Instructions are available in-game, hit <Esc> then <I>
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[Here is a copy of the instruction card which came with the 
original Serpentine game on the IBM PC. Thanks go to Ian 
Humphreys of Spoonbill Software for republishing it along with 
his version, and his man Steve Watkins for supplying this 
historic gem. The scoring is the same as the Apple version. 
Edited for color and a couple other tweaks but otherwise just
as it was some 25 years ago.]

SERPENTINE (Apple, Atari, Commodore, IBM PC)
Programmer: David Snider
Copyright 1982 Broderbund Software

You begin each game with a stable of three tame blue serpents. 
They can be controlled from the keyboard by use of the
directional arrow keys. Your objective is to survive long
enough to lay eggs and raise your young. Unfortunately, this
is a snake eat snake world, and in order to survive, you will
have to avoid or devour the hostile orange serpents that issue
from their own chamber in the lower left corner of the maze.

Big serpents swallow little serpents - this is a fact of life.
So attack the orange serpents from the rear - you are faster
than they are, at least when you are young, and can bite off 
their tail segments until you are longer than they. Once they
are shorter than you, they turn green and can be attacked 
from the front. [Serpentine 2011 includes a new feature -- 
with perfect timing you can eat an orange enemy by striking 
at the neck, big fun!] 

Serpent tails are not very nutritious and will not help your
serpents grow. However, if they eat a green serpent from the 
front or catch a frog, your serpents will grow one segment in
length. The enemy serpents also love to eat frogs. No serpent
will grow longer than seven segments, no matter how much it 
eats.

All serpents lay eggs. Blue serpents lay lovely white eggs;
orange serpents lay ugly speckled eggs. Eggs eventually hatch
unless they are eaten first. They are very nutritious - frogs
look for them and eat them, as do enemy snakes. 

Serpents lose one segment when they lay an egg. If your
serpents try to lay an egg when they are only two segments
long, they will die in the process, since no self-respecting 
snake can survive unless it is at least two segments long.

Once all the enemy snakes are eaten, the white eggs will hatch
and return to your stable [yielding an extra life!]. A new
level will then start with a new maze.

SCORING:

Eating a frog scores 500 points and adds one new segment.

Eating a spotted egg scores 150 points times the level you are
on and adds one new segment.

Eating serpents scores 100 points per segment on levels 1 and
2. The score per segment increases by 100 points every other
level.

Eating serpents head on scores 200 points per segment on
levels 1 and 2 and adds a new segment to your serpent. The
score per segment increases by 200 points every other level.

Extra serpents are awarded for reaching 20,000 points, 50,000
points and every 50,000 points scored thereafter.

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Press <n> to restart the game, <+> or <-> to adjust speed.
Press <p> to pause (and access configuration options), 
<Esc> twice to abort at any time.