Rules
A level always began with three red segments attached to the creature's head. Eating any red balls with only these segments attached would not cause the animal to grow. Eating any other colored ball caused it to attach as a segment to the tail end of the creature, as did eating a red ball with segments of any other color already on the animal.
A player could clear segments off the animal by attaching three balls of the same color to its tail. This could be done by simply eating three of the same color in a row, or by eating one or two of one color, eating three of another (clearing them), then eating a third (or a second and a third) of the original color. The importance of shortening the body was twofold: a longer creature ran a more dangerous risk of running into itself and dying immediately; also, if a player cleared the board while the character's body was too long (indicated by a number in the corner of the screen), the player failed (lost a life) and had to restart the level.
Read more about this topic: Space Ball (game)
Famous quotes containing the word rules:
“The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel.”
—James Thurber (1894–1961)
“Rules and particular inferences alike are justified by being brought into agreement with each other. A rule is amended if it yields an inference we are unwilling to accept; an inference is rejected if it violates a rule we are unwilling to amend. The process of justification is the delicate one of making mutual adjustments between rules and accepted inferences; and in the agreement achieved lies the only justification needed for either.”
—Nelson Goodman (b. 1906)
“For 350 years we have been taught that reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man and writing an exact man. Football’s place is to add a patina of character, a deference to the rules and a respect for authority.”
—Walter Wellesley (Red)