Super Snail

Super Snail is a straight forward platform game. You control a snail who for some bizzare reason needs to collect magic spheres that someone has dumped around the place. [Screen shot]

There are five spheres on each level which you must find in order to progress to the next. As well as the spheres, you can collect coins which are dotted around a bit more liberally, after collecting 100 of these you will get an extra life.

There are different hazards in each level that can harm you, namely, arrows, fireballs, lava pits, spikes and mad blokes. When one of these hits you or you accidently walk into one then you will lose a heart.
You can collect small hearts in levels that will refill your heart meter or a large heart that will increase the maximum level you can store.

Here are some of the things you are likely to find in the game:

Updrafts - These are currents of air that will cause you to get blown upwards if you stand in them.
Collapsing floor - This will crack if you step on it and eventually crumble away.
Keys/Doors - Pick up keys, use them to open the locked doors
Trampolines - Jump on 'em
Red/Blue switches - At any one time either red blocks are solid and blue blocks aren't or the other way round. Hitting a switch will reverse the order. I've been told this was in Zelda but I didn't know, honest!
Shoveable blocks - Some blocks can be pushed around to let you get to higher platforms
Ice - If you are on an icey block you will skid when you move
Fake walls - There are a few hidden areas in some of the maps behind fake walls

Downloads

Download game(v1.0)(203k)

Download source code(16k)

If you have comments about Super Snail (good or bad) then you can Email me at johnstdt@dcs.gla.ac.uk

Other details about the game

The game clearly uses tiles for the map but all the enemies and hazards are also done by changing values of tiles on the map.
The arrows and fireballs just have 2 different frames, the tiles are 32x32 pixels and an arrow or fireball is 16 pixels long. So one frame has the hazard in one half of the tile and the other in the other half. There are two different tiles for each frame, one indoors and one outdoors.
The mad geezers are made up of a whole bunch of tiles that are updated each game frame. Since there are so many frames of animation for the mad geezers there isn't a version of them for inside. That's why they are only encountered outdoors.

Cheats & Tips

The level codes in the game vary depending on how many hearts you had at the end of the last level. The first two digits of the code define the level and these are: [Screen shot]

Level 2: 27
Level 3: 91
Level 4: 23
Level 5: 50
Level 6: 43

The 3rd and 4th digits specify how many hearts you will have.
The 6th and 7th digits specify the maximum amount of hearts you can have.
The 5th and 8th digits are check digits for the two values above.
To find the check digit for a value add the tens digit to the tens digit of the code for the level, do the same for the units digit and multiply them together. The units value of this number is the check digit.

So for value 12 at level 3 (code 91) the check digit would be:
(1*9)+(2*1) = 11 => 1

So to start at level 6 with 10 hearts and a possible maximum of 12 the code would be 43104120

For more information about this site contact: David Johnston
(This page was last updated on 16/7/99)