Mister Spiff IV

Mister Spiff IV

Release type: Shareware
Release date: 1994
Levels: 14
Author: Adam Tyner
Related games: Mister Spiff I, Mister Spiff II, Mister Spiff III: Freeze! Mother! Freeze!, CGA Hell

Thus far, Mister Spiff has been an enigmatic series. With game four, we begin to see the truth.

Whereas the original Mister Spiff is a gallimaufry of contrasting ideas, the third Spiff picks a single notion. It expands on level one of the original, by focusing its energy on a series of lock-and-key mazes. Mister Spiff IV carries that premise step further, toward total abstraction. This series is now about pure mechanics, with barely a gesture toward narrative representation. Paradoxically, amidst its abstraction the game presents its most concrete evidence as to the identity of its lead character.

Though the Spiff games will glory in the odd and the unexpected, never have they been quite so consciously surreal. The character is a bit larger in his frame, and has become so stylized that his face consists almost entirely of eyes, leaving just a few pixels for a mouth and some hair. The levels have shed any pretense at representation, and are now best distinguished by color and pattern.

In design terms, the game is a heavy refinement of Spiff III. The game is much bigger and more elaborate than earlier chapters. The levels are further developed, with more complex logical and spatial puzzles. The controls are a bit smoother. In the event of death, Tyner has even employed a trick to reset key counters at the start of each level -- a regular issue for Game-Maker games.

Furthermore, in a throwback to the strange warps of the original Mister Spiff, Tyner included a few bonus stages that take a step back to engage in postmodern commentary on the game. The stages replace Spiff's head with that of Alan Caudel (in much the fashion of Alan '95), and put him through a gauntlet of CGA visuals, harking back to PC games of the early 1980s.

Playing with surfaces in Mister Spiff IV

Was our hero Alan all along? So it would seem. Those CGA levels are revelatory, and the clear highlight of Spiff IV -- so much so that Tyner later would expand them and spin them off into a standalone game, CGA Hell.

Mister Spiff begins and ends in a dream and a haze. In between, the games expand and contract and quietly muse on the nature of game design. As a culmination of the series' motifs and ambition, Mister Spiff IV brings the series to a satisfying, and characteristically odd, conclusion.

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Mister Spiff III	Mister Spiff IV	CGA Hell
Mister Spiff series

Story

"WHOA!"

You clutch your bag carefully. Public space-transportation isn't as safe as it used to be. Come to think of it, it never really was safe. Anyway, your spaceship broke down on Tizzleplack and you had to catch a bus to get home. At least you still had your...

(CRASH!)

"What the---!!!"

Okay, the bus is flipping around in space. Everyone else has their safety-harness fastened but you. I mean, the light for it came on! Noooo...that online issue of Video Freak was just too good to put down.

Well, you fly out the door, still holding your bag of jewels. Lotta good they'll do you if you're -- Hey! You landed on an old mattress! Too bad it was on a bunch of rusty nails.

Any landing you can stagger away from is okay, so you start to explore the planet looking for another bus stop. Whoops! It's inhabited by a bunch of mean aliens, surprise surprise.

You walk along this path and a purple slobbering beast lunges at you. Without thinking, you tossed a jewel at it. An aura of electricity envelops the alien, stunning it temporarily. Right near it, you see a purple orb which opened a locked door. Off in the distance you see a shop.

"Only one way to get there," you mutter as you enter.

Instructions

Controlling your character

Use these keys:

LEFT: Walk left

RIGHT: Walk right

UP-LEFT: Jump up-left

UP: Jump up

UP-RIGHT: Jump up-right

DOWN: Aim down

ENTER: Attack key

G: Fire a hologram (1 initial use)

H: Heal yourself 1 hit point (1 initial use)

Obstacles

Any blocks with OW! over it means that all blocks like that in that level will automatically kill you. In level 5, look out for blocks tha temporarily vanish over pits of OW! blocks.

Level One

Level one is an introductory level that shows you what to do. In this level, lives will not be deducted.

Power-Ups

There are several power-ups in the game. Touch a power-up to pick it up.

• PURPLE ORBS - Get these to open doors (doors are marked)
• FLOATING HEADS - Worth 1 life
• BEATING HEARTS - Worth 1 hit point
• MONEY - Worth $1 for the shops

Shops

You go into a shop after every level. You can only buy 1 item. Move your hand to the item you wish to obtain. You can choose:

• HOLOGRAMS - Allow you to fire a hologram once more (press G)
• BEATING HEART - Allow you to heal yourself by 1 hit point (press H)
• FLOATING HEAD - Add one more life to your collection
• NOTHING! - Umm...nothing.

Joystick

• CALIBRATING JOYSTICK - Press F9
• ENABLING JOYSTICK - Press F8

LEFT: Walk left

RIGHT: Walk right

UP-LEFT: Jump up-left

UP: Jump up

UP-RIGHT: Jump up-right

DOWN: Aim down

B1 and B2: Attack! (Healing and holograms must be done on the keyboard.)

Enemies

There are different enemies on each level. Here are the enemies:

Level One

• Underbite - A green alien with an underbite
• Spittle - A slobbering purple freak
• Flyball - A cyclops bat

Level Two

• Blue Streak - An alien with a jetpack and an attitude
• Escargot - A pink, flying snail
• I Can't Believe It's Not A Background Block! - Looks like a block, but turns into an enemy

Level Three

• Helmutt - Blue dog with a weird thing on its head
• Silhouette - Who knows what evil lurks in the spleens of men...?
• Cyberpunk - A punk with a flying disembodied head(?)
• Background Blocker - Tries to stop you from jumping

Level Four

• All of the above +
• Orbert the Friendly Orb - From Questor, it comes out of nowhere!
• Rollin' Appleboy - Umm...rolls.

Level Five

• Broom boy - He'll sweep you off your feet! (Ouch!)
• Wheelie and the Dragster Bunch - Dragsters supreme!
• Mister Palette-Swap - Changes colors...cool.

Level Six

• Mr. Moodswing - Goes from mad to calm to stunned to mad to...
• Chuck None - A martial artist's best friend, and YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE! HAHAHAHAHA!
• The Rhino Kid - Uhh...a...rhino kid.

Level Seven

• Bud the disappearing newt - He disappears, kind of.
• Mister Splendid - He's hypnotized, not that that makes you feel any better
• Carp lord - A fish ate him. Ow.

Level Eight

• Fleshwound - He has a knife in his head
• Socko the Friendly Sock - A deadly sock puppet
• Crazy Head Head - I ain't got no body, so gimme some candy!

Level Nine

• Ernest Cyborgenine - A MIGHTY mite!
• Lil' Red - A killer fruit that'll roll all over you
• Bombshell - She's dynamite!

Level Ten

• Toad-man-with-a-cannon-for-a-nose-on-the-lad-with no body - Beats me.
• El Socko - Tiene un calcetine!
• Gray Guy - He's gray and I don't really know how he came about

There are secret levels. You play a Mister Spiff with a digitized head in the land of CGA Hell. Control is the same.

Have fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Credits

Mister Spiff IV!

by Adam Tyner

The digitized head on Mister Spiff in CERTAIN levels is of the person Mister Spiff is based on, Alan Caudel!

Availability

This game is not known to have been distributed in any form, prior to its addition to the Archive.

Archive History

After an earlier wave of rediscoveries, on July 13 2011 Alan Caudel provided another archive of previously missing Game-Maker material, including the following:

Alan! Alan B-Day Alan '95 Alan '96 Bear Fun Show Benny Bone!

CGA Hell Doom Off The Page DD4: Canadian Boxing Day Frisbounce Godzilla Hamsterman

Jon '95 Kozmo Kat The Legend of Budd Mr. Berkel Derkel! Mister Spiff IV Nathan Rocks Ninja

Palladia: The Game Power Budd! Power Flux Robo-Wars Ski Star Avenger Star Avenger III

Star Avenger 4 Star Wars Stickman!!! Die Stickman Die!! Trees Twister, argh! What the...?!?

Links

• Play Mister Spiff IV online

Downloads

• Mister Spiff IV (290 kB)