SQRXZ 83 v1.0 DOCUMENTATION


WHAT IS SQRXZ?
--------------
Sqrxz is a Mario Bros similiar game. The TI-83 version is a port of the 86 
version, by Jimmy Mrdell. I decided on April 98 to port it to the 83, as I
couldn't wait anymore to Super Mario 83.

The 86 version is in turn a clone of a PC game with the same name which
Jimmy happened to like very much 
  (Get it at http://www.algonet.se/~mja/sqrxz.zip)

The goal of the game is to control an ugly bug (a Sqrxz) through a dangerous
world filled with traps and enemies such as Blobs, Hedgehogs, Bats and more.


MEMORY NEEDED:
--------------
Sqrxz will takes 7036 bytes in memory, without any world. You need at least
SQRXZ, one shell (Ashell works, SOS is better and even smaller =), and one
world ( of course )


You'll need more than 2048 bytes of free mem in order to run Sqrxz, as a level
buffer is allocated. In fact, Sqrxz makes changes to the levels, and these are
copied in order to leave them untouched.


THE OPTION MENU
---------------
When you start Sqrxz the title picture will appear. Just press any key to
continue. You will then reach the option menu, which also can be reached
while playing. You can choose between

 START GAME
   Starts the game (of course)

 STATUS BARS
   On the TI83 the status bars are by default drawn at bottom of the screen.
   However, you may want to put them at top of the screen, if you think they
   will be more visible there.
   The first (upper) bar is the timebar. The second bar is the waterbar. Be
   very careful to this one when you're in water !

 SPEED
   You can choose between three different speeds - SLOW, NORMAL and FAST.
   The default is Normal, and you shouldn't really change it to something
   else. If you have a turboed calc - don't choose slow just because you
   think the game would be too fast else, because that's wrong!
    The game tries to run after the speed you've chosen, but if a lot
   of things happen at the same time (scrolling when there are >2 enemies
   visible at the same time), the game will be slower than it should. If
   you choose Fast and don't have a turboed calc, the game will be very
   fast when the screen doesn't scroll, but will slow down quite much
   when it starts to scroll. Choosing Slow will make the game go at a slow
   pace all the time, thus reducing the speed changes. In any case, I doubt
   the game gets easier if you play in Slow mode.

To choose between the options, you use the UP and DOWN arrow, press ENTER
to change option (or start the game if you are at the first option). CLEAR
will return to the TI-OS.


CHOOSING WORLD
--------------
Now you have to choose which World (set of levels) you want to play. The
game scans through all programs on the calc, and finds out which are Sqrxz
Worlds. If it can't find and Worlds, a message "No worlds found" is shown
and you will return to TI-OS (or a shell).

When the list is shown, just use the arrow keys to choose world. If you
have more than 8 worlds on the calc you can press MODE to see the next 
page (NOTE: the MODE key is not mentioned in the help row at the bottom
- it didn't fit there :) ). If you have more than 120 worlds on the calc,
strange things could happen, but since each world is quite big, you never
have that many. Pressing ENTER on a world chooses that world.


PLAYING
-------
Before each level start (and each time you lose a life) a page is shown
telling you which world you play, the worlds Creator, which level you
are at and how many lifes you have left. Pressing CLEAR will quit the game.
Pressing any other button than that (except the arrow keys) will start the
game.

You control the ugly little bug with the arrow keys as follows

 LEFT   - move left
 RIGHT  - move right
 UP     - jump  (2ND can also be used for this purpose)
 DOWN   - walk slower (ALPHA does the same thing) (see below)

Why would you want to walk slower than regular? It's because that usually
Sqrxz will run over holes in the ground that are one tile wide (if you don't 
happen to stop directly above a hole, which isn't likely). But if you hold 
the DOWN (or ALPHA) button down, and move left/right, the speed is reduced 
and you can thus fall down in holes more easily. Another reason you maybe
want to walk slow is that most enemies (not all!) walk in that pace, and
sometimes you might want to follow them.

Other keys are

 CLEAR  - give up this life (if you get stuck)
 MODE   - lets you reconfigure the options (status bars/speed)

 MATH   - Teacher key ! (kinda)

When you press math, it turns off the calc, same way as the TI-OS does. 
This don't mean that you'll be at the OS when pressing [on], but it means
it consumes as little power as when you turn off the calc by pressing
2nd+Off. However, don't try to change your batteries while in teacher key
mode, as it will reset the z80, and the TI initialisation code won't
recognize you were running a program and thus will reset your calc.


To the bottom (or the top) of the screen you find two bars; the first (upper 
one) is how much time you have left, and the other bar is how much oxygene 
you have left in your lungs (decreases when you're in water).
You usually have more than enough time to beat a level, but it could be 
changed so that you have to hurry through the level. When the time is up, you
lose a life.

THE TILES
---------
There are a lot of different tiles in Sqrxz. Some are background, some are 
foreground (obstacles). Here is a complete list:

BACKGROUND TILES
 Trees
 Small stones
 Tombstone
 Fences
 Plants
 Letters
 Sign         - usually before the exit door
 Exit door    - the goal of each level!
 Water        - When you're in water, the left bar will decrease.
		When not in water, it will increase. If the bar reached
		the bottom, you drown. Note: bugs can't swim, and you'll
		fall as fast in water as in air.

FOREGROUND TILES
 Bricks       - these can be crushed with your (Sqrxz) head
 Steel brick  - harder bricks, can't be crushed
 Earth,
 Tower,
 Rock,         
 Bridgeramp   - Forground obstacles that are just in the way
 Bridge       - When standing on a bridge, it will fall apart immediately.
		You have to run on a bridge if you don't want to fall down.
 Portcullis   - When you walk under a portcullis, it will fall down when
		you've left that square and thus not allowing anything
		passing through. Can be good to stop enemies, but can also
		trap you...
 Spikes       - Avoid these by all means! Sqrxz is a poor bug with no armor.
 Spike traps  - These are nasty ones! When walking on a trap, it will spring
		immediately and you die. And there is no way to find out if
		a tile is a spike trap until it's too late...
 Lever        - Pulling a lever will save your position. If you die on the
		level, you don't have to start from the beginning.
 Sausages     - Yummy! Sqrxz LOVES sausages, and there seem to be someone
		leaving a damn lot of sausages in each world. If you manage
		to eat 32 sausages without dying inbetween (the counter
		resets if you die), you get an extra life. NOTE: the counter
		is never visible in this beta (it isn't in the PC version
		either) but will probably be in a later version.
 Extra life   - Sometimes you can find an extra life on a level. It looks
		like a small Sqrxz. Touching it will give you an extra life.
		However, when you see an extra life you should beware! A
		Creator of the World is usually nasty to put a lot of traps
		around an extra life so it's either hard, or impossible to
		reach it!

THE ENEMIES
-----------
There are five different enemies, and all will walk/move straight forward
and turn around at obstacles. All enemies walk/move slower than Sqrxz
(except the green man).

 Blob         - A primitive enemy. Just jump on it and it will die.
 Hedgehog     - These can be quite annoying. You can't kill it by jumping
		on it because of it's spikes (you'll be the one who die
		instead).
 Bat          - Since the bat is flying, it never changes it's vertical
		coordinate. Jumping on it will kill it though.
 Green man    - A man running around with a helmet on his head - the
		definately most advanced enemy in Sqrzx. It's running
		at the same speed as Sqrxz do, which means it doesn't fall
		down in small holes. Also, because of the helmet, you can't
		kill the man by jumping on it. If you do, the man will hide
		inside the helmet, and wait a few seconds before running
		again. When he starts running again, he will change
		direction. (This guy was green in the PC version which
		can't be seen on the TI-83 though)
 Fish         - Swims in water, always at the same height. You can't
		kill it though, so it's a combination between a hedgehog
		and a bat (since it doesn't fall down).

When you jump on an enemy (except Hedgehog and Fish), you can jump from the
back of the enemy and thus reaching higher than you usually should. To
do this you have to jump on the enemy and hold down the jump button (UP
or 2ND) at the same time. However, you can't hold the button down - you
have to release it after the jump and the pressing it again before landing.
This is made on purpose as Sqrxz shouldn't be bouncing around that easily...


KNOWN BUGS
----------
Tell me if you find any.


VERSION HISTORY
---------------
2/7/98 DDMMYY
1.0   * Level compression
      * Shell compatible ( and needed )
      * Teacher key

15/5/98 DDMMYY
0.9   A first port from the TI-86 version. Compressed levels aren't at all
      implemented, so they're just skipped. Yeah, I know the TI83 memory is 
      really small, so I'll port this as soon as I understand huffman 
      compression algorithm.

FUTURE VERSIONS
---------------
* A level editor on the calc (a late project)
* More...?

FAQ
---
Q: WHAT THE TELL DOES SQRXZ MEAN!?!? How do you pronounce it!?
A: I have NO IDEA. I will ask the author of the PC game when I see him.
   As for pronouncing, I pronounce it SKWER-ks  (not -zee at the end).

EXTERNAL WORLDS
---------------
This is a very nice features allowing everyone who wants to make his/her
own set of levels (aka World). What you need is a PC and the level editor
SQLE (stupid name I know) which are included with the original zip file.
However, SQLE isn't exactly a userfriendly program (it's the COMPLETE
opposite) and I won't tell you what every key does (most keys on the keyboard
does something!) mainly because I don't rememeber :)

You also need a couple of other files:

 SQSPR.BIN     Graphics, ripped from the PC game :)
 SQRXZPAC.EXE  A useful tool to convert a binary file to a 83 program by movax
 SLESPLIT.EXE  This program is required if you want your levels compressed.
	       It splits up the world into several file.
 HUFFMAN.EXE   This file compresses the world.
 SLE.BAT       This batch file makes the whole process of making a
	       world easy.

The syntax is 'SLE <file>' and you should not use any extension (.BIN will
be added automatically). For example, if you wish to create a world called
MyWorld (the TI-83 program will get the same name as the PC filename, with
lowercase letters) you would type

 SLE myworld

In the editor, you use the following buttons:

 ESC  - quit editor (without saving the world)
 F2   - save the world. Do this often since you won't be warned if you
	haven't saved the level when quitting.
 F3   - Change World information. The name of the world can be up to
	21 character long, and the name of the Creator can be longer.
 F4   - Undo. You can undo 5 steps.
 F5   - Delete a column at the cursor position
 F6   - Insert a column at the cursor position
 F7   - Change to the previous level
 F8   - Change to the next level
 F9   - Decrease the number of levels
 F10  - Increase the number of levels
 SHIFT-F3  - Cut a level (ie Copy & Delete at the same time)
 SHIFT-F4  - Copy level
 SHIFT-F5  - Paste level
 +    - Increase the level width (max 255)
 -    - Decrease the level width (min 15)
 DEL  - Delete the tile at the current cursor position
 UP,DOWN,LEFT,RIGHT - move cursor
 PGUP - scroll left
 PGDN - scroll right
 HOME - moves to the beginning of the level
 END  - moves to the end of the level

And how do you put a tile? By pressing the keys A-Z, , , , 0-9, ',' and
'.' (to get , you may have to use the ALT combinations ALT+134, ALT+132
and ALT+148). Use the trial and error method to find out which key puts
which tile hehehe. Some keys puts more than one tile. For example, Trees,
Fences, Tombstones, the Exit Door and more consist of more than one tile,
but you can put out all these tiles with one keystroke. The F key is for the
Earth tile - the program chooses (at random) which of the 5 different earth
tiles is to be put. If you hold down shift (or CAPS LOCK) and press a letter,
that letter in the cool font will be put on the current cursor location.

If you put more than one Sqrxz ('4') on the screen, the one farthest
right will be the start position (the other will vanish). Howver, if you
choose Sqrxz start position farther right than the first screen... the
game will be strange, it would scroll immediately, and stop before you can 
see Sqrxz.

One last thing - you can't yet change the time of each level. It's stupid
I know, but I never got around doing that simple thing.

As you see, almost every key (I've probably forgotten something) does
something. The editor WILL get better I promise, probably with mouse
support. The editor is probably also quite buggy...

THANKS GOES TO
--------------
Marcus Westerlund   - for the original Sqrxz
Wayne Chen          - for converting the PC Sqrxz levels
Nicholas Reed       - for the title picture
Jimmy Mrdell       - for the 85,86,92 Sqrxz & source code

Hannes Edfeldt      - (aka movax) for the idea of using the APD counter
Joe Wingbermuehle   - for some code reduction ( DispA rutines )
                      and for making me do a shell compatible version

--
TI-83 version by
Florent Dhordain <flo.dh@usa.net>

--
Jimmy Mrdell <mja@algonet.se>
http://www.algonet.se/~mja
IRC: Yarin



