line. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The game is free. If you would like source code (it uses the OWL library), there is a cost of $10 to cover mail and disk costs.