Pests
Kevin Woram
Ever since man cleared his first plot of ground and planted a few seeds, he has fought an endless battle with the enemies of his garden, the dreaded weeds. Now, you can join the agrarian struggle, and you won't even have to get your hands dirty.
Using a joystick plugged into port 2, you can guide Joe the gardener as he races around, spraying weeds where they appear and fumigating his flowers against another deadly enemy, disease. Joe not only has weeds and disease to contend with, but he also must keep track of time. If he spends too much time killing weeds and spraying flowers, the timer will run down and disease will overrun his garden.
If Joe manages to overcome all these obstacles, he will advance to the next level of difficulty where more flowers and nastier weeds await him. When Joe completes a level, the amount of time remaining on the clock is awarded to him in the form of bonus points.
A Two-Minute Flower Show
At the beginning of each game, Joe has two minutes to complete the level, but with each successive level he gets 15 extra seconds to finish his work. There are three kinds of flowers in Joe's garden—yellow daisies, blue daisies, and red roses. They all must be fumigated to complete a level, but Joe doesn't have to kill all the weeds on a level.
All it takes to fumigate a flower is to position Joe's spray gun so that it points to a flower, then press the joystick button. Flowers which have been fumigated turn white. The process is the same for weeds, but Joe's spray is a deadly poison to weeds, bringing instant disintegration.
Joe gets 10 points for fumigating yellow daisies, 20 points for blue daisies, and 40 points for roses. Killed weeds are worth five points.
The Life Cycle Of Weeds
Weeds grow in three stages. They start off as seeds, grow to sprouts, and then become adults. In the adult stage, they multiply rapidly by spreading seeds which grow to adulthood and then repeat the process. If too many weeds are allowed to grow in the garden, the game ends and a TOO MANY WEEDS message appears on the screen.
Likewise, if time runs out, the game will end and a TIME'S UP message will appear.
The highest score will be kept and displayed by the computer between games. Playing "Pests" takes a quick mind and a fast trigger finger, so if you've ever wondered if you have a green thumb, here is your chance to find out.
Notes For VIC, PC, And PCjr
Kevin Martin, Editorial Programmer
In "Pests," you are the gardener and you must protect the flowers from deadly weeds and disease. Protect the flowers from disease by fumigating them with a special spray. When you spray the flowers, you receive points—10 for yellow flowers, 20 for blue, 40 for red—and the flowers turn white. Destroy the weeds which grow in the garden by spraying them with the same sprayer. If you allow too many weeds to grow in the garden or your time runs out, the game ends. If you finish before the time runs out, you receive bonus points for the extra time.
The VIC version of Pests requires an 8K expander and a joystick. To RUN, first type in the program and save it to tape or disk. Then, turn the computer off and back on to reset the BASIC pointers. Next, enter the following POKEs to move screen memory and the top of BASIC:
POKE 43, 1: POKE 44, 32: POKE 8192, 0: NEW
POKE 36869, 240: POKE 36866, 150: POKE 648, 30: PRINT "{CLR}"
The screen should momentarily display a flash of garbage before clearing. You now can load the program and run it as you normally would.
The PC version requires disk BASIC and the Color/Graphics Adapter board. This version will also run on a PCjr with Cartridge BASIC and disk. On the PC, you control your gardener (represented by a smiling face character) with the numeric keypad. On the PCjr, use the arrow keys at the right of the keyboard to control the gardener.