Provided by: alex4_1.1-7_amd64 
NAME
alex4 - Alex the Allegator 4, a retro platform game
SYNOPSIS
alex4 [gamefile]
DESCRIPTION
Guide Alex the Allegator through the jungle in order to save his girlfriend Lola from evil humans who
want to make a pair of shoes out of her.
Alex the Allegator 4 is a platform game in the style of old Gameboy games. You can play the game with a
keyboard or a joystick. On the keyboard the following keys are used:
Arrow keys Movement
Alt Jump
Control Shoot (only when you've found eggs to fire!)
When you're on the menu screen, you can choose the window size with the following keys:
1 160x120 window
2 320x240 window
3 640x480 window
4 full-screen
CUSTOM MAPS
The Alex the Allegator homepage links to many user-contributed maps. Each set should contain several
".map" files and a text file describing the collection. To play the maps, simply start alex4 with the
name of the text file as argument.
If you want to create your own maps, you can use the built-in map editor (described below), but you'll
need to create the description file yourself. This is a plain text file that needs to list the file
names of your maps between "#start#" and "#end#" markers (these markers are not optional). You can
include a description of the maps outside these markers. For example, for a collection of three maps:
In this game, Alex must rescue the Yellow Tetris Piece from the pirates of Ching Shih.
#start#
journey.map
sea-of-despair.map
endgame.map
#end#
USING THE MAP EDITOR
Use the map editor to create your own maps. You can enter the map editor from the menu screen or by
pressing F1 while playing a custom map. The basic editor commands are:
Shift+L load an existing map
Shift+S save the map
Insert+Left/Right widen the map
Delete+Left/Right shorten the map
F1 change the map's properties, e.g. its name.
Maps are composed of tiles. Tiles can contain scenery, enemies, items and other game objects. The mouse
cursor shows the currently selected tile. To draw tiles, use the left mouse button. You can cycle
through the available tiles by using the z and x keys, choose a tile from a palette using the p key, or
pick a tile from the screen using the right mouse button.
Tiles can be given special behavior using the following commands:
q instant death
w map exit
e roll activator
r breakable block
t submerged in water
y on the water surface
a Alex' start location (facing left)
Shift+A Alex' start location (facing right)
Use the following command to place items and enemies:
1 extra life
2 star bonus
3 cherry bonus
4 egg
5 extra heart
Shift+Q grunt
Shift+W spear grunt
Shift+E crusher
Shift+R spike fish
Shift+T jellyfish
Shift+Y cannon
Shift+U spike truck boss
Shift+I ground pounder boss
SEE ALSO
The Alex the Allegator series homepage ⟨http://allegator.sourceforge.net/⟩
AUTHOR
Alex the Allegator 4 was written by Johan Peitz, Free Lunch Design.
This manual page was written by Peter De Wachter <pdewacht@gmail.com>, for the Debian project (but may be
used by others).
2008-02-07 alex4(6)