Murple - Atari 2600 Game

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• Murple 1.0 (NTSC)
• Murple 1.0 (PAL60)

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Game Manual

You are Merve, a dedicated employee of the Intergalactic Crayon Corporation working diligently at the main factory on planet Merph. Unfortunately for you, all of the robots just went on strike. Now you'll never make employee of the month--unless you can finish coloring all the batches of blank crayons. If you don't, all of the boys and girls in the galaxy won't be able to enjoy them!

Gameplay

Colored droplets will fall from the top of the screen, one at a time. You have to color all of the crayons by steering the droplets into them.

Crayons start off blank.

One drop will half-color them.

A second drop will complete them.

Be careful not to hit any finished crayons with a third droplet, or they will turn murple colored!

Once all of the crayons on screen are fully colored (or murpled), they will be tallied and another row of blank crayons will appear. You win the level when the crayon color quota has been met. The current supply and quota are displayed at the bottom of the screen. The vertical line is the target/goal amount.

At the bottom of the screen are drains that you can steer the droplets into to recycle them if not needed.

If you accidentally color a crayon the wrong color--or turn some murple--don't worry, just keep playing. When the current round of crayons are fully filled in, they will be tallied and a new rows of blank crayons will appear.

If you think that you have colored in all six crayons but play continues, look again. You probably have a half-colored crayon out there still. The crayons are full when they have the two vertical black lines on them (right image), whereas half-filled crayons are half-checkered (left image):

Color Combinations

• Two of any primary color (red, yellow, blue) make themselves.
• red and blue make purple.
• yellow plus blue make green.
• yellow plus red make orange.

Controls

• Move color drops left & right with the Joystick.
• Hold up to fall more slowly.
• Hold down to fall faster.
• Fire is used for pause/un-pause, and for menu selection.

Control Options

The left difficulty switch can be used to change the speed control behavior.

• B -> Holding up always means slow, down always means fast.
• A -> When you flip upside down, the speed controls invert. Meaning up is fast and down is slow.

What is murple? And other Dangers...

Murple is a toxic byproduct of the crayon making process. It forms when too much crayon color ink is mashed together. It collects at the bottom of the factory floor in a large vat.

If you over-color a crayon, or hit the wall with your color droplet, more murple will collect in the vat. If the vat overflows, you lose!

Over Production

Be sure not to make too much of any single color. Your goal is the vertical line. If you make so much that one of the inventory lines touch the murple vat, you lose!

Continue after Losing

If you lose, you can still opt to keep playing from the current level, but your score will be reset to zero.

Continue from a Password

When you lose on levels 2+, you will get a 4-color password that you can use to pick up where you left off. Enter the password on the menu screen by selecting the key icon and using up/down on the joystick to change the current color value, and fire to submit color values.

Reducing Murple Damage

Any time you complete a row of crayons, the amount of murple in the vat will go down. If you complete a perfect row (one of every color) the murple reduction will be even greater.

Aids and Obstacles

As you advance through the levels, you'll encounter:

Double Droplets

These droplets are used twice. Hitting a crayon will turn a double-droplet into a single droplet. Plan ahead for where you're moving next after your current crayon target.

The frequency of double-droplets will vary by level.

Trampolines

Normally, you are always falling down. Hit a trampoline and you will reverse direction. This will help you reach otherwise impossible locations.

Trampolines will cycle to different positions as you hit them. They reset to the start when a new droplet enters from above.

Toggle Switches

You can hit these to toggle parts of the playfield on/off. They can open/close doors to make certain parts of the level accessible.

Color Changing Pellet

Rainbow colored squares. Hit these to change the color of your droplet.

Moving Obstacles

These look like color changing pellets, but are the same color as the playfield, and moving. Avoid hitting these as they'll pop your droplet and you'll take damage.

Coloring a Perfect Round

A perfect round is when you complete coloring all 6 crayons on screen, each with a unique color (red, yellow, blue, orange, purple, green).

There are several benefits to coloring a perfect round--and this should always be your goal when possible:

• You receive an extra 500 points.
• You receive a bonus column of inventory--an extra crayon of every color. But if you are near the goal line, the bonus inventory will not be applied to any colors that would otherwise exceed the goal, thus avoiding any overstock score penalty.
• The game plays an extra tune :)
• An observant reader may ask "but if I get an extra column of inventory, doesn't that mean I have less opportunity to score points?" Great question! The answer is: yes, you don't have to color in as many crayons, but No: the 500 is worth more than a full set of crayons (300), so you still come out ahead.

Difficulty

At the start of the game, players can select from easy, medium, and hard.

The easier difficulties mean slower movement and less damage/murple accumulation for mistakes. Harder difficulties mean faster movement and more damage for mistakes.

Note that the harder the difficulty, the higher the level-clear score bonus--meaning higher possible score.

Scoring

Action	Score Amount
Fully color a Crayon	10
Tally a completed Crayon in the inventory	40
Complete a perfect round (one of each color)	500
Complete a Level on Easy	750
Complete a Level on Medium	1500
Complete a Level on Hard	2500

A perfect score for a level is achieved by filling in crayons perfectly--one of every color, every time. Thus getting the perfect round bonus (+500) each time. Also, you have to not have any excess murple or inventory left over, as they result in reduced points at the end of the level. Completing a round of crayons will award a small murple/damage reduction. Completing a perfect round will award an even bigger reduction.

Maximum Score Per Difficulty

Difficulty	Max Possible Score
Easy	63,000
Medium	78,000
Hard	98,000

Score Penalties

When you complete a level, you will receive a level bonus (750 to 2500 depending on difficulty). But you will also lose points for any extra murple in the vat (up to ~-200 if the vat is really full), and for any "overstock" manufactured crayons. Meaning, any finished crayon colors that pass the goal line will result in a score penalty. The penalty is -250 points per column of overstock.

• TIP: it is better to overstock crayons of different colors than by a bunch of the same color. The penalty is per column, so for example, you receive a bigger penalty for having 3 extra green crayons past the goal line than having 5 extra crayons, each of a different color. So when you are trying to finish the last round of crayons to beat a level, and you have an uneven amount of inventory, try and "spread out" which colors are over the line versus a single line growing too long.

Tips & Tricks

• Hold Up while moving to slow down--in harder difficulties and later levels, this is required to make it through tight turns!
• If you don't have a use for the current color, move the droplet to one of the bottom exits to recycle it.
• It's better to recycle some colors to wait for the right one and achieve a perfect round (one crayon of every color).
• You can complete levels faster--and score more points--by coloring in a perfect round--you get an extra crayon of every color and a score bonus for each perfect round.
• If the murple vat is almost full and you are about to lose, try to clear the current round of crayons as clearing a round will result in a damage reduction/vat level lowering.
• Don't be too lopsided in the color of crayons! If the inventory line at the bottom grows too far, it will tip over the murple vat and you'll lose!
• If you have a double-droplet, plan ahead! If you are aiming for a certain crayon, is there a path for the remaining drop to still be used without hitting the wall? Look for trampolines and toggle-switches to get you out of trouble.
• If your color amounts collected so far are uneven (color lines are different lengths at the bottom), you should still try and color in perfect rounds (one crayon of every color). This is for two reasons: First, you will receive an extra crayon of every color. Second: when awarding extra crayons, you won't receive any that would make you exceed the goal line. So the best approach is to aim for perfect rounds to double up on supply that will "even out" at the end if you previously had uneven amounts colored in.

Screenshots

Credits

Game and concept by Justin Cuga, 2025.

Written in Batari Basic (with some asm) using the DPC+ kernel.