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<Dave> I knew it wouldn't take you long :) I had no idea that there wasn't a new compiled version for MAC. Apart fron the sanity checks, I don't think your missing out anything! Not having to deal with the bookmark bug must be good! It definitely makes difficult levels harder to work with. To explain: Windows is different. The player and level files are not stored in the main program directory but in a hidden directory in the user's account. This is why some deleted levels which come with the download of the game get permanently stuck in triage unless you manually delete that triage directory. (The level is deleted from one Triage directory but not the other but it is moved to Graveyard, so the same level appears in both Triage and Deleted Levels - there are about 30 of these ghost levels). This is nothing to do with Tom's source code, as that is the same whatever the platform, but something to do with the way SDL handles file save operations in different versions of Windows (under normal circumstances this behaviour is correct and desirable, just not in this case). The up to date versions of the player file and level directories have not been saved to the main Escape directory since Windows XP, so just copying it onto another machine will not work (as Mark found out), but the game documentation has not been updated accordingly. Copying a player file into the game directory will still work, but backing up from the same location is pointless. I should really stick this lot on feedback and flag it as a bug report (...again). Manual installs of multiple versions of the game will not cause any problems (I have 3 on this machine: 2005, 2007, 2009), but running the setup utility will overwrite your menu and desktop links rather than add additional ones, not a major problem, just annoying. It does, however, seem to create new versions of level and player data for each version, but I'm not sure if this is 100% safe, so I have erred on the side of caution and avoided downloading level updates in the old versions. Hope this makes some kind of sense... DC <mm> Finally I've got the Modular Thinking levels all done, this feels great! As usual, I had been blind and just didn't see one possibility. The annoying thing is: this happens to me way too often... My solution for 16 is slightly different, but I think it's not worth adding another mod. I've been reading the recent comments here and I just don't get it?! I'm playing the old version (from 2007), as there is no new version for Mac, and I've got multiple copies of the game on my computers, I can open all those copies and play multiple escapes on my iMac without any screwing-up problems. I copy my "main-escape" whenever I think about it, just in case and as a back-up, and all my bookmarks and solutions and ratings will be copied as well. In my "Quarantine: Impossible Levels / Bugs"- folder there are 19 levels, I've solved 15 of those and don't know either if the rest is actually solvable or not? <Dave> Mark, I play on multiple machines. Only one copy of my player file has my personal ratings for a particular level. I ctrl-0 the solutions around and try to maintain one file as the master copy, but personal ratings and interim solutions still tend to get lost in the melee. PS. Of the Bob's levels, I think Bob 3 took me the longest. |
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<Dave> Looking forward to level004... :) |
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<Dave> Actually in some ways ctrl-e (if you allow for upload date) is probably a more realistic difficulty sort than ctrl-d. It definitely highlights a few levels which I found harder than the ratings suggested: Three-quartered Arena, Almost nothing but hard, Compression 2, etc. Also nice to see Flows up there, never a d=9 level admittedly, but definitely in my all time favourites list. Slightly puzzled by Bob14 though! (or to put it another way Knight's Tour so deviously modded that it has exactly the same solution!) I'm going to have to try and remember which ones I haven't rated and do so (easier said than done). Been trying to work on some new level ideas but keep getting interrupted by work, rebuilding the bathroom, etc.. I had loads under development a couple of years back but lost them in a hard-drive crash, the prototype of Seven Bots was all that I recovered. PS. Utterly failed to find a version of escape older than version 200510120, and that's only thanks to radiant's link. Also, pieguy's site is still a no-go zone, only a few pages (e.g. pgpatch) are accessible, and I haven't been able to track down a copy of pi^2 anywhere else. PPS. Good night. <Dave> It's Single file. I'm fairly confident Jumps is impossible. <Dave> The oldest version I've found so far is Oct 2005. Many of the quarantine levels, including The Dalek Question predate this by about 6 months. Of the 10 which pass the sanity test in the current version, I've only got solves for 7, not including The Dalek Question. No idea if the other 3 are actually solvable or not but I haven't managed to do it. <Dave> Playing the 2005 version is interesting when you are used to the current one! Just trying to dig a bit deeper into quarantine. <Dave> First time I've used the 'i' function in a while! <Dave> Hi Mark Easiest way to play the Malformed levels (credit to radiant): Go to "tinyurl.com\escape2007". Your are on Windows. An install of the old version will screw with your current one, so download the ZIP version, not the install file. Download, unzip, and run it from wherever you unzip it to. Create a new player, level update quarantine only, and away you go. PS. Only briefly looked your 'new', Revenge. No idea as yet, I did it the intended way. |
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<mm> Dave, it is a pity that you've deleted this level! |
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<Dave> PS. For anybody who doesn't know what I'm talking about: See comments on 2641,2,3,5,6,7 and 3128 for an explanation. <Dave> So 19 Oct 2009 it is, and they are not recovered solutions. The first triage level I remember solving is Shark Tank and that also has the same date. QED That coincides with my recollection of the Revenge of the Malformed Levels series being right at the top of the list the first time I updated. Obviously, I was utterly clueless at the time, and they got banned pretty quickly. Only went back and did them a couple of years later after being prompted in a comments chat with radiant. Definitely, a fun little exercise when you fancy a break from 'ordinary' levels. |
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<Dave> Tutorial 1: 19 Oct 2009. Now I know how long I've been playing! <Dave> 3 Nov 2010. You know, I never noticed that! <Dave> Jim, I have to know... How can you remember the date you did a level over 3 years ago? |
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<Dave> Ah, I thought that might be the case! I've only got computer.dat and pi.dat. Will keep trying. I'm intrigued by the other 11 rooms. |
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<Dave> Analysis of the speedrun results clearly suggests that inebriation may actually be beneficial in this particular case. It's 6PM here now, so I'll go to the fridge and raise a toast to your little pixelated pixel guy! I don't think I'll attempt to reclaim the record this time. |
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<Dave> Did I just write that sentence? I think I may have contracted an acute syntax infection. |
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<Dave> Then again, I only discovered ctrl-e today, so what do I know? <Dave> The MD5s are different... can't make sense of it yet. Another inexplicable thing: A couple of days ago I 'lost' all solutions to gnomme deux. No other levels, just that one... <Dave> I did just ctrl-0 it no problem. Funny thing is when I did that my solution and my tick against the second version mysteriously disappeared. So, I tried deleting all solutions from all of these levels except for my original solve of the first one, close escape, go back in, and the solutions are gone for all the levels except for my 1548 first solve of the original. However, every time I ctrl-0 anyb of them your 1222 run pops up from nowhere. Got me stumped! <Dave> Hi Jim, I just ctrl-0ed your upload but to be fair I rated as previous because I didn't spot the mistake the first round! |
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<Dave> Guess we've a few more level titles now, are you planning on continuing this? |
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<Dave> PS. My first, and so far only solve, was about 1900 moves and the same as yours in the important aspects. May try and tidy it up later if I have time. |
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