Tower of Babel Forum

Artinum · Zapper Messages: 184 Location: United Kingdom

It's been a hectic time for me lately (still is!) with job interviews, driving lessons and househunting all at once - I'm moving half-way up the country in a couple of months. On top of that I still have my current job, my commitments with Bytten and the need to eat and sleep (both less than I should be).

The upshot of all this is that I have not had much chance to look through my towers. In the meantime, find attached a ZIP containing the ADF file (many thanks to Fawlty for his efforts extracting it from the original disk!).

I've also posted (in the next post) a commentary of the first two groups and the only single tower on the disk. I thought I had more of both, and I probably did once. I guess I had a clearout in my youth... gaaah!

Artinum.

Artinum · Zapper Messages: 184 Location: United Kingdom

Artinum's Towers - Author's Commentary.
---------------------------------------

I'll start with the only single tower. It's not password protected, so you should be able to play it in the designer. For reasons lost to obscurity, it is saved as "NoTime".

"Elimentiry Watson" by j.atkinson.

Grabber and Pusher have to collect three klondikes within 660 seconds. I have no recollection at all of this one and the spelling makes me think my cousin was responsible (since his name is Christopher, I have no idea where "j.atkinson" came from). It's a rather bland tower but those lifts are tricky.

--

Now, onto the groups. I have helpfully numbered these and I suspect they are supposed to go in sequence from easy to hard. The group "blank" is just that - while creating the towers it was a real pain having to replace old ones for a new group. I kept forgetting which were old and which were new, so I would load a 'blank' group before I started a new one.

As regards the fabled "Zapper's Quest", I am sorry to say it has been deleted. I suppose I was unhappy with it for some reason long ago (imagining at the time that the only person to play my towers would be me... :-( ten years later there are seven of us!). The basic premise was that Zapper had a quest (duh...) which he started on his own. In later towers he meets Pusher and Grabber, who aid him in his adventures but sadly die along the way (in still later towers) until Zapper alone faces the final showdown... I suggest that you create your own groups - we could rate them in a vote!

--

Group 00

Very simple starting towers. If you can't figure out Tower A, you shouldn't be playing this game. I may have designed these as tutorials. "Sacrifice" is an interesting introduction for new players to the concept of killing your own spiders.

"Back and Forth and...", I see with hindsight, can be 'cheated'. You can walk one square and zap the forcer if you time it right. Ho hum. "The Last Minute Reprieve" is quite fun, but quite definitely not a tutorial. You can do it without killing a single spider though.

"Around the World in 90 seconds". I suppose that should have been 80 seconds, and it would have worked just as well. Quite what that is on the top I don't know. Very easy really.
"Which Do We Blow Up?" - Some could call this one a kopfschwerzen. Hee hee hee!!!
"Fort Knox" is not as imposing at it sounds. Switch to camera view when the watchers start moving...
"Do We Blow Up A Convertor?" - Well now, that would be telling...

None of these are password protected, so the curious (or cheating) among you can go and look in the Designer.

--

Group 01

Being the first group, since I'm pretty sure I did Group 00 some time later to tie in with the numbering of the main towers. I don't know why I didn't use capital letters much.

"easy" - ????
"pyramids" - I'm pretty sure I didn't mean to be Anonymous. No enemies, just find the klondikes. No challenge at all. I just liked the 'pyramid' theme here.
"the not-quite rendeivous" (sic) - I still can't spell that word. Though they help each other out, Zapper and Grabber are not well met by moonlight.
"can't get a good shot..." - Very simple. I was having fun here, I think.
"klondikes, please!" - Some nice reusing of blocks here.
"underground" - Grabber in a maze. A few watchers are there just to be irritating, but there are a few traps scattered around as well.
"ZAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" - I'll leave this for you to figure out.
"well 'ard!" - Well, no, not really.
"the mineshaft" - No enemies, but a rather cunning trick.

--

I think that's enough for now!

Artinum

Dr. · Administrator Messages: 310 Location: Saarbrücken

Yum yum...

I'll take a look at them and post some comments as soon as I'm able to.

--
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

Commentary Part 2!
==================

Group 02:
---------

"Zapper" - A tower devoted to the spider of the same name. Easy enough if you plan ahead, but play without cameras for a bit of a challenge.
"Pusher" - Very straightforward once you figure out those mines at the beginning!
"Grabber" - Basic, but fun. Again, starting is the tricky part. Protect those klondikes!
"the exchanger" - Dang, I'm in lowercase again. It's one of those levels, I'm afraid.
"Fixed and rotating Zappers (aka. Zapsville)" - Nice and simple!
"minefield 1: the proximity mine" - Sorry everyone. This is dull and slow.
"Fixed and Rotating Pushers (aka. push off)" - Synchronisation is the key to this one. If any of you manage to save Pusher, I'd love to know how.
"Minefield 2: the timebomb and freezer" - Relax. You have plenty of time. I hate making things too tight.
"Lifts and Forcers (and Grabber's connection)" - No dirty jokes about interfaces please. As punishment for thinking of any, play this tower three times in a row. I mean, YAWN.

Some of this group is very dull, but then this IS a fairly early set. I imagine things will get better.

Group 03:
---------

"Chain Reaction" - A bit of extravagant fun. Kill Pusher off to start the fun.
"The Changeover" - Zapper faces klondikes, grabber sees hoppers. And the cameras are off.
"Sliding Puzzle" - Fun with Pusher. The top (starting) level is, again, the best part.
"A Friend In Need..." - Don't be fooled by those rotating zappers. If Zapper tries to blast them, the proximity mine will get him. Fairly straightforward fun.
"To do this you've got to... etc" - You lot must think I hate Pusher. I don't, honest, it's just he's the least important of the spiders and makes a good pawn sacrifice...
"Easy (or is it?)" - Well, not too bad. Just don't get carried away with the Zapper...
"Enough lifts to pick up a planet(!!!)" - How strange. I seem to have inadvertantly created one of Fawlty's weird lifts. You can watch Zapper descend in mid-air if you switch to camera view. Never knew about that one.
"The Dangerous Journey" - One of my cousin's. Rather clever, actually. I should give him more credit. Then again, remembering impossible towers called "nasty nasty", perhaps not.
"The Maddening Maze" - Nice. Cameras are of limited use here. Try this one for real before you look in the designer.

Fawlty · Mason Messages: 280 Location: Gütersloh

Usually I'm a rather systematic guy, but somehow I decided to start at the end this time. So these are the comments for group 3. The rest is yet to come.

Zitat: Artinum

"Chain Reaction" - A bit of extravagant fun. Kill Pusher off to start the fun.

Ha ha! Great!! It played this thrice.

Zitat: Artinum

"The Changeover" - Zapper faces klondikes, grabber sees hoppers. And the cameras are off.

I like the idea. This feeling of "Hey, why ME? Why HERE?"

Zitat: Artinum

"Sliding Puzzle" - Fun with Pusher. The top (starting) level is, again, the best part.

Eh, but there's not much to do on the upper level?!

Zitat: Artinum

"A Friend In Need..."

's a friend indeed. You really do like sacrifices, don't you?!

Zitat: Artinum

"To do this you've got to... etc"

And again... Poor fellow!! Anyway, nice maneuvering!

Zitat: Artinum

"Easy (or is it?)" - Well, not too bad. Just don't get carried away with the Zapper...

Though quite easy, it's not that obvious, and I must say I enjoyed it.

Zitat: Artinum

"Enough lifts to pick up a planet(!!!)" - How strange. I seem to have inadvertantly created one of Fawlty's weird lifts.

He he! You truely did! Finally proof that Exiter and me were not the only ones crazy enough to mess around with the tower designer like this....

Zitat: Artinum

"The Dangerous Journey" - One of my cousin's. Rather clever, actually. I should give him more credit. Then again, remembering impossible towers called "nasty nasty", perhaps not.

Well, I expected something much worse, too. *g* Nothing wrong with this one.

Zitat: Artinum

"The Maddening Maze" - Nice. Cameras are of limited use here. Try this one for real before you look in the designer.

Maddening, yes. Mostly by walking and walking and walking though... But it works!

Dr. · Administrator Messages: 310 Location: Saarbrücken

(Note: I allowed myself to place a towers-inside-signifying smiley in the title of this thread. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.)

--
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

-Z-: That's fine. I should have done that myself, but I didn't recognise the pattern of the threads.

Fawlty: That 'weird' lift was totally unintentional and I only noticed it this time around because I recognised the way it was assembled in the designer!

And I'm glad you're enjoying my ancient puzzles. They're rather better than I was expecting - I feared they may be simplistic.

Artinum.

Dr. · Administrator Messages: 310 Location: Saarbrücken

Zitat: Artinum

-Z-: That's fine. I should have done that myself, but I didn't recognise the pattern of the threads.

Well, you're the one who started it, after all...

Finally downloaded your towers. I'm just about finished with Fawlty's/Exiter's towers, expect some comments in the near future.
(rubbing hands)

--
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

Oooh goody!

Dr. · Administrator Messages: 310 Location: Saarbrücken

Some comments on the first two groups.

(By the way, do you really want to deal with all of your, what, 18 groups in this single thread?)

GROUP 00

(...)

d) Back and Forth and...
Everything's been said about that one.

e) The Last Minute Reprieve
I had to think real hard for a minute before realizing how to deal with that mine. My, stupid, stupid.

f) Around the World in 90 Seconds
The idea is nice, though; one would have to hide the, er, high-speed track to make it interesting. Mmmh.
The tower has a very pleasing shape, I must add.

g) Which Do We Blow Up?
Kopfschmerzen, ha! Nearly fooled me for a minute... more a placebo headache-pill, isn't it?
Nice. I think my towers are usually too obvious.

h) Fort Knox
Very easy.

i)
...
(oh, I forgot one tower. Blowing up a converter, wasn't it?)

GROUP 01

a) Easy
4 question marks don't seem quite enough.

b) Pyramids
Who of us hasn't built his share of pyramids?

c) The not quite Rendezvous (or something)
Easy.

d) Klondikes, Please!
Nice. The lower level is really clever.

e) Can't Get a Good Shot
Yes, easy. Though I've come to like using the Pusher/Block combination in order to block starting positions or lifts after they've been used.

f) Underground
Well done for a maze. Still a rather long walk.

g) Zap!!!!!!!
... and a long walk to boot.

h) Well 'ard
Easy, yes, but I like towers with a bit of machinery running. You know, where something is going on and you better not sit around on your thumbs once you start it.

i) The Mineshaft
Funny. But the second Forcer gives the game away. I liked the feeling of going way down and delving for those Klondikes...

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