Castaway (Amstrad CPC)

Introduction

Two weeks before his wedding, Tom Roland is sent abroad for a very important job. He couldn’t say no if he wanted to be promoted.

In the middle of the flight in the middle of the night and due to bad weather, the plane suffered an accident and Tom survived.

Unconscious, he woke up on an island beach. “What happened? Where am I?” he asked himself. Would he be alone there?

Now, he must build a raft to go away from there and be in time for his wedding.

Will he get it?   It depends on you.

 

The game

You handle Tom Roland and he has to get four mandatory objects to go away from the island:

An axe, to cut tree trunks with the best island’s wood to build a raft.

A cord roll, to join the cut trunks.

A piece of fabric, to use as a sail.

A map with the route to escape from the island (who did leave it there?)

Probably some of the objects he has to look for are in the island cannibal’s huts (it seems Tom is not alone). Tom will have to be very careful because they are anxious to eat fresh meat. And very possibly too, the huts are closed, but he could be granted access if he finds the correct key that opens the door individual hut’s door.

Tom is faster than cannibals, but they are stronger than him. So, if they catch him, he will have failed in his mission, he will never see his beloved girlfriend again and worst of all, the cannibals will eat him.

Also, there are a lot of camouflaged snakes that if they bite Tom, he will lose energy and hydration.

He can find some objects that will help him on his mission:

Saws, to cut some trees with thin logs.

Sickles, to cut some weeds.

The saws and sickles will be useless after using them because they are of poor quality.

Boards, that he can use to cross the creeks in the island. They are of good quality and they will remain where he used them, but not forever.

A torch, that will be useless if he finds a cave and he can't see anything.

A ball he carried in his suitcase (why? maybe you discover it) and casually reached the island too.

Antidotes, useful if a snake bites him, it avoids he loses energy and hydration.

Envelopes (with bills). Everyone likes money and cannibals were not going to be an exception. They don’t know what it’s for, but they like its smell and will forget Tom for a moment if he gives one to the cannibal. Let’s call it a small bribe.

Tom uses a backpack and he can hold up to seven items. Also, he doesn’t like to leave them on the ground. If he picks an object up and later he doesn’t want it, you can make Tom exchange it for another object, but don't leave one of them on the ground.

Also, there are other objects that Tom doesn’t keep in his backpack (why? Tom prefers to consume them instantly):

water bottles, to hydrate because it’s very hot on the island.

food supply bags, to recover energy because Tom has to walk a lot.

The game ends when:

Tom had the four mandatory objects and he is in the initial screen, or

He has been caught by a cannibal, or

When he ran out of hydration or energy.

Lives? Who has several lives? Cats. You can consider each envelope as an extra life, and there are a lot of them on the island.

Points? Who wants points where life is in danger? Get the goal in the shortest time possible, take a photo and share it with #CastawayACPC.

 

Tips and warnings

Sometimes you may not watch objects because there is something in front of it that prevents you from watching what is behind, explore well.

When Tom uses a key he loses it. Be careful, because he can get into each hut once. Don't make Tom leaves an important object there.

Make Tom doesn’t leave the torch or the ball inside the cave or any hut, Tom won’t be able to retrieve them.

There are a lot of antidotes, envelopes, saws, sickles, boards, water bottles and supply bags on the island.

 

How to play

You can use the joystick or keyboard.

You can move Tom up, down, left, or right and turn him in one of those directions. You can also make Tom change objects.

To move him in one direction press the key corresponding to the direction.

To turn him in one direction press Fire and the key corresponding to the direction.

To exchange objects you have to place Tom next to the object and looking at it and then press Fire.

The default keys are the cursor keys for directions and the space bar as Fire.

If you don't like that combination you can redefine the keys.

To pause the game press ESC, and then any key to continue, or ESC again to leave the game.

 

Loading

TAPE: Rewind the tape, type RUN", press ENTER and PLAY, and then any key.

DISC: Type RUN”CASTAWAY and then press ENTER.

Once the game is loaded press:

1: to play with joystick

2: to play with keyboard (default or redefined keys)

3: to redefine the keys

 

Authors and licenses

This game has been developed by:

The T Team
Gallegux (F. Gallego Román)	design, code and graphics
Riskwood (J.A.Martín)	music
Javy Fdez (Javier Fernández)	graphics
Brundij	loading screen

This software uses:

ZX0 decompressor

Sound effects from Arkos Tracker 1

Code from CPCTelera

8-bit Xor-Shift random number generator by Patrik Rak

Modified font from Baba's Palace

 

The gesture

According to the CPC Retrodev rules, we included a gesture to Larcena's Legacy, and the best gesture could not be other than an envelope.

Tom can find several envelopes on the ground. He can pick it up or exchange it with another object in his backpack.

The envelopes on the ground are like this:

And once caught they are indicated with this icon:

 

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