bulko@ut-sally.UUCP (William C. Bulko) (08/04/85)
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I bought Lode Runner for my Macintosh long ago, having heard all these great
things about it (winning awards, being designated "best computer game of
the year", etc.) and have to admit I agree -- my fiancee and I both love the
game, even after playing it over and over. We're waiting for the sequel
"Championship Lode Runner" to hit the local markets.
There remains, however, one problem that I haven't solved to this day,
and it bothers me. In the game, when a drilled hole closes up on one of the
opponents, he reappears at the top of the screen; is there any way to
influence *what part* of the screen he reappears on? It seems to be totally
random. For the most part, this randomness doesn't matter, although having
control of this would be useful in many of the levels when it becomes
necessary to "kill off" opponents so they reappear at the top and carry down
treasure pieces that your man cannot access. However, in all of these
screens, you can eventually get all the treasure with patience. That is,
with one notable exception: in level 25, there is a "box" at the top of the
screen in which reappearing opponents occasionally appear, but can *never*
escape from; it is therefore possible for you to kill off all the opponents
and have them reappear in the box forever! This happens *very* frequently,
and since there is one treasure piece that you cannot reach without the aid
of the opposition, the level becomes impossible to solve, and you must abort
your player and keep trying. Not only is this frustrating, but I find it
hard to believe that the program authors would have included an "impossible"
level intentionally; is this simply an oversight, or am I missing some trick
that I should know about?
I would appreciate any spoilers you could give me. We've mastered all
the tricks the game has to offer (and implemented some of our own using the
editor!) and would like to know if there's something else about the game we
don't know.
Many thanks,
Bill
--
_______________________________________________________________________________
"To err is human; to admit it is not."
Bill Bulko Department of Computer Sciences
The University of Texas {ihnp4,harvard,gatech,ctvax,seismo}!ut-sally!bulko
_______________________________________________________________________________cagordon@watnot.UUCP (Chris A. Gordon) (08/06/85)
In article <2575@ut-sally.UUCP> bulko@ut-sally.UUCP (William C. Bulko) writes: > There remains, however, one problem that I haven't solved to this day, >and it bothers me. In the game, when a drilled hole closes up on one of the >opponents, he reappears at the top of the screen; is there any way to >influence *what part* of the screen he reappears on? It seems to be totally >random. For the most part, this randomness doesn't matter, although having >control of this would be useful in many of the levels when it becomes >necessary to "kill off" opponents so they reappear at the top and carry down >treasure pieces that your man cannot access. However, in all of these >screens, you can eventually get all the treasure with patience. That is, >with one notable exception: in level 25, there is a "box" at the top of the >screen in which reappearing opponents occasionally appear, but can *never* >escape from; it is therefore possible for you to kill off all the opponents >and have them reappear in the box forever! This happens *very* frequently, >and since there is one treasure piece that you cannot reach without the aid >of the opposition, the level becomes impossible to solve, and you must abort >your player and keep trying. Not only is this frustrating, but I find it >hard to believe that the program authors would have included an "impossible" >level intentionally; is this simply an oversight, or am I missing some trick >that I should know about? > > I would appreciate any spoilers you could give me. We've mastered all >the tricks the game has to offer (and implemented some of our own using the >editor!) and would like to know if there's something else about the game we >don't know. I, too, have been playing the game for quite a while (I enjoy it myself) and I think (I could be wrong) that where the opponent(s) appear at the top of the screen depends partly (or totally) on your position on the screen. I have noted this on the screen you mentioned (definitely NOT one of my more favourite screens). Usually I'm somewhere directly (or near) the treasure piece two levels up that you cannot access. I'm not quite sure exactly where my man was, but when I was in a certain position, an opponent would reappear in the correct place and *voila*, that screen's done. Just keep trying, I'm sure you can figureout where to be to make the opponents fall where you want them to. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chris "not quite dead yet" Gordon In real life: UUCP : {decvax|utzoo|ihnp4|allegra|clyde}!watmath!watnot!cagordon CSNET : cagordon%watnot@waterloo.csnet ARPA : cagordon%watnot%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa "I have this theory that for every man there is a woman; for every woman there is a man. So??? Where is she???" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
brisco@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU (T.p.) (08/09/85)
>with one notable exception: in level 25, there is a "box" at the top of the >screen in which reappearing opponents occasionally appear, but can *never* >escape from; it is therefore possible for you to kill off all the opponents >and have them reappear in the box forever! This happens *very* frequently, >and since there is one treasure piece that you cannot reach without the aid >of the opposition, the level becomes impossible to solve, and you must abort >your player and keep trying. Not only is this frustrating, but I find it >hard to believe that the program authors would have included an "impossible" >level intentionally; is this simply an oversight, or am I missing some trick >that I should know about? > Yes! This level is NOT "impossible". I have gotten past it many times myself. (Level 75 is my top by playing contiguously). The trick is to get in >one< certain position and try repeatedly (yes, sometimes you will get screwed, but less often than in other positions). A crude map follows (please forgive, I am doing this from memory.) the &%$#' box the gold\ | | | x | ---------------- ------ ----- --------------------------------L v- whateverstuff-> L -----------------------------oooL Where the L's are the ladder, and the three o's are the place where you must kill the guy that you have gotten to come after you. Note: It is important to dig the very first three holes (one right after another so he dies in the third). You may have to do this 3 or 4 times (max). But it will occur. Even if you get the one guy trapped in the &&%$# box, try the other.! happy digging, tp. {ps. top score here is 1,200,000 I hold second at 730,000} -- ***************************************************************** * ARPA: Brisco@rutgers * * UUCP: (ihnp4!ut-sally, siesmo, allegra!packard) !topaz!brisco * * ***************************************************************
bulko@ut-sally.UUCP (William C. Bulko) (08/09/85)
In article <11328@watnot.UUCP> cagordon@watnot.UUCP (Chris A. Gordon) writes: >I, too, have been playing the game for quite a while (I enjoy it myself) and >I think (I could be wrong) that where the opponent(s) appear at the top of the >screen depends partly (or totally) on your position on the screen. I have noted >this on the screen you mentioned (definitely NOT one of my more favourite >screens). Usually I'm somewhere directly (or near) the treasure piece two >levels up that you cannot access. I'm not quite sure exactly where my man was, >but when I was in a certain position, an opponent would reappear in the correct >place and *voila*, that screen's done. I don't believe this works -- it seemed the obvious thing to try, and so I have tried it before, with no success. Besides, my current strategy (for the most part) is to stay in a "convenient" spot, wait for the opponents to come after me, and set up holes for them to fall into on their way. Since I always wait in the same spot, but see them resurrected in various places anyway, I'd have to conclude that the method described above doesn't work. Sigh. I've been receiving mail on my posting, but no one has come up with a solution: the majority of the replies have been either "use the ladder to climb up to the box" (from those with non-Macintosh versions of Lode Runner which have a different screen setup than mine, and hence have a solution) or "you just have to accept it." I've pretty much resigned to the latter. Incidentally, is there anyone out there who has created some interesting levels using the Lode Runner editor (or, for you non-Mac version people, using imagination) and are interested in possibly trading? I haven't made much of an effort at it yet, but I *do* have a few clever ones and could probably get motivated to draw up more if I knew someone might be interested in playing them. -- _______________________________________________________________________________ "To err is human; to admit it is not." Bill Bulko Department of Computer Sciences The University of Texas {ihnp4,harvard,gatech,ctvax,seismo}!ut-sally!bulko _______________________________________________________________________________