Zoo Mania 

(c64-wiki.com)


Description

The main aim at ZOO Mania is to catch animals for the Zoo. For this the player needs to try to place at least three animnals of the same type in a row (vertically or horizontally). As soon as a group of three or bigger gets together, the animals count as captured and new animals come in from the top. In the first level each three animals from different types need to be caught. The number of animals rises from level to level. Thw wohle thing would be relatively easy, if it wasn't for the time factor. If no combination is found, the lower time bar will shrink. This can grow by doing combinations or by a bonus animal. The bonus animals appear in irregular intervals and flash by turns. As soon as the player clicks on it all animals of this type get caught. 


Design

Smooth scrolling of the coloured sprites, which are animated. Changing and suitable SID music, that top the game off. Highscore saver and trainer mode are built in. Every level has an own intro screen and name. 


Hints
Version info / Debugged version

Developer Hannenz has stopped working at the game in 2008. But he has provided the source code of the game as open source for further development. Hannenz himself admitted one bug, that is an unreliable calculation of "No more moves". Although no more moves were possible, the game didn't show a newly compounded screen in some rare but annoying cases. This bug was allegedly fixed in the debugged "Preview 3" version by The Dreams in January 2009.

Since October 12th 2011 there is the final version (Zoo Mania Final +3) which should be without bugs (incl. correct demo function). In the available .zip there is the original version, a trainer version and the source code. Since October 20th 2011 you can also find this version for the "EasyFlash" cartridge.


Controls

Joystick left, forwards, right and backwards = move cursor square
In all directions and press fire button = swap animal below the cursor with the animal in joystick direction
press fire button = click on bonus animal (flashing) to catch all animals of this type
Run/Stop   or ESC (VICE) gets the game into pause mode
Restore   back to the title screen
S   saves the highscore list in the list view on disk


Game mode

Single player game:
You play against time.

Two player team
You play in pairs againt time. You draw in turns with joy #1 and #2 (the cursor changes the colour and by this shows whose turn it is). All the points go to a shared account.

Two player battle
You play in pairs against each other and against time. Joy #1 & #2, points go to the corresponding player's account.


Points

    Row of 3 = level * 10 (Example level 3 = 30 points)
    Row of 4 = level * 10 * 2 (Example level 2 = 40 points)
    Several rows (by creating the first combination further combinations are created) = base value x 2 

	
	
Tip from hannenz (developer)

First something about the highscores.... hehe, I know 50000 are hard, but after all this is not a bowl of cherries here, the scores are breakable. I once had about 80000 points - that is no joke. Sometimes you just have to be lucky (the right joker at the right time). If you really want to play for points , my tip: in levels 4-7 (approximately) retard the level skip as long as possible and make points (in the first levels this is not really worth the trouble, as the basis score is only 10), in level 5 this is already 50 and for a row of 4 that you remove in the second instance you get 200 points. Of course you need to strive and just play, play, play until you see blindfolded (what an oxymoron...) where the next move is.

(Source: forum64.de - Thread about Zoo Mania) 