SANTA'S FACTORY =============== By RED ZEBRA for ZXMAS! 2024 A 48K ZX Spectrum game with AY "music" if available. Hastily put together out of code snippets and doodles. Forgive the lack of polish! Story ----- There's a mix-up in the factory! Presents (helpfully colour coded) have gotten jumbled! Re-tool the factory conveyors to sort them out! Guide the presents to their respective coloured bins. Play ---- Use the cursor to draw (or erase) conveyors on the stage. Presents emerge from a start location in order of the sequence displayed and must be sorted and directed to their respective bins. Presents should run off the end of one conveyor and on to another, if they land on the floor (or anything else) they'll flash to let you know it's stuck (and that the level can't be completed). Sorting blocks (with a coloured arrow on them) will redirect presents of the same colour in the direction indicated. Other presents will continue to move in the direction they were moving. Pushers are on a timer and will push a present beneath it when it hits zero. Timing is important to use them to help sort presents. MAIN MENU ========= Level Select ------------ Choose one of 10 Levels of (roughly) increasing difficulty. Once you've sorted the presents in a level it's marked green on the list. Controls -------- You're presented with SEVERAL options here: keyboard layouts (not redefinable), joystick interfaces and even mouse! If you have a ZX Spectrum NEXT you can even use a 3-button Mega Drive Gamepad. The SCHEMA section displays the key/button layout and functions. Take note of the DEFAULT keyboard keys, they remain regardless of the control type selected. NB: Symbol Shift is pressed to EXIT a level and return to the main menu. The direction inputs move the cursor pointer around the stage. You can select the tools on the toolbar by 'clicking' on them or pressing the shortcut key. Fire uses the selected tool on the stage. If you have secondary fire, it will always erase. You can also 'click' on the start/stop buttons to start the presents flowing, or use the shortcut key. You can't place anything out the outer border of the stage. Music On/Off ------------ Mercifully, I allow you to turn off my (low) effort at an "industrial/electronic" Good King Wenceslas.