Kitten

A jump&run puzzler written by me and my brother Alexander that we wrote initially 1986 for 8-bit Atari home computers. As an exercise, I ported the game to Java. It was interesting to see how programming evolved since then.

How to start the program

You need a Java Runtime Environment on your computer. The easiest way is to get it from www.java.com. There you can also check if you already have it installed.
Download the program Kitten.
Start it by double-clicking the downloaded file.

A word to the programmers among you

If you want, you can download the source code.

Feel free to use the files in your own projects, as long as you name me and all other contributors to the files you took in use from me.
If you apply changes to my files, please inform me of the result, maybe there are more interested in your improvements.

Other Implementations

There is also a web implementation, and the original game for 8-bit Atari home computers.

And here's the manual:

Kitten

A jump&run—ahem, nearly, because our hero only wants to jump. But exactly that makes it a real puzzler for 1 player. With 20 Levels, and a level editor will follow soon. Many thanks to Andreas Koch, who created another set of 30 levels.

Introduction

Lead the young playful tom cat to his playmate. Collect some flowers on his way, or she will reject him. In his high-spirits tom cat doesn't want to run, but only jump. Springs bring him up. Hurdles and falling deep make him lose a cat's life; same if his playmate rejects him or the time is up. And to make matters worse, the greedy microflicros (small flying crocodiles) are out for prey.

Another tip: You may maneuver the tomcat in situations where you want to give up a cat's life and re-start the level.

The Menu

Game

Actions for the whole game or program.

New...

Exits the current game and starts a new one.

Exit game

Exits the current game and shows the title screen.

Re-start level

Tom cat loses a cat's life and re-starts the level.

Languages

Switches the language for the whole program.

Deutsch (Deutschland)
English (United States)

Quit

Quits the program.

View

Modern graphics on/off: Switches between original and modern graphics.
Event sounds on/off: Turns event-specific sounds on or off.
Background music on/off: Turns the background music on or off.

?

Some information about the program.

Help...: Displays some help about this program.
About Kitten...: Displays information about this program.

Start a new game

When you start a new game, you can select which levels you want to play.

Level-Set: The game leads through those levels
Level: Starting level within the level set

During the game

You can use the following input methods (besides the menu options) during the game.

Keyboard Actions

Action	Key
Turn left	LEFT
Turn right	RIGHT
Huge jump in chosen direction	UP
Small jump in chosen direction	DOWN
Turn left and do huge jump	NUMPAD7
Turn left and do small jump	NUMPAD9
Turn right and do huge jump	NUMPAD1
Turn right and do small jump	NUMPAD3

The screen content

This section describes what you see on the screen while playing.

Above the level

POINTS: The number of points you already achieved through all the levels you played. You get points for collecting flowers and for finishing a level well in time.
Number of cat's lifes: The number of white cats in the upper right corner shows the number of cat's lifes you have left.
FLOWERS: The number of flowers you have still to collect this level to appease your playmate.
TIME: The number of time slices (of roughly 5 seconds) you have left to finish this level.