PathFinder - by Dr. BEEP

In-game screen.

Program listing on 48K Spectrum.

Text Listing

1 BORDER USR 7766^0:
 POKE 23693,7:
 DIM m(999):
 LET e=INT (RND*5)*64+415:
 FOR r=0 TO 9:
 PRINT r;"0%":
 FOR c=33 TO 47:
 RESTORE :
 READ n,p,z,s,m(66),m(e):
 POKE n*m(p),23:
 LET y=INT (p/64):
 LET x=p-y*64:
 LET w=INT (RND*4):
 LET d=32*((10>y)*(w=1)-(1<y>w))-(w=2)*(x>2)+(w=3)*(x<30):
 LET p=p+d:
 POKE n*(m(p+d)=z),8+z*15:
 LET d=2*d*z-d:
 LET z=1:
 LET m(p)=1:
 LET p=p+d:
 LET m(p)=1:
 POKE n,11:
 NEXT c:
 CLS :
 NEXT r:
 PRINT AT 0,0;"Steps:";r-10:
 FOR g=1 TO 5:
 LET k=s+CODE "d$CED"(g)-68:
 POKE 22528+k,11*m(k)+g:
 NEXT g:
 LET x=CODE INKEY$-48:
 POKE n*(x<0),31:
 LET d=32*((x=6)-(x=7))+(x=8)-(x=5):
 LET d=d*m(s+d):
 LET s=s+d:
 POKE n*(s-d<>e),25+(d=0):
 BORDER 2:
 DATA 23620,r*64+2*c,0,580,1,1

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The Story

You are the Dutch operator of the PATHFINDER mission on Mars (see here or here) and your plan to attract extra-terrestrial life worked too well! The Martians carried the probe through the canals down to their underground city, where they organized a big party and drunk everything available. Hours later, you finally restore contact with the probe, which was abandoned deep inside the Martian caves. Now you must guide the probe and find a way out of the underground tunnels, so NASA can recover its footage of life on Mars!

Instructions

After the game world has been generated (progress indicated by a percentage value), a probe will appear in the bottom left of the screen. Use CURSOR Keys to guide the probe through the Martian tunnels, finding your way out onto the surface as quickly as possible. CURSOR keys are 5 - Left, 8 - right, 6 - Down, 7 - Up. As probe controller, you view the tunnels and probe from a top-down perspective. The probe is highlighted as a red square and the tunnels are indicated in blue. Tunnels are drawn on the screen only as they are discovered by moving the probe around. The probe sensors can only see a distance of one square in every direction from its current position. To win the game, find the way out of the tunnels thus escaping back onto the Martian surface. There is no real time limit in this turn based game. However, the total number of steps taken is indicated at the top left of the screen and the idea is to try to minimise the total number of steps taken in order to win the game.

About the game

This game was conceived, designed and developed Dr. BEEP. Many ideas and optimisations were by Dr BEEP and Einar Saukas. This game uses a maze generator which is guaranteed to produce perfect solvable mazes. The backstory was created by Einar Saukas, modified from original suggestions by Dr BEEP.

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