Earth Shaker Explotions

hushtoedicland · Post by **hushtoedicland** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 11:13 am

Earth Shaker Explotions

Has anyone completed level 9 (Tense fire cloudscape) of this game??

Have been trying to solve this one for weeks now & am beginning to think it is impossible. Anyone have a solution tape or tips for this level???

Thanks

Post by **Holger** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 10:52 pm

> Have been trying to solve this one for weeks now & am beginning to think
> it is impossible. Anyone have a solution tape or tips for this level???

Very interesting point! This level *should* be possible, as there's also a solution tape included for every level in this set (which can be loaded into the empty tape recorder by typing ":ist"). Unfortunately, I just had to notice that I missed to include this set into my automated tape tests (that ensures that all level sets with tapes are still solvable in later versions). Now when I checked the tapes of this set against pre-3.2.0, I had to find out that six out of 32 tapes are broken with the current engine, while they worked fine the last time with 3.0.8 (the version they were recorded with).

I will check if just the tapes are broken (and could be re-recorded with 3.2.0), or if the levels itself were broken by 3.1.0 and later versions, and therefore the engine would need some fixing... :-o

Please stand by! :-|

Post by **Holger** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 12:54 am

OK, have checked that now.

It seems that a few levels of this set rely on quite a nasty bug: They use custom elements ("bubbles") that can be pushed around and change when touching another custom element ("fire") -- as a result, both elements disappear. Unfortunately, the "touched by CE" condition is also triggered when these two different elements are placed next to each others and are then separated by the player by pushing one of it away from the other -- this is not really intended and was fixed in the very next version (from 3.0.8 to 3.1.0).

So it seems that these six levels that are affected by this issue need minor fixing and re-recording of the corresponding tape. :-o

Thank you for pointing me to this problem that was hidden so far by accident. :-(

hushtoedicland · Post by **hushtoedicland** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 9:59 am

Thanks for checking this out, I thought i was going mad by not being able to solve this level!!!!

Will look forward to be able to complete this level.

Thanks

hushtoedicland · Post by **hushtoedicland** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 2:24 pm

Further to by last post, I have found a copy of RnD version 3.0.8, and the level "Tense fire cloudscape" now works.

Now I can get on with the rest of the levels !!!!!!

What can I say? Earth Shaker Rocks!!!!

Dr S · Post by **Dr S** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 12:45 pm

Hi folks, sorry to drag this topic up from the depths of June...

I was the one who originally created these Earth Shaker levels (based on the excellent original Spectrum game by Michael Batty.) I used to post here ages ago, and just came back to see what's going on.

I have just downloaded 3.2.0 and will have a look at how my levels play on that. Hopefully I can remember how to operate the editor! If I remember correctly, I created the levels using version 3.0.8.

Anyway, if all is well I will update the levels and upload them somewhere, somehow.

Francesco · Post by **Francesco** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 3:39 pm

Hi Dr S,
yours has been a very good refresh for this topic, so welcome back to the forum and to the new, improved R&D, we'll enjoy you new works

Jannik · Post by **Jannik** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 3:53 pm

Hello Dr S!

Just a few weeks ago Holger and Martijn checked all tapes from the contributions packs and we tried to repair broken tapes.

Unfortunately, there is indeed a compatibility issue with your Earth Shaker levels.

Maybe you should have a look at this thread.

RAP · Post by **RAP** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 8:38 pm

Hey Dr. S,

I hav'nt seen you for a long time, (maybe 6 months or more...) Well anyway,
how you been doing for the last time when your not here at RND?

Dr S · Post by **Dr S** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 8:57 am

I have posted a long post on the thread linked by Jannik above, so I won't repeat myself here, except to say I have tweaked the levels now and will upload them soon.

I'm glad there is still interest in these levels. I'm afraid in recent months I have been playing other games...but I come back every so often and will doubtless make new levels at some point once I've worked out what the hell group elements are, and so on!

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 12:54 pm

Is that Dr Sloan?

Welcome back!

Dr S · Post by **Dr S** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 6:55 pm

Thanks!

Right, I've uploaded the tweaked version of Earth Shaker Explosions to http://www.zomis.net/rnd/. Let me know if you can't get the resulting download to work.

(For reasons too annoying to list, I cannot upload them to my own download page.)

Francesco · Post by **Francesco** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:14 am

Hi all, I've just modified the graphics from ES Explosions - not a fantastic work, I am not a big graphic editor - just some smoothing here and crystalizing there, but it looks pretty good anyway

Here is the archive:
http://www.zomis.net/rnd/download.php?id=551

Hope I am not breaking any copyright rule...

Edit: Forgot the most important thing... your levels are very nice, Dr S! Tricky, rushy and pretty though, well done!

Dr S · Post by **Dr S** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 3:05 pm

Interesting, I will check the new graphics out tonight.

Copyright? I was the one who stole them from the original Spectrum game in the first place, so I suspect the judge will go easy on you!

Francesco · Post by **Francesco** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 3:31 pm

Uh, really? OK, I wasn't there, and in that case, I was sleeping.