The Game

Countdown is a version of the successful TV words and numbers game adapted for the popular home computers. The game includes an in-built dictionary of some 9,000 words and may be played as a one or two player game.

Playing The Game

The game itself consists of nine separate rounds of Number and Word games, starting with the Anagram Game. In the first round, Player 1 selects nine Vowels or Consonants (by pressing the V or C keys at the bottom of the keyboard). Once all nine letters have been chosen, the Players have a thirty second Countdown, during which they attempt to make up the longest word that they can from their selection of nine letters.

When the Countdown has ended, both players are prompted to enter their words on the keyboard, followed by RETURN. Mistakes can be altered with the delete key. The words are checked against the computer's own dictionary. If the computer can not find a particular word, the players are asked if they are sure that the word is valid. Press Y for a valid word, and N if it is incorrect. The player with the longest valid word gets one point for each letter in his word.

At the end of the round, the computer will display the best word that it could obtain.

Rounds 2 and 3 are the same as Round 1, except that Player 2 chooses the letters in Round 2.

When the three Anagram Rounds are over, play continues with the Numbers Round. Here, Player 2 chooses six numbers from four rows. The first row contains four large numbers (all between 25 and 100), and the other rows have small numbers, all less than ten. When choosing how many numbers to take, the player uses the number keys at the top of the keyboard, followed by RETURN. Remember not to choose more than four numbers from the first row, and not more than six numbers altogether. In fact, the computer shows how many numbers are allowed, in brackets after the "How many do you want from row..." prompt at the bottom of the screen.

Once the six numbers have been chosen, they are displayed in six boxes at the top of the screen. You will then be asked to "Press Space Bar to spin Cecil". Cecil will choose a random number, and you will then have thirty seconds to get this number by adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing. You do not have to use all the numbers.

At time up, both players will be prompted to enter the figures that they managed to get, by using the number keys followed by RETURN.

The players will then have to enter their calculations, one operation at a time, until they reach their target number (displayed in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen). Each operation should be entered as follows: "Number operation numbers = result", e.g. "10 + 2 = 12". The computer will only accept calculations in this format, and will not allow invalid calculations - i.e. operations where the result will be minus, greater than 999 or a fraction. If you do not reach your target number, your attempt will be disqualified.

The player whose result is closest to CECIL's target number gets seven points. If neither player can get close, CECIL displays how the calculation should be done, line by line, in exactly the same way that the players would enter their calculations.

After the numbers round, there are three more letters round, with the players again taking turns to choose vowel or consonant. The next round is another numbers round, followed by the Countdown Conundrum.

In this final round, both players have thirty seconds to unravel a nine letter anagram. The first player to spot the word gets 10 points. Player 1 presses the A key to stop the clock, and Player 2 presses the L. If you stop the clock, you must immediately type in what you think the anagram is. If you are wrong, then the other player has the rest of the countdown to try and work it out - so be careful!

At the end of the game, the final scores are displayed, along with the winner's name. Press Y to play again, or N to stop the program.

Remember that you have a time limit when entering your answers, so be quick!

For a one player game, press RETURN when asked for Player 2's name. You must score as many points as you can, and try and beat the computer's best words, and calculations.

To pause the game, press ESCAPE - Press any key to continue. Press ESCAPE twice to restart the game. Press ESCAPE then S to turn the sound on or off. BREAK will end the program.

Loading

Tape: CHAIN"" (RETURN)
Disc: SHIFT-BREAK