sneesnoo snake 50 users manual

8/14/2019 SneeSnoo SNAKE 50 Users Manual

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SneeSnoo S n a k e TM Version 5.0 Users ManualCopyright (C) 1990 by Bruce L. Rosenberg

A quality ShareWare arcade game by EXACT SOLUTIONS.

SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) V5.0 Documentation, (C) 1990 Bruce Rosenberg

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 INTRODUCTION 11.1 Overview of the Game 11.2 Philosophy 11.3 HardwareRequirements 21.4 Improvements in Version 5.0 21.6 Future Versions21.7 Credits3

2.0 OPERATION OF THE GAME OF SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) 32.1 Start-up Screen32.2Beginning Screen 32.3 Main Menu Screen 42.4 Game Instructions Screen 42.5Game Screen 52.6 Score Display Screen 52.7 Change Options Screen 6

3.0 INFORMATION ON HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR GAME 63.1 Snake snatching hints63.2 Suggestions for operating the CONTROL KEYS 73.3 Trouble Shooting Q&A 8

4.0 TECHNICAL INFORMATION ON SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) 94.1 Human factorstheory of the game 94.2 Operation of the speed-changing algorithm 104.3 RevisionHistory 10

5.0 COMMERCIAL INFORMATION REGARDING SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) 135.1Intellectual Property Rights and other Information 135.2 The $10,000 InternationalSNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) Contest 135.3 Registration Form 15

6.0 INDEX 16

TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE i.


1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Overview of the Game

SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) is a fun, fast-moving, colorful arcade style game with excellentsound effects. In this game a snake runs around on the screen and the player tries to catch it. Hecatches it by moving a "bag" around the screen using the keyboard keys, getting the bag over thehead of the snake, and closing the bag. If the head is in the bag when it is closed, the playercatches the snake and gets points. Catching a poisonous Snoo Snake gives more points thancatching a nonpoisonous Snee Snake. If the player closes the bag when the snake's head isoutside but nearby; the player gets bitten. If the player is bitten, the snake runs away and theplayer loses points, more for the Snoo than for the Snee. Also, after a number of poisonous Snoobites, the player dies and the score for the game is lost.

A status bar appears at the bottom of the playing screen. It shows important information on thegame, such as the score, game speed, and remaining playing time.


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For players who do not die, names and scores are kept in a score file which is maintained on diskand displayed at the end of each game. The player is asked for his name at the end of each game.

The score is based on the number of points scored per minute, which is the rate of catchingsnakes. This means that to get a high score, the player must constantly catch snakes as quickly as

possible and avoid being bitten. See Section 2.4 for detailed instructions.

1.2 Philosophy

One of the driving forces behind this game was to produce a challenging, tracking-type gamewhich does not involve violent, shoot-the-enemy mentality. We see too much violence ontelevision and in the movies. SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) is a subtle game which encouragesclever strategies as well as perceptual-motor speed and accuracy. SneeSnoo is not "the enemy" tobe killed; but a clever adversary whose ways must be learned. The game is a challenge onseveral levels of tactics and strategy.

SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) embodies the principle of duality in a way analogous to the YinYang

of Eastern philosophy. Snoo and Yang are the male/energizing side of nature, whereas Snee andYin are the female/nurturing side. The same snake manifests both Snee and Snoo just as eachperson manifests both Yang and Yin attributes. As you become more skilled in this game youmay find that, there is no longer a separate keyboard, screen, game, and person playing it; butonly oneness, a magical whole, a transcendent dance of nature and technology. Mentallyhealthful, this game eschews war-minded shoot-em-up atavism. Use the Force!

SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION PAGE 1.


1.3 Hardware Requirements

Unlike many arcade style games, SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) is a character-oriented, not agraphics-mode game. This means that it can be played on all types of display adapters,monochrome, Hercules, CGA, EGA, or VGA. It also works on color adapters which are beingused with black and white (amber or green too) monitors. Due to the CGA's ability to changescreen surround colors, it is especially colorful on machines with a CGA adapter card and a colormonitor. Because of the speed of movement, it may be difficult to play on portable computerswith long persistence LCD screens. Older LCD screens tend to have slower visual response.Changing the LCD foreground and background colors and/or character density can help visibility.

Because SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) adapts its speed to the speed of the CPU, you can play it onany MS-DOS/PC-DOS machine, from a slow, original IBM PC to a fast 386 machine. It requires128 Kbytes of RAM, and one floppy, hard, or RAM disk drive. The snake.dat file is saved on thesame disk and directory from which the game is invoked.

1.4 Improvements in Version 5.0

Version 5.0 of SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) is significantly improved over earlier versions. It nowhas much better key action for faster bag movement, speed compensation so that it will run at the


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proper speed no matter how fast the PC, a continuously self-running, auto-demonstration modewith robot players who type in their own names, improved screens, direct exit from playingscreen (boss coming) to DOS prompt, and more. In the auto-demonstration mode you can simplywatch the robot snatch snakes (SNEESNOO as a spectator sport) or you can help the robot byusing the keyboard. This feature can be used as a training mode. See Revision History for moredetails on Version 5.0 improvements.

Suggestions and comments from a number of enthusiastic SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) Snatchershave led to this improved version. Thanks.

1.6 Future Versions

If you become a registered user, you will receive the latest version of the game. Also, after Ireceive 5,000 registrations, you will be informed of the details of the $10,000.00 InternationalSNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) Contest (see CONTEST later). A number of improvements to Snakeare under development, such as adventure-style game levels, joystick and mouse support,individually selectable score files, rewriting in object-oriented form, and more. Although thisShareware game is copyrighted, permission is given for short-term noncommercial use and

distribution. Development of improved future versions depend on you, the user, for support.Please send in your registration.

SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION PAGE 2.


1.7 Credits

Mary Wall, my Pascal instructor at Atlantic Community College, deserves credit for suggesting

development of a game as a term project and for encouraging commercialization of our projects.I am indebted to Tom Zurinskas, Dave Schubert, Wayne Wolfe, and Tom D'Ottavi forsuggestions which led to substantial improvements to the game. Next, thanks go to my five sons,Daniel, John, Adam, Karl and Paul for their constructive, creative ideas and for serving as testplayers of the game. Neil Rubenking and Michael Day, representing Borland International on theCompuserve board gave much patient help in the area of improving the keyboard action formoving the bag. Finally, my wife, Anne deserves thanks for tolerating the late night noise of twocomputers running SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) during the shake-down testing.

In a very real sense, the ongoing development and evolution of this game is a cooperativeendeavor for which I am grateful to the above people and others whom I may have neglected tomention. All of us is truly smarter than any of us.

2.0 OPERATION OF THE GAME OF SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM)

This section describes the various screens of the program, gives helpful information regardingthem, and provides other information on the operation of the game.

2.1 Start-up Screen

When the game is invoked by keying SNAKE50 at the DOS prompt, an option is presented for


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toggling sound on or off. If you are some place where people might be bothered by the sound,chose the "off" option. Following this, the start-up screen appears and asks you to wait while thecomputer's speed is tested. The program needs to test the speed so it can adjust itself to run at thecorrect speed on all PCs. While you are waiting, a Snee snake runs around in the lower part ofthe screen. On IBM PC XTs, the speed test takes about 24 seconds. On faster machines, the timeis proportionately less. When the speed has been checked, the results are displayed on the screen.

The speed relative to an IBM PC XT is shown. This is usually about 20% less than the valuegiven by Norton's SI rating. It is specific for the kinds of computer functions used by theSNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) routines.

2.2 Beginning Screen

Following the speed test, the main introductory screen is shown. At the bottom of this screen an"AUTO-DEMO" prompt appears. If you do nothing, the right-pointing arrow advances to theright, tick-by-tick, toward the AUTO-DEMO text block. When the arrow

SECTION 2 OPERATION OF THE GAMEPAGE 3.


reaches it, the program automatically goes into a demonstration game. It will continue in thedemonstration mode until you exit by pressing a key when the AUTO-DEMO prompt is at thebottom of the screen. While the DEMO game is playing, you can also exit to MENU by pressingthe 0 key on the number keys on the top row above the home keys or exit directly to the DOSprompt by hitting ESC. Once in the MENU, you can enter the AUTO-DEMO mode by pressingthe 5 key.

2.3 Main Menu Screen

The Main Menu shows the following information:

1. BEGINNING SCREEN: Takes you back to the intro screen.2. GAME INSTRUCTIONS:Rules of the game, what keys to use.3. FURTHER INFORMATION: Commercial info, prices,etc.4. PLAY GAME: Just what it says; Snatch SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM)!5. AUTO-DEMO:Watch the robot, a self-running demo.6. DISPLAY SCORES: View the top 20 scores andnames.7. CHANGE OPTIONS: Turn off sound and/or reset top 20 scores.8. FAREWELL:See the farewell screen and quit the game.ESC. QUICK EXIT TO DOS: Get directly to the DOSprompt.

2.4 Game Instructions Screen

You are a herpetologist for Megalop Zoo. Your assignment is to go to the Foetid Forest ofAmazonia and catch the rare SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM). Poisonous Snoo's head is a whitecapital A with two dots above and it's body segments are cyan open asterisks. NonvenomousSnee's head's a red happy face and it's body segments are green zeros. You control movement ofa bag, which is a rectangle formed by four yellow vertical rectangles. To catch the snake youclose the bag. SneeSnoo can enter from any side. Closing the bag with the Snee head inside ,gets 1 point, or 4 points if a Snoo. If outside bag, but within striking distance, it bites and youdrop 1 point, 2 points if venomous. Five venomous bites and you DIE!! Your score is the total


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number of snake points per minute. You have a time limit. Time in seconds remaining is shownon the score bar. Good Luck!

C O N T R O L K E Y S R, T, U, I keys move bag up. V or N keys move bagdown. F or H keys move bag left. G or J keys move bag right.

Space bar closes bag. During play ESC exits to DOS; 0 to MENU.



2.5 Game Screen

SneeSnoo and the bag are allowed to move anywhere on the playing field. A typical view of theplaying field with the snake, the bag and the status bar is as follows:

00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 __ _ _ 8 SNEESNAKE BAG __ _ _ STATUS BAR

Score=11.7 Time= 37 Bites Left= 3 Speed=46.3 ESC=DOS 0=MENU Send$

The playing field for the game includes all of the screen, except the bottom line, which is thegame status bar as shown above. The variables in the status bar are updated every three seconds.

The leftmost element on the status bar is the Score, which is in Snake points per minute. Thesecond element is playing time (in seconds) remaining. The third element is the number ofpoisonous Snoo bites remaining until you die. The fourth element is the snake speed. The fastestpossible speed is 100. The last three elements are reminders.

2.6 Score Display Screen

This is a sample portion of the score display screen:

HERE ARE THE SCORES FOR The Top 20 SneeSnoo Snake Snatchers: 1. IZavfuz, robot # 1, scored 36 points/min; final speed = 49 2. I Rutsew, robot # 1, scored 35

points/min; final speed = 45 3. I Kilfes, robot # 2, scored 20 points/min; final speed = 36 4...................... scored 0 points/min; final speed = 0 5. ..................... scored 0 points/min; finalspeed = 0

This screen shows a sample of computer-generated robot names and their scores from ademonstration game.

If your score is in the top twenty, the game will prompt you to


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enter your name. After your name is entered, the score screen will appear with your name andscore in the proper place in the list. If you got the highest score, your score will appear at the topof the list. If your score was not in the top twenty, a message stating this will appear and you willbe returned to the Main Menu screen without being shown the score display screen

2.7 Change Options Screen

The first line on the options screen asks if you want sound. After responding to this, it tells youwhat display adapter you are using and gives you two lines to confirm this. Finally, it asks youwhether you want to reset the score file, snake.dat. If you say you want to reset, the programconfirms your decision before destroying history. If the file snake.dat does not exist, the programis smart enough to detect that fact without crashing and create a "tabla rasa" snake.dat file for the

scores. After you set the options you are taken back to the Main Menu.

3.0 INFORMATION ON HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR GAME

The following three sections provide helpful information on improving your game. Reading andunderstanding the technical material in Section 4 should also be helpful.

3.1 Snake snatching hints

Location on the screen - The easiest locations are the corners. The hardest location is the centerof the screen.

Where to look - Sometimes in tracking games it helps to not look directly at the target.Defocusing or looking off to the side seems to improve the ability to snatch the snake.

Controlling the bag - Everyone has her/his own way of using the control keys. Specificsuggestions and hints are included below in section 3.3.

Movement of the snake - The snake moves 5 increments in one direction before it changesdirection. The horizontal change in direction does not occur at the same time as the verticalchange in direction. The total length of the snake is 13 characters and there are up to 3 possiblechanges in direction along this length. Note that the snake usually moves diagonally, rarely justvertically or horizontally.

Size and shape of the bag - The bag is 7 horizontal spaces wide and 5 vertical spaces high. Youhave a better chance of snatching a snake during horizontal motion.

Nonvenomous (Snee) vs. venomous (Snoo) snakes - You get 1 snake point for bagging anonvenomous snake; but 4 points if it's

SECTION 3 HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR GAME PAGE 6.


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venomous. So, for high score, you should go for the venomous snakes; but you risk dying. Ifyou get bitten by a nonvenomous Snee Snake, you drop one snake. If it's a venomous Snoo, youdrop two snakes and after 5 bites from the Snoo Snake you die and the game is over. When you

die, your score is not recorded. The distance the SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) can strike is 2horizontal spaces left or right of bag periphery or 2 vertical spaces above or below it.

SPEED adjustments - You might get a better score if you pace yourself and become selective,rather than taking every snatching opportunity that comes along. Remember the one who gets thehighest score without dying is the winner.

Competition - SNAKE50 is fun to play by yourself; but the real challenge is to play againstothers. The data file automatically saves the highest 20 scores. Let the AUTO-DEMO run for awhile to get some robot scores on the list to play against. Play against your buddies; form aSNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) club and organize a local contest. Send in your $8.00 registrationfees. After 5000 register, the $10,000.00 International SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) Snatching

contest will be announced.

3.2 Suggestions for operating the CONTROL KEYS One of the problems with key-activatedgames is differences in placement of cursor keys. Also, it is difficult to activate the cursor keyswithout sometimes losing one's finger placement. I have watched my contortionist son, Adam,controlling games with left forefinger and ringfinger intertwined with the corresponding righthand fingers, so he would not have to lose his anchor positions and hit the wrong keys. I decidedthat there had to be a better way to provide a positional anchor.

With SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) 5.0, the control keys were selected so that the bag motion couldbe controlled with the forefinger of either hand from the home typing positions (left forefingerresting on the F key and the right forefinger resting on the J key). The following paragraph gives

detailed instructions for controlling the bag movement the way I do it. (Adam does not approveof my method.)

Please follow along using your left hand. If the rear, leftmost part of the palm rests on theforward edge (facing you) of the keyboard with the forefinger resting on the F (move bag left)key, then an extension of the forefinger upward and a slight pivot counterclockwise of the handaround the palm resting point will bring the finger to the R (move bag up) key. A slight palmpivot clockwise and an extension of the forefinger will bring the finger tip to the G (move bagright) key. A palm pivot clockwise and a contraction of the finger will bring the finger tip to theV (move bag down) key. Either thumb is always in position to activate the spacebar as is normalin touch typing. Exactly the same principles apply to the action for the right hand.



Try controlling the game with your left hand anchored as described above, I think that you willget used to it quickly and get higher scores. Or, if you come up with a better way, use it and dropme a line on your technique.


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3.3 Trouble Shooting Q&A

1.Q. When the head was in the bag, I hit the SPACEBAR to close it, but the snake still bit me,how come?1.A. The head was really outside the bag when you closed it. The snake can movebetween the time you decide to hit the SPACEBAR and the time the bag actually closes. You

must anticipate this reaction time delay when you try to bag the snake.

2.Q. My score is high early in the game and then goes down. Why?2.A. Your score is not thetotal number of points since the game started; it is how quickly you can bag snakes. It is stated in"points scored per minute". This is why if you bag a lot of snakes very early in the game and thenslack-off, you could have a very high early score and then a much lower score at the end. Yourscore is computed as the number of snake points (1 for bagging nonpoisonous, 4 for baggingpoisonous) less the number of snake points lost due to getting bitten. This result is then dividedby the elapsed time. Your score is recomputed and displayed on the scorebar at the bottom of thegame screen every 3 seconds. So if you have a score of 25 snake points per minute at the end ofthe first minute and neither get bitten nor snatch a snake during the remainder of the secondminute, you can watch your score gradually drop to 12.5 snake points per minute during the

second minute of the two-minute game. If you want a high score, you can't let up for a singlesecond!

3.Q. How come the snake keeps biting me?3.A. Work on your accuracy and ability to anticipatewhere the snake will move. Pace yourself and don't get trigger-happy.

4.Q. My score never gets on the top 20 list. Why?4.A. You need to improve your skill or resetthe score file using option 7 from the main menu.

5.Q. My boss caught me playing this game at work. How can I stay out of trouble?5.A. ESC,escape key, immediately exits the game and returns you to the DOS prompt. Next time select theno-sound option, so your Boss can't hear it!

6.Q. I can't see the moving snake and bag very well on my laptop LCD screen. How can Iimprove it?6.A. Try changing the display from black-on-white to white-on-black or vice versa orchange the color translation palette.

7.Q. The display isn't very good on my composite black and white



monitor running with a CGA card. How can I improve it?7.A. Go to DOS and run the MODEBW80 command. Upgrade to an RGB or a composite color monitor.

8.Q. How can I print the top 20 score screen?8.A. Access the score screen from the MAINMENU, hold the left SHIFT key down and then press the PrtScr key. Make sure your printer isturned on, has paper in it, and is ON-LINE. You can also use a screen capture program, likeSNIPPER.COM, which is available via PCMagNet.


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4.0 TECHNICAL INFORMATION ON SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM)

4.1 Human factors theory of the game

The game involves an adaptive, two-dimensional pursuit tracking task. The player tries to followa randomly moving target with a reticle (bag) and when the target is within the reticle presses a

button to capture it. SNAKE50 is much more than a simple pursuit tracking task such as steeringa car along a highway. And the rates of motion of the target can exceed the bandwidth of thehuman controller.

The upper limit of human eye-hand tracking closed-loop frequency response is 0.6 Hz or 1.7seconds per cycle. This is relatively slow. It is much slower than the maximum key tapping rateof one finger, which is about 5 times per second (5 Hz) or 0.2 seconds per cycle. For theengineers in the crowd, a typical continuous human operator mathematical transfer function is:

K * (exp ( -0.17S ) / ( 0.63S + 1 ));

where S is the Heaviside (or LaPlace) operator.

Such an equation can be used to simulate how a human might control a dynamic system, likeflying an airplane or steering a car. But humans behave much more cleverly than the aboveequation. They can learn the periodicities in the control task and anticipate the next motionwhich might occur. It is possible to anticipate SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM)'s motion.

SneeSnoo can move much faster than the human can follow it, as can be seen when the snakeruns away. Thus, its speed must be reduced to provide a reasonably difficult tracking task.

4.1.1 Programming the Robot Tracker/Snatcher

It was not easy to make a robot tracker/snatcher which performs as poorly as a human does. With

judicious use of the RANDOM function and bag closing errors I was able to arrive at a detunedrobot which approximated human scores. However it is easy to see the dynamic differencesbetween a robot and a human player.

SECTION 4 TECHNICAL INFORMATIONPAGE 9.


The typical eye-hand simple reaction time of the human is 180 milliseconds or about two-tenthsof a second. By knowing the humans' maximum tapping rate, visual reaction time, the size of thebag in number of snake increments, the increment rate, and the random snake-motion algorithm,and the ability of the human to track the snake's periodicities, a creative SNEESNOO SNAKE(TM) Snatcher Programmer might be able to figure out a robot player algorithm which wouldmore realistically simulate a human playing the game!

4.2 Operation of the speed-changing algorithm


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When you select PLAY GAME, the initial speed of the game is set to moderately fast (SPEED =50). SPEED shows the speed of the game in percent of the maximum, which is 100. As you playthe game, the current operating value of SPEED is displayed in the score bar at the bottom of thescreen. If you are skilled, SNAKE50 automatically speeds up. If you are a beginner, it slowsdown to a level where you can comfortably play it. It speeds up at a faster rate than it slowsdown, so it pushes each player to his or her own skill limit.

There are two rates of speed change. The switch over occurs at SPEED = 60. Below 60 the rateof change is faster, above 60 it is slower. A SPEED of 80 is difficult, 90 is very difficult, and 100is nearly impossible. The program's decision to change SPEED hinges on the number of snakepoints you score in a 3 second time period. If above the criterion, the speed increases, if belowthe criterion the speed decreases and if equal to the criterion it does not change. This adaptiveaction is a kind of machine intelligence which keeps you working near your upper tracking speedlimit.

4.3 Revision History

Version 5.0 04/22/90 - MAJOR RELEASE. Changed bag movement keys to home keys and

sped-up key action via INT09 handler. Bag now moves smoothly at 60 spaces per second.Added auto-demonstration mode which uses a robot player and show-cases the entire program. Itcan be used for an unattended display. The robot player not only tracks and catches the snake butalso types in its name for the score list. Added a speed adjustment routine which enables thegame to be played at the correct speed on any PC. This involved a major redesign which changedfrom using the DELAY function to using the MOD function to move objects every Nth gamecycle. If the machine speed is 10, then the objects move every 10*Nth cycle. Improved the mainintroductory screen which now shows Snee and Snoo Snakes doing their dance. This involvedredesign to make the snake procedures more modular. Changed the dance sound for thepoisonous Snoo to simulate a rattlesnake sound. Changed the blue scorebar background to blackfor better visibility on B/W monitors. Improved colors on the information



screens. ESC is now programmed to exit directly to DOS from both the normal and AUTO-DEMO playing fields and the menu. Source code is due for a major rewrite, for which I plan touse TurboPascal's Object-Oriented-Programming.

Version 4.0 12/04/87 - Incorporated a demonstration mode using a robot player. This versionsuffered from key action problems and received limited distribution without a .DOC file.

Version 3.2 09/12/87 - Minor improvements.

Version 3.1 08/02/87 - MAJOR RELEASE. Distributed via several BBSs. Changed key forclosing bag to Spacebar instead of F10. F10 is awkward to use on the PC Jr. and keyboards withfunction keys across the top. Limited maximum delay to 240, since, for novices, the game wasslowing down too much.

Version 3.0 07/05/87 - Made snake a linked list instead of a 2D array. Made game speed increase


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as skill increases. It now adapts to both machine speed and the persons' skill. This is a majorimprovement in the game. Restructured code.

Version 2.9 06/03/87 - Improved bag movement procedure by incrementing movement by 1, nbj(Number of Bag Jumps) times. This permits the bag to move to the screen extremes. Changedbag symbol.

Version 2.8 02/01/87 - Changed back to the standard keypressed and read(kbd,ch) actions, whichalong with cbreak are working well. Position of cbreak is critical, see comments in source codefor procedure menu.

Version 2.7 01/31/87 - Finally got good keyboard action. Must use "Cbreak := false;" before thechkkbd; keydo; routine and then "Cbreak := true;" after it. This has the effect of deactivatingbreak checking, $C-, during keyboard sensing. In $C+ the keyboard buffer gets emptied in orderto look for a C. Improved the death display and shortened it. Changed so after dying go back tothe menu instead of to DOS. This required using "if dying then EXIT;" several times to retracethe original path through the calling procedures back to the menu.

Version 2.6 01/25/87 - Instead of "if keypressed then read(kbd, .. " am using procedure KEYDOwhich uses inline code. No noticeable improvement in keyboard action, however. Variousimprovements suggested by Wayne Wolfe. Bag brightens when bagshut and takes on color ofsnake head when snake bagged. Added cursor suppression for both mono or c/g.

Version 2.5 01/19/87 - Made snakebiz and bagbiz independent of each other. Both are now calledfrom procedure playgame. Snakebiz does not call bagbiz; but bagbiz calls snakebiz for the snakedance after biting.

Version 2.4 01/17/87 - Added fanfare for bagging venomous snake.



Version 2.30 01/16/87 - Bag symbol changes to appropriate snake head and color when bitten.Plotbag changed so only pass 2 instead of 4 parameters. Use of Quickeys.com speeds up cursor.Fastout added for function 7 normal exit and F1 key.

Version 2.20 01/15/87 - Changed bag back to V2.0 way while eliminating 1 or 2

additions/subtractions in each bag move and halving the number in each bag plot. Changed asmany integer variables to byte as possible to increase speed. Made snake trail array 10 charslong. Shortened sound durations. Initialized trail array and deltx etc.in playgame to eliminatestray bits of snake on initial startup.

Version 2.10 01/14/87 - Changed Trail from 2 - 1D arrays to 1 - 2D array. This sped-up game.Changed bag to 3D array; but this reduced game speed.

Version 2.00 01/13/87 - Make snake deadly at times, if bitten twice then die; but get 4 points if


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bag it. Speed-up menu. Improve introductory screen.

Version 1.09 01/09/87 - Hide cursor during playgame. Colored border added. Should change sodon't use recursion, i.e., snakebiz calls bagbiz which calls snakebiz.

Version 1.08 01/08/87 - Improved score bar update. Changed vertical bag increment "bagjmpy".

01/08/87 - Scores updated every 2 seconds. Score bar given background.

Version 1.06 01/04/86 - Minor screen changes, added DOC file. Added score file reset to optionsare.A. Score file now declared only once. Fixed problems when aborting a game.

Version 1.05 01/02/87 - Added F1 to abort game if boss comes in during play.

Version 1.04 12/24/86 - Made improvements suggested by Dave Schubert.

Version 1.03 12/22/86 - Made improvements suggested by Tom Zurinskas.

Version 1.00 12/1/86 - Thanks are due to my Pascal instructor, Mary Wall, who suggested writinga game for a term project.



5.0 COMMERCIAL INFORMATION REGARDING SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM)

5.1 Intellectual Property Rights and other Information

This game was written in TurboPascal 5.5 (R) Borland International. It consists of about 1700lines of code. It is -not- freeware! You may try it on a temporary basis and share it with others.If you use it a lot, then please register and encourage development of further games by the author.

It may be offered by user groups for a nominal fee and placed on computer bulletin boards(BBS's). Consideration will be given to offers from commercial firms regarding licensing on aroyalty basis. Send an $8.00 check to register, get latest version on disk, and to be notified aboutthe $10,000.00 INTERNATIONAL SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) CONTEST. This contest will beheld after 5,000 people send $8 each. It's up to you! This offer is for personal use only. It is not alicense for commercial use.

Send inquiries and checks to (See Section 5.3 for Order Form):


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EXACT SOLUTIONSBruce L. Rosenberg 23 N. Chelsea AvenueAtlantic City, NJ 08401

Any suggestions for improvements or ideas for games can be mailed to the above address, viavoice phone evenings at (609) 345-4712, or leave message on Compuserve to 73547,402 or onBIX to Brucifer.

5.2 The $10,000 International SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) Contest

The contest rules are follows:

1. Contestants must be registered users of the latest SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) version.

2. Details of the contest will be sent to all registered users after the number of registrants exceeds5,000 people. It's up to you SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) players. If you want the contest to beheld, you have to register. It's up to you!

3. Following notification, all registrants who wish to apply for the contest must complete theofficial application form and enclose a notarized printout of their snake.dat file containing their

attestedly authentic highest scores with the most recent SNEESNOO SNAKE (TM) Version.

4. The data from these returns will be summarized and returned to all applicants. This enablesthe applicants to see how their scores compare to others.

5. All those deciding to compete must send an entry fee (amount

SECTION 5 COMMERCIAL INFORMATION PAGE 13.


to be determined) to cover costs of conducting the contest over and above the prize payments.

6. The total prize will be $10,000.00, one-quarter of the $40,000.00 gross receipts from the 5,000registrations. This will be split three ways as follows: 1ST PRIZE $5,000.00; 2ND PRIZE$3,000.00; and 3RD PRIZE $2,000.00.

7. The contest will be conducted in Atlantic City, NJ. Contestants must pay for their owntransportation and local accommodations.

8. Further details and registrant counts will be included in future releases of SNEESNOOSNAKE (TM).

This document was prepared using Wordstar 5.5C (R) MicroPro International Corporation.

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