Azi's Turbo Worm

A Free Snake-clone Game for your Mobile Phone

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Copyright (C) Aziraphal 2007
Current version: 1.0.01
Stop wasting my time, take me straight to downloads!

Android version now available !

Get it straight from the Market!
Latest version: 1.0.01
The main menu froze on devices with high resolution; fixed. Many thanks to the good people at ipmart-forum.com for discovering that.

Introduction
The classic Snake game has been with us since the days of Pacman, Space Invaders and Fortran (yuck). The rules were so simple back then. Just direct a non-stoppable snake to collect some food pieces, growing in size with each lunch, be careful not to bite through a brick wall or yourself.

So ... why another Snake clone?
BECAUSE! For some reason unknown to author and Man all the Snake-clones for all the platforms today are of the same boring variety: A small and empty field with no obstacles except your tail, with five or six food pieces scattered around. The graphics are usually ultra-colorful and 3d-shaded to the point they give the gargoyles on the Oxford University diabetes, placed upon a baroque tiled background the same color as the reptile itself so the game is more of an eye test than a challenge to your God-given killer reflexes.

And the author said, ENOUGH OF THAT! and interrupted his composing and parenting career long enough to bring you a Cellphone-residing Snake clone that is the exact opposite of all said monstrosities.

Features!
  • Free-scrolling field with sizes up to 120 x 120 squares
  • Gazillion of obstacles scattered all around, exerting constant and ever-growing demands upon your concentration and reflexes
  • No background at all! Concentrate on important stuff, like eating 'shrooms and dodging the aforementioned obstacles and your tail.
  • Many levels of increasing difficulty. Do you have what it takes to win them all?
  • Graphics suck. And I say that with pride! (See the "Why another Snake clone" paragraph). No bells, no whistles, created intentionally primitive to bring you the PRIMAL GAME EXPERIENCE AND EXCITEMENT. No nasty camouflaging backgrounds; the reptile and the nearing bricks stand out like ... like green reptiles on black background!
  • Food Compass: An arrow icon - note the status bar on the fancy screenshots - directing you to the food piece nearest to you. Did I mention the playing fields are huge? You need to watch this icon.
  • AUTO-SNAPSHOT. The game can be interrupted and continued at a later time - ANYTIME, ANYWHERE! Switch the phone off before your teacher or girlfriend spots you playing with yourself - you can resume the fun later on; no need to reserve a dark room free from all outside intrusions to beat your high score! The main menu defaults to "Continue" when a valid game snapshot is saved.
  • Scoring system: 25 point per mushroom, bonus points for finishing a level quickly (the faster the merrier). Extra life every 1000 points; I think that's pretty generous. You start with 7.
  • FREE !!!11 Did I mention it costs zilch? Well, cost zilch it does, young Jedi!
The Rules!
  • Find and eat the ten mushrooms on each level. Observe the arrow in status bar that points to the nearest mushroom.
  • Don't bump into anything, including yourself. Except the mushrooms, of course.
  • Finish the levels as soon as possible for bigger bonus.
Simple as can be, huh? You can keep your large armies of elves and orcs, each with special weapons, ammo and magic points to manually select and distribute. Sod that!

Main Menu
  • New Game: Pretty obvious.
  • Continue: Resumes a saved snapshot. The snapshot gets created when you quit a game or shutdown the application - or even the phone itself.
  • Cntrl: Controls. TURN means the classical way of turning (anti)clockwise with left / right keys. DIR means you press UP when you want to go UP and so on; I once preferred that one so I included it.
  • StatBar: Should the status bar (score, lives, food pointer) be at the bottom of the screen or on the right. Pick the one you're more comfortable with.
  • Y-Dir swap: If you own a model or emulator with a numeric keypad where 1,2,3 are at the bottom and there's no arrow keys. Are there such weird models on the market? Who knows. Anyway, this option is here if you need it. 2 would mean down, 8 would mean up in "ON" mode.
  • Zoom: Adjust the zoom level. The smaller the zoom level, the smaller the graphics and the more is visible. Try different settings and decide for yourslf. NOTE: You cannot interrupt a game, choose a more convenient Zoom setting and continue; you're stuck with the initial setting till the bitter end (i.e. a new game). That'd be cheating, we cannot have cheating.
  • Speed: Adjust the game speed in FPS (Frames Per Second). Try different settings and decide for yourslf. NOTE: You cannot interrupt a game, choose a more convenient Speed setting and continue; you're stuck with the initial setting till the bitter end (i.e. a new game). That'd be cheating, we cannot have cheating.


In-game controls
  • Left, right, up, down (arrow keys): choose the snake's direction
  • 2, 4, 6, 8 (numeric keypad keys): Alternative for choosing the snake's direction
  • Fire or 5: Pause game. You can choose to continue or to exit current game using the direction keys. If you exit, you can resume at a later time by choosing Continue in main menu. (starting a new game, however, will delete the current snapshot!)
Future Improvements
These features may be implemented in the near-to-not-so-near future, depending on author's already sparse free time that is not put to composing use.
  • Sound effects
  • Secret levels
  • Improved graphics (but not improved to the point of hindering the gameplay)
  • More levels
Disregard that; the game is fine as it is. :)

Azi's Turbo Worm is Album-Ware.
You can use it for all eternity free of charge, no nag screens, no time limits, no nothing. HOWEVER! If you find your life significantly enriched by Azi's Turbo Worm, consider surfing over to cdbaby.com/cd/Aziraphal and ordering the author's CD. You'll not only own one of the best indie electronic/classical music CD's out there, you'll make the author very happy and eternally grateful.

Plus, it's the most fitting music to play this game to, really!
What to download? I'm confused!!1
  • Nokia works on, well, Nokia phones! You get to play full-screen. If you don't have a Nokia phone, consider buying one ... but let's move on.
  • MIDP2.0 works on most models of today; see the specs of your gadget (no, I can't be bothered to list the current MIDP2 models here, not even Nokia's; JFGI). You get to play full-screen!
  • MIDP1.0 will work on all phones that support Java; Get this if you only have a cheap old non-Nokia toy. Most probably no full-screen.
  • The java (.jar) file is the package with everything you need to rock 'n roll. Most decent phones can load .jar files when you specify direct link. You can also download the .jar file and transfer it to your phone if you have the data cable for it (e.g. my stupid former cellphone, Nokia 2650, had some obscure this-model-only cable that cost an arm and a leg, so I never bought it...)
  • the .jad file is a "descriptor", basically some text info about the .jar (if you know your J2ME you know it, and if you don't you probably don't care, so on with the show..) some phones might require this one instead. The nifty Web emuler also requires the JAD (the link points to the MIDP1.0 version that works OK in it)

    • Turbo Worm for most present-day phones (MIDP2)

    Turbo Worm for NOKIA phones

    Turbo Worm for Older phones (MIDP1)

To Download Directly with your Mobile Phone

Surf your gadget over to mobile.aziraphal.com and hit the correct link. See notes above.

mpowerplayer: Online J2ME emulator!

This baby rocks! Experience the magic of the Worm even without a mobile phone handy. Plus, the resolution might be larger.

Click Here to play Azi's Turbo Worm in mpowerplayer emulator!

Current version: 1.0.01 Change history:
  • 2007/sep/5: 1.0.00: The first release is out.
  • 2007/sep/26: 1.0.01: The main menu froze on devices with high resolution; fixed. Many thanks to the good people at ipmart-forum.com for discovering that.


If you don't have the latest version, your phone most probably supports loading application updates. Try it! Many men have tried. They tried and failed, all of them? They tried and died! (Yes, the Turbo Worm is related to the Sandworm of Arrakis. Now go away.)
EULA or something.
  • No warranty. Azi's Turbo Worm (henceforth referred to as Teh W0rm) is made available by Aziraphal on an "AS IS" basis and with all its faults. It's free, for Moog's sake.
  • In no event will Aziraphal be liable to any party for any damages, claims or costs whatsoever or any consequential, indirect, incidental damages, or any lost profits or lost savings caused by Teh W0rm.
  • No Modification. You may not modify, adapt, translate or create derivative works based upon Teh W0rm. You may not reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise attempt to discover the source code of Teh W0rm.
  • Teh W0rm is provided free of charge but the autor retains copyright. You are allowed, encouraged even, to make Teh W0rm available for download on a mobile phone software resource page, a part of a CD compilation or use it for any non-profit purpose - providing that full author credit is given. You are NOT allowed to sell or to rent Teh W0rm.
  • Have fun with it or my lawyers are coming over to tickle you pink.
Credits.



Aziraphal. The guy who wrote this thing. Note the URL. Better known for his achievements in the world of electronic music.


Flying Dog Fish. Consulting on everything from data structures to level design; extensive testing the likes of which was unheard-of in the history of Quality Assurance. We can safely assume this game wouldn't see the light of day if it wasn't for him. We thank thee! Check out his photo gallery and DOS games. Reached a mind-boggling score of 37035 40409.


Fancy mobile phone image courtesy of Sun J2ME Wireless Toolkit 2.0.01


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