Pengo
Coder : Martin Rebas
Graphician : Martin Rebas
Musician : Martin Rebas
Misc : Martin Rebas
Graphician : Martin Rebas
Musician : Martin Rebas
Misc : Martin Rebas
Pengo - ADF Disk Download
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Magazine Reviews
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Author's Website - Martin Rebas
Readme Document
**********************
* MartinSoft Pengo *
**********************
This is the registered version of MartinSoft Pengo, which was released as freeware in December 1996.
********************
* About the game *
********************
I've actually only played the original Pengo once; on a ferry between London and Gothenburg when I was 12 years old. Still, I really liked the game, and since I was interested in computer games, I remembered what the gameplay was like. Two years later, I had got hold of a 286 PC and wrote, among other things, a Pengo clone in GW-BASIC (which was the only language I had
available). In 1989, I bought an Amiga 500 (I now have an A1200), and learned to write games for it in assembler. So far, I've written 7 games, though I've only released the two latest ones as PD/SW. During my summer vacation 1993, I wrote "Motorola Invaders 2" (AGA); a pretty original Space Invaders-clone with a ridiculously long sampled soundtrack. MI2 took only four days to code, but I think it's a quite good PD game nevertheless. If you have an AGA Amiga, get it from your nearest PD distributor. Or, if
you have Internet access, get it from Aminet (game/shoot).
Anyway, in August 1993, I thought it'd be a good idea to make a "proper" version of Pengo for the Amiga (let's just say that the GW-BASIC version for the PC wasn't very smooth-moving), so I started programming on MartinSoft Pengo. As you can see, it's taken more than 4 days to finish it. MartinSoft Pengo is the most "polished" game I've written so far, gameplay- and presentation-wise. The main reason for it taking so long, is that I started studying Computer Science at the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg; and that has taken more time than I thought it would. So I've spent the last year neither studying nor programming as much as I should :-).
As it's been a while since I last played the original Pengo, I have not tried to make a game that's very true to the original (simply since I don't remember that much of it). I've taken the basic idea of Pengo as I remember it, and added a lot of Bubble Bobble to it. Compared to the arcade version, MartinSoft Pengo is probably faster, and with more bonuses. It is also (as far as I know) the first Pengo-clone that features a simultaneous 2-player mode.
MartinSoft Pengo has been developed on an A1200, and has been written in 100% assembly language.
The highscores are saved when you exit the game.
********************
* How to play it *
********************
Pengo is a maze game. The maze is made out of ice blocks, which you can push or melt. Blocks are melted by pushing a block that has another block directly in front of it. If that sounds confusing (and it probably does), play the game, and you'll understand what I meant.
The ice blocks that form the "border" around the maze can't be pushed or melted.
Also, on some levels there are special gold blocks, which can't be moved.
On each level there are four enemies. If an enemy catches you, you lose one life. Your weapon against the enemies is the ice blocks; push an ice block onto an enemy, and the enemy will be squashed (but it will re-appear after a while). If the level layout
makes it possible, try to "trap" the enemies into small spaces; that will make it a piece of cake to squash them. Generally, trying to limit the ways that the enemies can take (by pushing blocks to the right places) is a good tactic. Learning the different movement patterns for the enemies is also essential; the yellow ones are pretty easy to outsmart without understanding how they move, but the red ones are professional escape artists, and almost impossible to hit if you don't understand their "AI".
If you spend too much time on one level, a ghost will appear and start to home in on you. The ghost can't be killed - but it will disappear as soon as you get to the next level. If it catches you, you will lose one life, and it will disappear for a while (the ghost, not the life :) ).
If it catches you while you're "invisible" to the enemies, it will simply remove the invisibility and disappear - but it will re-appear very quickly.
The aim of the game is to defeat the evil Sarvebuk who awaits you on level 64. So the big question is: how do you get to the next level? Getting to the next level can be achieved by either:
1. Squashing all enemies on the level with ice blocks.
2. Pushing the three ruby blocks together so that they form a horizontal or vertical line.
3. Getting a warp bonus of some sort.
Method nr 1 is recommended, as it's the most fun.
Squashing many enemies with one block will give more score than squashing them one by one.
There are also lots of bonuses and bonus systems in the game, but I won't reveal them here (which would spoil the surprise). Find out about them yourself!
(By the way - no, "Sarvebuk" doesn't mean anything in Swedish either - but it comes close to meaning something in Estonian). :)
*******************
* Game controls *
*******************
Title screen:
*************
"TAB" will switch the computer between PAL/NTSC mode.
F1 or player 1 fire button: Starts 1-player game.
F2 or player 2 fire button: Starts 2-player game.
F3 shows the credits for the game.
F4 shows general information about the game.
F5 shows greetings to certain people as well as some ads.
F6 shows the high score list.
F7 shows the HAM-mode title pic.
If you watch any of the above screens (F3-F7), you can return to the title screen by pushing Escape or fire button. You can also use the joystick for pausing/speeding up the scrolling.
F10 exits the game. I chose not to use Escape for this as people may accidentally hit Escape twice while exiting some "sub-screen" - thus having to reload the whole game, which isn't all fun if you're playing from floppies.
While playing:
**************
Moving joysticks connected to gameport 0 or 1 will move the penguins :) .
Push blocks by pushing the fire button. You don't need to move the joystick and push the button simultaneously - simply push the button, and the penguin will push/melt the block towards which it is facing. (That may seem obvious, but one of my playtesters made that mistake at first).
"P" will pause the game. Push "P" once again to continue playing. "M" will turn in-game music on/off. But please don't turn it off - the game loses a lot of its atmosphere if you do. (The "Popcorn" tune was also in the original Pengo).
"Q" makes you lose one life and restart the level.
"Esc" will end the game and return you to the title screen.
"F10" will exit the game.
There are also two "hardware configuration" buttons:
"TAB" will switch the computer between PAL/NTSC mode, and, in NTSC mode, shrink the screen so that the game only uses the upper 200 lines of the display (instead of the normal 256). The graphics will look strange (as every fifth line of the PAL display is omitted), but at least it will be possible to play from NTSC. The colors won't look as good as they do in thePAL version, since I use copper tricks for creating more colors than the bitplanes "allow". In NTSC mode, the copper is busy shrinking the screen,
so this can't be done.
If you have a monitor, use PAL.
Since a NTSC screen updates at 60 Hz instead of 50 Hz, that gives the Amiga less time to calculate/blit everything. As MartinSoft Pengo was originally meant to be PAL only, this means that in NTSC mode, the screen update can slow down to 30 Hz if a lot is happening on screen (boss stages, typically).
To prevent this from happening, I've included an extra option - push "A", and, if you have an AGA machine, the screen update should magically be 60 Hz again. (If you don't have an AGA Amiga, the screen display will probably get messed up, but don't worry - pushing "A" once again will fix it). This feature takes advantage of the AGA "DMA burst" mode, which speeds up DMA transfer to the screen (or something like that).
(If you've pushed this button, and are staring in horror and disbelief at the picture of me - yes, the photo of me has been edited. I tend to have slightly smaller eyes as well as a slightly smaller mouth in real life).
If you've got a non-AGA Amiga, and wish to run Pengo in NTSC mode- be aware that it may slow down at certain places.
SUMMARY:
If you've got an NTSC Amiga, and a monitor, push TAB, which will turn your computer to PAL mode.
If you've got an NTSC AGA Amiga, and no monitor, push "A", which will speed up the screen update when necessary.
If you have any other computer setup, everything should be ok.
Also note that the key "G" has no function whatsoever in this game.
*****************************
* How to install the game *
* and specifications *
*****************************
MartinSoft Pengo can be installed on a hard disk. Simply copy the files to wherever you'd like to have them. Not that hard, was it?
Just make sure you've got enough chip memory available when you try to start it; to run Pengo, you need about 780k of free chipmem. If you can't start Pengo, try disconnecting extra drives and other peripherals; then reboot - that should free some memory.
If you only have 512k of chipmem in your Amiga, you will not be able to run MartinSoft Pengo, no matter how much fastmem you have.
MartinSoft Pengo has been tested on the following computers:
Amiga 500
Amiga 1200
Amiga 1200 with '020 accelerator
Amiga 1200 with '030 accelerator
Amiga 2000 with '030 accelerator
Amiga 4000/030
Amiga 4000/040
Much to my surprise, it actually worked on some of them. :)
****************
* Disclaimer *
****************
This piece of software is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. By using "MartinSoft Pengo" you agree to accept the entire risk as to the quality and performance of the program.
If MartinSoft Pengo makes you lose both your job, house and girlfriend, I will take no responsiblity. But make sure you write and tell me about it, 'cause I'd love to hear how it happened.
That ought to be everything.
Hope you like the game. Thanks once again for buying the registered version
* MartinSoft Pengo *
**********************
This is the registered version of MartinSoft Pengo, which was released as freeware in December 1996.
********************
* About the game *
********************
I've actually only played the original Pengo once; on a ferry between London and Gothenburg when I was 12 years old. Still, I really liked the game, and since I was interested in computer games, I remembered what the gameplay was like. Two years later, I had got hold of a 286 PC and wrote, among other things, a Pengo clone in GW-BASIC (which was the only language I had
available). In 1989, I bought an Amiga 500 (I now have an A1200), and learned to write games for it in assembler. So far, I've written 7 games, though I've only released the two latest ones as PD/SW. During my summer vacation 1993, I wrote "Motorola Invaders 2" (AGA); a pretty original Space Invaders-clone with a ridiculously long sampled soundtrack. MI2 took only four days to code, but I think it's a quite good PD game nevertheless. If you have an AGA Amiga, get it from your nearest PD distributor. Or, if
you have Internet access, get it from Aminet (game/shoot).
Anyway, in August 1993, I thought it'd be a good idea to make a "proper" version of Pengo for the Amiga (let's just say that the GW-BASIC version for the PC wasn't very smooth-moving), so I started programming on MartinSoft Pengo. As you can see, it's taken more than 4 days to finish it. MartinSoft Pengo is the most "polished" game I've written so far, gameplay- and presentation-wise. The main reason for it taking so long, is that I started studying Computer Science at the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg; and that has taken more time than I thought it would. So I've spent the last year neither studying nor programming as much as I should :-).
As it's been a while since I last played the original Pengo, I have not tried to make a game that's very true to the original (simply since I don't remember that much of it). I've taken the basic idea of Pengo as I remember it, and added a lot of Bubble Bobble to it. Compared to the arcade version, MartinSoft Pengo is probably faster, and with more bonuses. It is also (as far as I know) the first Pengo-clone that features a simultaneous 2-player mode.
MartinSoft Pengo has been developed on an A1200, and has been written in 100% assembly language.
The highscores are saved when you exit the game.
********************
* How to play it *
********************
Pengo is a maze game. The maze is made out of ice blocks, which you can push or melt. Blocks are melted by pushing a block that has another block directly in front of it. If that sounds confusing (and it probably does), play the game, and you'll understand what I meant.
The ice blocks that form the "border" around the maze can't be pushed or melted.
Also, on some levels there are special gold blocks, which can't be moved.
On each level there are four enemies. If an enemy catches you, you lose one life. Your weapon against the enemies is the ice blocks; push an ice block onto an enemy, and the enemy will be squashed (but it will re-appear after a while). If the level layout
makes it possible, try to "trap" the enemies into small spaces; that will make it a piece of cake to squash them. Generally, trying to limit the ways that the enemies can take (by pushing blocks to the right places) is a good tactic. Learning the different movement patterns for the enemies is also essential; the yellow ones are pretty easy to outsmart without understanding how they move, but the red ones are professional escape artists, and almost impossible to hit if you don't understand their "AI".
If you spend too much time on one level, a ghost will appear and start to home in on you. The ghost can't be killed - but it will disappear as soon as you get to the next level. If it catches you, you will lose one life, and it will disappear for a while (the ghost, not the life :) ).
If it catches you while you're "invisible" to the enemies, it will simply remove the invisibility and disappear - but it will re-appear very quickly.
The aim of the game is to defeat the evil Sarvebuk who awaits you on level 64. So the big question is: how do you get to the next level? Getting to the next level can be achieved by either:
1. Squashing all enemies on the level with ice blocks.
2. Pushing the three ruby blocks together so that they form a horizontal or vertical line.
3. Getting a warp bonus of some sort.
Method nr 1 is recommended, as it's the most fun.
Squashing many enemies with one block will give more score than squashing them one by one.
There are also lots of bonuses and bonus systems in the game, but I won't reveal them here (which would spoil the surprise). Find out about them yourself!
(By the way - no, "Sarvebuk" doesn't mean anything in Swedish either - but it comes close to meaning something in Estonian). :)
*******************
* Game controls *
*******************
Title screen:
*************
"TAB" will switch the computer between PAL/NTSC mode.
F1 or player 1 fire button: Starts 1-player game.
F2 or player 2 fire button: Starts 2-player game.
F3 shows the credits for the game.
F4 shows general information about the game.
F5 shows greetings to certain people as well as some ads.
F6 shows the high score list.
F7 shows the HAM-mode title pic.
If you watch any of the above screens (F3-F7), you can return to the title screen by pushing Escape or fire button. You can also use the joystick for pausing/speeding up the scrolling.
F10 exits the game. I chose not to use Escape for this as people may accidentally hit Escape twice while exiting some "sub-screen" - thus having to reload the whole game, which isn't all fun if you're playing from floppies.
While playing:
**************
Moving joysticks connected to gameport 0 or 1 will move the penguins :) .
Push blocks by pushing the fire button. You don't need to move the joystick and push the button simultaneously - simply push the button, and the penguin will push/melt the block towards which it is facing. (That may seem obvious, but one of my playtesters made that mistake at first).
"P" will pause the game. Push "P" once again to continue playing. "M" will turn in-game music on/off. But please don't turn it off - the game loses a lot of its atmosphere if you do. (The "Popcorn" tune was also in the original Pengo).
"Q" makes you lose one life and restart the level.
"Esc" will end the game and return you to the title screen.
"F10" will exit the game.
There are also two "hardware configuration" buttons:
"TAB" will switch the computer between PAL/NTSC mode, and, in NTSC mode, shrink the screen so that the game only uses the upper 200 lines of the display (instead of the normal 256). The graphics will look strange (as every fifth line of the PAL display is omitted), but at least it will be possible to play from NTSC. The colors won't look as good as they do in thePAL version, since I use copper tricks for creating more colors than the bitplanes "allow". In NTSC mode, the copper is busy shrinking the screen,
so this can't be done.
If you have a monitor, use PAL.
Since a NTSC screen updates at 60 Hz instead of 50 Hz, that gives the Amiga less time to calculate/blit everything. As MartinSoft Pengo was originally meant to be PAL only, this means that in NTSC mode, the screen update can slow down to 30 Hz if a lot is happening on screen (boss stages, typically).
To prevent this from happening, I've included an extra option - push "A", and, if you have an AGA machine, the screen update should magically be 60 Hz again. (If you don't have an AGA Amiga, the screen display will probably get messed up, but don't worry - pushing "A" once again will fix it). This feature takes advantage of the AGA "DMA burst" mode, which speeds up DMA transfer to the screen (or something like that).
(If you've pushed this button, and are staring in horror and disbelief at the picture of me - yes, the photo of me has been edited. I tend to have slightly smaller eyes as well as a slightly smaller mouth in real life).
If you've got a non-AGA Amiga, and wish to run Pengo in NTSC mode- be aware that it may slow down at certain places.
SUMMARY:
If you've got an NTSC Amiga, and a monitor, push TAB, which will turn your computer to PAL mode.
If you've got an NTSC AGA Amiga, and no monitor, push "A", which will speed up the screen update when necessary.
If you have any other computer setup, everything should be ok.
Also note that the key "G" has no function whatsoever in this game.
*****************************
* How to install the game *
* and specifications *
*****************************
MartinSoft Pengo can be installed on a hard disk. Simply copy the files to wherever you'd like to have them. Not that hard, was it?
Just make sure you've got enough chip memory available when you try to start it; to run Pengo, you need about 780k of free chipmem. If you can't start Pengo, try disconnecting extra drives and other peripherals; then reboot - that should free some memory.
If you only have 512k of chipmem in your Amiga, you will not be able to run MartinSoft Pengo, no matter how much fastmem you have.
MartinSoft Pengo has been tested on the following computers:
Amiga 500
Amiga 1200
Amiga 1200 with '020 accelerator
Amiga 1200 with '030 accelerator
Amiga 2000 with '030 accelerator
Amiga 4000/030
Amiga 4000/040
Much to my surprise, it actually worked on some of them. :)
****************
* Disclaimer *
****************
This piece of software is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. By using "MartinSoft Pengo" you agree to accept the entire risk as to the quality and performance of the program.
If MartinSoft Pengo makes you lose both your job, house and girlfriend, I will take no responsiblity. But make sure you write and tell me about it, 'cause I'd love to hear how it happened.
That ought to be everything.
Hope you like the game. Thanks once again for buying the registered version
