Product: Okie Dokie Type: Puzzle Game Platform: Atari 2600 Release Date: Wednesday December 4, 1996 RetroWare is proud to present Okie Dokie! 1. Overview Okie Dokie is a fast moving puzzle game that challenges you with 30 preset puzzles and 435 random puzzles. It seems simple enough, turn off all of the squares. Well, there's a catch! Every time you select a square, it gets "flipped" -- if it was on it turns off and visa versa. To complicate things further, any square directly to the left, right, above, or below the square is also "flipped." A counter keeps track of the number of moves you make. So you think you are hot stuff for completing level 1 in 756 moves huh? Well, it can be completed in 14 moves! 2. Setup A. Supercharger To use Okie Dokie with the Supercharger, you will need to download the okiedoke.zip file. This file contains two .wav files, okiesfst.wav (superfast loading) and okiefast.wav (fast loading). While okiesfst.wav loads fastest, okiefast.wav may be more reliable to load. Now you have two options: i) Play the .wav file directly into your Supercharger by plugging the Supercharger into your soundcard or external speakers. ii) Record the .wav file onto a cassette tape (or CD) and use the cassette (or CD) to load the game. B. Emulator It is recommended that you use AtariPC 1.3 or a26 beta 1.5 Okie Dokie. See the instructions for the emulator you are using to see how to load a ROM image. Okie Dokie is a 2k ROM image. C. Atari 2600 The ROM image can be burned into an EPROM to be played as a normal Atari 2600 game. If there is enough interest, I may make a small quantity of cartridges with label and manual. 3. Selecting a puzzle When Okie Dokie starts, you will see a scrolling message say "SELECT LEVEL". At this point, pressing Select on the Atari 2600 VCS will bring the message "LVL01" up underneath the Okie Dokie playfield. Level 1 is a special puzzle and does not necessarily indicate that it is any easier than level 2. In fact, level 2 is far easier that level 1! There are 30 levels - each one with a unique puzzle to solve. Level 31 is a special level that generates 1 of 435 possible puzzles randomly for you to play with. You can press select at any time to select a new puzzle, but if you are currently working on a puzzle it will be erased, so be careful! Any time you press select during a game or after solving a puzzle, the level selection will begin at level 1, no matter what level you were previously playing. Holding Select down will cause the level number to increase automatically. 4. Starting the game Pressing Reset on the Atari 2600 VCS will set the "moves" counter to 0000 and randomly pick 1 of 8 different tokens to be used for the puzzle. If you have a favorite token to use, repeatedly pressing Reset will eventually allow you to use it. If you have selected level 31, pressing the Reset button will cause the playfield pattern to rapidly change. Releasing the Reset button will start 1 of 435 possible puzzles that is mathematically guaranteed to be solvable! 5. Using the joystick When you start a new puzzle, you will be able to move a pointer around the puzzle with a joystick plugged in to the left controller port of the Atari 2600 VCS. Moving the joystick will move the pointer in the corresponding direction. If you are in the top row and move the joystick up, the pointer will "wrap around" the puzzle and end up in the bottom row. The "wrap around" feature works for all other directions as well. Pressing the Fire Button while the pointer is under a token causes that token to disappear. If there is no token above the cursor, a token will appear. This happens to each square to the left, right, above, and below the position the token is pointing to as shown in figure 5.1. _ _ _ _ ^ = Pointer | | | | X = Token X X X _ _ _| |_ _ _ _ _ _| |_ _ _ | | | | X X ---> X |_ _ _ ^ _ _ _| |_ _ _ ^ _ _ _| | | | | X X X |_ _| |_ _| figure 5.1 - Result of Pressing Fire Button 6. Solving a Puzzle When you successfully solve a puzzle, a short tune will play and you will no longer be able to move your pointer around. To play the same puzzle again, press the Reset button. To select a new puzzle, press the Select button to browse through the available puzzles. Simply solving a puzzle doesn't mean you have mastered it. Level 1 can be completed in 14 moves -- Can YOU do it in 14 moves? Level 2 is very simple and can be done in 4 moves, but don't be deceived! not all puzzles are that easy! 7. About Okie Dokie Okie Dokie was written using an Amiga 1200, a Supercharger, the DASM assembler by Matt Dillon and Makewave by Bob Colbert. The goal was to limit the program to 2k to get the "feel" for what classic videogame programmers had to contend with. While the game was written to be played on a real Atari 2600, it has been tested on various emulators and works flawlessly on Atari13 and a26_b15, though the sound only seems to work correctly on Atari12 (older version of Atari13). Emulator authors are welcome to include the game with their distribution archives. Okie Dokie and its source are freeware and may be distributed freely. 8. Disclaimer Bob Colbert and RetroWare make no guarantees, written or implied, on this software. We are not responsible for any damage due to the use of this software. 9. Misc If there is enough interest, a small batch of cartridges may be produced, e-mail rcolbert@novia.net if you are interested. ------ Please send any comments, questions, or suggestions to: rcolbert@novia.net Enjoy the Game and keep an eye out for new Atari 2600 games from RetroWare!