HEAD OVER HEELS

Index

Licence | System Requirements
The Menu System | Trouble Shooting
History Of The Blacktooth Empire | Swop Key
Life Transfer | Online High Scores
Hints and Tips | Credits

Licence

This game is licensed as freeware. This means you can give copies of it to your friends or put it on web sites in its original, unaltered state - as it was downloaded from the Retrospec website. You are not allowed to charge any kind of money for downloading or for any media you put in on. This includes placing it on pages with paid banners (although compulsory banners from free ISPs is okay) or adverts. If you want to distribute it on any freeware/shareware CDs then you must first get the permission of the two main authors (Tomaz Kac and Graham Goring) and supply each of them with a copy of the CD that it is featured on. Obviously, the CDs must not be sold to gain profit, though.

System Requirements

The game requires a PC with at least 128Mb of RAM (256Mb is recommended) and one of the Microsoft Windows operating systems (any will do, but newer ones require more memory !) with atleast Direct-X 3 installed. It should run fine on a Pentium 233Mhz or better processor. However the menu system might be less than responsive on lower-end computers (although the game will hopefully run fine on systems slower than 233Mhz with a few tweaks to the options).

The Menu System

Use Cursor keys UP and DOWN with ENTER to navigate the menus. Alternatively you can use any controls that you configure yourself. The ESCAPE key will exit the current menu.

Main Menu

- Play The Game

This will present you with a new menu in which you can start a NEW GAME from scratch or load a previusly saved OLD GAME and continue where you left off.

- Change Controls

This will allow you to change all controls in the game. Any key can be used for any control. You can also use any DirectX compliant Joypads or Joysticks that are connected to your system.

- Adjust The Sound

Allows you to choose the sound mode and sound/music volume in the game.

- Game Options

Will present a new menu with additional game options.

Play The Game

With NEW GAME option you will start from scratch. However if you have previously saved your game then you can choose it from the second menu accessed by the OLD GAME option. Just select the game you want to continue playing and press Action button.

Change Controls

It is important to utilise this function properly.

- Move cursor to highlight the required control on which the keys are to be changed.

- Press ENTER or Action Button (clears the current key).

- Press the key/pad button/joystick direction required for control (it will be printed on the current line as it is pressed).

- When all keys are selected go to BACK selection to go to Main Menu.

Default Keys (all keys are redefinable) :

Up/Down/Left/Right: | Move through the room
--- | ---
Space: | Jump/Teleport
Enter: | Pickup/Drop Objects
M: | Jump & Pickup/Drop simultaneously
LEFT CTRL: | Fire Doughnut
RGHT CTRL: | Swap Head/Heels or Join Them Together
ESC: | Quit

Adjust The Sound

There are 3 distinct sound levels within the game. These are different sound tracks as opposed to volumes. One may select from:

- NASTY - All jingles and game sounds

- SO-SO - Useful game sounds

- LATE - Very few sounds (almost none)

Also you can set the separate volume levels for Background Music and Sound effects in the game!

Game Options

There are several things you can change here. Mainly it depends on how good you already are at playing the game, how good your computer is and if you want to play the game with keyboard or joypad.

- Shadows

The game engine features shadow casting onto floor and objects (this is the first engine to do so). With this option you can select how accurate you want Shadow casting to be :

- COMPLEX - Shadows on objects and realistic shadows on Floors

- MEDIUM - Shadows on objects and additive shadows on Floors

- SIMPLE - Only additive shadows on Floors

If your computer is fast enough (over 233Mhz) then we recommend you use the COMPLEX mode, since it looks the best !

- Game Speed

The overall speed of the game. ORIGINAL is the same speed as it was all those years ago on Spectrum. If you are just starting to play the game you could select SLOW, if you are already very experienced in it then FAST mode is recommended.

- Graphics Mode

Here you can select if you want to play the game in FULL SCREEN or WINDOWED mode. Normally FULL SCREEN is faster, but on modern systems it doesn't really matter.

- Triple Buffering

If your graphics card is able to use this option (normally in WINDOWED mode this option is not available on any card) then you should select it - it will enable very smooth scrolling for the big rooms. If this is not enabled then a tearing effect might be present when scrolling.

- Control Sensitivity

This selects how diagonal controls are interpreted. It is imperative for full enjoyment that you set this option correctly. If you select HIGH sensitivity then you can walk in one direction and quickly change it by 90 degress while holding the same key. It is recommended that you select HIGH sensitivity if you are playing with Keyboard! If you are playing with a Joypad/Joystick it is recomended to select the LOW sensitivity mode so that you don't accidentaly go into the wrong direction!

In-Game Menu

While playing the game you can press the QUIT key and you will be presented with another menu.

- Resume Game

Will exit the menu and cancel the QUIT request

- Quit Game

Will go back to the main menu and abort the current game.

- Save Game

If you have any Save Games left (ie, you picked up a Reincarnation Fish) then you will also be presented with this menu.
Here you can select any of the free slots (or you can overwrite an already filled slot), name your game and save it. You can also go back to the previous menu. You have 6 slots available to fill.

Trouble-Shooting

The game will initially start in WINDOWED DIRECT-X Mode. This mode should be availble on most (if not all) modern graphics cards. However if you are unable to start the game for some reason then you should try and change the following things before you do anything else:

- Try changing colour depth of your desktop mode to either 15 bit (High Colour), 16 bit (High Colour), 24 bit (True Colour) or 32 bit (True Colour). Also try changing the resolution. One of these should work with Head Over Heels.

- If the colour mode/resolution did not work then you should change the graphics mode of HoH game with the command line switches. You can do this by changing its shortcut (go to Start Menu -> Programs -> Head Over Heels and right click on the Head Over Heels icon (the one you use to start the game with) and select Properties. In this window you can add command line switches at the END of the Target: text box. Just edit this text box and add the switches (with spaces in front) to it. You should try the "-r1" or "-r3" switch at first. If that fails try the "-r4" switch - which will turn on the GDI Windowed mode - this is the slowest solution but it should work on ALL graphics cards, even those which you made yourself out of bits of tin foil and drawing pins.

Command Line Switches:

-rX = FORCE Resolution Mode to X , where X is :

0: Windowed DIRECTX Mode
1: Full Screen AUTODETECT Mode
2: Windowed AUTODETECT Mode
3: Full Screen DIRECTX Mode
4: Windowed GDI Mode

-bgr = Use BGR Graphics mode instead of RGB (if you get BLUE or different coloured graphics then use this option - normally when using GDI !!!)
If you want the game to use GDI mode then you MUST set the -r4 switch ...

History Of The Blacktooth Empire

Far, far away from our star Sol lies the Blacktooth empire, an evil empire, four worlds enslaved by the planet Blacktooth. All of the slave worlds bubble with unrest, but due to the oppressive nature of their rulers they never reach boiling point, they all lack a leader to draw the masses of population together.
Blacktooth itself is not any better, a world rigidly controlled by its dynastic leaders for so long that the populace do not even think about revolution. The peoples of the neighbouring stars are getting very worried about signs of military expansion from Blacktooth and have sent a spy from the planet Freedom to see if he can push the slave planets into full rebellion by finding the crowns lost when Blacktooth took over. The creatures of Freedom are very strange in that they are formed from a pair of symbolic animals that have adapted to operate either independantly or, to their mutual advantage, join together as one - Head saddled on Heels, and indeed these ARE their names and both are highly trained spies.

The Game

Head and Heels have been captured, separated and imprisoned in the castle headquaters of Blacktooth. Their cells contain 'keep fit' equipment, including a wall ladder that Head really must learn to climb. Your job is to get them both out of the castle and into the market place so they can join up again. From there, the journey leads to Moonbase Headquaters, where you will have to decide either to try to escape back to Freedom or to be a true hero and teleport to one of the slave planets to search for its lost crown! To overthrow the dictatorship on any of the slave planets would be a major blow to Blacktooth and you could return to Freedom in glory. Of course Blacktooth would probably enslave them again eventually but it would slow down any expansion plans for now. The populace of Blacktooth are so heavily oppressed that they would have to see all four of the slave planets revolt before the Blacktooth crown could cause an uprising. This of course would be the ultimate accolade, and unfortunately, almost certain suicide.

Egyptus

Once, a long time ago, a craft from Blacktooth got a bit lost while doing a hyperspace jump and landed on an unknown planet. Here the crew found a primative animal forming a sort of civilisation that appeared to revolve around wrapping corpses in lots of bandages and putting them into huge stone pyramids. When they returned to Blacktooth their emperor liked the sound of it so much that he rebuilt the capital city of one of the slave planets to resemble the story.

Penitentiary - The empire's prison planet

Millions are imprisoned here. A harsh planet, very mountainous, much climbing, skill required. The worst place is The Pit, try not to fall into it!

Safari

A densely vegitated planet, mainly used for hunting. The natives live in wooden forts in the junge, beware traps!

Book World

The emperor is very keen on cowboy books, and has devoted an entire world to a western library. Only the emperor's minions are permitted to read them. Information is rigotously suppressed in the empire.

Blacktooth

This planet has a large moon with three lunar space stations on it, the larger of these, Moon station HQ, is the main teleport centre for the empire, with a direction teleport to all the slave planets. Sometime after the Egyptus episode, the latest Emperor sent out a craft to find that same strange planet, and after much exploration it was finally located and the craft landed. However the crew found the people had changed: instead of pyramids they used castles and houses, instead of wrapping corpses up in cloth, they wrapped living men in metal and then tried to turn them into corpses with sharp metal sticks. The Emperor, not to be outdone by his ancestor, built a huge resplendant stately home on Blacktooth and used it as his headquaters. This home is surrounded by a small market, and then a range of impassable mountains. The only way to leave is via teleport to one of the three lunar space stations.

Head (Headus Mouthion) |

This creature is a symbiotic partner to Heels and will normally be found sitting on top of one. Head is descended from a breed of flying reptile and still has rudimentary wings that allow Head up to twice his own height and to guide himself though the air.

Heels (Footus Underium) |

During Heels's evolution the arms have totally disappeared while the legs have become very powerful. Heels can jump his own height and can also run very fast.

Reincarnation Fish |

The strangest animal in the known universe! This fish likes to be eaten! There have been cases of it jumping onto plates! But there is more: when you eat one, its prodigious memory remembers everything about you. Its memory is so good that if you die at some later date, you will be reincarnated at the very place you ate the fish, and you will even have the taste still in your mouth! How a fish can remember anything when its been eaten has never been successfully explained. You must be very careful to check that the fish is alive and wriggling as dead fish decompose very quickly and it rapidly turns so poisonous that a single lick can kill.
WARNING: Even living reincarnation fish taste horrible!
Head and Heels can share the fish they pick up. They can store them for indefinite periods of time for them to be used when you are in a real jam! Check the SAVE GAME menu to see how many Fish you have left to be used.

Cuddly Stuffed White Rabbits |

The cute toy bunnies magically enhance your powers. The status display at the bottom of the screen will keep you informed as to which powers are temporarily enhanced. If Head and Heels are connected when they pick up a Life or Iron pill they will both get the enhanced power. There are four types:

- Two extra lives

- Iron Pills (to make you invulnerable)

- Jump higher bunny. This only works on Heels

- Go faster bunny. This only works on slow moving Head.

If Heels pick up a go faster bunny or Head picks up a jump bunny the bunnies power is wasted!
The bunnies are coloured differently... you must learn which bunny gives which extra attributes !

Hooter |

The hooter may be used by Head to fire doughnuts at attacking mosters. This will freeze them in place as they lick the doughnuts off their faces. The hooter may only be used by Head and requires a tray of doughnuts to be of any use.

Doughnuts |

Tray of six doughnuts are few and far between so don't waste shots. Only Head may pick up doughnuts. The number of remaining doughnuts will be displayed above the doughnut icon at the bottom left of the screen.

Bag |

The bag may be used to carry small objects around a room. It is essential for Heels to find and get the bag as it is impossible to get far without it. The object in the bag will be displayed immediately above the bag's icon at the bottom right of the screen. To pick up an object just stand on top of it and press the CARRY key. It is not possible to drop an object in a doorway.

Crowns |

Find a crown and start a revolution. At the beginning of each game a screen showing all five crowns will be displayed. As each crown is collected this screen will be shown again with the appropriate crowns in bright colour.

Teleports |

Standing on a teleport will activate its machanism, this will sound a warning siren. Pressing the jump key will cause you to teleport. Not all teleports are two way, some are linked in a chain.

Springs |

Jumping from a spring will give extra height to your jump.

Switches |

Simply push the switch to switch things off and on! WARNING: Switching a deadly monster off will stop him moving but he will still be deadly to touch.

Conveyor Belts |

The rollers on the conveyor simply push you along it. If you wish to go the opposite direction you have to jump along (if you are Head). They will just make Heels go slower!

Hush Puppies |

These are a very strange type of beast, they are increadibly sleepy, in fact they never wake up and it is quite normal for them to sleep for their entire lives. They are often used as tables and even used as building bricks. They are a native of Freedom and for many thousands of years Head and his ancestors have been mistaking them for Heels and causing so much trouble to the poor old hush puppies they they evolved a defence mechanism, they somehow learned to teleport themselves away. Nobody knows where they go but the instant they see any of Head's race they disappear and won't return until thay are sure the coast is clear.

The Emperor's Guardian

The guardian blocks the door to the throne room in Blacktooth castle, he is very dangerous and he doesn't like doughnuts. Only a true hero may pass the guardian.

Swop Key

If Head is sitting on Heels the swop key will, on each push, give you control of:

(1) Heels. (2) Head & Heels. (3) Head. (4) Head & Heels.

If Head is not on Heels the swop key will, on each push, give you control of:

(1) Head. (2) Heels.

At all times the character(s) whose icon is lit is under player control.
When Head and Heels are joined together all their abilities are combined.

Life Transfer

When one of the creatures looses all lives and the other has still plenty an autmatic life transfer will be done. If they are separated when the tragic event happens then 2 lives will be transferred from the other creature, otherwise (if they are joined) only 1 life will be transferred !

Online High Scores

When you run out of lives or complete the game the computer will show you "Retrospec High Score Code". You can use this code to enter your score into an online High Score Table on the retrospec web server. If you press 'S' when the code is shown then you can directly upload this code to the server without having to open a browser. Just enter your name and your score will be added to the online database. After that your position in the online High Scores Table will be shown. However if you are not connected to the net then you can just write this code down on paper and go to http://retrospec.sgn.net/games/hoh/ and click on the "HIGH SCORES" link on the left side. follow the instructions there to enter the high score into online database ! If you want to just copy/paste the code to the browser then you can do that since when the code is displayed on the screen it is also AUTOMATICALLY copied to the clipboard. The last code that was shown is also stored in the file HighScoreCode.txt which is put in the same directory to which you installed the game.

Hints and Tips

- Beginners should aim to escape from Blacktooth and get back to Freedom initially. Only the very skilled can hope to liberate a planet or two.

- When you first get Head and Heels in the same location, practice placing Head on top of Heels and joining them together accurately with the swop key.
  Both of their icons will light up when they are successfully joined.

- Remember Head and Heels are a team. Just because both are in the same room does not mean you have to join them together, and in fact some problems may only be solved by separating Head and Heels.

- Make sure Head learns to climb ladders, this is an essential skill.

- Both Heels's bag and Head's hooter must be collected at the initial stages for there to be any chance of completing the game.

- Find a safe spot and get used to how far Head and Heels may move over the edge of a brick before they fall, this will enable you to make the longest jumps.

- Learn the difference in distance and control betwen Head's jumps and Heels's jumps.

- Make a map.

- Do not waste doughnuts, they are not easy to find.

- Display screens such as the Five planets or the Final score may be aborted by pressing any key.

- Do not get confused, only Heels may carry anything and only Head may fire.

- To discover if there is a room above, pile objects high as possible and jump from the top. If there is a spring in the room, put it on the top for extra jumping height.

- If you can't understand a room, try exiting and entering again, watching carefully for any movement in the room as you enter.

Credits

Original game written by Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond.

This game is produced by RETROSPEC group. Check out our homepage at :

http://retrospec.sgn.net/

The remake was done by mainly these two people in their spare time :

Tomaz Kac - TomCat@sgn.net

- All Programing (with the aid of Allegro programing library)

- New Room Design

Graham Goring - GrahamG@Zedtwo.com

- All Graphics (pixelated by hand)

Additional work for this remake was done by :

Dorian Black - Mezkal@Mezkal.com

- Both Musical Scores and main part of Sound Effects

Peter Jovanovic - Pierre@datagate.co.uk

- Title Picture and Logo

- Web Site Design

- PDF Booklet and HTML design

Ignacio Perez Gil - ZMEIPG@sevillana.grupoendesa.com

- Additional Sound Effects

The game would not be so good without a plethora of beta testers :

- Metka Jostl

- James R Curry

- Kakarot

- Milos Babovic

- Russell Hoy

- Sir Dave-O

Also big thanks go out to all members of RETROSPEC. Check the messages in the game for other important notes and additional thanx.
For more information and updates, etc. visit our official homepage at :
http://retrospec.sgn.net/games/hoh/about.html