E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial Remake
=================================
Original Release: 21st December 2016
Developer: James Dunn
Email: webmaster (at) stupendous-stuff (dot) com

Synopsis
========
This is a remake of the original Atari 2600 game where you, as the titular character, have to find 3 pieces of the phone and call your ship to avoid being stranded on Earth.
Hindering you in this objective are the FBI and the Scientist who will relentlessly persue you. The FBI will either take all your Reese's Pieces or, if you have any, a phone piece and hide it somewhere else. The Scientist will just take you to the government building.
Helping you are the power zones, these are:

Phone Zone - Shows the location, in that area, of phone pieces - if any are available
Push Back Humans Zone - Causes the FBI or Scientist to run away
Eat Candy Zone - If E.T. has any Reese's pieces he will eat one to restore some energy
Call Elliott Zone - Will call Elliott to take E.T's Reese's Pieces to score points
Move Up Zone - Moves up one area
Move Down Zone - Moves down one area
Move Left Zone - Moves one area to the left
Move Right Zone - Moves one area to the right
Call Ship Zone - Calls the ship if E.T. has all 3 phone pieces
Landing Zone - If E.T. is on this zone after the time has reached zero, then the player wins the round.

Unlike the original game, the holes are nowhere to be seen. In order to find them you must keep an eye on the hole indicator at the bottom left of the screen. If no holes are found then it will just show fauna, if you find a hole then it will show a hole with a question mark. Those holes with crosses over the top of them are holes already visited by E.T. But if the FBI enemy takes a phone piece, he will hide it in a random hole and all holes will reset to the hole with a question mark.

Questions
=========
Why? Of all the remakes you could do, why this?

Short version: Someone had to.

Long version: Way back in 2008 there was a competition hosted by Retro Remakes to do, what else, but remakes. So I decided to do a remake of E.T. as no one else would choose it and just to be different. Whilst playing the original game for research purposes, I realised that the game wasn't that bad at all. It was just the annoying thing where falling in the holes was a constant problem. So I was faced with an interesting design question: How do I change the game that doesn't break the main game but fixes the hole problem? To solve this I came up with a random set of holes that would change every game, but you could only see them when you walked over them (an indicator at the bottom left would change from fauna to a hole with a question mark inside). In order to drop into them you had to press a key to do it. The rest of the game would stay the same. 

So it took you 8 years to do this?

Pretty much. Most of the time life got in the way so very little coding was done. That's a pitfall with being an indie developer, it happens. You just have to keep soldiering on.

Are you going to be doing more remakes?

Yes, I do have plans to do some more. One being another shitty game from the 80's and another being a Design Design game that I want to demake - much like how Ed Fries did with Halo on the 2600. But first I want to be able to write my own game and that is a scrolling shoot 'em up. Hopefully I won't be spending 8 years to do this!

Controls
========
Arrow keys - Movement
z key - Activate power zone and bring flower to life when in hole
x key - Drop down hole and press once when in hole to get out (then press up)
s key - To start the game
Esc key - Quits the program

Post-Release Notes
==================
-------------------
 22/01/2017 - V1.1
-------------------
Added/Updated since last release:-
 - readme file
 - updated the transition text at the game title screen. Added game title to first transition. Moved credits to second transition.
 - added ufo sound

Bugs fixed since last release:-
 - Enemy still shown on the screen when ET moves into a new area after "Push Humans Back" power zone activated
 - When starting a new game the previous round score and pickups hasn't been reset
 
Known Bugs:-
 - Reese's pieces shown over ET
 - In some area holes, phone piece one will still show after you've picked it up
 - The game will crash if you move the player during the cutscene
 - When candy is eaten on the relevant power zone the energy shoots down then returns to the added amount

To Do:-
 - add sfx
 - add music
 - add Elliott function (when Elliott is given 9 Reese's pieces he will find a phone piece and chase away the enemy)
 - add the spaceship taking E.T. away when the round has been won

-------------------
 21/12/2016 - V1.0
-------------------

Known Bugs:-
 - Enemy still shown on the screen when ET moves into a new area after "Push Humans Back" power zone activated
 - Reese's pieces shown over ET
 - In some area holes, phone piece one will still show after you've picked it up
 - The game will crash if you move the player during the cutscene
 - When candy is eaten on the relevant power zone the energy shoots down then returns to the added amount
 - When starting a new game the previous round score and pickups hasn't been reset

To Do:-
 - add sfx
 - add music
 - add readme file
 - add Elliott function (when Elliott is given 9 Reese's pieces he will find a phone piece and chase away the enemy)
 - add the spaceship taking E.T. away when the round has been won