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<Dave> Ha ha! Should've spotted that when I was wondering what the 1964 reference was. :) |
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<Dave> Don't worry about it, Mark. I once thought the same thing and, if you're anything like me, you will get stalled now and again. I found once I got to that point that solutions came like buses: One here or there and then you get a session where things just fall into place and you nail a whole bunch of them, then things tick over nicely for a while until you hit the wall again. It's kept going like that, right down to now. About 8 weeks ago, having not solved one for months, two of them fell into place within an hour. Then no more progress until I finally ticked off another one yesterday. Genius is no substitute for sheer bloody-minded determination, but sometimes you just have to wait until you're in the right mindset. <Dave> Looking forward to tomorrow's 1700 level :) <Dave> Ni Mark, I was planning to delete it anyway. Just though I'd leave it a up a few days for fun. By searchable comments, I meant 'text' searchable rather than searchable by level. I sometimes recall non level specific things which have been discussed in comments and without remembering which level the discussion was in there is no easy way of finding them again. I usually find it quicker to pull up level comments by getting the level number from the game, pulling up comments for any random level and overwriting the level number in the URL "...bar.org/f/a/escape/level/3537?spoilers=1" <Dave> Wow! Dungeon is a total rip-off and not a good one. I guess there is no way to copyright a game concept. Electricity is water, hugbots are knights, daleks are evil knights, sliders are carts, and lasers are dart-shooters. When two evil knights crash they turn in to some kind of pile of dead bodies and armour. Everything else is the same including most of the graphics ideas. I note that Tom is only creditted as a level author and even that is hidden away in a readme. It was clearly made after the introduction of bots but before bombs. Instead it has pink spheres based on the ones used in CC. I will be generous and assume the idea was to take Escape and try to merge in CC elements but it never got that far. Graphics quality is terrible as are the controls, so I would advise anybody else thinking of having a look not to waste your time. <Dave> Jim, just been for a reccy. Looks like they right are in the middle of building a another LP release right now so the chances of getting any attention are about zero squared anyway. Just had a play of a couple of Joshua Bone's new levels - and, yes, the time limit is still as irritating as ever. Funny thing is CC levels are fun to build but so annoying to play. <Dave> Jim, I'm not a huge CC fan for the same reasons as you, I only discovered it because of Escape. It was never included in the release of WEP I had many years ago, only later found out that some games were editted out of the early UK release. That said, it is a very interesting game, not least because the level creators prefer to incorporate the bugs into levels rather have the game fixed, but Escape wins every time as far as I'm concerned. I don't have any direct contact with anybody. Could try posting on the CC message board... may catch the attention of John Lewis or Davis Stolp but I would bank on it. <Dave> You won't find the original Chip's Challenge for MAC but I think you can get a MAC version of TileWorld which is a better option anyway. It may not come bundled with the level set files, but they are easily available. <Dave> Born and bred East London. Probably would have ended up somewhere on the continent, instead of here, if I wasn't quite so linguistically inept ;) <Dave> Pieguy, Joshua Bone, and, especially, John Lewis have been busy in the Chip's Challenge camp. Myst and Riven. That takes me back a few years, was living in Holland then so it must have been about 2001, think the others came later. Loved them, but I dread to think what the graphics on the original would look like now! <Dave> I couldn't agree more Kirima, and quite a few of those 3000ish players are N7DOT :=). Question to all: How did you come across the game in the first place? About 4 or so years ago, I found a ancient copy of Sokoban on a back-up disk, played through all the levels and started wondering if the concept had been taken further. A search of the net revealed quite a few games which I downloaded and tried one by one. They were all unsatisfactory until I chanced upon Escape which was maybe about the 5th one I tried. Even then, it took me a little while to really get into it. These are many many reasons for the lack of players but I think the biggest one is lack of profile. Just pretend you don't know about Escape, type something like 'block pushing puzzle game' into google and try and find the first hit. Only the determined or the already initiated will find it. This profile will have gradually dropped over recent years as the battle for high placement on the search engine lists has intensified. Social media based games, sponsored mobile apps, and heavily pushed commercial releases have more or less totally bumped Escape out over the last 4 years. This was the main reason I thought of resurrecting the FB page, but maybe that wasn't the best idea, I guess we'll just have to think of a different way. I also think the lack of in-game or searchable comments is a big problem when it comes to retaining new players. I seem to remember that radiant had an idea for implementing a forum, does anybody recall this? <Dave> Correct, both Mod 14 and The Wrong Parity remain on my list. Never properly looked at at Block Cipher and probably won't until these two are out of the way. |
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<mm> Thank you Xeno for reducing the size! It looks good now on my 13 inch screen, only the last row number 20 is cut, but as Mark said before, most of the time, this would not bother me either as it's rare that it would be used for playing, most of the time it just consists of blue tiles. |
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<Dave> Maybe we should implement a maximum size, laptop friendly, rule for future series. My laptop does 21, so Mark's 19 is the worst case so far. Any further bids? <Dave> PS. This will need to happen quickly before any of that space is used. |
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<noname> It seems Tom is too busy at other things, so I think this level will stay in graveyard. I will try to upload this level again with a small change. |
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<N7DOT 3> Also, about the size issues, on the computer I'm currently using, up to and including a height of 25 will fit on the screen while playing the level. When editing the bottom row drops off though. |
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<mark> Anything bigger than 19 x 31 goes of the edge of my screen. Hieght 20 is ok as you dont always need to see bottom row. <mm> Thank you, Mark! And thank you also for talking about the size of this level: I also think it's huge, it doesn't show on my small labtop screen so I have to zoom out. Width 30 is o.k., but height 25 is large. Height 20 is the max. showing properly. But I might not be able to really play the game this time, so please choose any size you want. |
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<Dave> PPetcS. Thinking about good players, we haven't heard anything from wowei or radiant for a while and I am really beginning to miss their input. <Dave> Right! Done it! Took a break after solving 19, came back to 20 and solved it at the first attempt. What's really annoying is that I had been working on exactly the right basic idea for a couple of days, I was just looking for a more complex solution when an easy one was staring me in the face. Solving 19 probably didn't help much in terms of stategy, but certainly helped in the sense that it unfogged my mind. Curiously, I have first-solved all of 15, 17, 18, 19, and 20 (16 was mine anyway) using the intended solution, which is pretty unusual for a mods series. <mark> Well done Dave just seen speedrun 19. When i started this game escape Balls by alex was on top of the list so ive been playing 7 months max. i have just under 600 left to go but i like to solve every new level as they come. Have not done dont shoot yourself by Dave or the last 2 mods by noname. I have plenty levels to choose from and one day ill try planetry mystery series. I dont really like the sokoban type levels as much even though thats what brought me to this game. yesterday and today ive had a rest from 20 and ticked off all the auto generated levels,I thought some of them were a lot harder than the 3's they were scored. |
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<mark> Only done this to get away the srtains of 20 |
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<noname> Tom 7, could you move this level back to triage, as Kirima and Jim think that this should be brought back? |
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<Dave> I am hoping to, just not got much time on my hands at the moment, and what little time I can find is currently being used up by my failed attempts to crack 19 and 20 :) |
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