The ORIGINAL Big Race!

Ben Samuel and Kathleen Tuite

HC-11!!

Teeny LCD Screen!

(A video of us playing The Big Race on the HC-11)

What are those symbols? s ========= Super Shoes! You can hold three of them! Use the three left most switches to dictate how many you want to use! One shoe == three yard jump. Two shoes == five yard jump. three shoes == seven yard jump! g ========= Power Glove! With the might of a thousand titans, you can bash down a hurdle, essentially allowing you to run into a hurdle without it slowing you down! a ========= ALI-OFF (tm) This is a spray can of Alligator Repellent! Normally falling into an alligator pit is instant death, but with alligator repellent in tow, you can swim through the pit with ease! R ========= Rocket! This is a rocket jet-pack! No race track would be complete without one. In addition to making you fly 15 spaces above any hazards that may lie on the ground, you also advance one place in the race, so that--for example--were you in second place before getting to rocket pack, now you are in first place! π (pi) ========== Hurdle! The symbol for Pi (you know, 3.14 etc. etc.) represents a hurdle that you must leap over to reach your final destination. If you run into a hurdle and you don't have any gloves on, then one of your foes will pass you, and you will go down a place (so if you were in first place, you will now be in second place). @@@ ========== Alligator Pit! This is a trap installed by your enemies in order to destroy both you and all hope that remains in this world! If you fall into an alligator pit without Alligator repellent, you will get eaten up! Game over! This is you:      o      X Aren't you dashing? And how do you actually play the game? Push the interrupt button to jump And use the switches to select which items in your inventory you want to use.

To the person playing it...

You are running the big race! The big race with the RANDOMLY CHOSEN race track. You are so good at being an athlete, you don't need to see it before hand. As you run along, you will see a number in the upper right hand corner of the LCD. This is how many yards you have left until you reach the end of the race! On the ground before you, you will see all of those items previously mentioned. If it is a good item, then we recommend running into it. If you do this, then the item will go into your inventory. You inventory is represented by the LEDS. The three far most left LEDS represent the number of shoes you have. The next three LEDS represent the number of gloves that you have. The final two LEDS on the far right represent how many ALI-OFFs (tm) you have. Thus, you are only allowed to carry 3 shoes, 3 gloves, and 2 repellents. If you try to pick something else up when you are already at full capacity on the item in question, then it will not let you pick it up and print out a message to the console. So now you know what to do when you see a good item, and how you can tell how many good items that you are currently holding, but what do you do when you see a bad item coming up? Well, your most basic command is to JUMP! You can do this by pushing the interrupt button. Your natural athletic prowess permits you to jump one yard every time you push the button. However, there are times when maybe there are consecutive barriers in the way, or maybe you want to jump over the three-yard-long alligator pit! In order to handle this, maybe you will want use your super shoes! In order to use your super shoes, first you must make sure that you own super shoes to be used (don't forget: shoes are represented by the three LEDS on the far left). You then must flip the switches on that are next to the lit up LEDs that you wish to use. If you do this, then the next time you push the interrupt button, you will jump the number of yards as defined above. You can use this to surmount obstacles that otherwise would be impossible to overcome! So, you're running on your merry way, jumping, and super jumping, and using gloves to bash down hurdles, and avoiding alligator pits, and using repellent to survive alligator pits, and getting Rocket Packs, and then you finally get to the end of the race! Huzzah! It will then print out to the console what place you got in, along with a message that reflects how good the game thinks you did. And because this game is the greatest game ever, we make it easy for you to play again! Just type 'Y' or 'y' on the console to begin your racing adventure anew! (or anything else to quit... but you don't want to quit, do you? Was it something we said?) Maybe next time you will get a new course! Master all of the courses, and then you will truely have earned the title of "greatest athelete of all time in the entire world for all eternity!" Happy Racing!