Space Age

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D3thAdd3r
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Space Age

Post by D3thAdd3r »

I did not find any place this game was thoroughly discussed, and very randomly today I was watching a gameplay video I did a while back and remembered I could never beat the 10th level. That was always pretty unfortunate I thought, as there appears to be 9 levels after that! The game mechanics allow you to shoot a block which moves it 1 unit in the direction of the shot, and you can do a tractor beam/magnet pull thing that moves it 1 unit in the direction of the player. You cannot turn without also moving 1 unit in the direction the d-pad was pressed. I have scanned through the source code, and did not find any other mechanics.

Here is a video of the level in question:

Edit-fixed link, thanks L4rry for the info on the new youtube tag format. Can't seem to get the time to work, but level 10 starts around 5 minutes and 50 seconds.

At least for the life of me, I cannot figure out how it would be possible to pass this level. Even if imagining no enemies, no time limit, and just the diamond blocks and the target blocks to put them(sort of a super sokoban at that point). Fundamentally I believe it is impossible, since the target blocks are side by side, as soon as the first target block is pushed(which has to be on an outside one) it cannot be moved and so you can't put more blocks horizontally. It is not useful to move them vertically, because the player must walk horizontally into the hallway, then by pushing up or down to change to a vertical orientation, has already moved up or down to the middle block. The player cannot possibly get the block to the right spot to push or pull, so vertical is no option either. Has anyone passed this?
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L4rry
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Re: Space Age

Post by L4rry »

D3thAdd3r wrote:BTW are youtube tags broken now? I clicked edit on an old post I made with videos, and copy pasted the complete tag(which still works in that post) and it doesn't work in this post?!
I had the same experience. I think with the previous version of this forum software you had to have both a 'youtube' tag and a 'url' tag with a 'watch' param in it. The only thing I found now that works is a 'youtube' tag exclusively and an 'https' prefixing a standard video share url. Edit the Iros vid for reference. Took me forever to figure out.
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L4rry
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Re: Space Age

Post by L4rry »

The only thing I found now that works is a 'youtube' tag exclusively and an 'https' prefixing a standard video share url
Actaully NOT the 'share' url, but the URL in your address bar. The share url actually doesn't work. It's very specific. Sorry for that misdirection.

(So not the 'youtu.be' url but the direct click url)
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clymax
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Re: Space Age

Post by clymax »

Hey D3thAdd3r, believe it or not, I actually looked into this game during the Uzebox rollout on Retro Achievements when another developer ran into some of the issues you were describing.

There were two levels we identified as being seemingly impossible to clear. They are shown below. If anyone here knows of a solution to either of these maps, do let me know :D


1. Level 10

Image


2. Level 19

Image
Last edited by clymax on Sat Mar 09, 2024 9:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
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D3thAdd3r
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Re: Space Age

Post by D3thAdd3r »

Hey climax, OK I just wanted someone else to verify I wasn't missing something obvious. I think this wouldn't be hard to fix, I guess just making level 10 hallway wider. Any other ideas that would keep the same feel of the original version?

Not seeing the images for some reason. We'll I guess with the source code it shouldn't be too hard to hack to level 19 and take a gander also.

Over the years I will say I've always found the color use in this game exceptional.
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D3thAdd3r
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Re: Space Age

Post by D3thAdd3r »

FInally managed to get the source mostly working. It suffered from the same bitrot/compiler change things several of my games did, requiring the PGM_P array of pointers as opposed to the old const char*. I don't think this was building under Linux...not sure, it uses a custom kernel, but as far as I can tell it's only for a different TriggerFx. The way that is done, unless I'm missing something, isn't really required.

RIght now the SFX are broken which I'll fix and then I think it's perfect with the stock kernel. Without the custom kernel the music doesn't have that infinite note sustain...honestly I think that's an improvement. I'll stretch that out to be closer to the original, but the original sounded a bit buggy IMO so I think a tasteful change.

Anyway modified the maps and these seem to work pretty well, and is my best guess what the original intent was:
space-age-l10-fix.png
space-age-l10-fix.png (201.13 KiB) Viewed 93 times
space-age-l19-fix.png
space-age-l19-fix.png (257.37 KiB) Viewed 93 times
Let me know your thoughts, if these designs seem to ring with the original intent(but are actually winnable) I'll throw a buildable version up on GitHub(with sound fixed)
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clymax
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Re: Space Age

Post by clymax »

Hey D3thAdd3r! Whoa, are you fast! Lol :P

I previously forked the repo for this game and have made a prototype fork.

I actually ran into the same PGM_P issue when trying to compile.

Let me check my old files to see what I was doing, before I report back :D

p.s. I fixed the image links in my previous post. They required user permissions for some reason :o

Update: Here's my solution :lol:

Update 2: Got a chance to look at the edits you made via your posted screenshots. Nice work! I might have to play it to really know it's winnable though :P Look forward to seeing the new build/repo :D
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D3thAdd3r
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Re: Space Age

Post by D3thAdd3r »

Attach are builds that jump right to 10 and 19. Ignore the SFX issues, this is converted to stock kernel but there are a couple problems still needing to be fixed there.
SpaceAge-L10-L19Test.zip
(90.63 KiB) Downloaded 3 times
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clymax
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Re: Space Age

Post by clymax »

Hey D3thAdd3r, thanks for those special maps! They made testing actually convenient, lol.

Gave both of your new maps a test run today in my emulator. I confirm both of them are completable now. Awesome job! :D

1. Level 10

Image

2. Level 19

Image
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