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2023-07-19 22:46 dustin  
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the history of the arab digit "1" is amazingly simple: people started by representing "one" by a single vertical (or horizontal) stroke. later, it was found more practical too add a shorter diagonal starting line for more fluent writing. et voila, here we have the modern shape already! :d  
  
those who like to play around for themselves can try to create the following digits with a similar method. for which digits does it work well and when does it start to get problematic? just keep following this little series if you've become curious... ;)

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2023-07-20 06:02 Rob Gilbert  
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nice one! Another really interesting and enjoyable series,  dustin !  
Hmm, I wonder why they started writing an extra line on the bottom as well at some point?.. maybe to differentiate it with the digit 7? I mean, Americans usually either write the straight line, or, if they add the extra line on the top, they also add the one on the bottom (underlining the whole thing) :/

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2023-07-20 19:19 nesdori  
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i see, the seed is also 1 :)

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2023-07-20 22:11 dustin  
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 Rob Gilbert , thanks :) good question! distinguishing "1" from "7" has definitely been an issue for a long time in writing history, and yes, according to wiki (i just checked it) the extra bottom line (as it can be seen also at  the "1" written here at this site) is one of the methods to do so. other methods are a similar bottom line at the "7" (in this case, of course, the "1" goes without the bottom line or it wouldn't make much sense :D) or - maybe most popular - the extra horizontal line in the middle of the "7". (this extra line can not be found in early forms of "7"!) or you can write the "1" only with the vertical stroke and the "7" normally.   
  
 nesdori : ah, you discovered the little easter egg! :d

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2023-07-21 06:11 Rob Gilbert  
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thanks for the info,  dustin ! indeed, all these things are interesting to delve into and discover.  
  
and one more question ( nesdori  and  dustin ): what exactly is meant by the seed of 1? i come across the reference to a seed from time to time when exploring various caves here, but i'm not sure what exactly it's referring to, so i feel stupid, haha.

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2023-07-21 11:26 dustin  
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 Rob Gilbert , THE (RANDOM) SEED IS A STARTING NUMBER FOR THE RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR (RNG) WHICH WAS USED BY THE C64. IN BD, IT WAS AND IS USED TO MAKE A (PSEUDO-) RANDOM FILL OF CAVES.   
  
FOR EXAMPLE, BOULDER DASH 1, CAVE A USES THE FOLLOWING RANDOM FILL:   
SPACE 60, Β 50, Α 9 (THESE ARE THE DENSITIES)  
RANDOM SEED: LEVEL 1: 10, LEVEL 2: 11,..., LEVEL 5: 14  
  
JUST TRY IT OUT IN THE CONSTRUCTION KIT:  
| click on "predictable random fill"  
| enter the densities above (just set the firefly density to 0) and, for example, random seed 10 (default)  
| generate and the random fill of bd1, cave a/1 appears (just compare with the map)!   
| if you choose the same densities and seed 11, then you get the fill of a/2, and so on.

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2023-07-21 15:10 Rob Gilbert  
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 dustin , wow, this is really fun! i tested it in the construction kit, and indeed, that's how it works. thanks a lot for helping me figure it out! also, i learned something new about the construction kit here (still need to get back to making some caves at some point, though currently i'm quite obsessed with just playing :D )

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2023-07-21 22:26 dustin  
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 Rob Gilbert , you're welcome :) in my case, it's kind of the other way round - i invested much more time in creating caves than in playing other's fangames! recently i started to play more intensely, and it's very fun and inspiring too :d