Sneekie in print, 1988

Sneekie, a snake in your PC

Games for PCs in BASIC are fairly rare, at least the good games. A PC simply is not very suited to all kinds of tricks that, for example, are possible on MSX. Besides, the biggest problem is still the video card. On an EGA you can do the finest things. A Hercules card, however, is fine for monochrome graphics, but colour is another matter. And let us not even mention the still more primitive video cards that sometimes end up in PC-Privé machines. That is why we rather like this game, which can run on every PC, no matter which video card it has. A snake game with a strategic slant!

Recently we received a letter from a reader who complained bitterly. He had just exchanged his MSX for a PC — and, worse, MCM for another magazine — when we also began paying attention to MS-DOS. In short, we hope he took out a subscription again. His conclusion was: “Looking at it this way, it seems as if the MSX is there for fun and the PC is there for work.”

Since he apparently could not accept that, he wrote a game for the PC and sent it to us. After that we on the editorial staff spent many hours with it. First playing it, then polishing it a little. And now that game, Sneekie, is printed in the magazine as a listing.

Text screen

Sneekie works entirely with a standard text screen. In other words, it can be played on every PC. Admittedly the colours are limited — in short, there are no colours — and the author kept the graphics simple, using only ordinary characters. Otherwise Sneekie would only have worked on certain video adapters. Because of those restrictions, Sneekie is compatible with every PC on which GW-BASIC works.

Incidentally, the sender, Mr Herbert Groot Jebbink, wondered in his accompanying letter whether MS-DOS machines offered any tricks with the character set. If he could define his own characters, Sneekie would look much nicer. Unfortunately that runs into the same objection as colour: on some video cards one can indeed build a custom character set, but then the program immediately stops being universal.

A fine game

In spite of that limitation, Sneekie is a fine game. The aim is simple: eat all the hearts and clovers with the snake. The clovers, by the way, appear only on the higher fields. The snake keeps getting longer, so you have to proceed thoughtfully. It is all too easy to trap yourself as the snake in a corner.

In addition, every one of the 32 fields contains smiley faces. Such a face is not deadly, but it costs points if you pass through it.

The 32 fields consist of eight screen designs, each with its own specific problems, which then appear again in four degrees of difficulty. The basic game is very simple: you move your snake with the cursor keys, and that is all. Your Sneekie does get longer, but that basic form is quite playable. Only from field number 9 — which is layout field 1 again — does it become harder. Then your snake turns out to have a life of its own: the creature keeps moving in the last direction you gave. Tricky, because thinking time now becomes crucial.

Another eight fields later the clovers mentioned above come into play: new hearts or clovers regularly appear when you have eaten one. And since you must remove every clover and heart before reaching a higher level...

The last series of eight levels is obvious: new bite-size pieces appear, and your snake moves continuously. Difficult!

Fields

So that misery awaits you on a total of eight different screens. Some are simple, others are not. Lines may appear, for example, and of course you cannot pass through them. Also nice are the screens where those lines start moving; the shape then changes continuously. Stones, which play a leading role on some screens, are a problem in themselves. Sneekie can push only one stone ahead of itself; two are too heavy. Also, if something else is hiding behind a stone, the weight is too much for our snake. So proceed with policy and thought. The most unpleasant are the highest screens, where arrows move across the image. Absolutely deadly, those things!

Finally

Sneekie is a nice game, and we heartily thank the sender, Mr Herbert Groot Jebbink. His name and address appear in the listing at his own request.

We changed only a few things in his program. For example, his version had 16 levels; we added four more by moving the appearance of new hearts and clovers to a new series of levels. That makes the basic game much more playable.

What was also missing from the GW-BASIC version — though it was present in the QuickBASIC version he also sent — was the ability to cheat. Although it is nowhere on the screen: F10 takes you one level further, and F9 gives an extra life.

Sneekie plays very well as GW-BASIC, but preferably on a somewhat faster machine. On a 4.77 MHz XT it is, honestly, rather slow.

However, the program compiles without problems with QuickBASIC, after which it also becomes a very playable game on slower XTs. Anyone who does not own a compiler can order the diskette on which Sneekie appears; we will certainly include the compiled version on it.