Despite its cult following among old-school computer game fans, Supaplex is rapidly fading to a memory, even for its most devoted players. While freeware and shareware versions of the game are available online for download, tutorials on “how to play” aren’t as easy to find. Use the tips below to help play your way through this new and unfamiliar territory, Supaplex’s increasingly-complex levels.
The game’s loveable little hero is Murphy, a red pac-man face that eats his way through the game with the required number of infotrons while evading obstacles to reach the exit portal. You move him up, down, left or right by clicking the arrow keys and holding for constant motion. Murphy cuts through the green squares, consumes the required number of bright, multi-colored infotrons, then disappears inside the “E” once he’s finished.
The “base” or green squares fill most of the game. “Hardware” defines the borders and sometimes forms rooms or boxes. Brown hardware can be “blown open” with tiny explosive blue disks that are either pushed or placed against it in order to access trapped infos or access the “E” if necessary. Careful–an explosion of any kind in the game can kill Murphy if he’s too close.
Murphy’s disks come in three “tab” types: orange, yellow, and red. Orange can be moved around and are subject to “gravity”, meaning they can fall on top of Murphy and kill him if he removes the green beneath. Movie can push the disks around and off of hardware and green squares if he needs to, or drop zonks on them and create an explosion.
The classic yellow disks can be pushed through any open space and explode only when the “timer” is pushed, while red ones are eaten by Murphy and expelled later using the “space bar”, when Murphy positions them to explode hardware or zonk piles. But Murphy has to move quick as soon as the disk “appears” to prevent the explosion from killing him.
Throughout the game are “spools” which Murphy sometimes passes through to access different rooms. Some spools let Murphy travel back and forth; others are “one-way” portals (meaning another spool or an explosive is necessary for exit).
Murphy’s foes include Zonks, little grey cannonballs, can “kill” Murphy if they fall on him, while treacherous snik-snaks, tiny pairs of scissors, often pursue Murphy. Special orange-tabbed discs can fall on top of and kill Murphy.
Even helpful parts of the game are sometimes harmful to the hero. Falling infos are fatal, along with clouds of blue star-like “electrons” — they can turn into infotrons if Murphy pushes a zonk on them and “kills” them, or they can explode Murphy by touching him first.
”Bugs” are somtimes lurking within green squares, a visible lightening bolt charges inside that “shock” Murphy and kill him. “Gravity” games cause Murphy to free-fall through cleared spaces and needs a solid surface to travel up or around–such as green spaces, hardware, even zonks, infos, and disks.
Murphy’s foes can also be helpful when it comes to strategy. Zonks can be pushed on top of snik-snaks or electrons to kill them. Push a zonk on an orange-tab disk to make it explode and open hardware or move an obstacle.
Once Murphy escapes (or creatively employs) any obstacles and eats the required number of infotrons, all he needs it to reach the “E” and touch it to escape the game and win. Some games are simple (the first is just an “eat and win” scenario). Others are more complicated, includins mazes formed by hardware or spools, or a roomful of snik-snaks guarding the only infotron needed to win.
There are tips and tricks that came keep even the toughest levels from defeating your willpower to play. Such as the three “skips” traditionally allowed, so if a level is too tough at first, you can move ahead and come back to it.
Snik-snaks, orange disks, and electrons are all useful for opening locked “boxes” or rooms” — drop a zonk or use a second desk to blow them up. Whereas, an info dropped on a cloud of electrons creates more infotrons than using a disk or a zonk. Experience players learn never to be fooled by the multiple exits which appear in a single game — more than one “E” may be available, but all are equally good for escape.
Some potentially deceptive footfalls include Murphy’s friends or foes, so the common-sense tips below can help Murphy navigate sudden roadblocks. Snik-snaks can be “trapped” in a small space if any exits are blocked. Both snik-snaks and electrons sometimes fall into a “trance” or pattern which can be broken by a sudden movement, so be careful if you let Murphy near. Some games require a strip of green or a “ramp” left intact for pushing a disk or a zonk into “drop” position — this includes “gravity” games and regular ones (since gravity always applies to everyone except Murphy and a select few others). “Holes” in the hardware “floor” have a gravity effect for orange disks, zonks, and infos.
These tips, and plenty of time, will make you a Supaplex wizard in no time — so download a copy and start playing to uncover the tricks, secrets (and incredible challenge) of Supaplex.
September 25, 2011
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