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Message: 5196
Author: andrewbroad
Date: 30/11/2005
Subject: Sendy and Daniel's Mind Control: Andrew's second playtest
(Warning: LONG)
Less progress this week as (a) I prioritised clearing areas already
visited of items over exploring new areas, and (b) I succumbed to
the temptation to break off and write SPECSAISIE ItemsJSW128, which
lists the uncollected items in a saved-position JSW128 snapshot,
telling me their room-numbers and cell-coordinates. I now have 148
items.
The geography does get less painful with familiarity, especially as
I'm now used to finding my way back to "Yes! Willy's a lucky
bastard!!!" and right into "The Mystic Room of Many Exits". But it's
still pretty tedious to have to repeat the same journeys over and
over, due to the excessive number of one-way exits.
---------------------
Room-by-Room Comments
---------------------
[4] "A Rope in the Sky? Impossible!!!": It's unfair that Water and
Fire look identical.
[23] "In the Sandhills": I actually thought this was impossible to
cross from left to right for several minutes, until I realised that
you have to jump through an ILB from the room to the left ("Outside
the Castle" [47]). If this jump isn't pixel-perfect, it's a really
unfair infinite-death scenario - as it is if you're standing on Row
9 in [47] (the highest Earth-cells in that room being in Row 8).
[40] "Sendy will never believe this..." / "... nor this!!!" [17]:
There's a mutual infinite-death scenario between these rooms if you
move between them at the bottom.
[43] "End of the Road: Milk Factory": The way you have to stop on
the conveyor to jump up for the items is one of my favourite MM/JSW
manoeuvres. I presume that the laterally-inverted and video-inverted
Ramp graphic is intentional - it actually looks much better than it
has a right to look. ;-)
[56] "Road to the Milk Factory": It's very tempting to kamikaze
those lower items!
[60] "A Glimpse of 'JSW: 2005 Megamix'": It's possible to fall into
this room so far to the left as to suffer infinite death on the red
moon.
[74] "How on earth did you get here ?!": It's great to see this as a
playable room! (It was originally an unreachable room in Richard
Hallas's _Join The Jet Set!_, which kills you on entry if you
teleport there.)
_____I like the way you can jump straight up over the diagonal
kangaroo. I've not seen that before.
[90] "More than it seems": The invisible one-way teleporter is
unfair, because the obvious route through this room entails
collecting the rightmost item *after* clearing the middle.
[112] "The Most Secret of All Places": The rope catches you if you
fall in from above, but if you walk right, you get `hanged' between
this room and the one above.
_____If you fall off the bottom of the screen to the right of the
fire-guardian, it's infinite death. If you fall to the left of the
fire-guardian, it's a shortcut to the top item.
---------------
Reply to Daniel
---------------
Daniel wrote:
>"Mysterious" would be more accurate in terms of dictionary-
> My inspiration for "The Mystic Room of Many Exits" came from Stuart
> J. Hill's "Utility Cubicles" and the sequence "The Green Room"
> "The Red Room" "The Blue Room", which makes the navigation easier
> between various points of the game. And I hope that the word
> "Mystic" justifies to an extent the fact that the exits take you to
> unexpected places :-) . Or would "Mysterious" be better, as it's a
> mystery where each of the exits takes you?
definitions, but "The Mysterious Room of Many Exits" doesn't have
such a nice ring to it. It's also 33 characters long.
"Mystic" sounds pretentious, implying religious mysticism rather
than mystery - but as a David Bowie fan, I can only say that's a
good thing! :-)
So I would leave it as it is: "The Mystic Room of Many Exits" :-)
> In view of the above, it would probably be good to provide theYes, I agree with your proposal to publish an efficient route,
> player with an optimal, most efficient route (there isn't just one,
> I would say there are several equally efficient variants), so that
> he/she does not have to waste their time wandering around. It is a
> controversial solution, though, because it may spoil the pleasure
> for those of us who do have more time and are willing to dedicate
> it to wandering around JSW games and (painfully) discovering things
> themselves. What's more, there are several "hidden" rooms or routes
> (like the cloud walk you revealed in your post), so if I make the
> optimal path "public", I will have to mention all of those (so that
> nobody has to go back after missing a secret room), and that will
> definitely be a bad spoiler. I have decided to solve the problem in
> the following way please, let me know, Everybody, whether you
> think it's a good idea:
>
> a) In the coming days, very soon, I will upload a file to my folder
> in the Files section with the description of the suggested optimal
> route in "MC". Everyone who is interested in dealing with the game
> efficiently and not wasting their time to wander around will be
> welcome to download the file and use it.
>
> b) I will include the same file as a separate "spoiler" text file
> with the final release of the game.
>
> In this way everyone interested in a "quick" route will be provided
> with it, while those who prefer to take their time and discover
> things on their own will not be forced to read spoiler information.
>
> Do you think it's a fair solution?
although I'd still like to see fewer one-way exits in the game.
> 2. The room-names problemAn interesting convention. In Party Willy, I used title-case all the
>
> In the end I decided to adopt the following convention: the room-
> names should follow standard spelling rules used for titles, with
> the exception of names which are sentences, where sentence-case
> should be applied.
time, except for direct quotes and "bedroom role reversal games" (a
reference to Sendy's no-caps typing from of old). I still wasn't
entirely consistent with "To"/"to" and suchlike words.
> It seemed to me that it was a reasonable rule and that it generallyIn the version of JSW that I had for my real Spectrum, it was "We
> followed what Matthew Smith did in the original game (even though
> he wasn't entirely consistent). In the original JSW the room-names:
> "I'm sure I've seen this before..", "We must perform a Quirkafleeg"
> and "Dr Jones will never believe this" are sentences and they are
> spelled like sentences (assuming that "Quirkafleeg" is a proper
> name).
must perform a quirkafleeg"! It was only after my real Spectrum died
that I realised I couldn't find an emulator-version with the
little 'q', which begs the questions of exactly what version I had
(a friend copied it for me), and whether there were any more
differences.
> At the same time, the names "Out on a limb", "A bit of tree" andIt's a shame that he was under pressure to release JSW quickly. It
> "On top of the house" do not stick to the rule general rule, but
> I think this is just because Matthew Smith wasn't such a
> perfectionist as some of us are...
would be most intriguing to see his solutions to the bugs in "First
Landing", "The Banyan Tree", "The Attic" and "Conservatory Roof",
and whether he would have put new rooms above "Rescue Esmerelda" and
"Watch Tower", given that Rooms 47 and 61-63 are unused.
>>>Paul: There are those mysterious four lost levels. Are they in there
somewhere?
Matt: Um. I would... some of them were designed but they were never
working, but I could never work out why. And the reason was actually
because I had my device driver from my Tandy loading on top of the
last four levels in memory. And that device driver ended up on the
final tape. It's still there. If you disassemble, you can see that
it's partly copyright Tandy Corporation.
<<<
<http://www.redkeyreddoor.com/index.php?p=75>
I wonder if there's any chance that these room-data that were
overwritten still exist? Or whether Matthew remembers enough about
those lost rooms to be able to recreate them?
> 4. The problem of getting 'hanged' (infinitely stuck between twoOr even if they just WALK right from the rope. No, this is not a
> rooms) on a very short rope when trying to jump up into the room
> above
>
> I was aware of this problem, which concerns three rooms in the game
> - "Clouds over the Plain. No Rain" [046], "The Elusive Passage
> continues" [091] and a third room whose name I will not mention at
> this point. I was really unhappy about it, but even though I gave
> it much thought, I have not been able to invent any reasonable
> solution.
>
> Does anyone have any clever ideas? Or shall we just confide in the
> players' alertness they can only land on these ropes after
> falling from above or having been to the room above, so they should
> know that there is nothing above the ropes and they will get
> 'hanged' if they try to jump up.
satisfactory solution.
One solution would be to create new rooms above the rooms containing
the ropes, which are clones of the rooms currently above them, but
with a stand-onable cell in the bottom row, allowing Willy to drop
safely back into the rope-room one cell to the left or right of
where he fell in from a great height.
Thus you could clone [99, 70, 60] as follows:
[114] "Falling through the Clouds": Ramp \ at (15,28); Air at
(13,30); Air at (0,30). Set [46]'s up-exit to [114].
[115] "The Elusive Passage": Earth at (15,23); Air at (14,21); Air
at (15,21). Set [91]'s up-exit to [115].
[116] "A Glimpse of 'JSW: 2005 Megamix'": Conveyor > at (15,3); Air
at (0,5). Set [112]'s up-exit to [116].
(I suspect that the changes I propose to the clone of "The Elusive
Passage" may interfere with the changes you've already made to the
room itself since the Club-release.)
Another solution would be to remove the ropes, and to reset Willy's
fall-counter whenever he falls off the bottom of the screen, using
POKE 38113,0: POKE 38114,0 (using JSWED's hex-editor: set 94E1 and
94E2 to 00).
But this could create loopholes throughout the whole game (allowing
the player to land safely instead of infinite death from falling too
far), and it requires a stand-onable cell to block your fall in
[91]. I prefer the first solution.
> 5. Specific room comments
>
> a) "Sky Landing" [001]
>
> Andrew wrote:
>
> > In particular, a JSW player should be able to fall off the
> > bottom of the screen from a height of four (or fewer) character-
> > rows without expecting an infinite-death scenario.
>
> I agree, this is a very important point.
>
> In spite of the above, I would rather leave "Sky Landing" as it is,
> because:
> - When you stand on the fourth ledge from the left (or second fromA good JSW player will try every possible exit from each room
> the right), the infinite-death scenario below /is/ kind of unfair
> in the sense that the player is standing at a height of four
> character-rows, so according to the above postulate he/she could
> expect to be able to drop down safely. However, taking into account
> the whole design of the room, I think that players instinctively
> should not try doing it.
(obviously saving a snapshot first, but this is not possible on a
real Spectrum, and I always judge fairness as though I were going to
play it on a real Spectrum).
> I am also afraid that adding Fire-cells in the top or bottom rowWhenever there's a conflict between artistic design and eliminating
> would spoil the room design.
infinite-death scenarios, the latter should almost always take
priority.
At least JSW64 will help in this regard, as we'll be able to add
extra cell-classes, just for safety, which look identical to Air.
> - The first ledge on the right is OK, because you areWhich, taking into account the whole design of the room, I
> actually /meant/ to step off it and fall down.
instinctively didn't try until I read your message! ;-)
> Plus the whole thing is very early into the game, so even ifYes - it's okay to have an IDS right at the start of a JSW game.
> somebody falls into an infinite death scenario without having saved
> a snapshot first, he/she will not have much terrain to replay.
I've often thought about starting a JSW game with a room of
precarious blocks with a dreadful drop into infinite death, but it
hasn't come about so far... This would work best with Crumbling
cells, of course, so now that JSW64 has arrived...
> b) "Coming Down" / "Two Signs and a Vision" [007 / 027]If an IDS can be eliminated without compromising the /technical/
>
> Andrew wrote:
>
> > (...) there is a nasty infinite-death scenario [in "Coming Down"]
> > if you walk in after collecting the item in "Two Signs and a
> > Vision" [27]
> > ___A JSW player should never encounter infinite death by
> > "walking" out of a screen even if they should have seen
> > the hazard on their way in just a few moments before.
>
> This general rule is something I am wondering about. After all, if
> you MUST have seen the danger, but didn't take it into
> consideration, it's your problem, isn't it? How does everybody feel
> about this rule?
> because myself I'm not really sure...
design of the room, it should certainly be eliminated. a JSW game
should be as idiot-proof as possible when it comes to infinite death.
If it would compromise the technical design of a room to eliminate
an IDS, there can be occasions where it's better to leave it in. An
example is "The Forest" in Party Willy. You have to jump right off
the ramp into "The Magic Faraway Tree", and it's infinite death if
you walk back left into "The Forest" (which only someone with the
memory of a goldfish would try without saving a snapshot). But
placing a cell to block the player's fall at the right of "The
Forest" would have allowed the player to circumvent the intended
challenge.
> This is one of the places where I will ask Sendy to decide :-) .That guardian is a flower? I always thought it was a metal trap! ;-)
> If you think, Sendy, that it should be modified, let me know and I
> will do it (either rearranging the bottom left-hand side of "Coming
> Down" or eliminating the green flower altogether,
> c) "... nor this" [017]They certainly are a nice feature, and one I hope we'll be seeing a
>
> > But the bigger question is: why make this a one-way exit at all?
>
> The first, "historic" reason is that I wanted to use the moving-
> vertical-line horizontal guardians Sendy's invention, I believe
> again, and I thought they fitted nicely in "Failed Suicide Attempt
> Vol. 2" [095].
lot more of - preferably not with a threat of infinite death though!
> The second reason is that since it is a one-way exit, the playerWhich is not very pleasant IMO.
> later has to return to "Failed Suicide Attempt Vol. 2" in order to
> climb up the rope. Because of this, they have to perform the
> difficult jump from the platform onto the rope twice.
> e) "A Ruined Lookout" [025] and "The Underground Torture Chamber"When I tried to go back for it via "The Haunted Log Cabin" [108], I
> [110]
>
> Andrew wrote:
>
> > ___But, when coming up from [110], I omitted to take the leftmost
> > item before leaving this room, and I'll have to pay for this
> > mistake later in my playtest, much to my frustration.
> > Please could we have a workaround, such as an Earth-cell at
> > (9,9) or better still a two-way exit from [110]?
discovered that it isn't actually possible to collect this item by
jumping up from the left sliver of "The Underground Torture Chamber"
[110].
> you see the leftmost item, but cannot collect it unless you comeWow, I thought it was impossible to jump through the ILB from the
> for it from below, and you cannot go below unless you jump through
> the ILB, and you cannot jump through the ILB unless you get your
> moves right in the adjacent room, manoeuvring between two guardians
> and four stationary Fire-cells, and all of this on the conveyor!
conveyor in "The countryside is turning dry" [22] - until I tried
again just now! :-) I don't mind being fooled by something this
clever.
> g) "Rope Defect" [039]:-)
>
> Andrew wrote:
>
> > Only an expert will conclude that it's possible to jump onto the
> > rope from the bottom-left, but this game is targeted at expert
> > players... isn't it? :-)
>
> Yes, it is :-) .
You might consider making an easy version of Mind Control as a
parallel product, though I haven't done such for my JSW games (with
the exception of JSW:LOTR).
I decided to make the Kari Kriníková trilogy experts-only as a
challenge to the world, and to maintain an air of mystique about
these games, while my more mainstream efforts such as Party Willy
are supposed to be relatively easy to explore but difficult to
complete.
I still feel I'm searching for the optimum blend of easy-to-explore
yet difficult-to-complete, just as I'm searching for the optimum
happy medium between tediously linear and frustratingly branching (I
believe the answer is to organise the game in hierarchical clusters,
where each cluster can be entered and exited only via its hub-room,
and each path eventually returns you to the choice-point (hub-room)
so that you can take the alternative paths - each of which is marked
as unfollowed with an item, as in "The Mystic Room of Many Exits").
> Now, this design pattern is Sendy's merit it appears this wayWhenever I face a challenge which requires a manoeuvre (in this case
> in "The Unlucky Seven", in the room "clingon!" of "mind control".
> Sendy later modified it, so that it's easier in "Where's Woody".
> She even thought it was too difficult for "Mind Control", but I
> really want to keep it the way it is I love the frustration of
> not being able to jump onto the rope, and having to try so many
> times :-) .
a jump) of time-frame-perfect timing, my algorithm is as follows:
1. Position myself ready for the manoeuvre.
2. Pause.
3. Save an instant snapshot.
4. Try the manoeuvre.
5. If it didn't work, then {
___5.1. Reload the instant snapshot.
___5.2. Unpause for exactly one time-frame, in which you do nothing
(i.e. hold the pause-key down and press the music-on/off key once).
___5.3. Repeat steps 2 to 5.
}
> k) "Back to Life, Back to Reality" [[051], "Anywhere but in theThat wasn't actually my problem with the black fish - I think it's
> Water" [052]
>
> I have changed the initial direction of the black fish at the left
> edge of "Everywhere but in the Water", so that one gets a fraction
> of a second more to turn back when entering from the left via the
> room-path [98 up, 12 right, 51 right]. This should solve the
> problem of the player getting killed by the black fish unjustly.
fine to have guardians so close to the entry-position as to require
a fast reaction by the player (as long as it's not an infinite-death
scenario, of course).
> Now, it is perfectly possible and even not that difficult, afterWhy of course! It *is* a very difficult manoeuvre, but I'm mad at
> you've done it once to enter "Everywhere but in the Water" from
> the left and pass it to the right you just need to do it /below/
> the black fish, sort of half-buried in the ground.
myself for not spotting the possibility.
> m) "Climbing up the Castle Tower" [059]I look forward to playing Willy's New Mansion properly one day (I'm
>
> Just as a bit of self-advertisement: "Climbing up the Castle
> Tower" is practically a copy (with changed cell-graphics and
> colours and guardian sprites) of the room "Upper Balcony" [32]
> from my first game "Willy's New Mansion".
in the process of playing through all Spectrum MM/JSW games
systematically, but I'm only up to 1998, and haven't even played one
since my hard-disk crash in March due to tennis-distractions
followed by the ongoing playtesting of Mind Control).
> r) "Scary Dungeon" [097]And very nice it is, too ["The Cellar"].
>
> Andrew wrote:
>
> > Atmospheric and fun to play, this is the best example of a ramp-
> > conveyor (as well as a conveyor-ramp) I've ever seen. I almost
> > always write off ramp-conveyors as an ugly construct when writing
> > my own rooms, but here it works well.
>
> Another bit of self-advertisment: "Scary Dungeon" is a developed
> version of the room "The Cellar" [19] from "Willy's New Mansion".
> 6. A very general considerationWhereas if it's one huge, sprawling map with lots of choice-points
>
> Andrew wrote:
>
> > I'm not really keen on the idea of JSW games having more than 64
> > rooms anyway - with so many MM/JSW games, and so little time in
> > my life to play them, I prefer JSW in smaller doses.
>
> Not to defend "JSW: MC" at all (it's not /that/ huge, it only has
> just over 100 rooms excluding the final sequence), but just in very
> general terms this is a controversial preference, because:
>
> a) Arguably it takes a comparable amount of time to play one 256-
> room game and four 64-room games. The 256-room game will almost
> certainly take longer to play, but it depends on its geography. If
> the layout is consciously navigation-friendly, the difference may
> be minimal (e.g. you have four centrally-located rooms and four
> sections with 63 rooms each; each of these section is practically
> played as if it were a separate game and at the end takes you back
> to the central rooms).
and one-way exits, the time required to play it will tend to be
exponential rather than linear in the number of rooms.
> b) In such case the postulate of games not having more than 64I'm not saying that at all. I would merely discourage authors from
> rooms because of the lack of time to play them could practically b
> translated as: Don't design so many games, because I don't have the
> time to play them. Of course time constraints are a huge factor for
> many (most? all?) of us, but discouraging designing games would
> certainly go against the spirit of this Group, wouldn't it? :-)
setting out to create a JSW game with more than 64 rooms unless
there's a very good reason for doing so (to do justice to the
concept of the game).
And I would encourage authors embarking on a new JSW game to think
very carefully about the map they're about to create.
> c) The size of the playing field is only one factor whichWhen I playtested Goodnite Luddite on my real Spectrum - without the
> determines how much time must be spent if someone wants to play the
> game to completion, and I would say that it may not even be the
> most important one. More important is often the degree of the
> challenge posed by the game. So while someone might complete Herve
> Ast's "Jet Set Willy in Paris", which has almost 200 rooms (not
> counting the final sequence), in two or three hours perhaps, one
> might spend dozens of hours struggling with "We Pretty" or
> "Goodnight Luddite" which have only 64 rooms each (and never
> complete them, if they're not expert players :-) ).
benefit of snapshots or the speed-up key (` in RealSpectrum) - I
toilet-completed it in one four-hour sitting (with the help of a
Paracetamol after two hours, I must admit).
And when I playtested Ma jolie - which is completely linear and only
has 20 rooms - on my real Spectrum, it took me six hours!!!
Difficulty is a linear factor in the time it takes to complete a
game; geography can be an exponential one.
> So the "time problem" could also be rephrased as follows: "I'm notI'm not saying that at all. Designing challenging rooms, and working
> really keen on the idea of JSW games being very difficult anyway -
> with so many MM/JSW games, and so little time in my life to play
> them, I prefer JSW in smoother doses", or, more bluntly: Don't
> design so difficult games because I don't have the time to play
> them. But such postulate would also go against the spirit of this
> Group and against the very essence of Broadsoft, wouldn't it? :-)
out whether a room is possible to complete - that's what I'm on the
MM/JSW scene for.
I find most authors' MM/JSW rooms very easy to play anyway, compared
with my own rooms (Mind Control is one of the most challenging games
on a room-by-room basis; Strangel is the most difficult non-
Broadsoft MM/JSW game I can think of).
> d) The "time problem" is also related to the question of why weI felt like the second person you describe when I only had the
> play JSW games at all, and to the question of "getting results"
> versus "spending your time pleasantly". Of course somebody may want
> to play games quickly e.g. a JSW author who wants to see what
> other authors have done, but has little time. This person needs
> /results/, and needs them as quickly as possible, because what
> he/she really wants to spend their time on is designing, but for
> this they need the knowledge of the existing games. Their desire to
> be able to progress through the existing games swiftly is
> completely justified, of course. However, there may be another
> person, who just wants to be able to roam around the rooms and
> leisurely discover new JSW worlds, perhaps even without really
> wanting to complete the game. This person is looking for
> /pleasure/, because spending time playing JSW is pleasant for
> him/her, so the more time they can spend playing a game,
> the more happiness they get. And they could say: Why does this game
> have /only/ 64 rooms? Or: Why is this game /so/ easy? depending
> on what they get most of their joy from (exploring large numbers of
> rooms or overcoming difficulties).
original Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy.
But I am a completist, and I can't play a new JSW game without
thinking how much I want to complete this game - and them all - even
if I'm only going to do it in the distant future.
I get my pleasure in life from setting myself routines to follow.
Routines which have rigid, predefined criteria. Routines which must
be completed, or kept up with, at all costs. It gives me great
pleasure to establish these routines for myself, and again whenever
I meet one of my goals with 100% success.
In 1996, for example, it seemed perfectly sensible to me to type
MM/JSW games into my real Spectrum, 1024 bytes a day, as there were
only two MM and six JSW unofficial sequels on the Internet by then.
But the Great Willy Games Explosion of 2000 meant that I would have
to type in three or four kilobytes a day, just to keep up with the
release-rate. To be honest, I was relieved when my real Spectrum
died in April 2003.
So nowadays I just have to play them all on RealSpectrum, but even
that is difficult to keep up with as there are now over 70 MM/JSW
games, and I have other (mainly tennis-related) routines competing
for my free time (whose external inputs are also coming in at a much
greater rate than when I established them).
Right now, I'm having to think very seriously about how I might
relax the criteria of my routines in order to rebalance the
priorities of my life. I would certainly like more time for playing
and editing JSW than I've given myself this year, and to be able to
reply to emails/Group-messages at a greater rate than I am putting
incoming emails aside to be replied to later.
> Okay, forgive my "massive" post. We won't have much time toHehe! :-)
> play /any/ MM/JSW games if we have to read such long messages,
> will we? :-)
--------------
Reply to Sendy
--------------
>> 1. The geography problem and "The Mystic Room of Many Exits"Or even just an overview-map, highlighting the major choice-points?
>>
>> I do admit that geography is a problem in "MC". I also think that
>> there is little that can be done about it at this stage of
>> development.
>
> You could include a map, either of screenshots, or a text-based
> one?
Such a diagram could complement the description of the optimal route.
>> My inspiration for "The Mystic Room of Many Exits" came fromActually, "mystic" can be used as an adjective too - as an
>> Stuart J. Hill's "Utility Cubicles" and the sequence "The Green
>> Room" "The Red Room" "The Blue Room", which makes the
>> navigation easier between various points of the game. And I hope
>> that the word "Mystic" justifies to an extent the fact that the
>> exits take you to unexpected places :-) . Or would "Mysterious"
>> be better, as it's a mystery where each of the exits takes you?
>
> I prefer 'mysterious' or 'mystical', since 'mystic' is a noun
> AFAIK.
alternative to "mystical".
> a bit of inconsistency is sometimes required since English is notNo indeed! :-)
> as pure as logic or mathematics.
> Personally I think the only problem is that the rightmost holeYuck.
> looks like you might be able to drop down onto a lower screen and
> come to think of it the hole to the left of that is also a
> candidate for luring the player to an unfair death. One possible
> solution is to extend the conveyor at the bottom to go right the
> way along, blocking up all the holes and 'conveying' you into the
> fire blocks if you fall in but don't die from falling.
> > - The first ledge on the right is OK, because you areYes, that would be much better - preferably with an invisible
> > actually /meant/ to step off it and fall down.
>
> Oh, I didn't spot that. In that case, I'd be tempted to just leave
> the Sky Landing as it is *shrug*. Preferably, you should make it so
> both 'friendly' looking holes are safe to go down, perhaps so that
> the second hole down into the clouds should land you on a right
> conveyor which then drops you down the chute?
conveyor from (2,21) to (2,27) in "Falling through the Clouds" [99].
> I also think it's cool to have places where there's a risk ofI agree. In We Pretty, I deliberately left it possible to get stuck
> infinite death, provided it's not difficult. It adds a bit of
> tension.
in "THESA FET YZ ON E" and have to reset the game,
because I enjoyed the thrill of danger at that point (even on a real
Spectrum without the ability to snapshot).
It's okay to do that *once* in a JSW game, where the probability of
your attempt to complete the game ending with infinite death is slim.
What's really annoying is finding loads of infinite-death scenarios
in a JSW game, many of which could easily have been eliminated if
the author had tried all possible exits while playtesting each room.
> However, some emulators seem to display all Bright colours asSo does RealSpectrum, although I use the emulator in full-screen
> really ugly and garish. I like zx32 because it seems to aggree with
> JSWED about colours :)
mode for maximum authenticity - a slightly different experience from
viewing a room in JSWED! :-)
> Incidentally, I meant to post the feedback I wrote for WNM to theI always prefer to have feedback in this Group rather than in a
> club, instead of privately sending it to you :). I was really
> impressed by it. I might dig it up and post it if I can find it.
private email.
> Not a quirky feature at all, but useful nonetheless. I spotted itIt was this very pattern that caused me to swear out loud when I
> in my own "Crazy Milk Drink" while making a picture to send Daniel.
>
> 000#x
> -----
>
> Not sure if that came out ok. 0 is for air and x is fire, - is the
> platform and # is earth. Adding guardians spices it up a bit.
realised it couldn't be crossed from left to right, having exited
and reentered "Crazy Milk Drink" at the left!
||||||---------..-------...|||||
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|------...-...--------.....|-..|
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*........|*............*...|..-|
......---|-................|....
.........|...-.....*......$|-...
|-.......|...>>>>>>>>>>--||-|||.
|........|.................|..||
...-..---|-....................|
........*|...*..../..*.........|
--------|-|-----------------|..|
Crazy Milk Drink!
--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/willy/
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