in 2007's 5200 homebrew Adventure II, you could get Alternate Icons to play with, other than Sir Square, if you entered a secret code on the title screen. In the 5200 version, they played exactly like using the Square. The problem with this was that some of these Alt Icons (namely the big animated Knight) were a bit too big for some of the paths. You could get around this by using the Magnet more. But it made the game a bit more frustrating.

Of course these icons are still in the XE version, but I added Special Abilities for each.

The Bat differs in that he never gets the "SPEED" powerup like Square does. When the troll steals an item from Square (except in Beginner levels where he doesn't steal, just makes you drop the item), you gain SPEED as a 'trade' . You also get SPEED when you kill a dragon. The bat not only gets SPEED, he also earns FLIGHT. You can fly overtop any background until it wears off.



The Crab can slowly crawl over any background item -- plants, rocks, hedges, over water, or castle walls. This way you can cheat in the mazes - but since this slows you down, you run more risk of a creature catching up to you.

The Knight and Knight Helmet icons are VERY STRONG. You can take a lot more bites before you are eaten. Sometimes a dragon hurts itself biting you and runs away!

The Hand icon's special ability is his Grip. The Troll has more trouble stealing from you . He might just make you drop the item and run off-screen like he does in the Beginner levels.

Here are some instructional images I created: Adventure II XE Basics:





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