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Message: 4550

Author: Alexandra

Date: 23/10/2004

Subject: Impossible rooms in Manic Person, etc

 

> If it were up to me, I'd rename it to "Fruits of the Room", extend
> the conveyor from 1-30 to 0-31, and knock out the wall-blocks in

the

> two rows above the conveyor, replacing the lower ones with
> background and the upper ones with first static nasties.

I guess you're right about this room. The name "Apple Crumble" is a
bit pants, and I've gone back to the 'river running through the
bottom' scenario for the lower part of the screen. I'll use
the 'delayed inevitable conveyor of death' idea in another room. I'm
glad you think of this as a 'classic MM room', that was nice to read.

> [3] "Paranoia (Don't touch the floor)": I say that MM/JSW room-
> titles shouldn't contain playing tips, except in extenuating JSW
> circumstances to warn the player of an infinite-death scenario or a
> one-way exit.

"Don't touch the floor" isn't /just/ a playing tip though. When I was
a kid I played a game (at my friends house) where the floor
became 'deadly' and we used books lying around the house, furniture,
etc, as 'platforms' (we both loved platform games) and would jump
around having adventures about the house (amazing how large a limited
space can seem as a child). Needless to say, his mother was most
displeased when she saw us jumping on her books!

> The graphics are improved (particularly the `mad face' portal),

with

> nice pseudo-3D `walls' and `floor' (it's interesting that you can
> now climb up the right `wall' - intentional?)

That's because of the way the attributes and block types were dished
out. It was impossible to get that part perfect (as it sometimes is).
It's explained better in the Readme. Had it been JSW64 it probably
would have worked out better (or maybe not - you can only use each
colour attribute once, twice if you count inverting. Having the
righthand wall of the room a different colour looked too imbalanced).

, although I don't like

> the green-paper background introduced with the solar power.

I normally hate green backgrounds but I thought it was kinda cool in
that case. I'll use the black version somewhere else, no doubt.
(Maybe even in the Easy version of MM: MP)

> [4] "Cheating Time?": I like the new conveyor-graphic - very
> authentic.

I thought it was quite striking too. Amazing how with such limiting
constraints, you can /still/ find 'new' things years on...

>
> [6] "The Beginning is a Delicate Time": The graphical makeover is
> mainly a change for the better, although the walls look a bit dull
> now. What's the item-graphic meant to be?

A Lego brick viewed from the side.

> [7] Reservoir Dogs": An excellent room made even better by the
> addition of a trick conveyor-block and lowering the water-level
> (why the convention that harmful water is cyan and safe water is
> blue, when the original JSW does the opposite?).

MP has harmful blue and white water. Up until recently I was very
consistent with water scenarios. All water in my designs killed you.
Recently (last year or so) I decided to relax with that. Sometimes I
do use cyan to symbolize death deliberately.

> [10] "The Border Room": The nest of HGs seems claustrophobic and
> nasty until I realise there's a character-column on the left in
> which I can wait safely. I do think it's a design-flaw that you

have

> to go round again at the end, especially after having to repeat a
> smaller section of the screen earlier on.

Not a design flaw, but me at my most sadistic. I thought it was
pretty funny anyway :). Funnily enough I don't have much trouble
completing this room at all. I liked the nervousness of having to go
round 2.3 times.

> [12] "Missing Something?":
> 2. The way, at the end, you have to jump left onto the conveyor

from

> below, then jump through an ILB, is a lovely touch.

I knew you'd like that particular part :)

> My only niggle is that the first static nasty (that looks like a
> ghost from Pacman) looks ugly because its eyes and mouth are
> misaligned. It looks nicer if you rotate its eyes one pixel to the
> left (POKE 57936,147).

I decided to take up your advice. It does look better. I thought
the 'wonky' face would be better at first.

> [13] "Catstep Vatstep": A very cunningly-designed and very
> frustrating room, I ended up saving a stack of four snapshots to
> fall back on!

That's how I beat this room too ;)

> This room is reminiscent of "NUCLEAR c@s GeT new HOME" from

strangel.

It uses the same graphics tiles and pretty much identical colours,
too.

> [14] "I Am Not a Miner": I have to conclude that this room is
> impossible, because there's no way to avoid death after collecting
> the top-right item.

My mistake. There's an erroneous fire block up in the top right.

> and an air-supply which seems to have been `optimised'.

It certainly has :). I beat my own best time a few times before I
settled on the final time limit.

> [15] "Bad Trip - The Divvy's Lair": I haven't heard the
> word "divvy" since I was in primary school! ;-)

That's the nickname I gave that sprite from MOTR.

> [17] "The Dungeon of Erotic Punishment": This room too is
> impossible, because there's no way to collect the bottom item.

There is. Unless the upload version is different from the version I
had in my folder. I'll check next time (low on time).

Well, that's about all I've got time for ATM. Thanks again for the
feedback. So very little of it flying about these days.

Alex + Ra

 

 

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