Tower of Babel Forum

Dr. · Administrator Messages: 310 Location: Saarbrücken

Hmngll...
Today I (nearly) managed to build one of Fawlty's patent vanishing lifts. FIRST a downlift on top, then an uplift below - result: one invisible spider when going down.
However, when attempting to go up again the program crashed, displaying an internal error message (Error 08). Several times in a row.

I still have no idea how to construct a turbolift. Could somebody please enlighten me?
How about the other weird stuff going on in assorted towers of Exiter's and Fawlty's?

--
Das Lemsche Gesetz:
Niemand liest etwas; wenn er etwas liest, versteht er es nicht; wenn er es versteht, vergißt er es sofort.

Artinum · Zapper Messages: 184 Location: United Kingdom

All I know thus far is that it focuses on lifts. Up and down lifts together... I think the down lift is the clincher.

As far as I can tell, every tower component in the game - up lift, down lift, floor tile and support block - influences the current tower level and *maybe* the upper level. You can't, for instance, place an up-lift underneath a floor tile. Logically the designer won't let you go down from the bottom or up from the top, but there's a slight mergle* with the down-lift. It doesn't affect the level above, but it DOES affect the level below. But the designer doesn't check for this.

Quite what happens when you place lifts/other elements in certain combinations or orders I don't know. Experimentation is probably the way. But one thing is sure - the designer won't let you do anything like this unless you place a down-lift afterwards.

Come on now, Fawlty, spill the magic beans...

Artinum.

Artinum · Zapper Messages: 184 Location: United Kingdom

* Footnote to the above - "mergle" is not a word in any language I am familiar with, especially not English or German. Its meaning is obscure and varied depending on context. In this case it is the utterance of one, knowing of the subtle ochre shadings of mergledom, who is perplexed by some incomprehensible issue (or simply can't think of the word that fits the sentence).

Mayo · Zapper Messages: 105 Location: Schleswig-Holstein

The tower format on save disks tells (for basis elements):

0: nothing
1: floor
2: box (with floor in next level)
3: up-lift (start)
4: down-lift (start)
5: up-lift (stop)
6: down-lift (stop)

Normally for an up-lift from level 1 to level 2 with surrounding floors in both levels it looks like


level II:
1 1 1
1 5 1
1 1 1

level  I
1 1 1
1 3 1
1 1 1

I don't know exactly, what Fawlty means with 'turbo-lift'. It's possible to create a turbo lift over three levels like this (with hex-editor in a save-disk file):


level III:
1 1 1
1 5 1
1 1 1

level II:
1 1 1
1 3 1
1 1 1

level  I
1 1 1
1 3 1
1 1 1

ToB doesn't crash here. A spider would move from level 1 to level 2 THROUGH the up-lift in level 2, halt in tower 2 and then a spider can move to level 3. It's like an elevator for three levels.

I attached a test save disk (ST for atari) here

____________________
ToB Remake - http://www.tower-of-babel.info
Homepage - http://www.latzig.de

Fawlty · Mason Messages: 280 Location: Gütersloh

You're all pretty close.
Here are the instructions for building a turbolift. I wish I could tell you more, but I haven't done systematical trick-testing yet.

On level 3, build a down-lift.
On level 1, build an up-lift directly beneath it. This destroys the lower end of the down-lift.
Go back to level 3 and DELETE the down-lift, which will also erase the upper level of the up-lift and enable you to build another complete down-lift now.
On level 4, add another down-lift on top of the rest.

Et voilá, c'est le turbo-lift!

Fawlty · Mason Messages: 280 Location: Gütersloh

Zitat: - Z -

However, when attempting to go up again the program crashed, displaying an internal error message (Error 08). Several times in a row.

Strange. I NEVER had any error message while playing around with the designer.

P.S.: NONE of our trick towers were created using anything but the original tower designer, of course!!!
I just hope I'll be able to prove that some day...

Dr. · Administrator Messages: 310 Location: Saarbrücken

Recipe for Internal Error 8.
(Will serve one person)

Put a downlift on Lvl 4
Put an uplift on Lvl 2
Add Spider on top lift
Lift twice
Reboot emulator

Works every time.

--
Das Lemsche Gesetz:
Niemand liest etwas; wenn er etwas liest, versteht er es nicht; wenn er es versteht, vergißt er es sofort.

Fawlty · Mason Messages: 280 Location: Gütersloh

Indeed it does. And as I watch it now (with it's slight change of background colour), I believe I've even seen it before. I just wonder why I didn't encounter that error while experimenting with turbolifts and stuff during the last few month...

Dr. · Administrator Messages: 310 Location: Saarbrücken

Zitat: Artinum

* Footnote to the above - "mergle" is not a word in any language I am familiar with, especially not English or German. Its meaning is obscure and varied depending on context. In this case it is the utterance of one, knowing of the subtle ochre shadings of mergledom, who is perplexed by some incomprehensible issue (or simply can't think of the word that fits the sentence).

"Mergle" does exist, but only as a family name...
Google finds about 1000 hits for it.
H.G. Wells had a Miss Mergle in one of his works. Hehe...

--
Das Lemsche Gesetz:
Niemand liest etwas; wenn er etwas liest, versteht er es nicht; wenn er es versteht, vergißt er es sofort.

Artinum · Zapper Messages: 184 Location: United Kingdom

Well if I can't claim originality on "mergles", how about "ekky ekky ekky ekky fkang ZOOP boing (mutter mutter mutter)"?

Probably not.

[The Artinum who until recently said "mergles".]