THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABASE

JUMPING JACK

PUBLISHER
Imagine

YEAR
1982

DESCRIPTION
Jumping Jack is a platform game.

CONTROLS:
Left  - SYMBOL SHIFT
Right - BREAK SPACE
Jump  - CAPS SHIFT
Pause - Z

INSTRUCTIONS
Using the keys, the idea is to reach the top of the screen. Each
screen consists of 8 floors, and Jack has to jump throught the
(moving) holes in these floors to progress.  Each time he makes
it through a hole, another one appears in one of the floors.  If
Jack falls down one of these holes, he is momentarily stunned,
and loses a life if he falls through the bottom floor.  Things
are made more difficult on later levels with the addition of 
nasties that walk along the floors, and also need avoiding.  The
number of nasties present depends on the level Jack is on.

After each level is completed, the line from a poem, THE BALLAD
OF JUMPING JACK, is revealed.

URL
ftp://ftp.dcc.uchile.cl/pub/OS/sinclair/snapshots/j/jumpjack.zip

CHEAT
POKE 30094,102  - Unlimited Lives

GENERAL FACTS
The ballad of Jumping Jack is as follows:

THE BALLAD OF JUMPING JACK

A daring explorer named Jack
Once found a peculiar track
There were dangers galore
Even holes in the floor
So he kept falling flat on his back

Quite soon he got used to the place
He could jump to escape from the chase
But without careful thought
His leaps came to nought
And he left with a much wider face

Things seemed just as bad as could be
Hostile faces were all Jack could see
He tried to stay calm
And to come to no harm
But more often got squashed like a flea

By now Jack was in a great flap
He felt like a rat in a trap
If only he'd guessed
That he could soon rest
After jumping the very last gap - WELL DONE

NOTE
Simplistic graphics, but an addictive gameplay. Proof that great
graphics don't always make a game.

INLAY INSTRUCTIONS
Jumping Jack knows a rhyme, a four verse limerick. Unfortunately he is
unwilling to recite it unless you help him scale the levels to the top of the
screen. Only by helping him through all twenty screens will you learn the
entire rhyme. For each screen completed he will tell you two lines.

Jack is faced with eight layers initially containing only two moving gaps,
the gap moving leftwards travels upwards whilst the gap moving to the right
travels downwards. Jack must jump through the gaps above him whilst avoiding
falling through the gabs below.

Jack can only move upwards by jumping through the gap above but he can also
move left and right. Should he run off the edge of the screen he will wrap
around to the other edge. Should he fall down a layer he will bang his head
and remain unconscious for a period of time during which he cannot move.
Every time he arrives at the bottom of the screen unconscious he loses a
life. At each successful jump a new gap appears at random - the first three
new gaps descend then the next three ascend - up to a maximum of eight gaps.
On making a successful jump at the top layer the 'next level' sequence is
entered, and the next part of the rhyme is given.

Hazards will begin to appear after the first level - one initially, then two
right up to a maximum of twenty, one for each level completed. They all
ascend and if Jack collides with a hazard he will be knocked unconscious.

SCORING: After each completion of each verse of the poem (a four verse
limerick) a new life is awarded. Scoring is by successful jumps and
progressively more points are awarded at each new level.

PROGRAM CODING by Albert Ball
GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION by Steve Blower

(C) 1983 by Imagine Software.

(Transcribed by Robin Stuart)