Tequila Worm User Guide


Table of contents:
Game Concept
Quick start guide
Game controls
Game rules/How to play
Strategy hints
Credits


Game Concept

This game was inspired by Slithereens, an older Macintosh game made by Ambrosia Software (http://www.ambrosiasw.com). Slithereens, in turn, was inspired by an arcade game called Serpentine, written by David Snyder. This game, Tequila Worm, is so called becuase the motion of the enemy worms often appears as though they are intoxicated.

The game story is as follows... You are a worm in an unusual bottle of tequila, full of other worms - and mazes. Your basic mission is to survive. You live and get more powerful by eating enemy worms, but be careful, they can eat you too! Along the way you'll get longer and shorter, eat food, and if you're lucky, you'll be the last worm in the bottle.


Quick Start Guide

Gameplay is pretty straightforward. When the game starts, the player worm will be located in the maze, near the upper left. The player worm has a blue and grey head with green and brown body segments, and the enemy snakes have brightly colored red heads and yellow segments, when they are longer than you. Just remember nature's rule and you'll have no trouble remembering which is which: bright colored creatures often mean danger. Enemy worms can change color, which means you have the upper hand on those worms.

You move your worm around trying to eat other worms. When you are shorter than enemy worms (yellow segments), you can only eat their tail segments. When you eat enough tail segments so that you are longer then the enemy worm (ie, the segments of that worm have turned blue), you can eat the enemy worm's head and you will get one segment longer. Shorter enemy worms can eat your tail in this manner as well, and if a longer enemy worm eats your head, your life is over. So, you should eat enemy snakes by the head only when they are blue (indicating they are shorter than you), and run from them or eat their tails when they are yellow.

If you eat all the worms on a level, you proceed to the next level, where the worms are longer and the gameplay is faster.

Occasionally, you'll see eggs appear on the screen. Blue eggs are your own eggs, and if you can prevent the egg from being eaten by an enemy worm, that egg turns into an extra life at the end of the level. Dropping an egg costs you a body segment, and is timed randomly, a maximum of one per level. You won't drop an egg if you only have one body segment since this would kill you! The other eggs, bright red with black spots, are enemy eggs. Enemy worms drop these eggs in a random fashion as well, and if you can eat them before they hatch, you gain a segment. Be quick though, within a minute of the enemy eggs being dropped, they hatch and turn into other enemy worms!


Game Controls

Controls in this game are very simple. Use the four arrow keys on the keyboard to move the worm in the direction you wish it to move. You control the head of the worm and the worm body follows automatically. You can move backwards over your worm body if you want to turn around and go the other way. You can stop the worm simply by letting go of the arrow keys. If you stop, your tail will retract somewhat and thrash around waiting for you to do something - a possible technique to avoid being eaten if you're stuck in a tight spot between two enemy worms. Be aware, though, that your thrashing could attract other worms, and they might be able to tag you through walls.


The Official Game Rules

The game rules are as follows, and apply to both player worm and enemy worms:

Strategy Hints

There are a few things to keep in mind when playing this game. Remember that you must eat an enemy head to gain a body segment... but also remember that worms need at least a head and one segment to live. So this means if you eat an enemy worm from the tail towards the head, the worm dies after you eat the last segment and you do not gain a body segment. (It may appear that you eat the head due to the close proximity of the encounter). The best way to assure you are eating the enemy worm head is by causing a head to head collision.


Credits

This game was written as a group project for Dr. Rudy Rucker's software engineering class at San Jose State University, fall semester 2001. Team members were Joe Cheng, Lee Gong, and Rich Prillinger.