The Story of Encaved

Darkness. Your head aches. Where are you? What happened to you? Then you remember the steady beep of a technical device. You start groping for the source of the tone and find a PDA laying near your legs. You grab it and watch its display.

You stare at the screen and can't tell what the numbers stand for. You stand up and move a step to the right and come to know that the small dot on the screen represents your position. You continue walking, but a wall abruptly stops your movement. You are in a giant maze and the PDA screen shows the map of this big dark surrounding!

While examining the electronic device in your hands you find a button and a small stick. Your curiosity and raising panic results in pushing the button instantly. You are still standing in complete darkness, but the screen shows something like a spotlight. It seems to be produced by a radar spot scanning the caves. Moving the small stick while the button is pressed moves the spotlight around the maze on screen. You spot ways and walls on screen and decide to follow the lanes and hope to find an exit somewhere... unfortunately you come to know that the numbers in the top right corner of the screen are counting down and you feel that it can't be any good if this timer reaches zero.

The Introduction Sequence

The cartridge starts up with displaying a plate showing the game logo and copyright note. The plate is fixed to chains which move it up and down.

The game title itself is a mixture between the word "encased" and the noun "cave" and describes the setting of the gameplay.

The Game

The game starts with the screen showing a black maze within border lines. Your position is represented by the small cursor in the left down corner. The number in the top left corner shows the current maze and the number in the top right corner is the countdown timer. The player's score is shown below the maze.

Moving the joystick starts the countdown timer and you player moves through the maze. You can't move further when you run into walls.

Pressing the fire button lightens the spotlight on your screen. You can move the spotlight around with your joystick while you keep the fire button pressed.

A box is hidden somewhere in each maze. Locate it with your spotlight and collect it with your player to gain more time.

Scoring

As soon as you found an exit and moved through it with your player, you receive the remaining time as points. If you know the maze very well already and manage to navigate through it without switching the spotlight on, you score double points.

After having escaped a maze a door closes behind you and you come to know that the next maze is already awaiting your exploration...

The game ends when the timer reaches zero.

General Game Controls

• You play the game using a joystick plugged into the left controller port of your Atari VCS console.
• You move your player with the joystick. The countdown timer starts as soon as you make your first step. You can't move through walls of course.
• Pressing the fire button for the first time switches the spotlight on. You move the spotlight with the joystick while you keep the fire button pressed. You can move the spotlight anywhere to watch the ways and walls of the maze.
• The reset switch aborts the current game and resets the game to the introduction sequence.

Technical Details

The game is written in 6507 assembly and consists of 4 KB (4096 Bytes) of coding, graphics, sound effects and the level data of 23 mazes.

Due to differences between PAL- and NTSC-consoles, the game needed to be adjusted to both TV-standards and exists as two versions: PAL or NTSC.

The development is performed on a Pentium-PC using a normal Text-Pad as editor and DASM V2.12 as compiler. Testing is done using the emulator z26 V1.52 and V1.58.

Winner of the "Silver Joystick" at the 4K MiniGameCompetition 2007. www.minigamecomp.org.uk

Download of the Game

Production of Original Cartridges

The game is released as a limited edition of 75 copies. The limited edition contains these items: PAL- or NTSC-cartridge, plastic box, instruction manual, small bag with stitched game logo, envelope with photo prints of the level maps, serialnumber and signature.

Beneath the limited edition of 75 copies, the unlimited run (cartridge and manual only) will supply as many copies as requested. Please order your copy of the unlimited edition game cartridge (PAL or NTSC) with manual directly from this retailer:

Pictures of the Limited Edition

A complete copy of the limited edition.


All 75 boxes of the limited edition.

Purchase of the Limited Edition

The sale of Encaved is a bit different this time as the game is available from this site (PAL-version) and AtariAge.com (PAL- or NTSC-version). The cartridges are identical, as all of them are manufactured by AtariAge.com.

At AtariAge.com you can order cartridges (NTSC- or PAL-version) with manuals only. You can then order the additional limited edition stuff (box, envelope, bag) from this site here - so regard it as an upgrade from unlimited to limited edition. This upgrade (box, envelope, bag, serialnumber, signature) costs 20 EURO.
Shipping is not included in the games prices and varies from your location and the kind of shipment you want.

Payment is accepted through Paypal, bank-transfer or cash (USD or EUR) in envelope (I recommend using insured envelopes only). Germans should pay by bank-transfer only. In any case the buyer takes the risk of the shipment.

All items have been tested by me personally and I ship them in perfect working condition. Anyway I will not take any responsibility for damages appearing on your consoles or cartridges in usage. I'm not able to replace or refund any of the games.

As all the items are handmade there may be a few of them having spots of appearing not as perfect as others. This makes them even more unique and should be regarded as being something special and not as a bug. I'm not able to replace items in case you don't like them.

The limited edition consists of exactly 75 copies, so there might be more interest than copies available.

Please do only order your personal copy if you accept all the mentioned facts.

How to order

Owners of the Limited Edition