However, that won't prevent MR WACKER from giving ERIC 2000 lines during the
'special' playtimes (if EINSTEIN tells WACKER what ERIC's up to, or WACKER
finds the pea-shooter on the fire escape). For that you need:
One harmless side-effect of this POKE is that the lines total will be printed
as '00' instead of '0' when WACKER delivers his 'TAKE 2000 LINES...' speech.
Some lines
If 'Infinite lines' or 'No lines' makes things too easy, use a selection of
these POKEs that disable lines-giving for specific infractions:
THE ROOM IS PRIVATE - POKE 30717,31 (also suppresses GET TO WHERE YOU
SHOULD BE if ERIC is in the head's study or the staff room when he should be in
class)
To change the expulsion message MR WACKER delivers (at 61926) accordingly,
you will need to POKE the ASCII codes of the digits of the new lines limit into
addresses 61940-61944.
For example, to change the lines limit to 20000 and adjust the expulsion
message to match:
Hitting all 15 shields before obtaining the safe combination, and then hitting
all 15 shields again after opening the safe can be hard work for a busy
skoolboy. To reduce ERIC's task to hitting just one shield (any shield):
Note that in order to go up a year, ERIC will have to hit the same shield as he
hit before opening the safe.
Unsafe combination
Having to knock down the teachers (or, in CREAK's case, discover his year of
birth and then write it on the blackboard in the classroom he'll be teaching in
next) in order to obtain the safe combination letters, and then try up to six
permutations of those letters before hitting the right one, can be a tiresome
task. How much easier it would be if BOY WANDER and the teachers took it upon
themselves to reveal the safe combination every time they wrote on a
blackboard:
The teachers and BOY WANDER will actually write the safe combination followed
by WACKER's, ROCKITT's, WITHIT's and CREAK's individual safe combination
letters, in that order, but those last four letters can be ignored.
Lesson length
Normally the lesson clock (at 32759) counts down from 5376 (21*256) to 0, at
which point the bell rings. To make the lesson clock count down from N*256 to 0
instead:
If you are extending the lesson length, it's a good idea to also adjust the
time at which teachers will tell the kids to sit down. Normally this is 3840
(15*256); to change it to M*256 (M=N-6 is a good choice):
If, on the other hand, you are shortening the lesson, it's a good idea to also
adjust the time at which teachers will start giving lines to ERIC for being in
the wrong classroom. Normally this is 4864 (19*256); to change it to G*256
(G=N-2 is a good choice):
POKE 26748,230: POKE 26749,102 (sets the keypress-handling routine for 'L'
to 26342)
Now whenever 'L' (upper case) is pressed, the bell will ring and the next
lesson will begin (which could prove handy if ERIC is found playing truant,
cannot be bothered to hide from ANGELFACE when he has mumps, or simply cannot
wait any longer for playtime).
Always run
Normally 'q', 'a', 'o' and 'p' make ERIC walk, and 'Q', 'A', 'O' and 'P' make
him run. To make ERIC always run, regardless of whether SHIFT is held down:
However, this doesn't extend the 'hit zone' of the pellet (the portion of its
flight where it can hit something). To change the hit zone from the last 7
stages of its flight to the last M stages (M=N-6 is a good choice):