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Spirals corruption: Difference between revisions
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rearrange this and explain what i am pretty sure is actually going on
m (reordered sections (based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Layout)) |
(rearrange this and explain what i am pretty sure is actually going on) |
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|bold difficulty lynx = 3 | |bold difficulty lynx = 3 | ||
|bold complexity lynx = 1 | |bold complexity lynx = 1 | ||
}}'''Spirals corruption''' is | }}'''Spirals corruption''' is a misnomer, referring to a copy of [[MSCC]] which shipped with the original [[Chip's Challenge for Atari Lynx|Lynx]] version of [[Spirals]], rather than the version edited to work with [[MS ruleset|Microsoft rules]]. The difference is a single tile: at [[grid]] coordinates (29, 13), Lynx has a [[thin wall]], but MSCC changes it to a [[floor]]. The difference is so drastic that the Lynx level was initially believed to be a [[glitch]]. | ||
The | The difficulty in the original Spirals was apparently not noticed until after the initial release of MSCC. Although the level was altered to fix the issue, some early copies of Spirals — generally found in Windows Entertainment Pack 4 versions of the MS Chip's Challenge — made it into player hands before that happened. | ||
== Background == | |||
The change in difficulty comes down to a change in the behavior of [[walker]]s. | |||
In Lynx, when a [[walker]] hits an obstacle while trying to move, it will choose a random direction and try to move that way instead. Crucially, it will choose ''any'' random direction, including the direction it's already facing. Thus, if a walker goes down a hallway one cell wide and hits a dead end, it only has a 1 in 4 chance of backtracking each tic. If more walkers are coming up behind it, there's a decent chance they will bunch up and bumble around for a while. | |||
In MS, a blocked walker chooses a random ''open'' direction. A walker in the same dead end will thus '''immediately''' turn around and head back the same way. Even multiple walkers trapped in the same hallway will function akin to a cannon, shooting them all back out as quickly as possible. | |||
The removal of the single wall changes a dead end to a corner leading into a T junction, providing a release valve that lets the walkers spread out into other parts of the level | |||
Spirals also spawns walkers also more frequently in general under MS. When a new clone is created in Lynx, it only has a 1 in 4 chance of making it past the first corner after the [[red button]]; it's more likely to cause a traffic jam and prevent too many walkers from escaping into the level too quickly. In MS, a new clone will ''always'' take that corner, ensuring a steady stream of new walkers. | |||
== History == | |||
This corruption was first brought to the full attention of the public, although isolated reports had been made, on March 23, 1998, in a discovery by Erik Arfeuille: | This corruption was first brought to the full attention of the public, although isolated reports had been made, on March 23, 1998, in a discovery by Erik Arfeuille: | ||