just wait for cave 9 :d

Yeah, who knows :) But it feels appropriate, intended or not :D

ah, you think it could be an intended feature because of new year's eve? interesting, i haven't thought about that! :D

Haha, interesting - this cave actually features some fireworks, too, from time to time :D

After warmth, ^ goes to clear more ice. But ice butterflies are everywhere, and those stubborn ice boulders are again in his way. Time to do what he does best: make more \!

^ is warming up from all the digging, but now the chimney is all dusty and full of butterflies. More \, I suppose!

more stubborn ice boulders. the last box seems difficult, but not impossible. the cold is biting, ^ is hurrying..

heywood: actually, breath of the wild isn't my favorite zelda game, it was just a reference that came to my mind quickly :d

my fav is still "a link to the past", my childhood rpg for super nes :) still have it, both an snes and the game :d

botw is nice, but a bit too much open world exploration for my taste. i prefer the classical dungeons!

your second favourite zelda game?

having escaped the big yet narrow maze, Κ hears a distant, familiar noise. following the noise, he finds another note lying on the ground before him.

'welcome to my greenhouse! your task here is to make it past all the growing mass! for this, i have a horde of blast-ended skrewts prepared for you, but make sure to hide somewhere safe during the action! in the end, however, you will also have to use your brain to solve the final challenge! and, yes, the bonus is a bit random this time, literally, because it can be trivial or impossible depending on chance! that's how you deal with wild plants, don't expect to predict them completely, that's the breath of the wild! now get to work, don't just stand there! greetings, professor shout. p.s. beware of the starting gun!'

no sooner has Κ looked up from the note than a deafening explosion happens directly before him. he's dazed at first, but then he spots a faint glitter behind the smoke. needless to say there was no holding back anymore - curtains up for a new adventure! :d

remark: the bottom half is highly inspired by Arno dash 9 cave 4!

remark 2: bd1 i/infinity is finally finished, so the series will soon continue! i considered uploading it today, but then i thought that we already have a new expert cave from Arno to crack, so i uploaded this comparatively moderate cave first ;)

it's looks like that previous version was easier

changed layout (more rows)

Thanx and well done!

Indeed, during design i discovered, from modulo 8 on, that actually 2 frames "worked". So i placed voodoos above to enforce one of them.

Also interesting, how to create the correct delay, in particular at the beginning, since some of the very short delays are not possible to create, and there are too little diamonds/boulders in the pool to add modulo x to it.

The bonus challenge to get all diamonds adds even more restrictions...

Last note, my run is probably far from optimal, so for the highscore hunters, there are, at least in theory, various ways to outscore my run... ;-D

ah, and of course, the cso-ish "handovers" among the ΖΖΖ are a very nice bonus :d

ha! still "in time"! :d

95 percent of the solution was paperwork, defining a specific frame close to the end of the Ζ's journey (or, more precisely, the ΖΖΖ's relay race) as frame 0 and then working backwards, all modulo 64. all to figure out the exact delays between the Ζ "handovers". then another big part was to figure out how to actually set these exact delays in the ΒΒΒ-ΑΑΑ-boxes. i worked out some formulas but sometimes they weren't sufficient so i combined them with trial-and-erroring. in one word, it was a lot of fun! :d

the pure gameplay was actually a lot easier than in episode 1 because Κ isn't in a hurry as he doesn't have to walk through the ΖΖΖ area himself :d

i haven't tried for all ΑΑΑ, though, this would be a completely new thing, less math-y, more gameplay technique-y :d

hi Helena and thx :) guess i wanna do some fun math before even attempting to play this cave :d

Happy BD!

Thank you dustin, greetings to you too! This cave I have enjoyed watching the making of, looking forward to all your solutions (and I got a sneak peek of Arno's)?

Happy birthday, Arno! thanks so much for the inspiring caves! :)

thx so much dustin! :-D

i'd like to finish this cave then say "happy birthday" and comment on the cave in one go. but... i guess i will probably not be able to finish the cave while your birthday is still actual! so let's make seperate comments :d

happy 44!

or, as my father would put it, happy 45th birthday! (he likes to count one's actual day of birth as 1st.) i mention this because with this counting, your birthday number is the square root of the year :d

and thank you so much for your bd website! if i hadn't discovered it during my studying time, i would probably only have some faint memories left about my childhood game. as it is, it's... a little different :d

hope you have a good day, and greetings to Helena!

the successor of my previous cave, now with timing modulo 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64. plus, another way of preparing the delays, where the timing is the main goal, and leaving no diamond behind a bonus challenge! :-)

this is my birthday treat for ya all, enjoy! :-D

four Κs compete for the glittery ΑΑΑ to buy christmas presents - but three of them got stuck in the snow! luck for the fourth, but will the others let him escape with the treasures...?

^ is doing digging but encounters stubborn ice that just seems immovable! but those stubborn ice | can be turned into shiny ice \! He just needs to be mindful of what walls to use to get the best quota..

out of santa's magic factory, snow has fallen everywhere, so Κ might want to solve this standard cave with gloves, beanie, scarf and slip-resistant shoes!

These caves have great design, hehe :) very diverse and saturated!

santa's magic factory :-)

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow... but not onto Κ's head! better the ΗΗΗ's :d

reduced quota to 65\ and increased time

Another great cave! :) Nice planning with all the falls through the magic wall :D

Arno: fun to watch you search for your own Ξ in the end :d

this one is already way more challenging - the bells must jingle, but there are some grouches trying to ruin the atmosphere!

Rob Gilbert: Check the "Database - original boulders" list.

Thanks, krissz! Didn't know it was available online, that's great! :)

You can play with the original one in this site:

https://boulderdash.krissz.hu/originals/santas-bd-party/

The original C64 game by Arno looks really cute and christmas-y :)

Now imagine if we could have the spritesheet swapped for Christmas in here :D :D

Thanks a lot, Arno! :)

Danke schon und merry xmas! :-D

By the way, original with xmas graphics is downloadable here, can de played with c64 emulator:
https://www.boulder-dash.nl/bdgb/view_game.php?g=santasbd

darkstoorm: yep, though not with original graphics :d

Ah, now I remember, the caves are also available in gdash!

Cool, I need to play that! :D

Rob Gilbert: you' re welcome, credits to Arno :d yes it is still downloadable on Arno's game base for c64 with original graphics :)

BTW, never played the original xmas game from 2o04, is it still available anywhere?

A really nice cave to bring us all a bit of Christmas mood and magic! Thanks, dustin! :)

starting this year's christmas season with Arno's xmas game from 2004! :d

actually, one main feature of the game is the special xmas graphics, but even without that, it's surely a nice game to have here at this site :)

from what i've played so far, the difficulty is mixed - this first one is surely more about the shape than about difficulty ;)

ah! i accidentally did that during testing but i think i crushed myself shortly afterwards!

well my little "light Π skip" is nowhere close to being a big shortcut, but still ;)

solutions that were unintended in the design are always nice to see, especially if they provide a big score bonus. my favourite was darkstoorm's major shortcut in my 'sulphur town' cave. :)

i don't know if it's intended, but my solution works without the light Π (although it was by chance) :d

another innovative idea which reminds me of one of my own caves - dustin's bd21 cave p ;)

solution free! :d

- the vault -

still having fun searching for the best random seed for the "bd1 infinity" series :d

i'm looking for seeds where no more than 99Α are possible, to stay compliant with the bd1 engine two-digit limit.

this one (random seed 94) was a candidate on my list... until i found a way to break into a "vault" with a lot of extra ΑΑΑ inside!

the requirement of 100Α is not the maximum, but it is necessary to find and break into the "vault" for it!

inside the vault, there are so many extra ΑΑΑ that not all of them are required!

difficulty: 6/10

whoops, this should actually be #60.

a nice, little circular walk with a lot of treasures by the roadside - but beware of the oncoming traffic!

of course, it's now not the fireflies, but the butterflies that are annoying ^. thankfully there's a fickle amoeba that is right there. But if he plays his cards right, he can expect more than just butterfly \ -- or he'll be buried in |!

they really seem to like this idea to trap an ΘΘΘ... ;d

you could think that dustin's bd25 int 5 was inspired by this cave, but no, my idea was independant. it was funny to discover this cave only months after my dbd25 release :d

...and quickness.

so many fireflies, but with a bit of cleverness, ^ can indeed take the money and run!

this is a remake of dustin's bd25 cave p.

the idea is to keep the Ζ in the box as long as possible.

open question: is the 120th Α possible to get?
--------------

my demo shows the 119Α solution we already figured out in the original cave.

other 119Α solutions are welcome as well!
in particular, nesdori commented that he's found four slightly different 119Α solutions - i'd love to see them (and Arno said he would too)! :d

slow speed to make solutions easier to perform. and a high reward for the last Α! :d

i actually like the mathematical nature of the question if 120Α are possible!

ah, and btw: yes, my sleeping rhythm is slightly off today - i fell asleep on the couch after dinner and woke up at 1 a.m. luckily there's the weekend ahead :d

Κ got imprisoned for thievery, but his accomplices come to break him free - and they even got the money with them!

i mean this tab has been open in my browser for about two years now but I clearly have a lot of historical as well as technical knowledge to catch up on. :D

"of course" this is in the cso series as well:

"cave scanning order 20 lv2"
"cso 114 the amoeba's ambush" - here the effect has to be avoided for success (by luck)
these are the caves i remember, anyway ;)

there are two other fancaves in my head too, one from Arno, one from rta dash, but i don't recall them exactly.

very comprehensive and very clear, thank you!

when a fly is scanned, first it checks if there's something next to it which will cause it to explode (Κ or amoeba). If there is, it will explode, otherwise the fly will turn or move. after the fly moves, a check for the explosion is not done again, the check is done just once at the beginning of the fly scan procedure.

so when the fly is at the intersection, first it checks for amoeba or Κ and because there aren't any, it moves down. now the fly is next to a piece of amoeba but the explosion check was already done and the fly survives on this frame. then the scanning continues and amoebas get scanned. all amoebas are now enclosed so at the end of scan, enclosed-flag is set which will turn amoebas into Α during the next frame. each piece of amoeba is turned into Α when the amoeba is scanned next time. on the next frame, all amoebas are scanned before the fly so the piece of amoeba which is next to Κ is turned into Α before fly gets scanned. fly then checks for amoeba and Κ but there aren't any anymore, the amoeba just got converted into Α and the fly survives.

if the cave would be mirrored so that the fly would start at the left and the amoebas would on the right, the fly wouldn't survive but always explode. why's that?

the fly will eventually again move down next to the amoeba. the explosion check is done before the movement so the fly will survive. amoebas are again all enclosed so enclosed-flag is set after the scan.

but then on the next frame, now the fly is scanned before the amoebas because the fly is on left of them. now the fly checks for amoebas and finds one and explodes before the piece of amoeba next to it gets a chance to convert into Α. one piece of amoeba gets exploded and the rest will turn into Α when they are scanned.

i hope this explanation was comprehensive and clear enough :)

can anyone please explain how the firefly survives this scenario (assuming the amoeba doesn't grow a square first)?

what if ΗΗΗ were already introduced in cave a? probably most Κs would've never made it past this one... :d

difficulty: 3/10

:D :D :D

but for success, the reward is great!
although there's still no time to wait
so be fast for one minute straight!

too early, and you will not open the gate. too late, and ^ meets his fate!

What the heck :D:D haha nice!

nesdori: ha, cool! :d i also had ideas with the Η spinning like this, but then i saw the solution in my demo and somehow forgot to check the spinning idea properly :d

dustin, yes, my 6 sec solution is bit tricky but i also did another 8 sec run which is more orthodox and presumably is close to what darkstoorm and Arno did :)

i'll get back to 119Α maze cave later today..

my solution free! :d

my preparation looks a bit lengthy, but i haven'
t found a more direct way to crush the Η at the right place. it seems to me that nesdori has, though, so i'm curious! :d

the main cso theme is the way Κ catches the first two ΑΑ before they get "flushed". the trick is to grab the first Α in the same frame when its "birth" is finished (for that, Κ needs to be at the Α's right side). then the second Α is taken when it was just about to fall, but Κ is on top of the Α so he's scanned first.

nice one again! ;-D

b.t.w., i'm also curious to see the top solutions for dustin's bd25 cave p l5. is it already time to reveal them? as far as i'm aware, there's no 120 diamonds solution found by anyone yet, but there are alternative solutions for 119 (some with a "bonus frame"). one 199 run is shared by dustin, but i'm curious for the others found by nesdori! :-)

six seconds... interesting ;)

Really nice! :D

i'm glad to read that :)

absolutely, part of the reason I love the series.

guess that's a natural first reaction for many cso caves ;)

whaaaaaaat...

in the cso puzzle for november, Κ can easily create all the ΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑ he needs! so everything should be quite simple... or what?!

remark: originally, i planned to make a version of the previous cso cave, but meanwhile i discovered an unintended solution (see my new comment and demo there). the version has similar issues. i'm still trying to figure out how to fix this elegantly, so the version will probably pop up sometime later!

haste makes waste. to meet the cruel quota, ^ must carefully untrap the butterflies and smash them in a efficient way!

bonus points added by me!

another one of these nice little explosion puzzles the series has to offer! :d

that's great! :d

i have fun with all of them!

nice to see people having fun with this one :d

a simple one, here for the special effects ;)

"deviations of remorse"

well observed, altermaven, there was a very similar intermission in the series before ;)

where did I see this happen before? ;)

trapping an ΘΘΘ with smoke! :d

another cool "semi-automatic" cave :d

this one might not look so interesting at firstsight, but i found it quite tricky to figure out the best way to get enough ΑΑΑ! if Κ is imprudent, he can easily run short of ΑΑΑ!

this kind of caves with an automatic mechanism seems to be one of the trademarks of the pb series (at least from what i've seen until now, which is just 1/17 of the whole series!) :d anyway, i think these caves are always fun and worth playing :d

a few different challenges to solve in short time!

i enjoyed it a lot too :)

great cave.

happy 30th, tri repetae

Κ against a Η - the clever guy wins! :d

and that's it for dbd25! 26 will most likely be another "expert remix" like dbd15, with caves from the whole series where there are more ΑΑΑ possible than even the level 5 requirement was!

from the actual dbd25, caves n and p are quite likely to pup up there again :d

:) !

it never lasts, lol!

nice run Arno! :d

also, thanks for your interest in the little research! it's really a nice mathematical question if either a 120Α path exists or its existance can be disproven by relatively simple means :d

I've also tried for a while, but could not find a path for 120 diamonds.

I'm curious to see the alternative 119 runs!

i did myself a run of dustin's path for 119, including grapping 119 diamonds, however, this cave speed made it tough, so i did it in the l1 version of this cave, see:
https://boulderdash.krissz.hu/cave/AatdxNZ1T0c3/dustin-s-bd25-cave-p-l1/demo/153828/

the math (see my previous comment) works for my runs:

| in the 748 run, the path has two loops:
Α a 3x2 loop at the top-middle which can easily be fixed with an extra Γ
Α a 2x2 loop in the top-right corner, which can be fixed by mirroring the whole path. this results in my 758 run.

Β how many ΑΑΑ are possible each time?
Α the path in the 748 run is only good for 116 1/2 Α (116 + one bonus frame)
Α by fixing only the 3x2 loop with the extra Γ, this can be improved to 118 1/2Α
Α and finally, by mirroring (758 run), there are 119Α possible! (although the run doesn't show it, but i tested at lower speed).

this confirms (though not proves) my theory that for every looped path, a better non-looped path can be found!

also, i calculated the total value of the loop-less path in my 758 run, and the result was 243, two away from the 245 needed for a perfect 120Α run. so now i'm almost certain that i did the meth right in the previous comment (for non-looped paths).

i wonder if one of nesdori's 119Α solutions is identical to my 758 run :d i guess it is, because that path isn't too complicated ;)

darkstoorm, nesdori: i refrained from answering until now because i consider myself one of the most programming-noob physicians in the world, and i already stumbled over the term "genetic algorithm", although now that i read a bit about it it sounds very cool :d

here are my thoughts:

| about darkstoorm's counting: i think the Ζ has to spend 245 frames inside the 11x11 box (for a 120Α run to work):
- 8 frames until Κ is in front of the first Α (in the situation shown in darkstoorm's comment, the Ζ is already 2 frames in, now Κ must wait one more frame and then move 5 frames);
- 120 frames to take the ΑΑΑ, snapping the last one;
- and 119 frames back, from where he can go upwards to the Β to crush the Ζ.
- at that point, the Ζ is ideally 2 left from Κ, which means it's already two frames out of the box again.
so that makes 8+120+119-2 = 245 frames inside the box.

| thoughts on how to evaluate possible path constructions:

for the following, a "loop" is a space arrangement forming a closed circle, so that a Ζ (or Η) could be placed somewhere on the loop and, with some initial direction, stay inside the loop forever. (just the intuitive definition for a boulder dasher, i guess!)

i assume (by feel, for now) that paths without any loops are better than paths with loops, so i consider only paths containing no loops at all.

besides, a "path" is an arrangement of empty space in the 11x11 box where every space is connected to every other. (otherwise it's clearly not the optimum.)

on a loop-less path, it should be possible to easily value each empty space with a number that says how many frames the Ζ will be there in total:
Α value 4 if the space is connected to four other spaces in each direction (the Ζ will return four times for one frame each);
Α value 3 if the space is connected to exactly three other spaces (similar to above);
Α value 3 if the space has exactly two spaces around it, forming a corner (the Ζ will return two times, halting once)
Α value 2 if the space has two spaces around, forming a straight line;
Α value 3 if the space has exactly one space around it (the Ζ halts for two frames to make a 180 turn).

so the sum of the values of all spaces in a loop-less path must be at least 245.

plus some side conditions, like:
Α the top-left corner is always space
Α Κ must have enough room at the top-right to avoid the Ζ.
Α the top-right corner must also be space, plus you have to take into account that it has another space to its right side (which is outside the box but does count for the value of the top-right space inside the box).

i feel that with these abstract rules, it's not too far-fetched to assume that it might be possible for humans to prove or disprove the existance of a value 245 path, actually... :d

darkstoorm, interesting thoughts! when it's time to reveal the solutions, i'll show two different 119Α solutions with emphasis on different things which might give you even more ideas :)

dustin, nesdori: I'm gonna take a wild guess, maybe a genetic algorithm would do the trick? Never tried it, though :D

Not sure I want to attempt this, the only thing I tried for now was just printing the Ζ path length from a cave setup, placing randomly dirt/space and checking which one is the longest (only manually, though).

I didn't have much time to test this, but I assume the Ζ has to be scanned at least:
- 239 times (you snap the last Α)
- + whatever it takes ^ to get to the first Α, which I think is 7 if Ζ is to the left of the Ε corner
- + I think 2 to allow ^ to go up without getting touched (Ζ has to be 2 cells to the left when reaching the entrance)
- +1 more move to reach the entrance above ^ (first diamond is one cell to the right of the entrance above)

I might have missed something, because this gives 249 scans and depending on where we start measuring, my guess is that Ζ has to be scanned around 254 times for a 120Α run, assuming the following starting setting:

^.....Α Gonna miss one frame here no matter what;
.ΖΕΕΕΕΕ Ζ has to be scanned

No clue yet, but I'd love to see a full run!

heeey, nesdori, good to see you again after several months! :)

in fact, i was actually kinda hoping that you'd comment on this topic, i think such "path maximizing" tasks could be an interesting topic for further caves :d

darkstoorm, interesting idea to do another brute force search with computers after the whole dff search! maybe it would make sense to start with smaller 'boards' than 11x11, such that the brute force still ends before star trek begins :d then we could see if we discover patterns which can also be used for bigger boards!

darkstoorm, interesting idea but i think it would be a tough challenge for computers and ai to beat human mind here in sensible time. it's not only about the maze itself but also about Κ passing the fly. but maybe doable if the input already is 119Α solution and the task is just to improve that.. :) what i found difficult is that sometimes i ended up with closed sections and then deciding how to connect each section effectively was quite challenging at times.

This makes me think that maybe some "maze generator" for firefly would be in place that would search for the longest possible path in this setting, maybe it could find 120+! :D

of course 119Α and not 199Α :D

i got 199Α with four slightly different tries. it takes 2 frames improvement to get additional Α and all those were exactly the same "low" 199Α with 2 frames away from 200Α and not "high" 199Α with just one frame away.

it seems that there's fine balance between different means to maximize the time the fly spends on the left section. those means include maximizing the path length, maximize the number of locations where the fly visits 3-4 times (intersections) and maximize the turns the fly has to make (and avoid straight pathways). if you weight one those, the two other suffer. and no matter how i tried to weight them the best result is always 199Α although the solutions look a bit different.

because there have been so many 199Α:s, most probably i have missed something sometimes and at least high 199Α with one frame improvement should be possible. Maybe even 2 frames although currently it feels quite impossible.

update to dustin's difficulty ratings:

199Α, 9.5/10
200Α, still not sure if possible :)

"only" :D

I can only get 116 :D

and here comes the big final! with 111Α required, Κ has to dig a very efficient, time-consuming path for the Ζ.

i'm still wondering what the best possible path would be, such that the Ζ takes as much time as possible. when i tested this cave before the release, i tried different variants, and my best one got me 117Α.

so i released the game with the still open question if it's possible to get all the 120Α available! (and if it is possible, then how many more ΑΑΑ would be possible if the ΑΑΑ row continued?)

well, i guess it's already tricky enough to get the required 111Α! the best (visible) run on level 1 got "only" 106Α, so that still needs improvement!)

difficulty: 7/10 (117Α: 9/10, 120Α: not sure if possible)

whoa, that's more solutions in fewer attempts than i expected! :d

welcome to the incredibly insane maze chase! :d
features:
| 12 laps at the beginning with a Ζ on Κ's heels;
| 30Α lying in pits, grab them without getting trapped yourself!
| all ΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑΑ required, of course!
| an almost endless spiral at the end, this time with dozens of ΖΖΖ behind Κ;
| and all this in super-sonic speed!

difficulty: 9/10

- extra description for darkstoorm -
have fun! :d

difficulty: 2/10

i am honoured!

I was inspired by the beautiful heywood Cave 207, maintaining the core with lightweight boulders. My dream (or nightmare) was to collect all 271 boulders, or most of them. So far, I've only suffered from lumbago...

nesdori: the expert remix caves will have higher requirements, ideally with no other changes. it's similar to dustin's bd15 (the first expert remix i already made, with caves from dbd 1-14). however, i uploaded only a handful caves from that set here at this site, the reason being that the solutions were already shown in demos from the original caves! :d

it will most likely be a similar thing with the next expert remix. it will be a gdash game, but i don't see much sense in uploading the caves here at this site :d

so yes, i think it makes totally sense if you put all your efforts in this cave already! unless you think it would make sense to have a version where getting bonus ΑΑΑ is valued more by the scoring, in relation to the remaining time. with the scorings here, the ΘΘΘ might take too long to grow into the extra space, so it might not even be worth it for highscore?!

of course, you can also make a modified version yourself and upload it, feel free to do so if you like :)

dustin, how would the expert remix caves differ from the originals? different requirements and scoring maybe? i would say that 130Α is nowhere near the limit yet but i'm wondering if it's preferable to put the best effort already here or wait for the expert remix version :)

Alright, got 127 on my 678-score, but I missed one, Θ was too fast :D

looks like a perfect cave for my next expert remix game :d

122 :D

dustin: Actually, just 116 hehe, all the score comes from extra time

124Α :d i wonder how many you have, darkstoorm :d

i think it's quite tricky to make the ΘΘΘ cage as big as possible so that the ΒΒΒ don't collapse!

the question is how many ΑΑΑ are possible - when i released the game, my best had been 115Α if i recall correctly, but i just replayed it and got 120Α :d

111Α are already quite hard, i think.

difficulty: 7/10

let's continue the madness of level 5! the closer the finish line, the harder the caves - this one here is surely among the top 3 which trouble me most every time i play it! a big reason for that is the speed!

quite untypical for level 5, i gave one extra Α, just because i found this cave insane enough as it is :d

difficulty: 9/10

b-o-n-u-s c-h-a-l-l-e-n-g-e (with extra Α): 9.5/10

i think 100+ of those attemps were me but i was sure it was possible!

Yeah, I made sure all \ were able to be accessed. However, I did not say, by any stretch, that it would be *easy*! ;)

!

How many? All of them, hehe ^

in response to classic remakes, I took a seed from dangerdash 1 cave P that I debated on using, but didn't decide to, and I made a few alterations. now I wait an see how many \ you folk get to collect in this version of "plentiful"! get a move on ^!

ah, that's it :-D

this is just the normal level 1 seed (100) but with higher ΑΑΑ density! just for fun, not a result of my little research :d

but actually, i checked all possible seeds from 0-255 by now. my goal was to find a seed with the following two conditions:

| no more than 99 ΑΑΑ possible. (the reason is that my level infinity should be theoretically possible to create with the bd1 engine!) this condition is fulfilled by about ten percent of all seeds.

| among these seeds, i'm still testing to find the one where it's most challenging and interesting to get all the possible ΑΑΑ (ideally without pushing luck required.)

so actually, i didn't really look for the seed with the most ΑΑΑ possible - i sorted out the ones where i got 100+ ΑΑΑ immediately without trying to get as many ΑΑΑ as possible.

Is this rng seed value the one with most diamond possible? I guess so, Given that rockford can dive quite deep in the Middle area, and also gain quite an amount at the left side...

i tested so many cave i versions for the "bd1 infinity" series that i had to make at least one new classic remake cave out of it :d

this might be a welcome break between some super difficult dustin's bd25 level 5 caves :d

difficulty: 4/10

adjusted the rng

i will take them with thanks, enrico. :)

30 seems a long time ago now!

Oops... I had some doubts, but sometimes old age plays tricks on me. However, the wishes can remain, more than deserved.

the "30 years" was in reference to the 30th anniversary of tri repetae's release, which was 6 nov 1995. Before that, autechre had released two EPs, both which are 30 years old now:

\ Garbage EP (27 Feb 1995)
\ Anvil Vapre EP (2 Oct 1995)

best wishes to young heywood from grandfather enrico

time flies.

30 years old next month...

probably the intermission where the level makes the biggest difference, because of the speed!

THANKS!

i quite like it too, and congrat to your bicentum! ;)

Thank you :)

Excellent cave!

on the other hand, once Κ has figured out the way to do it, the implementation becomes relatively simple. and there's plenty of time - "thinking time" included! :d

here, the random seed makes all the difference - while on level 1, the ΒΒΒ were nicely placed next to the ΔΔΔ, it's a totally different thing here. the starting room is the key - here, Κ has to figure out not only how to blast the left and the right ΔΔΔ, but he also needs to prepare for the rest of the cave. it's a tricky escape puzzle!

difficulty: 8/10 (hardest cave so far imo)

glad you enjoy it :)

A really fun cave at level 5! :D

despite being a kind of dangerous mission to get the five ΑΑΑΑΑ amidst all the "deep-sea jellyfishes", this one is considered to be a breather compared to the other level 5 caves (especially in the second half of the game). not even the timer is very strict here.

difficulty: 4/10

this was named "the trick" which is actually a track title. It's off the "breathe" single by The Prodigy. The single "firestarter" has the b-side "molotov bitch".

Each iteration of this cave had you nick more and more \s from the central box while avoiding more fireflies in the process, but L5 not only had you get all of the \s and deal with a whole slew of fireflies here, but you were on big time pressure.

all three alternate rooms are very tricky due to the random seeds:
| this one requires extreme prudence plus a tricky trick;
| room 2: an insane ΖΖΖ gauntlet;
| room 3: another sort of "prudence plus trick" exavation puzzle.

what adds to the difficulty is that Κ cannot freely choose one of the puzzles to solve because the rng (ΘΘΘ) decides every time!

difficulty: 6/10