Willy the Worm
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| Designer(s) | Alan Farmer |
|---|---|
| Platform(s) | MS-DOS |
| Release date(s) | June 1985 |
| Genre(s) | Platform |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Willy the Worm is a single-player platform game created by programmer Alan Farmer of Charlottesville, Virginia and released for MS-DOS in June 1985. It was followed by a sequel, Willy the Worm Part II: The Big Trip Home.
Farmer encouraged the free distribution of his games and solicited voluntary $10 donations to help support his development efforts. Other projects by Farmer include Life in the Fast Lane (1989), based on Conway's Game of Life, and Rocket Rangers (1990), a Spacewar! clone.
Gameplay
The game puts the player in control of a small invertebrate named Willy who must make his way along platforms and past various hazards in order to ring a bell that hangs at the end of each of the game's eight levels. Lethal hazards consist of cannonballs, which roll along the levels' platforms and ladders, and sharp tacks.
Willy has a limited amount of time to make his way through each level, as indicated by a bonus counter at the bottom of the screen which counts down from 1000 in increments of 10; when the counter reaches zero, one life is lost and the level restarts. Points remaining at the end of the level are added to the player's score. The player also earns points by jumping cannonballs (20 points) or collecting presents (100 points).
The four arrow keys control movement left and right along platforms or up and down ladders, and the space bar makes Willy jump. Other keys make Willy stop in place. The game uses PC speaker beeps for sound effects and ASCII characters as graphics and can run in either monochrome or color (blue and white) display modes.
The Willy the Worm Screen Editor, included with the game, allows players to design their own levels.
Sequel
Farmer produced a sequel to the original game entitled Willy the Worm Part II: The Big Trip Home. The sequel has the same interface and controls as the original, but offers 12 new levels with a different set of items to collect — gifts (50 points), candy (100 points), money (200 points) and rings (400 points). Levels no longer end with Willy ringing a bell, but are instead linked together such that moving off the side of the screen moves Willy to the next level.
Part II features four-color graphics (black, red, yellow and green), music and sound effects, and the ability to save high scores to disk.
References
- Instructions for Willy the Worm, Alan Farmer, June 1985