dave@tygra.UUCP (David Conrad) (02/17/91)
Well, I'm deleting Snarf, there are just too many bugs in this game for me to actually pay cold cash for it. I hope this bug report finds its way back to Everett Kaser. I'll also be posting two more levels I and a friend designed, for those of you with the patience to put up with the bugs. The game has crashed twice with the following error messages: SYSERR: invalid LASTDIR 256 CLASS 5 INSTANCE 2 SYSERR: unknown x=259 MOVETYPE 259 CLASS 5 INSTANCE 7 Nice cryptic error messages, those. The first time, I had to reboot. The second, I was able, eventually, to exit the game by banging on ESC over and over again as fast as I could. The game would run for about a tenth of a second each time, then return to the error message. While it was `playing' it would accept keystrokes, and I finally was able to press ESC twice in succession fast enough that the first suppressed the error message and the second terminated the game. Quite a test of my dexterity! The other bugs have been more subtle. When designing levels, the saved level will get corrupted. The `hero's' starting position would be randomly changed, and some items on the level would get rearranged in inexplicable fashion (e.g. a key would be somewhere other than where I had put it). Once, some crowns from *a different level* appeared on another level I was designing. I should explain that this did not happen in the level editor. At that point the level would appear as I intended. Then save it and play it, and it's different! Go back and edit it, still wrong. So, fix it, save it, play it and Hey! Presto! Fubarred again. (An aside - the editor will let you place two items in the same place, e.g. a ring inside a wall. Oops. Also, you don't go to the location set as the destination of a teleporter, but one space beyond in whatever direction you were moving when you entered the teleporter.) The solution to the bizarre behaviour of the editor has been to start editing another level (i.e. if the trouble was with seven, work on nine) and make a copy of the level which is causing difficulties. By copy, I do not mean to copy the file, but to start over, creating a level which is in all ways like the other one. To get it exactly right, of course, you must look back and forth repeatedly between the old and new levels. It in fact helped my level `The Transporter Room' to redesign it from scratch once I had the idea of what I wanted worked out better with an (unintentional) draft, but in general it is very annoying to have to start over or painstakingly copy after having spent many minutes designing a level. So, Everett, if you want my money, you'll have to do better! -- David R. Conrad | The floating point exception hits.--More-- tygra!dave@sharkey.cc.umich.edu | You die...--More-- -- = CAT-TALK Conferencing Network, Computer Conferencing and File Archive = - 1-313-343-0800, 300/1200/2400/9600 baud, 8/N/1. New users use 'new' - = as a login id. AVAILABLE VIA PC-PURSUIT!!! (City code "MIDET") = E-MAIL Address: dave@DDMI.COM
everett@hpcvra.cv.hp.com. (Everett Kaser) (02/20/91)
> Well, I'm deleting Snarf, there are just too many bugs in this game >for me to actually pay cold cash for it. I hope this bug report finds >its way back to Everett Kaser. Yes, it did, and thanks. > The game has crashed twice with the following error messages: >SYSERR: invalid LASTDIR 256 CLASS 5 INSTANCE 2 >SYSERR: unknown x=259 MOVETYPE 259 CLASS 5 INSTANCE 7 >Nice cryptic error messages, those. The first time, I had to reboot. Yes, they are cryptic, because they would never be seen by the user UNLESS there was a bug in the program or a corrupted "level" file. I put them there as disaster checks, to help find problems should bugs like this occur. The information may help me track down the problem, and I appreciate your recording and relaying it to me. The problem, in this case, is that you're running a level that is "corrupted" (by the level editor), and Snarfs are roaming out beyond "boundaries" of the maze (the CLASS and x= in the above error messages tell me this). > The other bugs have been more subtle. When designing levels, the >saved level will get corrupted. The `hero's' starting position would be >randomly changed, and some items on the level would get rearranged in >inexplicable fashion (e.g. a key would be somewhere other than where I >had put it). Once, some crowns from *a different level* appeared on >another level I was designing. Yes, I'm aware of this problem and am working on it. Your described work- around is the only work-around at this point (clearing the level and starting fresh). > (An aside - the editor will let you place two items in the same place, >e.g. a ring inside a wall. Oops. Also, you don't go to the location set >as the destination of a teleporter, but one space beyond in whatever >direction you were moving when you entered the teleporter.) The editor was not intended to be as "fool" proof as the main game, because I figured that people who tried to design their own levels would be a little more like a programmer and wouldn't do "silly" things like placing objects on top of each other, or placing teleports in such a way that the "hero" came out into a wall, etc. I realize that this was not good "figuring", and I'll be putting in some additional checks to try to keep most of these things from being allowed. However, there IS a bug in the editor that sometimes trashes the levels, and that's my first priority at this point. The only bug that has shown up in the actual running of the game so far is: If, as you exit the right side of a level, you continue to bang on the MOVE-RIGHT key (usually the right cursor), then the next level will be displayed and then immediately terminated as if you had exited the right side. This has been fixed in version 2.03 along with a minor cosmetic problem in the level editor. > So, Everett, if you want my money, you'll have to do better! >David R. Conrad | The floating point exception hits.--More-- >tygra!dave@sharkey.cc.umich.edu | You die...--More-- Thanks, David. I'm working on it. Everett Kaser Hewlett-Packard Company ...hplabs!hp-pcd!everett work: (503) 750-3569 Corvallis, Oregon everett%hpcvra@hplabs.hp.com home: (503) 928-5259 Albany, Oregon
dave@tygra.UUCP (David Conrad) (02/21/91)
In article <40790001@hpcvra.cv.hp.com.> everett@hpcvra.cv.hp.com. (Everett Kaser) writes: >I wrote: >> (An aside - the editor will let you place two items in the same place, >>e.g. a ring inside a wall. Oops. Also, you don't go to the location set >>as the destination of a teleporter, but one space beyond in whatever >>direction you were moving when you entered the teleporter.) > >The editor was not intended to be as "fool" proof as the main game, because >I figured that people who tried to design their own levels would be a little >more like a programmer and wouldn't do "silly" things like placing objects on >top of each other, or placing teleports in such a way that the "hero" came out >into a wall, etc. I realize that this was not good "figuring", and I'll be >putting in some additional checks to try to keep most of these things from >being allowed. However, there IS a bug in the editor that sometimes trashes >the levels, and that's my first priority at this point. > Well, I guess I am a little like a programmer, being one :-), but I've designed a few levels for Lode Runner on my Apple ][+, and in its editor if you hit a key to place something, it replaces whatever was on that spot. So you see, I was used to its operation, and Snarf's level editor was counterintuitive for me. Also, I didn't mean placing teleports so that the hero comes out inside a wall. The hero does NOT come out on the space you mark as the `destination' of the teleporter. He shows up one space away from there, as if he'd moved again. E.g. if he enters a teleporter moving `north', he comes out one space to the north of the destination. Hmm, that still doesn't seem clear. Perhaps a diagram: A B wwwwwww wTw T is a teleporter, w's are walls. If you want the hero to come out at point A you must set the destination at point B, not A, to compensate for the hero's motion. Since the hero is moving north as he enters the teleporter, when he arrives at point B he continues to move north one space to A. I found this, also, counterintuitive. When asked for the destination, I expected the hero to be teleported to the spot I had selected. This was easy to compensate for once I discovered it, but it could have at least been explained in the documentation. >The only bug that has shown up in the actual running of the game so far is: > >If, as you exit the right side of a level, you continue to bang on the >MOVE-RIGHT key (usually the right cursor), then the next level will be >displayed and then immediately terminated as if you had exited the right side. >This has been fixed in version 2.03 along with a minor cosmetic problem in the >level editor. > Ah, yes, we were also bitten by this bug, which was quite annoying, and I had forgotten to put it in my previous post. But we never discovered what was causing it, or, that is, under what circumstances it would occur. I hope you stamp out these bugs quickly. -- David R. Conrad | "Please excuse me if I don't quite understand, sharkey!tygra!dave | I'm just a stranger in Electric Land." tygra!dave@uunet.uu.net | -- Bad Company, "Electric Land" -- = CAT-TALK Conferencing Network, Computer Conferencing and File Archive = - 1-313-343-0800, 300/1200/2400/9600 baud, 8/N/1. New users use 'new' - = as a login id. AVAILABLE VIA PC-PURSUIT!!! (City code "MIDET") = E-MAIL Address: dave@DDMI.COM