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Message: 5396
Author: Daniel
Date: 04/01/2006
Subject: Rope-Teleport phenomenon
Igor wrote:
> Poor Daniel, his amazing new quirky feature appeared to be an oldOkay, so it is nothing new, but I still think it is an amazing
> kind "rope-teleport" effect. Yep, all the new is quite good
> forgotten old things.. =)
feature, especially if it could be used consciously - see the
suggestion at the end of the message.
Yesterday I spent some time investigating the phenomenon, and here
are the results.
I have uploaded a file called "RT.zip" (the abbreviation of "Rope-
Teleport") to my folder ("Daniel Gromann") in the Files section. It
contains six pertinent files.
The files' description:
Snapshots RT_A1.z80, RT_A2.z80 and RT_A3.z80 were taken after
jumping through the ILBs both in "A Little Room with a View" and
in "Playing with Yourself".
Snapshots RT_B1.z80 and RT_B2.z80 were taken after jumping through
the ILB only in "A Little Room with a View".
A "base snapshot" was the starting point for both series of
snaphots. All snapshots were taken using ZX32 emulator.
RT_A1.z80 snapshot taken moments before "the thing" happens, but
still in "Playing with Yourself";
RT_A2.z80 snapshot taken a second later, already in "The Pool
Table", but before "the thing" happens;
RT_A3.z80 snapshot taken right after "the thing" happened;
RT_B1.z80 snapshot taken after passing through "Playing with
Yourself" without jumping through the second ILB;
RT_B2.z80 snapshot taken right after "the thing" happened after
RT_B1;
RT.rzx RZX recording of "the thing" happening, done using
Spectaculator 6.1 and RT_A2.z80 file (if you want to see it, please
open an emulator capable of handling .rzx format files first and
then open the file, don't just double-click on the file because you
will miss the first second or so of the recording).
Indeed, the phenomenon does NOT depend on the second jump through
the ILB, because it happened both after having performed this jump
and without performing it. Andrew must be right in suggesting that
it does not have anything to do with jumps through ILBs.
I tried to reproduce the phenomenon using snapshots RT_A1, RT_A2 and
RT_B1 in various emulators. I would say that sometimes it happens
and sometimes it doesn't; however, I haven't been able to establish
why or associate its occurrence with any specific conditions.
I have been able to reproduce the effect in the following emulators:
- ZX32 v. 1.03.98.0211
- X128 v. 0.94
- MultiMachine 1.30b
- Spectaculator 6.1
I have also tried with Warajevo 2.51, but it didn't seem to handle
the game file correctly at all. I would be interested if Andrew
could reproduce it (from the above snapshots) in RealSpectrum. Try
to hold down one of the movement keys ("Left" or "Right") for a
second (as if for continuous movement) to see if it happens. Also, I
would be very interested in the results of SPECSAISIE Compare (or
rather Andrew's interpretation thereof, since purely technical data
would most probably be meaningless to me).
I was not able to reproduce the phenomenon /every/ time after
opening an emulator and loading one of the files RT_A1, RT_A2 or
RT_B1. Sometimes the phenomenon happened with a "virgin" file (that
is, immediately after opening the emulator and loading one of the
files), and sometimes only after loading the above files several
times (one after another) without closing the emulator. It
definitely happened most often with ZX32.
So I am still puzzled, and I think it would be very interesting to
establish WHY it happens, because if we knew it, then perhaps it
would be possible to use it consciously. My idea is that you could
prevent the player from climbing the rope with Fire-cells through
which the rope passes (like in the room "Volcano Eruption" [093]
in "Mind Control"), or making it impossible to jump onto the rope
because of the distance, and then the only way to access the room
above would be with this trick wouldn't it be cool?
The fact that the phenomenon sometimes happens, and sometimes it
doesn't, and that it /seems/ to happen more often in ZX32 than in
the other emulators I have tried also provokes one important, and
very disquieting question: IS IT POSSIBLE THAT A GAME WILL RUN
DIFFERENTLY IN VARIOUS EMULATORS? If so, would it be possible to
design a game which it is possible to finish in one emulator, but
not in another? If the answer to the latter question were "yes",
wouldn't it shake the very foundations of Miner Willy's universe?
Daniel
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