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using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
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Message: 1969
Author: andrewbroad
Date: 21/02/2001
Subject: Invalid Arrow Technology / Invalid Ramps
> yes. with a bit of fine-tuning this allowsyou
> to create moving-platforms,
>
moving-holes-in-the-ground, moving-nasty-blocks,
> floors with
moving-nasty-patches on them,
> platforms which are snatched
from under your
> feet, and platforms which
suddenly appear to
> help you. (all of which appear
in WGDTB. i call
> it 'invalid arrow
technology' :)
Wow! Yes, there's certainly plenty of
mileage in invalid arrows! I guess you could do JSW I
versions of "The TRUBBLE with TRIBBLES" and "Highway to
Hell" that way! :-)
> i'm not sure i get this
whole 218 = 255 thing ?:)?.
> i was referring to
ramps with a value other than
> 0 or
1.
Offset 218 holds the direction of the ramp, which is
ordinarily 0 or 1, but 255 in the case we're talking
about.
>>> invalid ramp air - chaos
:)
>>
>> I take it that's not just the springy platforms
>> seen in We Pretty and JSW(again)?
>>
(background colour = ramp colour) "
>
> well,
same principle, but the ramp is invalid,
> and
the results are *much* more voletile.
> i
recommend people try it - it opens up a whole
> new
can of worms as far as quirky features goes!
>
(heard of the expression - "everything you know
>
is wrong!"? :).
Sounds very exciting! (for
want of a more profound reply ;-) )
> as
there are 254 invalid values, there is also
>
plenty of room for experimentation, although
>
most of the values seem to give tediously
>
similar variations on a theme.
We ought to go
through the room formats for MM and JSW, and try out all
the invalid values for everything! :-)
>
the interesting thing about discovering quirky
> features is the increasing possibilities
for
> combining them all into more complex
situations.
> it's probably limitless, and it forces you
to
> see beyond the '4 block types, ramp and a
>
conveyor' of it all and really get those grey
>
cells moving!
Yes indeed. Combination is a key
feature of good MM/JSW design, and we are already
starting to derive higher-level features from the
primitive features (my list of quirky features consists of
mainly primitive features, although I haven't actually
attempted to declare a set of primitives).
The
possibilities are fundamentally finite, though - just as there
are 2^8 = 256 possible values for a single byte,
there are 2^(8*256) possible JSW rooms (possible bit
combinations for 256 bytes), but that's as good as infinite to
all intents and purposes! ;-) Of course, most of
these possible rooms are invalid, but it would be
interesting to explore some of these!
--
Andrew
Broad
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/ target=new>http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/>
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/spectrum/ target=new>http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/spectrum/>
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/spectrum/willy/ target=new>http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/spectrum/willy/>
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