Program and manual contents copyright 1983 Eric Freeman
Copyright Notice: On receipt of this computer program and associated
documentation (the software), the author grants you a nonexclusive
license to execute the enclosed software. This software is protected
by copyright. You are prohibited from reproducing, translating, or
distributing this software in any unauthorized manner.
Introduction
OVERVIEW
If you've ever thought about the tiny particles of the subatomic
world, you must have wondered about those protons and photons, so
small that no one has ever seen them. Here's a game that takes you
to that subatomic world -- in search of the elusive Weakons. Your
objective is to capture as many Weakons as you can and deliver them
to the generator at the center of the screen.
But watch out! Your craft shrinks to subatomic size, so you have to
use your joystick to dodge the particles zooming from right to left
acoss the screen. You crash if a meson or gamma photon or ionizing
radiation cloud hits you. If you don't blast the mesons away, they
come back to get you. You seek out the Weakons that appear every 20
seconds, and guide them carefully to the generator. When you dock in
the center barrel, the energy dial registers your total.
Capturing several Weakons causes the particle accelerator at the
bottom of the screen to speed up, making your task even more
hazardous. But your score mounts and eventually you're awarded more
lives for your skill. There are ten difficulty levels that you can
choose as you grow more expert at the game. Challenge a friend to
try the two-player version, too.
REQUIRED ACCESSORIES
One ATARI Joystick per player
16K RAM
ATARI 810 or 1050 Disk Drive
CONTACTING THE AUTHOR
Users wishing to contact the author may write to him at:
P.O. Box 10005
Balmoral
Auckland
New Zealand
Getting Started
LOADING WEAKON INTO COMPUTER MEMORY
1. Remove any program cartridge from the cartridge slot of your
computer.
2. Plug your joystick controllers into the first controller jack of
your computer console. (To play the two-player version, plug two
joysticks into the first two controller jacks.)
3. a. Have your computer turned off.
b. Turn on your TV set.
c. When the busy light goes out, open the disk drive door and
insert the WEAKON diskette with the label in the lower right hand
corner nearest to you. Close the door. (Use disk drive one if you
have more than one drive.)
d. Turn on your computer and your TV set. The program will load
into computer memory and start automatically.
THE FIRST DISPLAY SCREEN
When the program has loaded into computer memory, the following
screen displays:
WEAKON
1983
(C) ERIC FREEMAN
SECOND DISPLAY SCREEN
The following soon appears to replace the first display screen:
1 PLAYER GAME
PRESS SELECT
FOR 2 PLAYERS
PRESS OPTION TO
CHANGE LEVEL 01
PRESS START
TO BEGIN GAME
SELECTING GAME OPTIONS
Difficulty
The title screen shows difficulty level one. Press the OPTION key to
raise the level as far as 10. You may hold the OPTION key down
continuously to change levels.
During game play press the OPTION key to return to the first screen.
Then press the OPTION key again to advance levels.
Number of Players
You may play WEAKON with one or two players. The game is set at
first for a one player game, but you can switch it back and forth by
pressing the SELECT key.
Playing WEAKON
After you've made your choices, press the START key to begin the
game. The shrinkage process begins as your craft appears in the
middle of the screen. The accelerator is at the bottom and the
proton/antiproton target is on the right. Almost immediately
particles shed off the target and streak from right to left toward
you. Destroy them by pressing the joystick button when they're in
line with the center of your craft.
The gamma photons are shaped like horizontal bars with jagged edges.
They're attracted to the electromagnetic field around you. They're
hard to hit, and they destroy you if they hit you first. If you
dodge them successfully, they just disappear off the left side of the
screen.
The ionizing radiation isn't as difficult to destroy. It's a larger
target with an indistinct shape. But it usually has some angular
deviation, so you should maneuver quickly in front before you fire.
Less frequently a large meson darts about the screen. It's a large
figure with some particles surrounding it. Destroy the mesons!
They're attracted to your craft, but unlike the photons, they don't
disappear off the left side of your screen. They might come back
after you just when you think you're safe.
The Weakon appears about every 20 seconds. If you can catch it with
the "cup" at the top of your craft, the pulse generator appears in
the middle of the screen. Maneuver towards the left side of the
generator and place the Weakon in the center barrel. When you've
docked accurately, the energy dial appears and you're disconnected
from the Weakon. Each unit of energy is worth 10 points.
After a short delay the shrinkage begins again, and you're back in
the energy vortex.
LEVEL ADVANCING
Catching two Weakons increases the accelerator energy. This means
your playing level goes up and things happen faster. There are ten
levels in all but if you survive the tenth (it's highly unlikely!)
the speed of play remains at that level.
SCORE PANEL
In the one-player game the score panel at the top of the screen
appears as follows:
YOUR SCORE 000000
In the two-player game the score panel looks like this:
PLAYER ONE 000000 PLAYER TWO 000000
SCORING
You score points for destroying advancing particles and catching
Weakons, as follows:
POINTS TABLE
GAMMA PHOTON ... 20 POINTS
IONIZING RADIATION ... 40 POINTS
MESONS ... 60 POINTS
WEAKONS FROM 650 TO 1280 POINTS
MISSILE FIRING
You can fire the weapons on your craft continuously by holding down
the joystick button. But the key to winning the game is dodging
projectiles fired out of the target proton/antiproton.
LIVES REMAINING
The number of lives remaining is displayed by the figures at the
bottom center of the play field. This tally doesn't include the
craft you're using. For example, at the beginning of play when you
have four craft, you see three figures on the display, besides your
present player.
EXTRA MAN
An extra craft is allotted when you gain 10000 points. This bonus is
displayed in the "lives remaining" position.
HIGH SCORE DISPLAY
The computer keeps the highest score earned since you loaded the
program. This is displayed when all players have lost all their
craft in any particular game. You may move either joystick in any
direction to restart the game when the high score is displayed.
LEVEL DISPLAY
The current skill level is displayed in the bottom right corner of
the playing screen. There are ten levels increasing in difficulty
from 1 to 10.
Interrupting the Game
PAUSING
Press the space bar on your keyboard to freeze the display and stop
play temporarily. Press the space bar again to resume play.
RESTARTING A GAME
Press the START key at any time to restart your current game.
Hints
Use continual vertical motion to avoid the photons, which aim
directly for you if you stay still.
The photons are difficult to hit, but tapping the joystick often
works better for lining them up than more aggressive movement.
Get as many points as you can in the lower screens before catching
any WEAKONS.
You must aim at the center of the ionizing radiation and the mesons
to destroy them.
Stay towards the left side of the screen if possible. This allows
more reaction time.
Author's Footnote
This game was inspired by the search for the elusive Weakons, massive
elementary particles thought to be the carriers of the weak nuclear
force. The group of three particles more properly known as
intermediate vector bosons are currently being sought in the products
of high energy particle collisions, most notably in the end result of
colliding a proton beam with a counter rotating antiproton beam. The
three varieties proposed by the vague electroweak theory are the
charge W+ and W- and the neutral Zo. The former two may have been
observed recently at the European Organization for Nuclear Research
(CERN) facilities in Geneva. After observing a billion high energy
events, two separate groups working with different detection
apparatus decided five candidates' collisions showed unambiguous
evidence for the existence of the W particle.
The Z particle, thought to be ten times as rare as the W bosons,
won't be seriously looked for until the 2000 billion electron volt
particle accelerator at Fermilab is completed in 1985. The current
energies achieved at CERN approach 540 billion electron volts (540
GeV).
By comparison the mass of the W Weakon has been tentatively
determined as 79.5 GeV with the Zo weighing in at 90 GeV. The
particle's large mass is a consequence of the manner in which the
weak nuclear force acts over very small distances. The massless
photon, carrier of the electromagnetic force, is thought to have an
infinite range so conversely it was proposed in 1935 by Japanese
physicist Hideki Yukawa that the carriers of the weak and strong
nuclear forces must have mass. Th moderatley heavy pi meson was
found to be the carrier of the strong force in 1947. This indicated
that the shorter acting weak force must use a heavier carrier, but no
machine existed at the time with sufficient energy to search for it.
In the late 1960s and 70s a theory unifying the electromagnetic and
weak nuclear forces was developed independently by a number of
physicists and the search for Weakons was on in earnest again. By
finding this particle the electroweak theory will be one more link in
the chain towards the grand unification of all nature's forces.
REFERENCE AND INSPIRATION:
David B. Cline, Carlo Rubbia, and Simon van der Meer, "The Search for
Intermediate Vector Bosons," Scientific American, March 1982.
Haim Harari, "The Structure of Quarks and Leptons," Scientific
American, April 1983.
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