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Keldulas posted:It looks like they kind of tripped up on difficulty scaling, but well, some oopsies will happen. Don't forget, there's a sequel. [insert  but it's Yobi]...wait, poo poo. It's literally just  , isn't it.
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Apr 9, 2024 06:15
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Does Blizzard pick up right where Jungle leaves off in terms of difficulty? Or is there still a tutorial section that eases you in there?
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Apr 9, 2024 07:39
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Junpei posted:Does Blizzard pick up right where Jungle leaves off in terms of difficulty? Or is there still a tutorial section that eases you in there? It is a standalone game and it starts much as Jungle starts (first all letter tiles only, then slowly introducing new mechanics), but there are some things that make it harder in general. Words tend to be longer and more complex (incl. such stumpers as RECEIVE), and Killer Whales (the Blizzard equivalent to Hippos) swim around instead of waiting in one place for you to feed them (so your aim has to be on point). Stuff like that. I haven't gotten to the end of it, but I imagine it meets or surpasses Jungle's endgame.
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Apr 9, 2024 08:10
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Thanks so much for continuing this! If we can get an appropriately sized and isolated , I'll spring for a smilie.
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Apr 9, 2024 08:19
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Here is Yobi transparent, large and small. Do you think either of these sizes will work?  They both have less of an outline than something like , though.
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Apr 9, 2024 17:32
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Somehow both are outside the dimensions limit, though I could swear a lot of smilies are far larger. I'll ask a mod sometime soon.
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Apr 9, 2024 23:29
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OK, upon inspection, they can be up to 90 wide but at most 25 high. That's... tight. The expression is nearly unreadable.
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Apr 10, 2024 00:39
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crackers in mid squawk is probably the only thing that is going to show up. these old games didn't exactly have 4k resolutions in mind.
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Apr 10, 2024 01:15
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Coolguye posted:crackers in mid squawk is probably the only thing that is going to show up. these old games didn't exactly have 4k resolutions in mind. Yeah, it runs at 640x480.
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Apr 10, 2024 05:25
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Episode 18: The Day The Jungle Stood Still Welcome back. We’ve got a few easier levels in our rotation today - which is neatly made up for by a confounding trinket level that introduces the last remaining potion at the same time. Level 86. OFTEN ”Think ‘of ten’ fingers or toes to spell ‘often’.”  Collect the letters of the word O-F-T-E-N, in the proper order. Remember, the T is silent!This level is remarkably chill compared to some of the stuff we’ve been doing. Once we figure out what to do about that Dart Demon, the rest will be easy.   We start by grabbing the two apples, and ducking in and out quickly to grab the bridge without getting hit.   Before we do anything else, it’s time to do something about the Dart Demon. After placing the bridge in the one safe location, we push the boulder across it and block the Demon’s vertical line of fire. That’ll keep us safe when we go for the F and E.   We’re almost done setting things up. After detouring around the pit, we push the rightmost zebra over and up so it blocks the horizontal firing line of the Dart Demon.  Now we can get the O safely.    It’s a long walk to the other side of the map, but with the boulder protecting us, we get the F without trouble.   Getting the T and E is no sweat.   The remaining zebra doesn’t bother us as we go collect the N. Back to the raft! It’s honestly nice to see some wide-open spaces again. As puzzle design has gotten more complex, levels have gotten a bit more cramped, but this is a return to early game form.  The pop quiz is uneventful. Level 87. SEVERAL ”I don’t ever need help spelling ‘several’.”  That one black pixel after “ever” in the mnemonic haunts me. Are mnemonics drawn instead of typed?! Collect the letters of the word S-E-V-E-R-A-L, in the proper order. Remember the E-R in the word “several”!This level is less dangerous than it looks. There are no hot coal turns (except for the one where the Wind Demon will ensure success), and the Fire Demon on the right can’t hit you unless you deliberately blunder into it.  We start by running left over the first stretch of hot coals, then pulling back so we don’t get run over by stampeding rhinos.   Once we pass by, we cross their ‘road’ and get blown upwards on the next stretch of hot coals by the Wind Demon.  With bridge in hand, we can cross the river and get to the S. This Fire Demon can’t hit us as long as we don’t go any farther down than our current position.   Of the two Es, one is right next to the bridge we’ll need to get to the other. We cross the hot coals vertically and grab both bridge and E together.   Unlike the Fire Demon on the right, the one on the left will be in a position to flambé us as we go to get the V. After we place the bridge to its section of the river bank, we push the boulder up and left to wall the Demon in.   We get the V and the E.   Similarly, reaching the R and A is no trouble. This only leaves the L.  We do have to be careful on the way back to the river crossing that we don’t run into a fireball headfirst, but after that, the L is easily gettable. Back to the raft!  With the rhinos gone, we’re able to take the clear vertical path, and only have to walk a short ways across the hot coals to reach the way forwards.  Today’s pop quiz has ALONG (Level 65) as a surprise visitor, along with ROUGH (just recently) - and LOVE, which dates back to Level 15. Many of the other words are fairly simple, though. Level 88. BECAUSE ”Barbara eats caramel apples until she explodes.”  Collect the letters of the word B-E-C-A-U-S-E, in the proper order. Remember the A-U in the word “because”!We’re back to terrible mnemonic hours again. Similar to ROUGH, the alligator is only there to annoy you and block you from placing bridges.   We start by grabbing the apple and three bridges. The first bridge goes to the spit of land the hippo hangs out by.  With our first apple, we ride the hippo up to the B. This presents an immediate problem: we can’t stay here, as we have nothing else to feed the hippo. We have to head to the island with the C or back to shore so we can collect the apple on the far bank.  My first impulse is to go back to shore, but the apple runs out and we’re stranded in mid-lake. Let’s try that one again!  On the retry, we head to the island with the C and grab the apple there instead, using it to head back.  This lets us grab the E, second apple, and fourth bridge on the far shore.   We ride the hippo again with the new apple we picked up, and grab the C. This gives us space to place the bridge to the next island, with the U.    Since the alligator is distracted, we place the remaining three bridges. We also grab the last three apples - we’ll need all of them for hippo fare.    Using the first of them, we take the long walk back to the other bank to get the A. Then we walk back.   One hippo ride later, we grab the U and S while the alligator watches enviously.   We spend our very last apple on one last hippo ride, letting us lay claim to the E. Back to the raft! This level is more long than difficult. The only tricky bit is when you’re stuck on the island with the C and haven’t placed the bridge to the U island yet, as there it’s possible to end up with the alligator blocking whatever you try to do.  This pop quiz makes up for the long trek. Lots of short and easy words. Level 89. LITTLE ”Little insects try to look everywhere.”  Collect the letters of the word L-I-T-T-L-E, in the proper order. Don’t forget the two Ts!Today, the Dart Demon has set us a puzzle. We will need to cross its line of fire multiple times to get all the letters.   After grabbing the apples, we head up to get the L. We’re just enough far away that we can run past the Dart Demon if we align ourselves with the left L.   I push the boulder up, and then turn around as I realize we will need a bridge to cross the river. For some unknown reason, though, I try to cross to the left of the L (where there’s no safe passage), and get sniped. Let’s try that one again! This time, I try leading the zebra up to block the Dart Demon, before realizing my mistake. We restart. Let’s try that one again!  On the third try, we lead the zebra over to where the bridge is, and use it as a shield to grab the bridge safely.    We’re able to make it to the L and back by dint of frantic sprinting. I don’t move the boulder, for some reason. I think I thought I could push it down from above to block the Dart Demon.  For some reason, my next move was to try going around the side by the E. But Dart Demon darts go fast. Let’s try that one again!   On our fourth attempt, we start similar to before: we move the zebra, grab the bridge, and run to get the L. But this time, we move the boulder up.   This lets us cross the river with the bridge. We run past the Dart Demon.  The rhino presents a problem, as the chokepoint in its path is right where the Dart Demon fires. By rushing boldly after the rhino, we dodge both darts and the rhino’s sharp horn.   Getting the I and the bridge, we can now cross to the little island and grab both T’s.    Getting back out of the rhino’s lair is easier than getting in. We run across the top of the map and make it to the L.   Then, we push the boulder up, and go left and around so that we have a straight path to the E. We run across safely! Back to the raft! I’m genuinely not sure what the boulder was for, except maybe as a red herring.    In the pop quiz, we misspell GUESS as GUEST, and get corrected by Yobi.  After that it’s uneventful, though we do end up spelling TICKET twice, interestingly. Then, it’s upriver once again. Level 90. BALLOON ”There is a ball inside that balloon.”  Collect the letters of the word B-A-L-L-O-O-N, in the proper order. Remember the two Ls!Oh boy. There are so many issues with the placement of that trinket. It’s across water, yet we have no bridge. We could cross with the boulder, but we’d have no way to get back. And on top of that, the inner alligator (one of two in this level) will chomp on us if we try. And yet, we’re gonna grab it. All we need is the help of that potion by the O - if we don’t screw things up. This level has a lot of ways to screw things up.   We start by walking right and grabbing the apple. However, this attracts the attention of the outer alligator.   Now that the alligator is locked onto us, we can’t head up on the right side without getting bitten. In desperation, I try riding the hippo up, but the ‘gator still follows us and chomps on us. Let’s try that one again!   This time, we run right and up immediately, only doubling back to grab the apple once the alligator is gone.    Next, we grab another apple, wait again for the alligator to get out of the way, push the elephant (which is positioned to form a one-way gate of sorts), and grab the B.   We get the alligator’s attention as it comes back, but manage to fake it out by walking away around the bend of the river. This causes it to turn around, leaving it safe for us to follow behind it.  We do, picking up the A and L. We can now hide safely from the gator by standing away from the lake it’s in, near the O.   After doing just that, we grab the other L. By lingering a little longer around the center lake than we specifically need to, we’re able to move the alligator out of the way. If we try to get the trinket, we’ll have to push the boulder from below, as the trees hinder us from coming from the right.    After some thought, we grab the O, then push the boulder down and left. It’s now in place for us to take a shot at going for the trinket.  The shortest way to pushing the boulder leads us over the potion, so we take the potion - and everything stops. The river stops, the gators stop, the hippo stops... only we (and Yobi) stay moving. This is the power of the final potion, Time Stop. Of course, there’s just one little problem. Because time is stopped, the boulder won’t sink! We can’t push it further because we can’t walk on water. We’re left waiting until time unfreezes - at which point the alligator wakes up, too, and we get bitten. Let’s try that one again! Normally, boulders only last for one river crossing. In order to cross safely (and be able to cross back), we’ll need to push the boulder into the lake, then take the time stop potion to freeze it while it’s acting as a stepping stone. This will also conveniently take the alligator out of action as well. The challenge now is simply doing it.  On our next attempt, we replay everything up to grabbing the O and pushing the boulder. Now, we want to get on the left side, so that we can push the boulder before grabbing the potion.   We could push the elephant again, but instead we go around and ride the hippo to get the other O. We’d have to do this sooner or later, so this gets it out of the way.   After riding to the top and walking down to the boulder, we push it - but we’re just a smidge too slow, and the boulder sinks into the river just as we grab the potion. Let’s try that one again! And on the attempt after that, I screw up the hippo ride and somehow manage to get stuck at the one single point in the upper half of the river it’s possible to do so. Let’s try that one again! On the attempt after that, we make it around the hippo loop, but I accidentally push the boulder out of position by mistake. There’s no way to get it back. Let’s try that one again!   This time, everything goes well up to the bit where we push the boulder. We’re now ready to try the trinket maneuver again.   Pushing the boulder only halfway over the water causes it to tumble into the river on its own, by which time we’re already running back to the time stop potion. We make it! The boulder is still suspended in the river.  We run across, grab the trinket, run back before the potion wears off, and make our way to the N in one triumphant motion. Back to the raft! I am given to understand that Spelling Jungle, like many other games that came on a floppy disk, included a paper manual of some kind. I can just imagine some kid hyping themselves up about the time stop potion - and then this is the first time they get/have to use it! Dear me. Fun fact: This level took over 20 minutes to complete, counting the multiple failed attempts. There are a few more equally or more-egregious levels still ahead of us, though.  Oddly enough, our pop quiz seems to have the theme of ‘words that end in the “er” sound’ for the first half - including DOLLAR, from Level 29. The back half is chill.  We are almost there! We are so close! We’ve gotten all but one trinket, and the headwaters of the river are only about ten levels away. We’ll see what’s left - next time. Next Time on Spelling Jungle: You are in a maze of little twisty paths...
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Apr 19, 2024 20:06
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Quackles posted:
Just a gues Are the higher levels any tighter on timing than the earlier ones? It doesn't look it; just a different set of challenges.
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Apr 21, 2024 14:51
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Kangra posted:Just a gues Here's a full-size image:  Upon inspection, the "r" with the error and a later "r" in the mnemonic have the same pixel shapes, but different highlighting - it definitely suggests the highlighting may be drawn, even if the mnemonic isn't. quote:Are the higher levels any tighter on timing than the earlier ones? It doesn't look it; just a different set of challenges. Basically, you can think of Spelling Jungle as running in 'frame windows'. The game runs at 30 FPS, but we can divide that up into frame windows of 8 frames. This is the time it takes for you, or an animal, to move half a square. Spelling Jungle only scans for keyboard input at the start of a frame window, and once the player character starts moving, the game will not accept further input until the start of the next frame window. Nothing in the game requires frame-perfect timing, but numerous things do require frame-window-perfect timing, including hot coal turns and the whole thing we did with the time stop potion in Level 90. Incidentally, projectiles (fireballs, darts, apples) travel at four times the speed of the player, and take 4 frames to pass through one whole square.
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Apr 21, 2024 19:33
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