manual.xml

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<page title="User Manual">
  <section title="The Story">
  </section>

  <section title="Starting the Game">
  </section>

  <section title="Game Controls">
  </section>

  <section title="Actions">
    <h3>The Faller</h3>

    <p>Once a Pingu is out of the entrance, he will be falling to the
      ground. As a Faller he can't do anything but just obey the law of
      gravity. If the Pingu falls for too long, he will gather too much
      speed and so won't survive on hitting the ground. So be careful
      and keep an eye on the height of objects from which they can
      safely fall.
    </p>


    <subsection title="The Walker">
      <p>If the Pingu has fallen from the entrance and safely reached
        the ground, the Pingu will turn into a Walker. The Walker is the
        state in which the Pingu will be most of the time. As a Walker the
        Pingu simply moves in the current direction in which he is facing.
        He will walk in this way until you give him a command to do
        something else. However, if the Pingu reaches an obstacle that he
        cannot walk up or through, he will turn around and walk back in
        the opposite direction.
      </p>
    </subsection>

    <subsection title="The Digger">
      <p>When a Pingu is turned into a Digger, he starts
        digging/drilling a vertical hole through any object that Walkers
        would otherwise walk on.  A Digger continues digging a hole until
        there is nothing below it to dig, in which case the Digger will
        fall, or the Digger hits a solid object, such as metal.</p>
    </subsection>

    <subsection title="The Basher">
      <p>A Basher is the horizontal equivalent of a Digger. A Basher
        bashes out a tunnel through any object that is ahead of it. It
        stops bashing when there is nothing ahead to bash, a solid object
        has been reached, such as metal, or there is nothing below the
        Basher. In the latter case, the Basher will fall.</p>
    </subsection>

    <subsection title="The Miner">
      <p>The Miner can be considered to be a combination of a Digger and
        a Basher. Whereas a Digger only goes down and a Basher only goes
        forward, the Miner goes down and forward in one movement. This
        results in a tunnel going diagonally downwards.  Like a Digger and
        a Basher, a Miner stops if there is nothing to mine, a solid
        object has been reached or there is nothing below the Miner. In
        the latter case, the Miner will fall.</p>
    </subsection>

    <subsection title="The Blocker">

      <p>The blocker stops at its current position and then starts to
        command other Pingus which reach him to change their direction. No
        Pingu can thus pass a Blocker. Instead they will turn around and
        head in the other direction.</p>
    </subsection>

    <subsection title="The Bomber">
      
      <p>Sometimes when you have to stop a Pingu or have to create a
        hole, but have neither a Basher nor a Miner, there is no way other
        than to turn a Pingu into a Bomber. The Pingu will start a
        countdown once he has turned into a Bomber. He will continue his
        current action until the countdown reaches zero. On zero being
        reached, he will inflate and then explode. The explosion will
        create a hole in the ground and destroy anything that is near him.
        Thus a Bomber can be used to either make holes or to remove
        Blockers or other Pingus that are in the way.
      </p>
    </subsection>

    <subsection title="The Bridger">
      
      <p>A Pingu turned into a Bridger will start to build a small
        bridge. It will not be a large bridge and goes slightly upwards.
        In most cases this will be enough to reach a higher point or to
        pass a deep hole in the ground.
      </p>
    </subsection>

    <subsection title="The Climber">

      <p>A Pingu that has learned the ability to climb will be able to
        climb on vertical objects which normal Pingus cannot climb. The
        Climber will climb to the top of an object that would normally
        block his way. Once at the top, he will turn back into a normal
        Walker. A Pingu that has learnt the ability to Climb will always
        keep it, you can see which Pingus can climb and which can't by the
        little <span class="teletype">[c]</span> in the info box that appears if you place the
        cursor on a Pingu.
      </p>
    </subsection>

    <subsection title="The Floater">

      <p>Like the Climber action, the Floater action will also stay with
        the Pingu once it is applied. This time you can see which Pingus
        can float by the little <span class="teletype">[f]</span> in the info box of the Pingu.
        A Pingu that can Float will use his propeller-hat to reduce his
        falling speed during a fall. Once he has his propeller-hat on, he
        will be slow enough to not die on hitting the ground. So the
        Floater action protects the Pingu from high falls, which a normal
        Pingu would not survive.</p>
    </subsection>

    <subsection title="The Jumper">

      <p>A Pingu that gets turned into a Jumper will gather all its
        power and start a single large jump forward. He will not jump very
        high, but pretty far and pretty fast. He can thus reach other
        platforms or get past situations in which he can't stay too long
        in one place.
      </p>
    </subsection>
    
    <subsection title="The Slider">
      
      <p>Once you give a Pingu the command to become a Slider, he will
        jump on his belly and move forward with a lot of speed. But be
        careful. To get the speed, the Pingu needs a perfectly flat
        stretch of ground. On bumpy terrain, a Pingu cannot slide very
        far. The Slider is at its best if used on icy ground.</p>
    </subsection>
  </section>

  <section title="Tactics">

    <subsection title="Reverse a Pingu without using Blockers">
      <p>The usual way of stopping a Pingu from walking off a deadly
        cliff is to use a Blocker. However, suppose there are no Blockers
        available. How can the direction of a Pingu be reversed so that it
        walks in the opposite direction? Here's how it could be done.</p>

      <ol>
        <li>Turn the Pingu to be reversed into a Digger.</li>
        <li>Let the Digger dig a little bit.</li>
        <li>Turn the Digger into a Bridger.</li>
      </ol>

      <p>The Bridger should eventually stop building while still within
        the hole, reverse and then walk out of the hole in the opposite
        direction of the bridge.</p>
    </subsection>

    <subsection title="Releasing a Blocker without killing him">
      <p>To release a Blocker in a non-destructive manner, use a Miner to
        dig away the ground underneath it.</p>
    </subsection>

    <subsection title="Mine the other way">
      <p>If you have a Builder, a Digger, and a Miner, and you want your
        Pingu to mine down and to the opposite direction of that which it is
        facing, try this trick. Turn it into a Digger momentarily, and after
        it's down four pixels or so, turn it into a Bridger. It will attempt
        to build its way out of the pit, but then turn around after two or 
        three steps. Now you can have it mine in the opposite direction.</p>
    </subsection>

    <subsection title="Getting one Pingu out">
      <p>If you have a Blocker holding in your Pingus, and want to get just
        one Pingu past it without blowing it up, build a bridge that would go
        over the Blocker's head.  Then watch the Pingus falling off the end 
        of the bridge. As soon as one falls past the Blocker, make the Bridger
        a Digger. This stops the rest from getting past.</p>
    </subsection>

    <subsection title="Zig-Zag stairs">
      <p>If some Pingus are stuck in a pit, they can be freed by numerous 
        Bridgers planting stairs in a zig-zag pattern upward. Each Bridger 
        starts building to the left from the top of a right slanted staircase
        (which has run into a wall), and vice versa.</p>
    </subsection>

    <subsection title="Path-finder Pingu">
      <p>Use one Pingu to blaze a trail across the screen, and then release 
        the others once the route has been completed. Often the Path-finder is 
        an Athlete (Climber and Floater) but not always. If the screen has 
        several trapdoors then you probably  need one Path-finder per entrance.
        In the latter case it's best to try and deal with each trapdoor 
        separately; trying to handle them all at once and skipping from one to
        another is usually doomed to failure.</p>
    </subsection>

    <subsection title="Building Steps">
      <p>If a group of Pingus need to fall down from a high structure, and
        you don't have enough Floaters, you can use a Digger Pingu to create a
        step for them.  If the drop is twice as far as the Pingus can fall, or
        thereabouts, Have the Digger tunnel down right at the edge of the cliff,
        and then stop half way. You can stop it by turning it into a Builder.
        Then the Pingus will fall twice, once to the step the Digger made, and
        then to the ground below. If the drop is farther than that, you can use
        multiple Diggers, staggering them Creating a series of steps.</p>
    </subsection>
  </section>

  <section title="Credits">
    [FIXME: insert Free Software yada yada here]
  </section>
</page>