- DOC FILE For RUFF'N'TUMBLE - ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Doc typed by MINDWALKER ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ RUFF'N'TUMBLE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yesterday, Ruff Rodgers was a normal, happy-go-lucky eight year old, with a spring in his step and a penchant for shiny marbles. Today, he's transformed into a ruthless, sadisistic killing machine. It was the Summer holidays, and Ruff scampered out of his house, and up the road to the park. He enjoyed it there because it had loads of different places to play, not like his Mum's garden with its clipped lawn and tidy flower beds. And anyway, he could show of his brilliant marble collection to the other kids there. This particular evening, though, there was nobody else in the park. As he walked through the gates sunlight dimmed, as though a storm was coming; and suddenly the sky was filled with black clouds. A strong wind picked up and whistled through the trees, creating... well, an interesting atmosphere, let's put it that way. For added effect, it also rustled up some dead leaves from the ground and showered them in all directions. This would have unnerved most people, but not Ruff. He'd seen all this kind of stuff before, mostly when he was daydreaming in a boring History lesson, and he was ready for any nasty things that might come for him from out of the woods. It was then he saw it; just a glimpse out of the corner of his eye. A bright light, shining into the trees from just across the other side of the path. He padded carefully towards it, holding his heavy bag of marbles tightly in both hands, ready to swing it into action should anything horrible appear. As he drew closer, he noticed that the source of the light, a tiny hole in the ground, was marked with an equally tiny sign, which read: WANT TO PLAY? An arrow pointed towards the hole. Ruff looked around, just to make sure that nobody was playing tricks with him (and so he didn't look stupid to any of his friends, of course), and then knelt down before the light. Reaching his hand into his bag, he pulled out a marble: a big, red shiny one; his favourite kind. Carefully he aimed towards the hole, and fired. Plop! The marble rolled down, out of sight. Almost immediately there was an unearthly roar from under Ruff's feet, and the ground began to shake violently. Still kneeling, he started to sink into the earth, and he tried - too late - to get to his feet. The ground collapsed, and he fell into a brilliant white light. Ruff landed, heavily, in a tree-lined cave. He rubbed his grazed knees and elbows, and looked up. Curiously, the hole he had just fallen through had disappeared. Even more strangely, his bag of marbles had gone; and a large gun lay nearby with a note attached to it. The note read: `Master Rodgers, I'm afraid i've had to confiscate your marbles, dear fellow. I'm incredibly evil, you see, and I need them to power my supreme machine which will help me take over the world! Ha ha ha!' A sudden clap of thunder made Ruff jump. Bloody theatrics, he thought, and then read on. `But because I'm a sporting kind of chap, i've decided to allow you a chance to get your marbles back. Grab the gun, climb into the teleporter, and you'll be taken to my secret netherworld. Of course, you've got no real hope: even if you get all the marbles, i'll just have to kill you. Yours evil-ly Doctor Destiny' "Oh yeah, you and whose army?" shouted Ruff, to nobody in particular. As though in answer the note continued: `PS. Er, my army, actually. I built them myself. I call them the Tinheads, and they're programmed to blow the pants off anybody who tries to come and take the marbles away. Especially you, of course, my dear boy. To rise to my evil challenge and face them, climb into my clever teleporter and prepare to meet your Destiny! Ta-ta.' Almost immediately he read the words there was a blinding flash, and when the smoke cleared, before him stood a bright metal box - a sort of steel phone booth. A door in the side opened, revealing another sign: IN HERE. He'd never heard of theso-called `Doctor Destiny' before, but already he was building up an intense dislike for the man. Anybody who calls himself such a jumped-up name must be a bit of a megalomaniac, he thought. And in all the movies, it's always the megalomaniacs who eat their words in the end. Confused, but annoyed that the rotten git had taken his prized marbles, Ruff scooped up the gun and ammo, swung them over his shoulder, and clambered into the teleporter. How tough can these Tinhead things be anyway? GETTING STARTED ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hardware Requirements --------------------- To play Ruff `n' Tumble, you'll need an Amiga with at least 1Mb of RAM (memory). It will load and run quite happily on the majority of Amigas, except the unexpanded A500s and A1000s, for which you'll need a memory expansion. If you have other peripherals plugged into the machine, such as a printer or a hard disk drive, it's best to unplug or disable them before loading Ruff `n' Tumble. Loading ------- To load Ruff `n' Tumble, insert disk one into the internal drive of your Amiga, and switch on the power. The game will now load and run automatically. If you have a second disk drive, insert disk two into it to avoid any disk swapping. Otherwise, when prompted remove disk one and replace it with disk two. PLEASE NOTE: Ruff `n' Tumble cannot be installed onto hard disk. Loading Problems ---------------- In the unlikely event that Ruff `n' Tumble fails to load, switch off your Amiga and unplug any external devices (printers, hard disk drives) except the monitor or TV set. Leave the power off for at least 30 seconds, and then repeat the loading procedure. PLAYING RUFF `N' TUMBLE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Controls -------- Ruff `n' Tumble must be contolled with a joystick plugged into port 2 on your Amiga. When the game has finished loading, you can either push fire on your joystick to start, or press O to enter the Options screen. The Options are to enter your Practice code (see the next section), or press M to toggle the in-game music on or off. However, we advise you not to do this - indeed, Ruff `n' Tumble is best played with the volume turned up LOUD! The joystick controls are simple: Push up to make Ruff jump, pull down to duck; while left and right moves him, er, left and right. Push the fire button to shoot your current weapon. You can hold down fire to shoot rapidly, but remember your gun will overheat if you fire to quickly. Also, while you are playing Ruff `n' Tumble, you can press P to pause the game (and P again to un-pause), and Q to quit back to the main menu. But you wouldn't really want to do that, would you? The Screen ---------- From top left to top right as follows: Number of lives, coins collected, weapon status, energy bar, marbles left to collect and finally the score. What's going on? ---------------- The main aim in each level is to collect enough coloured marbles to open the Exit Door, which you'll find at the far right-hand side. Kill everything that moves, and collect everything else by running into it. The Tinheads might look cute, but they're all out to see you dead - so take no prisoners! Note: As you progress in the game, you'll face progressively tougher Tinheads. They get more intelligent, and they take more shots to kill - but no Tinhead is indestructable. We're not going to show you pics of them all, because we think they should be a suprise. But here's a run-down of all the power-ups, collectables and, ah, other things you're likely to find: Marbles ------- The three counter at the top of the screen tell you how many marbles you must collect to open the Exit Door. Each marble collected reduces the relevent coloured counter by one. Magic Marbles ------------- Difficult to find, but reduces the relevent coloured marble counter to zero. Gold Coin --------- A single coin appears briefly as you kill each Tinhead. Collect the required number of marbles on a level, and the ones remaining will turn into gold coins. Collect 100 for an extra Ruff. Tinhead Generator ----------------- Generates Tinheads, surprisingly. Beware when the coils are pulsating, because a Tinhead is being born. When the light goes out, the generator is empty. Specials -------- Some of the extra weapons available to Ruff as he progresses. Use them quickly, because they run out with time. Weapon Power-up --------------- Loads the machine-gun with a full magazine of bullets, and adds extra time to Special weapons. Heart ----- Replenishes one unit of energy. If your energy bank is full, don't collect the Heart - leave it until you need it. Esther ------ Gives Ruff a full bank of energy, and an extra Heart (to a maximum of five). Shield ------ Protects Ruff from the Tinheads with a temporary shield. The weapons counter displays the amount of Shield remaining. Speed Up -------- Endows Ruff with a smart pair of speed shoes, but only temporarily. The weapons counter displays the amount of Speed Up remaining. Keys ---- Available in either red or blue, which opens the corresponding coloured Key Switch. Switch ------ Each one has a purpose, but you'll have to find out exactly what it is. Jump on to activate. Key Switch ---------- Just like a normal switch, but you'll need the relevent coloured key to throw it. Extra Ruff ---------- Erm... an extra life. Useful, obviously. Smart Bomb ---------- Nukes all the Tinheads on-screen in one fell swoop. Party Power ----------- Gives Ruff full Weapon Power-up, full shield, and increases the bonus potential. Temporarily of course. Jump Pads --------- Step on these to give Ruff a boost to his normal jump. Available in two sizes and strengths. Turbo Lifter ------------- Escalates young Ruff to previously only-dreamed-of heights. Beam Gates ---------- Blocks Ruff's way, so you'll need a relevent coloured key to pass. Rocket Ladder ------------- Jump on this to activate a useful rope ladder. Restart Point ------------- If you don't want to return to the start of the level when you lose a life, land on this as soon as you see it. Exit Door --------- The door to the next level. Opens as you approach, but only if you've collected the required number of coloured marbles. WHERE AM I? ~~~~~~~~~~~ World 1: The Fantasy Forest --------------------------- Don't be fooled by the name: the fantasy stops as the first Tinhead puts his head down and charges for you. Bobby isn't to bright, but he's solid tin from the neck up - and perfectly capable of breaking you. His best buddy, Tommy, is more intelligent and - worse - armed, but even he is no match for the Gunwasps... Tip: avoid the spikes. World 2: The Underground Mine ----------------------------- The second world takes you underground, where you'll need to cope with slippery crystal surfaces and pools of hot molten lava. Take in the beauty of it all, but don't miss the manic Miner with his deadly drill, and the pin-wheeling Drill Bot who will get your head, along with the rest of your body, in a blood-splattering spin. World 3: Tinhead Factory ------------------------ This is where the good Doctor manufactures his metal army, so you can bet that he's made the place pretty impenetrable. The masked Doctor character is particularly bitter and twisted, so he just might turn his oxy-acetylene attentions to you. Take care when you're wandering past the Rocket's: they're on a proximity trip, so they'll fire if you get to close... World 4: Doctor Destiny's Castle -------------------------------- A-ha! Finally you meet your nemesis, the evil Doctor himself. Be careful as you tread the cold stone floors of his castle, because they're littered with hidden traps and loads of nasty metallic beasties. Keep a special eye out for the wicked Whizard, who can teleport around the screen to avoid your fire; and the Knight in shining armour with a glint in his eye and a smile as sharp as his sword. PRACTICE CODES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ruff `n' Tumble contains four different worlds, with four levels in each. To complete them all will take you... ooh, ages, so a Practice mode has been included to help you tackle the most difficult bits. At the end of each of the four worlds, you'll see a special four-digit code on the screen. Make a note of this code, because it will enable you to return to the following world when you play again. How to Use the Practice Codes ----------------------------- When the game has loaded, press O on the keyboard to enter the Options screen. You will see the message: PASSCODE: **** (Enter values 0-9). Now simply type in the four-digit code you noted down earlier, press the Return key, and Ruff will skip forward to the desired world. NOTE: The practice codes allow you to play the next world only. It is designed so you can practice the world as you reach them, without needing to play through the previous levels again. So, when you finish a world in Practice mode, you will be returned to the title screen. Remember: The only way to complete Ruff `n' Tumble is to play all the way through from the beginning. So get that joystick pumping! That's all mates, have fun with this game and remember... · A GAME WORTH PLAYING IS A GAME WORTH BUYING! ·