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The Icon Bar: The Playpen: !Asylum
 
  !Asylum
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Jeffrey Lee Message #23871, posted by Phlamethrower at 19:31, 14/11/2002, in reply to message #23868
PhlamethrowerHot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot stuff

Posts: 15100
What is it worth for me to send you the zip files?
Nothing, 'cos I'm not the one interested in them :P
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Andrew Poole Message #23873, posted by andypoole at 19:32, 14/11/2002, in reply to message #23871
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What is it worth for me to send you the zip files?
Nothing, 'cos I'm not the one interested in them :P
The question was originally aimed at :moss:
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John Hoare Message #23877, posted by moss at 19:35, 14/11/2002, in reply to message #23873

Posts: 9348
The question was originally aimed at :moss:
A big slobbery kiss?

OK, OK... the *absence* of a big slobbery kiss?
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Andrew Poole Message #23878, posted by andypoole at 19:36, 14/11/2002, in reply to message #23877
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The question was originally aimed at :moss:
A big slobbery kiss?

OK, OK... the *absence* of a big slobbery kiss?
Hmm.. Not enough.
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John Hoare Message #23879, posted by moss at 19:36, 14/11/2002, in reply to message #23878

Posts: 9348
Hmm.. Not enough.
http://www.ofla.info/andypoolestuff/ :o:P
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Andrew Poole Message #23880, posted by andypoole at 19:37, 14/11/2002, in reply to message #23879
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Hmm.. Not enough.
http://www.ofla.info/andypoolestuff/ :o:P
A 404 page?
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John Hoare Message #23881, posted by moss at 19:39, 14/11/2002, in reply to message #23880

Posts: 9348
A 404 page?
Grrrr :|

Erm... a copy of Exodus? :o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o
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Andrew Poole Message #23882, posted by andypoole at 19:39, 14/11/2002, in reply to message #23881
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A 404 page?
Grrrr :|

Erm... a copy of Exodus? :o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o
*copy* tsk you :P

/me wonders why nobody has noticed the thread "Please don't pinch our "f******" sign"
________
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John Hoare Message #23883, posted by moss at 19:42, 14/11/2002, in reply to message #23882

Posts: 9348
/me wonders why nobody has noticed the thread "Please don't pinch our "f******" sign"
I'll reply to it if you send me the zip file :)
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Andrew Poole Message #23884, posted by andypoole at 19:43, 14/11/2002, in reply to message #23883
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/me wonders why nobody has noticed the thread "Please don't pinch our "f******" sign"
I'll reply to it if you send me the zip file :)
Tell you what.. to save using this forum to converse, go to #playpen :P
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John Hoare Message #24086, posted by moss at 17:50, 15/11/2002, in reply to message #23884

Posts: 9348
!Asylum is excellent :)

Especially the music :o

It's also bloody hard :frown: I doubt I'll ever finish Psyche, and as for ID... :|
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Jeffrey Lee Message #24097, posted by Phlamethrower at 18:03, 15/11/2002, in reply to message #24086
PhlamethrowerHot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot stuff

Posts: 15100
!Asylum is excellent :)
Yup :)

Especially the music :o
Yup :)

It's also bloody hard :frown:
Yup :P

I doubt I'll ever finish Psyche, and as for ID... :|
I'll dig up some info I sent in to Arc World about Asylum - contained a couple of bugs you could exploit. In fact, I think I can remember them...

1. Load the level that's all grey (Can't remember which one it is)
2. Head right down into the bottom right corner
3. Jump up and down while holding the down key. IIRC you can just hold them both down once you've started jumping
4. After a while you should take off the ground (!) and fly up a passage to somewhere higher up in the level

There are a few other locations like that as well - I'm not sure whether they're needed to complete the game or not, but it's handy to know ;)

/me tries to remember the name of the good gun...

It's not the big dark grey one that destroys all the blocks in the level (Too destructive to be useful), its the lighter grey one that charges up in a similar way and sends out a massive hail of fire balls...

Oh yes, there's also a bug in the extending platform thingies. If you destroy the block next to the platform start (e.g. using that mega-gun thing), then the next time the platform retracts a 1-block wide section of platform will continue traveling past the start block until it hits a wall :)

Plus I can send you a copy of the 'You are now permitted to play the ID!' file if you need one ;)
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John Hoare Message #24104, posted by moss at 18:08, 15/11/2002, in reply to message #24097

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1. Load the level that's all grey (Can't remember which one it is)
Psyche.
2. Head right down into the bottom right corner
3. Jump up and down while holding the down key. IIRC you can just hold them both down once you've started jumping
4. After a while you should take off the ground (!) and fly up a passage to somewhere higher up in the level
Oooh! /me will try it tonight :)
There are a few other locations like that as well - I'm not sure whether they're needed to complete the game or not, but it's handy to know ;)
I'd be interested...

/me tries to remember the name of the good gun...

It's not the big dark grey one that destroys all the blocks in the level (Too destructive to be useful), its the lighter grey one that charges up in a similar way and sends out a massive hail of fire balls...
I think I only know of the second one. One that destroys all blocks in the level? :o:o:o
Oh yes, there's also a bug in the extending platform thingies. If you destroy the block next to the platform start (e.g. using that mega-gun thing), then the next time the platform retracts a 1-block wide section of platform will continue traveling past the start block until it hits a wall :)
/me will try it when he finds the mega-gun :(
Plus I can send you a copy of the 'You are now permitted to play the ID!' file if you need one ;)
I've got that - :andypoole: included it. But I completed the Ego level when I had it before anyway :P
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Jeffrey Lee Message #24106, posted by Phlamethrower at 18:18, 15/11/2002, in reply to message #24104
PhlamethrowerHot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot stuff

Posts: 15100
There are a few other locations like that as well - I'm not sure whether they're needed to complete the game or not, but it's handy to know ;)
I'd be interested...
I'm not saying I know where they all are! I might have mentioned one or two other places in the letter to Arc World, but that's the only one I can remember at the moment. Plus not all of them are actually useful; I think it could just be a bug in the game.

I think I only know of the second one. One that destroys all blocks in the level? :o:o:o
Well not *all* blocks, but all except a indestructible ones to stop you blowing a hole out the side of the level ;) IIRC there is one in the bottom right corner of psyche - there should be a ledge somewhere, and you can see a big grey gun on it if you jump up and down a bit. A couple of times I've managed to get it from there, but I can't remember how. The gun itself only has six shots though; after that it turns into a bog standard up-and-downy aim rocket launcher.
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John Hoare Message #24107, posted by moss at 18:22, 15/11/2002, in reply to message #24106

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Well not *all* blocks, but all except a indestructible ones to stop you blowing a hole out the side of the level ;) IIRC there is one in the bottom right corner of psyche - there should be a ledge somewhere, and you can see a big grey gun on it if you jump up and down a bit. A couple of times I've managed to get it from there, but I can't remember how. The gun itself only has six shots though; after that it turns into a bog standard up-and-downy aim rocket launcher.
Oh yes! I remember now! /me will track it down tonight :)

I always get lost in Psyche; and can't get to places. It's way, way too hard :(
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Andrew Poole Message #24145, posted by andypoole at 16:24, 16/11/2002, in reply to message #24107
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Well not *all* blocks, but all except a indestructible ones to stop you blowing a hole out the side of the level ;) IIRC there is one in the bottom right corner of psyche - there should be a ledge somewhere, and you can see a big grey gun on it if you jump up and down a bit. A couple of times I've managed to get it from there, but I can't remember how. The gun itself only has six shots though; after that it turns into a bog standard up-and-downy aim rocket launcher.
Oh yes! I remember now! /me will track it down tonight :)

I always get lost in Psyche; and can't get to places. It's way, way too hard :(
Did you find it?

I found the shoot up to the top bit, but no gun :-(
________
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Jeffrey Lee Message #24205, posted by Phlamethrower at 22:47, 17/11/2002, in reply to message #24145
PhlamethrowerHot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot stuff

Posts: 15100
Gather round, 'cos I've been busy over the weekend :E

First, my high scores:

Ego 2023800
Psyche 2662800
Id 2288800

Second, some more info about those wind tunnels, and directions on how to get the gun (Megablam 4000 rocket launcher IIRC):

Head down to the bottom right of the level, there should be a teleporter there. Don't stand on top of the teleporter, but just next to it, and hodl down both the up & down keys so you'll jump up and down. Then move sideways into the shaft, and the wind should pick you up and take you to the top.

Once you've landed at the top, get on top of the platform that's just to the left of the two brown eggcup lift things, and jump down into the passage to the left of it. You should fall straight down and land on a 2 block wide platform, at which point you should just keep walking left until you reach an extending bridge. Fall down to below the bridge, and head right down the slope and down the shaft. Now head left and then right, so you're at the lowest part of that branch of the maze. On your right should be another brown (Or at least I think it was brown) lift.

Don't take this; what you want to do is slowly walk across the floor, stopping for a few seconds on each block. Somewhere towards the left side you should find two blocks which lower down when you stand on them long enough. They should take you down to right next to the megablam :E

If you head to the left once you've got the megablam then you should find yourself under a funnel which has another wind tunnel in the middle. It doesn't take you anywhere too interesting though; just some fruit and a potpourri rocket launcher.

Third, and possbilbly the most interesting is nobrainer, my asylum editor!

At the moment it's very simple, only allowing import/export to/from the level files and the tiled background sprite. All the block/monster/player sprites are in FastSpr format, so you should be able to extract those using one of the fastspr utils (Or just by drawing each sprite to the screen. IIRC there isn't a fastspr->sprite option, so you may need to do this). You can grab a copy of nobrainer from here. So far I've worked out the following block numbers (From the psyche level, so may be wrong in others):

0 - Empty
4 - Teleporter top left dome section
5 - Teleporter top right dome section
6 - Teleporter middle left dome section
7 - Teleporter middle right dome section
8 - Arrow <-
9 - Arrow ->
10 - Arrow up
11 - Arrow down
14 - Shutdown switch for neurons
16-28 - Fruits, where 16 is the first and 28 is the star
29 - Green potion
30 - Violet potion
31 - Skull
32 - Tomato (10,000 points)
33 - Raspberry (20,000 points)
34 - Strawberry (30,000 points)
35 - Shutdown sign
40-47 - Entrances for neurons 1 to 8
54,55 - Explosive gas (in the air, not the canister things)
56-59 - Horizontal electricity
60-63 - Vertical electricity

I didn't get a chance to look from 64 upwards. AFAIK any size level is possible, perhaps even larger than 256x256 which is the largest in the game. The instructions needed should be given in the zip - enjoy :)
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John Hoare Message #24303, posted by moss at 16:57, 18/11/2002, in reply to message #24205

Posts: 9348
Fantastic! :E I shall download it tonight and have a play :):):)

I was thinking perhaps it should go on a Games section of the Playpen site; I could add my !Kryten98 maps and solution too...
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Phil Mellor Message #24307, posted by monkeyson2 at 17:10, 18/11/2002, in reply to message #24303
monkeyson2Please don't let them make me be a monkey butler

Posts: 12380
I was thinking perhaps it should go on a Games section of the Playpen site; I could add my !Kryten98 maps and solution too...
Ahem!
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John Hoare Message #24308, posted by moss at 17:15, 18/11/2002, in reply to message #24307

Posts: 9348
Ahem!
I did actually think of that. Hmmm. I wasn't sure my solution stuff would be high enough quality to submit though! I could try...

The !Asylum stuff certainly would be :)
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Jeffrey Lee Message #24314, posted by Phlamethrower at 17:21, 18/11/2002, in reply to message #24307
PhlamethrowerHot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot stuff

Posts: 15100
I was thinking perhaps it should go on a Games section of the Playpen site; I could add my !Kryten98 maps and solution too...
Ahem!
Don't anyone go announcing anything yet - this is only a simple pre-release thingy. Plus I haven't put my name in the readme file, or given it a version number other than 0.00 ;)

The first proper release is a week or two away, considering my lack of exposure to RISC OS :( It'll probably include the features listed in the readme file - e.g. a full list of blocks, a fair amount of testing, a firm yes/no on whether the attributes mean anything, etc. I may also work on a proper graphical editor, or perhaps textfile import/export so you can quickly build levels using one char per block
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Jeffrey Lee Message #24591, posted by Phlamethrower at 22:12, 20/11/2002, in reply to message #24314
PhlamethrowerHot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot stuff

Posts: 15100
Same place, new version

V0.01 has now been uploaded. It's a complete rewrite to make the code better structured and easier to expand, has a fancy GNUish argument parser, and the only RISC OS dependent bit is the code that guesses whether you want to convert to/from asylum. This means that you should be able to compile and use it on whatever you want, but it'll only be of use if you can read sprite files :P The main reason for doing this was for me to be able to develop it away from RISC OS.

Because the RO dependencies have been reduced so much, the code is now about three times smaller - it doesn't make use of my OS_File/OS_SpriteOp wrapper code. Plus it means the source code can be easily given away without me having to chuck in several other files :) But because it does all the sprite reading itself it may not work too well with dodgy sprite files :(

The only other notable improvement is a list of what all the blocks do. AFAIK the list is complete, but there is a large group of about 30 blocks which I haven't investigated.

Also the level attributes have been scrapped; I'm pretty certain that they don't mean anything, so I've made it fill them with a copyright message instead :P

[edit]

Yay! It compiles under cygwin :)

Shame I didn't have the forsight to bring any files for me to test it with :|

[Edited by Phlamethrower at 22:17, 20/11/2002]
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John Hoare Message #24593, posted by moss at 23:32, 20/11/2002, in reply to message #24591

Posts: 9348
/me downloads it :) I can have a look, and transfer it to floppy tomorrow.

You should get :richg: to set up http://asylum.acornarcade.com/ :o
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Jeffrey Lee Message #24901, posted by Phlamethrower at 23:06, 24/11/2002, in reply to message #24593
PhlamethrowerHot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot stuff

Posts: 15100
A new version should now be available. The new feature this time is.... *big drum roll* ...FSP1 import/export :)

In case you don't know what FSP1 is, it's the Fast Sprite format that Asylum uses. There is also FSP2, but that's more complex and I didn't have enough time to crack that as well as FSP1. But that doesn't matter too much, since Asylum doesn't use it. I say that I had to crack the format because that's what I did have to do; Gamesuite comes with no documentation about the internals of the FastSpr formats, and !FSPConv only allows one way sprite->fastspr conversion. nobrainer allows two way conversion, sprite center locations specified in the sprite name, and use of a transparency mask instead of a certain colour which is translated into the mask when the sprite is converted.

But there's more...

I've also managed to produce a patch to fix the StrongARM related graphical glitches :)

For years StrongARM users have had to put up with the tiled background image being full of vertical lines and having irratic movement, but that's no more thanks to my patch :) The problem was that the game used self modifying code to draw the image, and so would fail most of the time on a StrongARM due to the seperate instruction and data caches. My patch works by fixing the self modifying code in three ways:

1. Winding a section of code up into a loop to free up some space to fit the patch code in
2. Calling OS_SynchroniseCodeAreas once the self modification is complete, to flush the caches
3. A check to make sure OS_SynchroniseCodeAreas is only called when needed, in order to stop the game slowing down.

The patch itself is loaded at run time, so it shouldn't damage Asylum if it goes wrong, gets installed twice, etc.

I've also mailed this off to AA, since an editor and StrongARM patch is the biggest news they'll have had for the past few weeks ;)
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John Hoare Message #24916, posted by moss at 03:03, 25/11/2002, in reply to message #24901

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I've also mailed this off to AA, since an editor and StrongARM patch is the biggest news they'll have had for the past few weeks ;)
All fantastic! /me slaps :flamethrower: for being too clever for his own good :o
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Richard Goodwin Message #25114, posted by rich at 10:41, 26/11/2002, in reply to message #24593
Rich
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/me downloads it :) I can have a look, and transfer it to floppy tomorrow.

You should get :richg: to set up http://asylum.acornarcade.com/ :o
Well I haven't checked my email for nearly a week, but anyone interested? :)
________
RichGCheers,
Rich.
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Phil Mellor Message #25116, posted by monkeyson2 at 10:47, 26/11/2002, in reply to message #25114
monkeyson2Please don't let them make me be a monkey butler

Posts: 12380
Well I haven't checked my email for nearly a week
What? You haven't checked your email for a week??? Are you some sort of communist?
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Jeffrey Lee Message #25117, posted by Phlamethrower at 10:48, 26/11/2002, in reply to message #25114
PhlamethrowerHot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot stuff

Posts: 15100
/me downloads it :) I can have a look, and transfer it to floppy tomorrow.

You should get :richg: to set up http://asylum.acornarcade.com/ :o
Well I haven't checked my email for nearly a week, but anyone interested? :)
*slaps moss for trying to get me to run the entire Internet*

No I'm not interested. At the moment, at least :|

Depends whether:

a) I can make any decent levels/other stuff for Asylum
b) I have enough time when I'm able to make/test them. i.e.

asylum _time = total_free_time - time_to_do_all_the_other_stuff_i'm_meant_to_have_done_by_now

c) If anyone is actually interested in Asylum anymore apart from me & moss ;)
d) If other interested people will actually make levels/mods/whatever and submit them :o

So, erm, maybe. But not yet! Unless someone else is running it and I'd only be updating nobrainer until I finish my todo list.
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John Hoare Message #25118, posted by moss at 10:49, 26/11/2002, in reply to message #25117

Posts: 9348
I'm quite happy to run it; I could get something up over the Christmas holidays :)

And I can do some level designs too...
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Andrew Poole Message #25119, posted by andypoole at 10:53, 26/11/2002, in reply to message #25118
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Just so you know, I've posted your news about nobrainer to AcornArcade :flamethrower:
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The Icon Bar: The Playpen: !Asylum