SPIRALS (VCZO)
- Richard Field
- This is actually not so bad a level. It is a
race. What I did to solve it is to make a map. The level is 32 by 32,
of which you can see
9 by 9 in the game window. This is only 8% of the level, so it is not
easy to make the
map. But once the map is made it is possible to plan a route to get
the chips and beat the
walkers. My strategy was to pick up the chips nearest the exit last,
in order to block the
walkers out. Follow this plan. Get the the first chip and travel Down
through that chip.
Continue along, and at the next chip you encounter, travel Down. At
the third chip, travel
Down. At the fourth chip, travel Down. At the fifth chip, travel Down.
At the sixth,
seventh, and eigth chips, travel Left. At the ninth chip, travel Up.
When you get to the
tenth chip, go Left back to where the ninth chip was, then Down back
to where the eigth
chip was, then Down. Now, when you get to the "U" near the
exit square, go Down,
Left, Up to travel the "U" and then continue on without
picking up the chip near
the exit square. At the eleventh chip, there may be walkers on the
other side of the chip.
Wait until they are going away from you and travel UP through the chip
and head to the
twelfth chip. At it, go Left and exit. My Best Time: 282 (118 seconds).
It seems that there is a variation in
the CC game that has a different level 88 for some people, even though
the date on their
CHIPS.DAT file is 07 September 1992 and is 108569 bytes long. Sent to me
by Ruben Spaans
is this l88-1.gif printout from level 88 that
shows an extra wall
two squares above the level's exit square. Strange. If anyone knows how
this came about,
please let me know.
- Ruben Spaans
- …I believe [my "corrupted" Chips.dat] is not corrupted. The
only difference between [it]and the ["normal"] one … the blocked
spot above the exit on level 88. I did a file compare, and this is the
only difference… What's makes this a bit interesting, is that
level 88 on both the Lynx and Commodore 64 is exactly like my
"corrupted" version… Somehow the walkers aren't as aggressive on
the C64 as on the PC, and therefore level 88 isn't at all impossible
on the C64 (I haven't played the Lynx version, so I can't speak for
that one). My theory is that Microsoft converted all the levels from
the Lynx, with too [little] playtesting. Later they discovered that
level 88 was way too difficult, so they patched it. Surely you know
about all those non-working trap buttons and clone machines, so
apparently they slipped up on many levels. But that's just my theory
about level 88… For the technical minded, the level 88 difference
in [is?] at byte offset $EC5C in the Chips.dat file. The blocked square
version ("corrupted") contains the byte $09, while the open square has
the byte $00. So everyone with a hex editor can fix their file.
