XPLOSIVE A Triple Team Production 1995 - reference guide -
Introduction
Getting installed...
XPLOSIVE DUEL GAME
XPLOSIVE LEVEL GAME
XPLOSIVE LEVEL EDITOR
Short summary of the game
Keyboard reference
The Extras
The Monsters
Remarks about the freeware version
Just like the registered version, this freeware version consists of three parts. The XPLOSIVE DUEL GAME is of course the classic one. It is great fun when two or more players happen to be in the vicinity. Find out, who is the best player!
The XPLOSIVE LEVEL GAME is the second part of XPLOSIVE. Here the Triple Team and many ingenious level designers (whom we would like to thank again in alphabetical order: Frank & Florian Dietrich, Armin Herbertz, Michael Heuser, Stefan Kohl, Bjoern Stahmer) designed over one hundred (154 to be exact) levels which you (and your friends) must solve. One to four players can participate and their task is to kill all the monsters (some of them will REALLY surprise you!). Warp codes will keep up your motivation since you can reenter the level in which you last died. The third and last part of the game is the XPLOSIVE LEVEL EDITOR. This tool allows you to create your own levels, test them, save them and make passwords for them. You can easily bundle single levels to sets of levels.
To install the game, copy all the files in a single directory (this is necessary for all the parts to work consistently). Change into this directory if you want to play the game.
Start the XPLOSIVE DUEL GAME by typing XDR <ENTER> at the
DOS prompt. The title screens will show up. Press the
<ESCAPE> key early to skip them (you cannot avoid the first
first screen, though). The menu will show up. Use <CURSOR
UP> and <CURSOR DOWN> to select (highlight) an option. Use
<SPACE> or <ENTER> to change the option.
The options are:
2-4; select the number of the participating players
1-9; determines the points a player needs to win a game
0-9; the block density in the game; higher numbers mean more blocks
0-9; the monster density; higher numbers mean more monsters (you may like to select a low number, if your computer is too slow for a high monster density).
switch on/ off the monsters according to your liking by using <CURSOR LEFT>, <CURSOR RIGHT> and <SPACE>.
Starts the game.
Ends the game and saves the current options
Now everything is ready for an exciting XPLOSIVE DUEL. A sort of sennet sounds just before the game starts, the screen fades out and fades in with the first level. In the left area of the screen the current game situation is displayed while in the right area there is the score panel, showing the number of victories in a match for every single active player. Victory means survival. And that is therefore the aim of the XPLOSIVE DUEL GAME: survival! Challenge the other players and monsters and show them who is the best by throwing bombs or heating them with a flame thrower, so that they cannot react anymore and will prefer the agony of death to the stress of the game! But be careful: the fate may suddenly turn against you and you will certainly be very astonished to note that the other players team up against you.
Pressing <ESCAPE> "skips" a level: no one will get a point, the screen fades out and a new level fades in. The Triple Team strongly recommends, based on their own experience, that the players may agree BEFORE the game on the use of the <ESCAPE> key to prevent physical violence because: "that idiot pressed <ESCAPE> again. That's enough!" (POW!).
Holding down <ESCAPE> until the screen is dark returns you to the menu.
Start the XPLOSIVE LEVEL GAME by typing XLR xxxxxxxx.LEV
<ENTER> at the DOS prompt. Exchange xxxxxxxx with the
level file you want to play. To start the game with the
original Triple Team level files, start it with XLR LEV
<ENTER>. The title screens will show up, skip them with
<ESCAPE> and the menu will fade in. Highlight an option by
using <CURSOR UP> and <CURSOR DOWN>. Change an option by
using <SPACE> or <ENTER>. The first option is the PLAYER
number, the second the number of LIVES. The third option
(WARP) is special: by using the number keys <1> to <4> you
can enter a warp code which will warp (teleport, beam,
move) you to the level in which you obtained that code. At
the beginning, you don't know a code, but after the
completion of each level the appropriate warp code for the
following level will be displayed. However, this is only
true for the xp.lev file (113 levels). The more difficult
levels found in pro.lev (41 levels) and adv.lev (60 levels,
taken from both xp.lev and pro.lev) do not yield a code
after each level. In order to avoid typing in XLR LEV
<ENTER> at the DOS prompt each time, you can also start
any of the three level files by executing one of the
batches: PLAY_STD.BAT, PLAY_ADV.BAT and PLAY_PRO.BAT. A
non-existing warp code lets you start with the first level.
Feel free to fiddle around with these codes, but beware:
warping to a higher level accidentally a beginner doesn't
stand a chance. The option LET'S GO starts the game while
the option QUIT ends the game.
In the game the left area of the screen shows the game situation, while the right area (the "score panel" of the XPLOSIVE DUEL GAME) indicates, how many extra lives every players has.
The <ESCAPE> key means "Surrender". You lose a life, the level restarts and you can try to complete it. A level is completed if all the monsters are killed. A warp code will show up (don't forget to scribble the code down!) and the next level will start. Since you must kill all monsters to finish a level, read the monster descriptions below carefully to find out, what you must do exactly to kill a specific monster.
IMPORTANT NOTE: if you're really a hot shot, also try the LEV level files on your game disk.
Start the XPLOSIVE LEVEL EDITOR by typing XE at the DOS
prompt. Don't get confused when the screen shows up, it's
all very easy.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You need a (Microsoft-compatible) mouse for the XPLOSIVE LEVEL EDITOR.
In the left area of the screen is the level. In the right area are the different control options to edit the level.
In the upper right corner, there are five buttons, to make a NEW level, to LOAD a level, to SAVE a level, to TEST a level, to select a warp CODE, and to return to DOS.
Beside these buttons there are the elements with which you can edit a level. There are blocks, the extras and the monsters. Use the arrow buttons to scroll the lists up and down. Pick out the element which you want to use and place it in the level using the left mouse key. Note that the layout of the empty levels cannot be changed and trying to put an element into one of the reserved positions will be rejected. You can change the players' starting position by picking out the appropriate player and placing it on the map. You can stack monsters and players on the same position but don't lose track. The right key of the mouse is used to delete single elements in the map. Monsters will be deleted first and then the map element is changed to floor. You cannot delete players.
After you create a level you should enter a code by using
the CODE option. Then you can TEST it (simply click on the
button and the XPLOSIVE LEVEL GAME will start) or SAVE it
(enter the level name WITHOUT extension: if you enter
STONED as level, then STONED.LEV will be save). LOADing
works much the same.
Notes:
Don't forget to place monsters in the levels. If you want a duel, play XPLOSIVE DUEL GAME.
Impossible things can be created with the editor and it won't complain. But you cannot solve these kinds of levels in the XPLOSIVE LEVEL GAME.
The editor cannot cope with multilevel sets. So, if you try to load the original levels (XP) it will only load the very first of them.
XPLOSIVE LEVEL EDITOR only saves single levels. By using
the ordinary DOS COPY command you can bundle several of
these files to a single file. Suppose you have STONED.LEV
and FIREFIRE.LEV on your harddisk. Type in COPY /B
LEV + LEV LEV at the DOS prompt to
produce SET.LEV which contains two levels (and that's why
it is 468 bytes long). Start the XPLOSIVE LEVEL GAME with
XLR LEV and you can play these two levels in a row
with warp codes and all the stuff. If you know how COPY
works you can probably work out easier ways to bundle
levels, for example by given them similar names. If you
have ten levels named L0.LEV to L9.LEV you can use the
following command: COPY /B L?.LEV LEV. It is
important that you don't forget the /B switch directly
after the COPY command. Caution: don't delete your single
levels since you can't edit them easily with the XPLOSIVE
LEVEL EDITOR.
One last hint concerning the warp codes: if you have the same warp code twice or more times in a level set it will cause problems.
You as player control a rabbit. You can move the rabbit using the direction keys described below. You can plant a bomb by using the fire key. A bomb will explode three seconds after it is planted, so make sure that you won't get killed by the explosion. The explosions are only horizontal and/ or vertical. Explosions will kill you (unless you are invulnerable), certain types of monsters (see the monster reference) and will atomize all extras and destructible blocks. If blocks are destroyed, there is a chance, that extras will appear. These are described below.
The four players use always the same keys in both the XPLOSIVE DUEL GAME and the XPLOSIVE LEVEL GAME. Here are the keys:
Player Color Up Right Left Down Fire
1 Red NUM: 8 NUM: 6 NUM: 4 NUM: 2 NUM: 0
(or use the cursor keys)
2 Yellow W D A S CNTRL
3 Green P Ä L Ö R. SHIFT
4 Blue Z J G H V
You can also use EXE to reconfigure your keyboard.
If strange things happen, just delete XPLOSIVE.CFG and
start the XPLOSIVE LEVEL GAME to get things fixed...
In the XPLOSIVE LEVEL GAME and the XPLOSIVE DUEL GAME several extras appear in the game. You can take them (by moving over them) or destroy them (by placing a bomb next to them). Sometimes you may wish to do the latter thing rather than the former in order to prevent other players from getting stronger or you just don't like the risk of taking the extras. The following extras appear in the game:
(looks like a double arrow) this extra increases the range of your explosions by one. The starting range is two.
(looks like a bomb with a plus sign on it) this extra increases the number of bombs simultaneously available to discharge. The starting number is of course one.
(look like question marks) these extras can have different effects. Each of the four question marks available (red, green, blue, white) has a good effect and a bad effect. If you take a question mark, the computer randomly chooses between the two effects. We think you should find out in detail which effect belongs to each question mark: flame thrower (the fire key invokes a flame thrower), slow motion (you're only half as fast as usual), confusion (your direction keys will be exchanged), range reduction (your bomb range will be reduced to one), stone explosion (the next explosion will cause blocks to appear), dematerialization (you can move through solid rock, but are not invulnerable), auto fire (you lay bombs automatically), invulnerability (monsters and explosion won't harm you). Each effect lasts ten seconds.
(looks like, well, you can guess that...) this extra comprises all the four good effects of the four question marks.
(...) take this extra to become invulnerable for ten seconds. But be careful: if you take another risk extra, the effect probably will be deactivated. There can only be one special effect activated at a time.
(...) stops the monsters for about 4.25 seconds. Note that this time is sufficient to plant a bomb under them that will detonate before they spring to life again.
(...) eating this extras will speed you up for an indefinite amount of time. Beware: the slow motion extra described above will negate the effects.
(green arrow and white arrow in a circle, sort of ying- yang) this is probably the most fiendish extra in the game and especially in the XPLOSIVE DUEL GAME. Many suggestions were made to abolish this extra and put its use under severe punishment of law. But under expert players as well as beginners this extra will cause the most fun and satisfaction and confusion. What are the effects of this extra? Well, if you step on it, you and a randomly determined second player will change position. Why should this be so fiendish? Well, find out yourself. Note that in the XPLOSIVE LEVEL GAME and one player mode nothing happens at all.
There are 16 different monsters in the XPLOSIVE DUEL GAME and the XPLOSIVE LEVEL GAME. There are rumors, that in the XPLOSIVE LEVEL GAME some more monsters are to be found. So watch out! Following is a description of all the known monsters in alphabetical order.
a critter is a furry creature that wants to eat you. When you come near it, it will smell you and will become very excited at the prospect of eating you. Critters die in explosions.
a crusher is a gleaming red creature with very big teeth. A crusher loves to eat rocks but is otherwise harmless. A simple explosion will kill it. Crusher can be dangerous in combination with other monsters. You'll see...
dwarves love to surprise the players by stealing their bombs. They will teleport on a bomb set by a player, disarm it, put it in a great blue bag and teleport again to escape. A simple explosion kills a dwarf.
an extra eater paralyzes you for 1.5 seconds if you touch it (watch out for incoming explosions!). It eats all the extras and is killed in a normal explosion.
a fireball is a very nervous and unpredictable creature. It will move to and fro and explode from time to time. Kill a fireball with a stone explosion.
a ghost kills you, if you touch it, and is easily killed in an explosion.
a golem is said to be a creature made of stone. Our golem is not only made of stone but also has the ability to make stone. So, if you see a golem charging you from a distance, watch out, that he does not build a wall around you which prevents your escape. Additionally, if you touch a golem, your character becomes immediately confused (see the extras) for five seconds. This can be a nuisance, for you lose every other special effect that may have been active. Golems can be killed. Because they are so giant and immensely strong creatures, "normal" explosions do not knock them out but merely paralyze them for 4.25 seconds. But if they stand in the center of an explosion (a point in an explosion is called center when in at least three different direction there is fire), they will get killed.
these evil creatures only appear in packs of three. They are very fast and their only goal it to gnaw your ears off which is the unhappiest thing which can happen to a rabbit and will cause the rabbit to commit suicide. Killers die in explosions.
this monster is not easily recognized and will often block the way of an unsuspecting player. Kill a living wall by waiting on a crossroad until it moves on you. Then plant a bomb and flee. That means, if a living wall is surrounded by fire in all the four directions it will die.
a mage is very, very dangerous. It tries to get at you and then it will kill you with its attack spells. Kill a mage like a golem.
this monster kills you and is killed in explosion. Because it is only a ninja's apprentice it is not so dangerous after all. From time to time a ninja's apprentice will stop and analyze the situation. This makes it very vulnerable.
a pit is immobile. From time to time it will open and kill every players who steps in the great gap. To kill a pit an explosion must hit it, while it is opening or closing. Pits only appear in the XPLOSIVE LEVEL GAME.
they are invisible. Okay, if they move you will see them a little bit, but if they stand still you cannot see them. Predators kill you and die in explosions.
this monster can change its appearance and characteristics and that's why some call it shape shifter. Slime can convert in a golem, a ghost and a extra eater. It will return to slime form, when it touches a bomb or after a specific time. When it is in slime form, it is invulnerable. So, what you have to do to kill a slime, is to plant bombs in a distance. They will kill it when it is in ghost or extra eater form.
a spider kills players and spins webs from time to time. If you step on a web you will be paralyzed for a short time and the web will disappear. You can destroy webs with explosions just as the spider itself.
a turtle is harmless but very easily frightened. If you pester a turtle, it will stop and block the way for all the monsters and players. An explosion causes the same behaviour. Brutal is it may sound, the only way to kill a turtle is a stone explosion.
This is the freeware version of XPLOSIVE, which is for the most part identical to the registered version.
The major difference is, that the freeware version may be distributed freely (i.e. without charging for it), as long as all the original files are included:
File list of the freeware version:
1.cpc
2.cpc
3.cpc
4.cpc
5.cpc
6.dmp
6.pal
adv.lev
Grafix.dmp
Keycfg.exe
Mouse.spr
Play_adv.bat
Play_pro.bat
Play_std.bat
Pro.lev
Sprite.spr
Warp.blk
Xdr.exe
Xe.exe
Xgrafix.dmp
Xlgmenu.blk
Xlr.exe
Xp.lev
Xplosive.cfg
Xplosive.html
Xplosive_de.txt
Xplosive_en.txt
HAVE FUN: YOUR TRIPLE TEAM
Contact Information: Kai Herbertz
THE TRIPLE TEAM CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE THAT MIGHT OCCUR USING ITS PROGRAMS.
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