Background:
The game was developed by The Caffeine Kid, who [posted][1] about the
release for Windows on the [YakYak][2] forum on the 2nd of October,
2005, remarking that "I've never been on acid to be honest but
[playing] this [game] is what I think it would be like to have a bad
trip" and likening the game to "some sort of mental illness
simulator"; the author posted about the release for Mac a few days
later, on the 6th of October, 2005.
Although the author was told that the mechanics of the game are
identical- or similar- to other games predating it, they denied that
they had copied- or based the game on- any other game, remarking that
"there is nothing new under the sun".
The author stated that the game was developed using BlitzMax;
interestingly, the author didn't have a Mac ? the game was developed
using Windows, and the Mac build of the game was built using the
PearPC emulator ? and wasn't able to play the Mac build of the game,
remarking that "the emulated machine completely locks up when I try to
[play the game]".
In spite of this being "test version 2", to the best of this
uploader's knowledge, "test version 1" was released only for Windows;
and in spite of the author stating that they wanted to add features
to- and polish- the game, to the best of this uploader's knowledge, no
further versions of the game were released ? the author seemed
uncertain what direction to take the game in, and stated that they
lacked the time to work on the game, having learnt that they had to
return to working on another, commercial, game "for a little while" to
"tweak it up for release".
Scoring:
The player is awarded forty points for eliminating a group of two
blocks, seventy points for eliminating a group of three blocks, 110
points for eliminating a group of four blocks, etc.; and the player
loses 1000 points if they click on a block that isn't a part of a
group of two ? or more ? blocks.
The points awarded for eliminating a group of blocks-, or lost for
clicking on a block that isn't a part of a group of two ? or more ?
blocks-, is expressed by the following Python function:
`def points_awarded_or_lost( number_of_blocks ):
if not isinstance( number_of_blocks, int ):
type_string = str( type( number_of_blocks ))
index_a = type_string.find( '\'' )
index_b = type_string.rfind( '\'' )
type_string = type_string[ index_a + 1 : index_b ]
vowel_string = " `"
if type_string[ 0 ].lower() in "aeiou":
vowel_string = 'n' + vowel_string
raise TypeError( "`number_of_blocks` is a" + vowel_string +
type_string + "`, not an `int`" )
elif number_of_blocks < 0:
raise ValueError( "`number_of_blocks` (" + str( number_of_blocks ) +
") < 0" )
elif number_of_blocks == 0:
points = 0
elif number_of_blocks == 1:
points = -1000
else:
points = 40
additional_points = 30
number_of_blocks -= 2
while number_of_blocks > 0:
points += additional_points
additional_points += 10
number_of_blocks -= 1
return points`
Compatibility
Architecture: PPC
This uploader has lightly tested the game on a Power Mac G4 (AGP
Graphics) (450MHz processor, 1GB memory) running Mac OS X 10.4.11; the
only two ? minor ? bugs that this uploader encountered during that
testing were:
1. the game sometimes (too often for this uploader's liking?) fails to register the player's clicks;
2. and it's possible for the player to remove a group of blocks from a column on the same frame that that column rises out of the playfield and causes gameover, resulting in a minor visual oddity.
[1]:
http://www.YakYak.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=43492
[2]:
http://www.YakYak.org
