Possible new glitch in Tile World Lynx -- Clone Desynchronization

[ajmiam]

Hello everyone! New here...

Anyway, I was in the process of building and testing my first levelset when I saw something odd occur in one level as I tested it in Lynx mode. As you can see in


video, two fireballs that are supposed to be cloned at the same time end up appearing at different times. This occurs consistently whenever I test the level; it is not a fluke. It occurs in both Tile World and Tile World 2. Does anyone know whether this a glitch, or just a faithfully emulated quirk of the original Lynx game?

I'm posting this because I didn't find anything about it mentioned on the forums, newsgroup or Chip Wiki. Has anyone else seen anything like this?

[BigOto2]

Seems like a Lynx fluke to me, but we would need confirmation from one of the programming geniuses to know for sure. And that is an amazing level in the making!

[geodave]

How are they triggered? I have noticed that lynx animation does make it harder to synchronize things.

[ajmiam]

How are they triggered? I have noticed that lynx animation does make it harder to synchronize things.

If by "they" you mean the fireball clone machines in the bottom right, they're triggered by the two fireballs just to their left hitting the red buttons, which clone more fireballs that hit the same red buttons, etc.

If you meant the desynchronization, well I made some test levels. It seems to only affect monsters that both A) are cloned by other monsters and B) run into water or bombs. It affects all monster types except teeth and blobs. Also, it takes a few seconds for desync to occur, and it only occurs if monsters are cloned very frequently. The stage shown in the video had 4 continuously running cloners at the time I pointed out the desynchronization. In a test stage with just two continuously running cloners, desync occcurred only when the red buttons were placed close to the machines (2 spaces away as opposed to 6 spaces away) to make cloning occur more frequently.

[Hornlitz]

I think I might have run into this before, but I just ignored it. The glitch seems to not have any effect on the level really, so I wouldn't really do much about it.

But I really like the looks of this level

[geodave]

I wonder if this would be a problem on a PERFECT MATCH sort of level (but more complex, of course)?

[James]

I'm not convinced at all that this is a glitch, but at the same time I can't point out what the underlying cause might be...hopefully this thread will catch the eye of one of the Lynx gurus here

Edit - pretty sure it's a glitch, due to some recent events

[geodave]

There are some interesting things with Lynx and the animation, beyond splash delay (which always seemed silly) and tank reversal rules.

For example, one of the things that I always thought was glitchy in CC1 was the ball cloner in FOUR PLEX. In MSCC and MS TW, I can time my step on the red button correctly and only ever clone one ball at a time. In think the intent of the level designer is that you would have to contend with three or four balls at once.

Now, in Lynx I cannot make it happen. I don't know if it's just my fingers, or if it is actually impossible. After all, the timing of things is quite different. For example in levels where you have to hit the blue button to make a tank stop ON a blue button.

[Temporary Man]

Sounds similar to a problem I ran into with a level I'm making. It has constantly-cloned streams of bugs and paramecia that drown. Problem is, I wanted to both stop and restart the clone streams, and fix boss glitch for MS compatibility. But the streams have to face opposite directions, so the first clone made will become the boss and render the other clone machine inoperable. That means, as best as I can tell, I need to clone new bosses facing opposite directions between the operation of the alternating bug/'mecium streams in order to ensure both machines will work. Also need to guarantee the boss streams synch up when the bug streams restart. Tried that with two fireball clone streams with carefully managed monster order... unpredictable results ensued. If I stuck the fireball clone streams in the corners of the map, everything ran smoothly, but when I moved them toward the middle, all other things being the same, desynch set in.

Oh, did I mention the bug streams control the green button? Desynch means the bugs may even stop cloning entirely and the toggles don't work as intended. I've put off work on the level for a year as a result. Whole thing's a race-condition nightmare, now that I think of it.

"Clogged" looks cool, by the way.

[KeyboardWielder]

Sounds similar to a problem I ran into with a level I'm making. It has constantly-cloned streams of bugs and paramecia that drown. Problem is, I wanted to both stop and restart the clone streams, and fix boss glitch for MS compatibility. But the streams have to face opposite directions, so the first clone made will become the boss and render the other clone machine inoperable. That means, as best as I can tell, I need to clone new bosses facing opposite directions between the operation of the alternating bug/'mecium streams in order to ensure both machines will work.

The direction of a clone machine doesn't necessarily have to be the direction of its stream, does it?

- Madhav.