A press of the snap button / key for a good while causes player to drop element (dynamite) in EM and Supaplex engines

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mat
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A press of the snap button / key for a good while causes player to drop element (dynamite) in EM and Supaplex engines

Post by mat »

Like above. Observed on Android, not tested on desktop systems. It doesn't occur when RND engine is set.
filbo
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Re: A press of the snap button / key for a good while causes player to drop element (dynamite) in EM and Supaplex engine

Post by filbo »

As I understand, this was an intentional change meant to make it easier to drop dynamite, or something like that. I didn't quite understand the motivation at the time and have generally found it troublesome. (Note, I could easily have misunderstood... wait for Holger's input...)
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Holger
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Re: A press of the snap button / key for a good while causes player to drop element (dynamite) in EM and Supaplex engine

Post by Holger »

That's right, the observed behaviour is by intention -- this is exactly how the original Emerald Mine and Supaplex games worked! The reason is that both engines were designed a long time ago on the Amiga, where joysticks only had one single button at that time (well, most had two, but they created the same "that single button was pressed" event).

Therefore, to be able to distinguish "snap" and "drop" events, the "snap" event was executed immediately, while the "drop" event was detected by holding the joystick button pressed for a few seconds. That, combined with a relatively short "dynamite is burning" time, made dropping dynamite a particularly complicated action, as it is much easier to blow yourself up that way (in comparison to the R'n'D engine). :-)

So, to be able to use one single button or key also in R'n'D to behave that way (and therefore to be able to play exactly like in the original games), the "snap" button has to trigger drop events in both engines when pressed a few seconds.

Nevertheless, I also agree that the "dropping" behaviour in the R'n'D engine is much less painful. ;-)

But quite a lot of (especially Emerald Mine) classic levels were indeed designed with that snap/drop behaviour in mind. (Supaplex was less affected of intentionally using this complication, I think, as it is more about thinking and less about action when compared with Emerald Mine, but it still faced the same "joystick has only one button" situation at that time.)
mat
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Re: A press of the snap button / key for a good while causes player to drop element (dynamite) in EM and Supaplex engine

Post by mat »

This is not a good information for me :(. Sometimes I kill a player because of the snap... (in a moment when a chunk of a level is completed). Will it be possible to add an option to disable a drop with the snap?
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Holger
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Re: A press of the snap button / key for a good while causes player to drop element (dynamite) in EM and Supaplex engine

Post by Holger »

Sometimes I kill a player because of the snap...
Yes, this happened to me quiet some times, too, when playing Emerald Mine back then (and also when playing it in R'n'D now). :?
Will it be possible to add an option to disable a drop with the snap?
Yes, I think there's no reason not to add an option to disable it.

In addition, I think I should also add an info screen that pops up the first time the user plays a level with a game engine never played before, that explains the main differences to the R'n'D game engine (which most players will probably use first when playing the default tutorial level set). This would mainly be important to inform about the "keep button pressed for a while to drop dynamite" in Emerald Mine and Supaplex levels, but might indeed also mention the "one button fits all" thingie (and that it can be disabled, once there is an option available).
filbo
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Re: A press of the snap button / key for a good while causes player to drop element (dynamite) in EM and Supaplex engine

Post by filbo »

(1) regarding 'one button fits all', that should be in the kbd setup screen. Currently it shows:

Snap Field:
Left Control
Drop Element:
Right Control

Those are two different actions, clearly assigned to two different keys. They should be separate.

Unless the additional:

[ ] Both controls control both actions (short press = snap, long = drop)

setting is on!

(2) if you're going to do 'differential engine introductions', do it for RnD engine itself as well. Each should be compared to the idealized simplex abstract; that is, the original Boulder Dash. Probably not in super detail, but the big points.
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