EVOLUTION Microsphere Imagine standing on the earth as it was 3500 million years ago. Around you volcanoes are erupting. Lightning flashes across a crimson sky, and the sun, hotter than in the hottest deserts of today, beats down relentlessy. There is no oxygen to breathe, and if you did take off your face mask for a moment, your nostrils would be filled with the pungent smell of ammonia. But from such an unpromising start the chain of events that led through the first plants and animals, through the first fish, through the dinosaurs, through the first timid mammals, and finally to man, was about to unfold. The world waited. EVOLUTION was about to begin. The Easy Game ------------- Another, somewhat simpler, game has been incorporated into the program. This easy game uses the same creatures, but the effects of temperature and the cross-relationships between animals are ignored. Thus, having created something, it never dies out. To win the easy game all you have to do is reach man before the centre of the screen is entirely filled with animals. You might like to play it once or twice as a gentle introduction to the main game, but please remember that it shows only one facet of the remarkable process of evolution. Microsphere Computer Services, Ltd., 72, Rosebery Road, London N10 2LA. Tel 01-883-9411 Loading The Program ------------------- To load the program proceed as follows:- 1) Set the volume control of your cassette recorder to somewhere near the middle. Rewind the cassette (label side up) to the beginning of the tape. 2) Connect the EAR socket of the cassette player to the EAR socket of the Spectrum. Make sure that there is nothing in the MIC socket of the computer. 3) Type in LOAD "evolution". (The LOAD is obtained simply by pressing the "J" key rather than typing in the individual letters. The quotes are obtained by pressing SYMBOL SHIFT and the "P" keys at the same time.) 4) Press ENTER and start your cassette recorder playing. If the tape fails to load, try again with slightly different volume levels. If it still fails to load, send it back to MICROSPHERE at the address above for a replacement. This program and documentation, its contents, game principles and graphical presentation is copyright Microsphere Computer Services Ltd. 1983. It may not be reproduced, translated or transmitted, in part or in whole, by any means or in any form, without the express permission of the copyright holder. The Game -------- The object of the game is to retrace the evolutionary steps that led to man. This will involve you in exploring many different pathways as, before anything can come into existence, conditions must be right. Obviously climate is important in affecting the chances of survival of a creature, but other animals and plants also play their part - before something can exist there must be something for it to eat; it must be capable of competing with the other creatures in the world etc. etc. As an example, before the first oxygen breathing animals can evolve, you must have plants to produce the oxygen they need. In fact, if conditions are not suitable for a new creature, then rather than let you create it and watch it die out immediately, you won't even be told about it. So, if at any time you find that a creature cannot evolve further, bear in mind that this may only be a temporary state of affairs. Of course this also works the other way. If you have created something and subsequently the conditions change, the creature may no longer be able to survive, and will die out. To liven things up, from time to time disasters will occur. Such disasters occur randomly - just as they did in the real thing. Thus every time you play the game, it will be slightly different, and you will have different challenges to face. To win the game, you must reach man before your time runs out. Whether you win or lose you will be given a score. This score will reflect which creatures you managed to create, and, if you did succeed in reaching man, how quickly you did it, and what other animals are also in existence. (It would be a pretty boring world without cats, dogs etc.!) The Screen ---------- The main screen used in the game consists of 5 sections. On the left is a red column showing how far back in time you are. As the game proceeds this column shortens, and you must finish before it disappears altogether. Linked to this "time" column is a commentary that appears in green on the bottom two lines of the screen. This tells you what was really happening in the world at that time so you can check your progress. On the right of the screen is another red column showing the temperature. This fluctuates from period to period, and is also affected by some disasters. In the centre of the screen is a grid of yellow rectangles. On these appear the first three letters of every creature that you have created (and that has survived). Below this is a display area in which more information on each of the creatures appears. This is changed automatically whenever you create something new, but you can also use it to look at details of other creatures. The Controls ------------ After loading the tape you will first see another set of instructions (just in case you lose these). After working through these, you will come to the main screen. Notice that there is a cursor flashing over one of the yellow boxes in the centre of the screen. You can move this cursor around the boxes by using the 5, 6, 7 and 8 keys. (The keys have arrows on them to show you in which direction the cursor will move.) To find out if any creature has any descendants, you should move the cursor until it rests over the creature you are interested in, and then press "0" (zero). If the creature cannot evolve the computer will tell you, otherwise the centre of the screen will be replaced with a list of possible descendants. On the left hand side of each name will be a number. To create one of the descendants you simply press the relevant number. (Or, if you decide not to create anything, press zero.) The centre of the screen will then be reformed, and, if you created something, a description of it will appear. Normally the screen will be showing a description of the last creature you created. You can replace this with details on any of the other creatures in existence at the time by positioning the cursor over the relevant creature and pressing "1". As the game goes along you can check your score by pressing "2". To quit before your time runs out you press "3". (The program will then ask you for confirmation, in case you pressed "3" by mistake.) Finally, you can sometimes make a disaster happen by pressing "4". Normally this will make your situation worse, but on the odd occasion it may actually help.