Time limit above 999, random characters in timer

[1033Forest]

http://chipschallenge.wikia.com/wiki/Time_limit

It says from this: "For time limits above 999, the info panel displays a random character as the first digit in either yellow or green, followed by the last two digits of the time limit, in either yellow or green."

So what are some of these random characters? I'm interested in knowing. I actually plan to make some levels with over 999 time limit after finding this out.

[James]

I planned to put together an entire write-up and video for you, but I've run out of time tonight and I'm not sure when I'll be able to finish it. (Hopefully tomorrow night.)

The tl;dr until that happens: between 1000 and 2399 the timer displays dashes, yellow digits (as opposed to green ones), and sometimes nothing at all in the hundreds' place of the timer, because the game thinks the "hundreds' digit" of the time is higher than 9 and so it searches for the appropriate higher "digit" in the internal graphics file past where it is supposed to look. (The tens' digit and the ones' digit of the timer always display normally.) Above 2399, the game runs out of "digits" in the graphics file to use, and it starts displaying garbled mash-ups of multiple graphics that are sometimes legible - though nonsensical - and sometimes total nonsense. (There are some peculiarities about this behaviour that I want to investigate further.) Above 3499, the game stops coming up with new garbled mash-ups for the hundreds' digit every 100 seconds and instead starts using the same one for every time higher than this. Above 32,767, the timer freezes and won't tick down - making the level effectively untimed - though the game will still display the time (complete with garbled hundreds' digit) and it will still award you time bonus points. More on all this stuff hopefully coming soon.

[1033Forest]

This is kinda like the timer in the older Mario games, if there are more than 999 seconds to complete the level, it'll show a letter or piece of terrain for the higher hundredths digit (usually only in glitch levels). For example, if there were 3600 seconds left, the timer would just show 2 digits, because a blank space represents 36.

The blank space for "nothing at all", which is an unlit 7 segment display would be yellow because the green one is used for 0-99 seconds left. The highest time in CC, 32767, would show up as (garbled digit)67. I thought at first it would display a random 7 segment character, like a 2 or 5 with its middle segment off, or a ? shaped one.

[hkn]

The above information only applies to CHIPS.EXE which is no longer widely used. Tile World can handle four-digit time limits just fine.

[1033Forest]

I wonder how these numbers will appear on the CHIPS.EXE timer:

12412

2641

And for one with yellow digits (I think): 1673 (extracted the digits.bmp, and by looking at it it appears as 473, with the 4 being yellow)

Once I get CHIPS.EXE and a 3.1 emulator (probably on DOSBox) I'll make a few test levels with time limits over 999 and see how they will appear.

[1033Forest]

10xx - Green blank

11xx - Green dash

12xx - Yellow 0

13xx - Yellow 1

14xx - Yellow 2

15xx - Yellow 3

16xx - Yellow 4

17xx - Yellow 5

18xx - Yellow 6

19xx - Yellow 7

20xx - Yellow 8

21xx - Yellow 9

22xx - Yellow blank

23xx - Yellow dash

With the yellow digits at this point it's like the 24 hour clock system, where the yellow digits would represent the PM part of the day

[1033Forest]

I am making a test level just to see how the timer will look. How do I set a time limit over 999? The editor I am using (CCEdit) doesn't have it. When I open the .ccl file in Notepad it just shows some random garbage

[The Architect]

It's not "random garbage" - just non-text-type data.

Regarding your question, are you using the latest version of CC Edit? The version I'm using supports time limits up to 32,767, both by clicking the up button and by simply typing it.

[1033Forest]

It's not "random garbage" - just non-text-type data.

Regarding your question, are you using the latest version of CC Edit? The version I'm using supports time limits up to 32,767, both by clicking the up button and by simply typing it.

Yes I am using the latest CC Edit. What version are you using?

[The Architect]

2.0, for Windows.