alex4(6)

NAME
alex4 - Alex the Allegator 4, a retro platform game

SYNOPSIS
alex4 [gamefile]

DESCRIPTION
Guide Alex the Allegator through the jungle in order to save his girlfriend Lola from evil humans who want to make a pair of shoes out of her.

Alex the Allegator 4 is a platform game in the style of old Gameboy games. You can play the game with a keyboard or a joystick. On the keyboard the following keys are used:

Arrow keys
    Movement

Alt Jump

Control
    Shoot (only when you've found eggs to fire!)

When you're on the menu screen, you can choose the window size with the following keys:

1   160x120 window

2   320x240 window

3   640x480 window

4   full-screen

CUSTOM MAPS
The Alex the Allegator homepage links to many user-contributed maps. Each set should contain several ".map" files and a text file describing the collection. To play the maps, simply start alex4 with the name of the text file as argument.

If you want to create your own maps, you can use the built-in map editor (described below), but you'll need to create the description file yourself. This is a plain text file that needs to list the file names of your maps between "#start#" and "#end#" markers (these markers are not optional). You can include a description of the maps outside these markers. For example, for a collection of three maps:

    In this game, Alex must rescue the Yellow Tetris Piece from the pirates of Ching Shih.
    #start#
    journey.map
    sea-of-despair.map
    endgame.map
    #end#

USING THE MAP EDITOR
Use the map editor to create your own maps. You can enter the map editor from the menu screen or by pressing F1 while playing a custom map. The basic editor commands are:

Shift+L
    load an existing map

Shift+S
    save the map

Insert+Left/Right
    widen the map

Delete+Left/Right
    shorten the map

F1  change the map's properties, e.g. its name.

Maps are composed of tiles. Tiles can contain scenery, enemies, items and other game objects. The mouse cursor shows the currently selected tile. To draw tiles, use the left mouse button. You can cycle through the available tiles by using the z and x keys, choose a tile from a palette using the p key, or pick a tile from the screen using the right mouse button.

Tiles can be given special behavior using the following commands:

q   instant death

w   map exit

e   roll activator

r   breakable block

t   submerged in water

y   on the water surface

a   Alex' start location (facing left)

Shift+A
    Alex' start location (facing right)

Use the following command to place items and enemies:

1   extra life

2   star bonus

3   cherry bonus

4   egg

5   extra heart

Shift+Q
    grunt

Shift+W
    spear grunt

Shift+E
    crusher

Shift+R
    spike fish

Shift+T
    jellyfish

Shift+Y
    cannon

Shift+U
    spike truck boss

Shift+I
    ground pounder boss

SEE ALSO

AUTHOR
Alex the Allegator 4 was written by Johan Peitz, Free Lunch Design.

This manual page was written by Peter De Wachter <pdewacht@gmail.com>, for the Debian project (but may be used by others).