Boppin'

[Plasman]

I'm not sure if anyone else has started a topic on this game, and I'm not sure if this really belongs in the Jenniverse group or the gaming group, but anyway... here goes.

I have downloaded the full version of Boppin', after trying for years to find a full version of it. I came in relatively late - it had been deleted from the Apogee catalogue, and there was almost no way to get it legitimately otherwise.
But now, yay! I get to bop blocks around AND make my own levels now.

Which leads to my question/s for Jennifer:
* Is it possible to make your own tilesets for this game? Not that I don't like the existing ones, but it would be fun to try and design my own.
* And has anyone else tried to make their own levels? If so, is there anywhere that they have been put on-line for others to try?

PS. If you haven't had the pleasure of playing Boppin' yet, find it here.

[Jennifer Diane Reitz]

Which leads to my question/s for Jennifer:
* Is it possible to make your own tilesets for this game? Not that I don't like the existing ones, but it would be fun to try and design my own.
* And has anyone else tried to make their own levels? If so, is there anywhere that they have been put on-line for others to try?

I am very honored that you are playing my little game. Thank you!

There is no facility, short of hacking the thing, to import your own tiles. Sorry about that - the decision on this was for the purpose of making sure that fan created levels would remain in sync with each other. You are certainly welcome to hack away, if you wish.

If others have made their own levels, I sadly have never heard of it. Boppin' suffered greatly at the hands of Apogee, and died because of their declared feud with us. It sold very little, with no advertising, before it was removed from their catalog entirely, and never got a chance. We did not have the money needed to sue them for breach of contract, even if we had possessed the heart to face such awfulness. The end result is that I never really got any feedback for Boppin', except for the very occasional letter sent to me over the years, by some rare fan.

Alas.

[Plasman]

Thanks for replying!

Re: tilesets, that honestly didn't occur to me. Yeah, I understand. Having to import new graphics would probably add about a thousand extra variables into creating the game files, and it'd probably go "crash crash crash crash"...
My hacking skillz are nonexistent, so I guess I'll hafta make do with what we got.

As for the other matter, I'm sorry that you never got much feedback from the players. I imagine that most of them would have played the pre-fab game for a few minutes, and never bothered with the level builder. I've only tried it the once myself, just to get a feel for it, and I can't see the casual gamer spending a lot of time with it.
I may have to have another go... (eventually)

AND!!!
While I remember, who the HELL came up with those diabolical "use-a-ricocheting-block-as-a-platform" puzzles?!? There was one near the end that drove me NUTS, and I can tell you, you are SO LUCKY you put in a Save mode!!!

[Jennifer Diane Reitz]

T
AND!!!
While I remember, who the HELL came up with those diabolical "use-a-ricocheting-block-as-a-platform" puzzles?!? There was one near the end that drove me NUTS, and I can tell you, you are SO LUCKY you put in a Save mode!!!

Um... that was me. I designed all the levels but three. Those three were done by Eldenath. Everything else, from puzzle to story to art you have to blame on me. Sorry.

[Plasman]

That's okay, really. (hug)
Yeah, those bits were hard. I realised after I wrote that bit that they really only show up in 1 or 2 levels, really late in the game, and (I think) you only have to worry about that if you want to get the Perfect bonus (like i did, because I'm such a whore for big flashy bonuses).
In the whole, the difficulty curve was quite well done, nice and progressive. And I liked how there were extra secret bits in some of the levels too!

Now, for making you feel a little bad I shall go off and commit seppuku, since I'm not allowed to play with the gun any more. :)

Sidenote:
Do you remember which levels were done by Eldenath?

[macksting]

Richocheting block as a platform...?
I've no idea how that works. Perhaps that's why I keep losing where I am.
This is a marvelous game, by the way, and I'm known to play it occasionally myself. I do remember it from long ago, funny enough, and always assumed it must've been a success. A pity it was not.

[Plasman]

Yes, it IS a shame that not more people have played this game. Especially now that the entire shebang is FREE...

To clarify:
Some (ONLY a very rare few, mind you) require the use of a special trick to finish the level... well, maybe not to complete it, but to get a Perfect or get all the bonus items. (ref. my previous comment about being a bonus whore)

Anyway, this is how you do it (spoilered in case Jennifer gets upset at me for ruining the puzzle):

There needs to be a short gap the width of one block that you need to walk across. Below that there should be two rebound points (ie. the special walls that force a block to bounce in a specific direction) facing each other. You also need to have at least one block that you can push into the gap.

Fling a block so that it hits one of the rebound points and bounces rapidly back and forth non-stop. Ordinarily you would have to destroy this trapped block by pressing "Down" on the starting point, but this time you need to leave it exactly where it is.

While the block is still bouncing back and forth, push another loose block into the gap precisely when the bouncing block is underneath it. This part is difficult because the bouncing block is moving very fast, and it is difficult to time it exactly.

IF the bouncing block catches the falling block, it will fill the gap, and you can now walk across and reach whatever is over the other side.
HOWEVER, I should also point out that if any other blocks fall down in the meantime (due to the block beneath it being eliminated, or if a block is pushed off an edge) the block being held in place may also suddenly fall down if the bouncing block is not in the correct position at the time.
It's very hard to do this properly, so I suggest using the game's Save feature before attempting this. I will say again that this is a very uncommon feature of the game and that in most cases you can finish the level without using this technique.

Incidentally, Macksting, which level are you stuck on?

[macksting]

It's primarily a Windows/DOS game, and I've neglected it while getting to know Linux over the past few months. I'd need to get back into the game to recall.
I'll try to get back to you on that.

[Plasman]

I'm currently making up some custom puzzles for this game, if anyone's interested...

PSST. Topic con't here...