
                                    SPOT
                                    ----


STUFF ADDED/CHANGED IN THIS VERSION:
------------------------------------
- packed/repacked, linked
- HD compatibility
- MegaSTE/Falcon030/TT/CT60 compatibility
- Mint/MagiC/Geneva compatibility
- 8/16 MHz switchable on MegaSTE
- CPU caches switchable on Falcon030 and TT
- fixed music speed for 60Hz screen refresh
- fixed one bad access to the PSG
- added a key to toggle the annoying music on/off that
  starts playing while you ponder your next move.
- added wait for key/button on Game Over
- added quit option
- added memory snapshot option


SOURCE:
-------
Pasti image from original disk.
Thanks to MugUK for the Pasti image!


EXTRA KEYS IN THIS VERSION:
---------------------------
Control D        - quit to desktop
Control 1 - 9    - save memory snapshot #1 - #9
Control F1 - F9  - load memory snapshot #1 - #9

M - toggle "make your move" music on/off while playing

Hidden keys on the Klaz intro text screen:
H - toggle 50/60Hz (on Mega/ST/E)
L - toggle internal speaker on/off (on Falcon/TT)

Please see below for original game controls.


NOTE:
-----
The game may take a little while to get to the main menu after the Virgin
logo intro has finished. This is due to the game filling its own ram disk
and all the files being depacked.


MEMORY SNAPSHOTS:
-----------------
Memory snapshots can be saved/loaded any time. There may be a delay until
saving/loading actually starts when the program is busy unpacking data.


VERSION HISTORY:
----------------

2012-06-15: - Initial release



Klaz, June 2012


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------



Here's the original manual with some editing applied, taken from
lemonamiga.com with thanks.



SPOT - MANUAL
=============


CONTROLLING THE GAME
--------------------
To play spot, you can use the mouse, the keyboard or the joystick to play
the game. Just choose the control device that each player is to use on the
Options Screen. The mouse, joystick or cursor keys on the keyboard allow a
player to move the hand which acts as a game cursor around the screen.
When you want to click on an icon or select a square on the game board,
move the hand over the icon or square and then 'click' on it to make the
selection.
The left mouse button, fire button on the joystick or the RETURN key on the
keyboard must be pressed to tell the computer that you want to click.
ESC quits the current game and returns you to the Spot main menu.


HOW TO DIVE STRAIGHT IN
-----------------------
If you are the only player and would like to challenge the computer, move
the cursor over the START GAME icon and click. The game will begin with you
in control of the red game pieces and a Level 1 Computer player in control
of the green pieces. The animated character, Spot, will dance around the
board as moves are made. You fight over all 49 squares on the board. There
will be no time limits set for either you or the computer.


THE OPTION SCREEN
-----------------
Spot can be played by one to four players, any or all of which can be
controlled by the computer, and there are several timer facilities that can
be used to make the game more frantic. These game parameters are set on the
Option Screen - click on the OPTION button on the Spot main screen. Here,
the default settings for the game are active - this is how Spot is
configured when it first loads. The four groups of three buttons at each
corner of the Option Screen are used to set the options for the four
players who can join in a game. As this option screen is set up for a two-
player game by default, the two player pannels in the lower half of the
screen are 'greyed out'.

CHOOSING PLAYERS
The three buttons in each player panel are used to set up attributes for
the player. By moving the cursor over a button and clicking, you can change
the icon it displays. Keep clicking on a button, and you will eventually
cycle through all the alternative parameters that can be used. The button
at the four corners of the Option Screen allow you to tell the computer
whether a human player will control that player position on the board.
Player 3 and Player 4 are greyed out when you first load Spot - to call
those player positions into play, just click on the appropriate grey player
button in the player panels at the base of the screen.

CHOOSING CONTROL DEVICES
A human player can choose to use the mouse, a joystick, or the keyboard.
Click on the icon that shows a mouse by default to change the input device
for this player.

SETTING COMPUTER SKILL LEVELS
Whenever you select the computer as a player, an icon that looks like this
will appear in the button that would allow you to choose between mouse,
joystick and keyboard as the control device for a human player. The
computer can play at nine different skill levels, conveniently numbered 1
to 9. Keep clicking on the skill button to cycle through until the skill
level you want the computer to play at appears - 1 is the least
intelligent, 9 is the smartest.

SETTING A PLAYER TIME LIMIT FOR EACH MOVE
When Spot first loads, the game is configured so that there is no limit on
the amount of time the two players can take thinking about their move. You
can choose to play with the Player Time set to NO TIMER, or by clicking on
this button, you can cycle through the time limits that can be set for a
particular player. You can configure the game so that a player has 5, 10,
20, 30 or 40 seconds in which to ponder a move. If you have activated the
Timer, when the turn passes to a player a window opens on the screen and
starts a countdown. If the player fails to make a move before this timer
counts down to zero, then he or she loses the chance to make a move and the
turn passes to the next player in sequence. NB: if the player has selected
a counter, but fails to move it when the timer reaches zero, that counter
is lost.

SETTING GLOBAL GAME OPTIONS
Once the player buttons have been set up to your satisfaction, it is time
to consider what global parameters you would like to set - they will apply
to all the players in the game:

CONTROLLING YOUR HOST - SPOT
Your host during a game is the athletic character SPOT - as the turn passes
from player to player, SPOT will move around the margin of the board and
tap his foot impatiently next to the meter that shows how many counters the
current player has turned to his or her colour. When Spot first loads, your
host has been set to take a more active part in proceeding - he will leap
and cavort over the board each time a counter is moved. The button in the
centre of the Option Screen shows SPOT giving the 'thumbs up' against a
bright green background. If you click on this button, it will toggle to
show SPOT giving the 'thumbs down' against a dark background - you have
turned SPOT off and he will not perform his acrobatics during play.
Note by Klaz: whether this option is on or off by default depends on how
much memory you have in your machine. You can always switch this option on,
but if you have only 512kB of memory then each animation will have to be
loaded from floppy, slowing down gameplay quite a bit.

SETTING A GAME-TIME LIMIT FOR ALL PLAYERS
By clicking on the timer button in the player panel that relates to one of
the participants in a game, you can set a time limit within which that
player has to take each turn. Rather than limit the amount of time in which
individual players have to make a move each time it is their turn, you can
use the Game Clock to set a time limit which applies to all the players.
This Game-Time is in effect an allowance of time in which each player has
to make all the moves that he or she makes during the game. When Spot first
loads, the Game Clock button is disabled - the button which controls it
displays NO CLOCK. By clicking on this button, you can cycle through the
set of Game-time options: 1, 2, 3, 5 and 9 minutes. If you click on this
button, all the timer buttons in the player panels are automatically reset
to NO TIMER.
The Game-Clock does not directly govern how long a game will last - what it
does is set a time allowance that applies to all the players. If the Game
Clock has been set, each player can take as long as he or she likes over
making a move during a turn. When the game is started, the timer is set to
the number of minutes you select in the Game Clock button on the Options
Screen. When the turn passes to a player a clock appears on screen showing
the amount of Game-Time remaining for that player, and begins counting down
until the player makes the move - once a player uses up his or time her
time allowance, then he or she can make no more moves in that game.

THE EXTRA BUTTON
When Spot first loads, the Extra button is toggled on. You can toggle it
off again if you like - but it won't affect the way the game is configured.
It is in fact a bonus button for you to play with - it does nothing!

ACTIVATING YOUR GAME OPTIONS
Once you have configured all the buttons on the Options Screen to your
statisfaction, a click on the EXIT button returns you to the Spot main menu
screen with your parametars for play set up.


EDITING THE SPOT BOARD
----------------------
When Spot first loads, the game defaults are set so that you play on the
full 49-square board. There are a further 512 preprogrammed playing boards
for you to enjoy - and a powerful board editing facility allows you to
customise the play area to your heart's content. The Edit Board screen is
accessed by clicking on the EDIT BOARD button on the Spot main screen.
Squares on the playing board can be edited out of play by clicking on them
individually. When you first access the Edit Board it is set up so that
squares can be edited out of play one by one. You can't, of course, block
out the four start squares at the four corners of the playing board.

SYMMETRICAL EDITING
If you click on the SYM button on the Edit Board screen, squares that you
edit out are also 'reflected' in the horizontal and vertical axes that run
through the centre of the board. Clicking on the square towards the top
left of the board with the SYM facility toggled on produces this board.

USING THE PRE-PROGRAMMED BOARDS
There are 512 pre-programmed boards in the game - if you don't want to
design your own custom board, click on the SHAKE button on the Edit Board
screen to call up one of the pre-programmed boards. Keep clicking on SHAKE
until a board that you want to play on appears.

Once you are happy with a board that you have designed or selected on the
Edit Board screen, clicking on the EXIT button returns you to the Spot main
screen with the board confirmed as your desired playing area.

If things aren't going too well for you on the Edit Board screen, clicking
on the UNDO button will immediately clear the board for you - and you can
start the editing process afresh.


PLAYING SPOT
------------
THE GAME OBJECTIVE
No matter how you configure the game or the board, the goal is the same -
to achieve domination by filling as many of the squares with your colour
counter as you can. The winner is the player who has the most game pieces
on the board when the game ends, which is usually when the board is full.

TAKING TURNS
Players take turns, starting with player 1 who controls the red counters,
moving on to player 2 who controls green. If you have set up a game for
more than two players, then player 3 uses blue couters while player 4 has
black counters. Little meters at the corner of the game screen keep a
running tally of the number of counters each player has on the board, and
your host SPOT reminds you which player has the turn by standing under his
or her score meter und tapping his food impatiently until the moves is
made. The computer players automatically take their turns without being
prompted by SPOT.

MAKING MOVES
At the start of a turn, a human player must first select the counter that
he or she wishes to move by clicking on it - it will begin to flash,
indicating that it is the active counter. To make the move, the hand cursor
then needs to be moved over a vacant square on the board - clicking again
will make the move with the selected counter, providing the move complies
with the rules of the game. If a player attempts an illegal move, the
computer will beep when he or she clicks on the destination square for the
active counter. It is possible to change your mind as to which counter you
want to move during a turn - just click on another one, and it will become
the active counter which can be moved.

LEGAL MOVES
A Counter can only be moved into vacant squares on the board. If a counter
is moved to an adjacent square, then it will clone itself - at the very
laest, your score will increase by one. A counter can 'jump' in any
direction over one square (which can be occuped or vacant) to land on a
vacant square. If this move is made, then the counter will not clone itself
and it leaves a vacant square behind. A jump like the Knight's jump in
Chess is also a legal move.

CAPTURING PIECES
The real key to playing Spot succesfully is mastering the strategies
involved. When a player's counter lands in an empty square on the board it
will capture any pieces that belong to other players that are in squares
that are adjacent to the square in which the counter lands. You will see
this happening. Cloning moves are relativly safe - jumping moves can leave
a vacant square into which one of your opponents might leap, thereby
capturing some of your counters. Use them with care, or you could find that
a short-term gain is very quickly turned into a long-term loss.


---
Typed by ARCATRONIC of PARADISE on 01-03-1992, edited by Klaz


