Colony 1.0	released 1.8.2000
by Cassady Roop
SImmoralTech Software
------------------------

Colony is a simple yet challenging puzzle game.  You are a colony of cells (that's right, you're a bunch of germs!) trying to gain a foothold in the world.

In each level, you start out with an initial pattern of cells.  Each level has a goal, a number of cells you must try to achieve.  On each move, you may add or remove one cell at any location on the playing grid.  But you must plan moves carefully, because there are some tricky rules of life that your cells obey...

RULES__________________
1.  A cell dies of isolation with fewer than 2 neighbors.
2.  A cell dies of overcrowding with more than 4 neighbors.
3.  A cell is spontaneously created in any empty grid square with 3 neighbors.

The grid is evaluated for the above rules after you make your move.
All cells are evaluated simultaneously, so if one cell is destined to die after the move, it will not affect the evaluations of the cells around it until the next move.  These rules can be found on the HELP screen, which is accessed by pressing [F1].

When the goal number of cells has been reached, Colony advances to the next level.
When the number of cells reaches zero, your colony has died, you lose, and the game is over.  If it takes you more than 99 moves to solve the puzzle, you will lose the game even though there may still be cells on the grid.

A running total of how many moves have been made is shown, as well as a count of the cells you have living on the grid.  Try to solve a level in the least number of moves possible.  Your score is computed at the end of a level, whether you win or lose.  If you lose, you will get no points for that level;  if you win, your score is found by subtracting the number of moves from the maximum allowed moves (100).  Thus, more moves results in a lower number of points.  Your score is the sum of all the points from all levels you complete.  If you get a high score, you will have the opportunity to enter your initials.  This high score can be seen on the HELP screen.

This version includes 20 levels.  The first few are extremely easy.  The last few are extremely hard.  In between there are some levels designed primarily to look good; if you know the right moves to make, they are easy, if not, they are really quite dificult.

STATS__________________
Game statistics are shown to the right of the playing grid.
Level-  tells you what level you are playing
Goal-   number of cells needed to advance to next level
Moves-  number of moves made so far
Cells-  number of cells present on the grid

Points- score for that level
Score-  total score for all levels you've completed


KEYS___________________
[2ND] -    Add/Remove a cell
[arrows] - Move cursor
[F1] -     Help/About
[EXIT] -   Figure it out
[MORE] -   Move to next level


PLANNED IMPROVEMENTS___
-An option to generate random levels
-External level loading


Thanks to my beta testers KptKill, Brent Schneider, and Anton Venema for testing my first assembly game!

Comments and suggestions can be sent to Cassady Roop at <croop@oregontrail.net>

SImmoralTech Software: <http://ti86prgm.freeservers.com>