Pushover

[-H0ru5-]

I've just found this loveable old game's open source version on the net and now I feel strong drive to arrange some dominoes 
It's playable alpha version was published for the 2008 annual Domino Day. It contains the full basic game including the cave level and the greek level with the fake yellow dominoes plus ten new toxcity levels. And the most important: new levels can be edited with a simple text editor! 

If you don't know the game, read the manual, try it, and become addicted as soon as possible! If you love Lemmings, you will like it too. 
And in the case you already heard of it, get ready for my new maps.  8)

Pushover

[Ron_Stard]

Thank you! I played long ago the MS-DOS version, and I had a lot of fun! 

[geoo]

Pushover is one of my favourite games, like for Lemmings, its conception and gameplay is unique.

We've already been discussing Pushover a little somewhere in another thread: http://lemmings.isamedia.org/index.php?topic=22.75 (could these posts be merged into this thread somehow?)

When saying cave level, do you mean the hidden Cavern tileset that isn't used by any of the original levels (I have the graphics of it somewhere I produced after figuring the file format, in case you haven't seen it yet)? Couldn't find it anywhere in the remake.

At the current state, I still greatly prefer Ishisoft Pushover: http://ishisoft.remakes.org/sub.php?num=1
It's a remake of it with high-res graphics (not just a filter) and a graphical level editor. I've made like 3 or 4 levels for it, so if anyone is interested...

[DragonsLover]

Yeah, PushOver was a great game.

IshiSoft Pushover was nice too, but not perfect. There was sometimes strange things with the domino's collisions. Also, depending of the power of your computer, the time used to complete a level wasn't the same. If you ran the game on a slow computer (like me), some levels were impossible to solve because there wasn't enough time.

My fav is still the original game (Atari ST, Amiga and Dos).

Nice to see that another version exists. I should try it.

[Clam]

I've never heard of it, but it looks like an interesting concept. I think I'll give this a try now

[-H0ru5-]

Pushover is one of my favourite games, like for Lemmings, its conception and gameplay is unique.

We've already been discussing Pushover a little somewhere in another thread: http://lemmings.isamedia.org/index.php?topic=22.75 (could these posts be merged into this thread somehow?)

When saying cave level, do you mean the hidden Cavern tileset that isn't used by any of the original levels (I have the graphics of it somewhere I produced after figuring the file format, in case you haven't seen it yet)? Couldn't find it anywhere in the remake.

At the current state, I still greatly prefer Ishisoft Pushover: http://ishisoft.remakes.org/sub.php?num=1
It's a remake of it with high-res graphics (not just a filter) and a graphical level editor. I've made like 3 or 4 levels for it, so if anyone is interested...

I followed the Lemmings' 666 map's train of thought, and I suspected it is a bonus level on other platforms... but if you say so, then not.
I took a glance on the ishisoft version, but it's dominoes' graphics have a very plastic look IMHO, and in addition what DragonsLover said, I insist on this newer version. However I'm having problems with editing new levels (it crashes).

geoo89: of course i'm interested in it 

[geoo]

IshiSoft Pushover was nice too, but not perfect. There was sometimes strange things with the domino's collisions. Also, depending of the power of your computer, the time used to complete a level wasn't the same. If you ran the game on a slow computer (like me), some levels were impossible to solve because there wasn't enough time.

What I meant to say was that I greatly prefer Ishisoft Pushover over the other, new remake. I haven't encountered too many bugs in Ishisoft's. But yeah, I haven't noticed until now that the speed is depending on how fast your computer is. It seems that the ant is indeed walking faster on my laptop than it used on my old PC. As for the domino graphics, I think Craig has implemented an alternative, but it hasn't got to a release yet.
It seems that the engine of the newer remake is an exact replica of the original one, at least I could reproduce one very obscure bug. But still it doesn't really appeal that much to me; that filter applied to the graphics, the menus, the lack of music...
So yeah, I still prefer the original DOS version for the feel, but Ishisoft's is easier to work with and allows for level editing.

Regarding the cavern style, I don't know whether it could be a bonus level on other platforms. It's just that I've never seen a reference to it in any screenshots or notes, and I haven't seen it in this remake either.

Here are my levels (4): http://207.58.177.175/~geoo89/lemmings/PushOverLev.zip
The dungeon level is just experimental trying some behaviour that also works in the original DOS version though.
First level is also available for DOS: http://207.58.177.175/~geoo89/lemmings/P04096.SCR

[DragonsLover]

I have some levels too if you're interested. However, I'm not sure if the amount of time for a level would be sufficient : on my old computer, I edited the level to be solved when the timer reaches 00:00 exactly. So, I'm pretty sure that, if I send you the level, it won't work the same way.

Oh, and geoo89, I almost wrote you about the third part in your PushOver level editing document. I thought it was about the brightness of some tiles, but apparently, I was wrong. What I mean with the "brightness", simply swap ANT.EXE and ANTE.EXE by renaming them. ANT.EXE is the game without the brightness and ANTE.EXE is the game with brightness.

Oh, and I have the demo of the game with a few new levels to play, if you're interested. The interesting thing : the .scr file format isn't the same. This is because the files are shared amongst two computers : PC-DOS and Atari ST. However, I tried to put unpacked original screen files and replace the demo screens. It's playable, but the tile positions are messed up.

There was also something else interesting : some levels were played as a demo where the ant was controlled by the computer. I'm wondering if the third section in your document is about G.I.Ant moves and if there's a "Play demo" option somewhere, like with a commandline.

[geoo]

Sure I'd like to check out your levels! I've just re-played mine, and noticed that I had forgotten the solution to the last one. Took me almost an hour to find a solution again, and it's slightly different than my original solution.

Oh, and geoo89, I almost wrote you about the third part in your PushOver level editing document. I thought it was about the brightness of some tiles, but apparently, I was wrong. What I mean with the "brightness", simply swap ANT.EXE and ANTE.EXE by renaming them. ANT.EXE is the game without the brightness and ANTE.EXE is the game with brightness.

I haven't noticed any changes when swapping these two executables, but Herman Perk wrote that it affects the speed that ant walks.

I suppose you are referring to the third section in the level files? Your proposition of it being the demo sounds plausible, actually. They are short for shorter levels, and longer for more difficult levels. They aren't really long in general, but after all keypresses don't have to be recorded every frame, but only in those they are of relevance. I checked for the first two levels, and even though there seem to be some remaining bytes after the demo would be completed, these might just be leftovers from older recordings. Keys would be mapped that way: bit7: Space, bit3: Right, bit2: Left, bit1: Up, bit0: Down. In that case the ant would walk two fields too far and two back again before grabbing the first domino in level 2.

As for the demo version you have (it is for DOS?), certainly I'm interested in it, especially when it has new levels and that demo feature that might help find out about the third section in the levels, even if the format is different.

[DragonsLover]

My levels are way easier than yours. In fact, I don't even know how to solve the Dungeon level you did (third one). (EDIT : It's ok, I just solved it.) I solved the first ones, but for the first level, I didn't have enough time (because my PC is slow).

Well... I think Herman is wrong because there's a difference. Play the first level for example : with ANT.EXE, all the background tiles will be of the same brightness. Now, try with ANTE.EXE (by renaming it to ANT.EXE), you'll notice something different. I can do screenshots if you wish. The speed G.I.Ant walks is the same in both versions.

Demo version is available here and my levels for IshiSoft Pushover are here.

A little trick for playing the recorded demo levels : just rename the P0004, P0005 and P0006 screens to P0001, P0002 and P0003 and play the game!

[geoo]

Thanks for that demo version, that's awesome! Now we can watch the intended solutions for all the original levels! EDIT: I just noticed that the demo for level 99 doesn't solve the level...but it gets close.
All the level and graphics files use a different compression format, most likely Master Cruncher 3.0. You can get an Amiga executable for it here: http://www.amiga-stuff.com/crunchers-download.html
I've got it to run in WinUAE, but I haven't managed to decompress files with it. Perhaps someone else is better at this... Would be interesting to see if there were some differences in the art tiles used, but there's also some other way this can be found out. The executables are also compressed, seems to be RNC ProPack which is used for levels/themes in the final version; the doc of it also lists a mode for (de)compressing executables, trying that mode gives me a notice that the program doesn't recognize the commandline parameter.

Anyway, the good thing is that Pushover also recognizes and operates with uncompressed files! The level format is only different in the way that in the demo version the hint text in French/German/Spanish is missing, so if you remove it the level is compatible with the demo version and its demo can be played! The missing style files are no problem either as simply adding the uncompressed ones from the final version solves the problem.
Now if only we'd know how to record demos!

While figuring this stuff I only had time to have a short glance at your levels, but they don't seem simple either. Only solved the first one for now. You've already solved all of mine I understand?

I now see the difference between the two ANT(E) exe files. The normal one adds shading to the level, from light on the top left gradually to a darker shade at the bottom right.

And I realized that the sourceforge remake does support the Cavern style. It just doesn't have levels using it. I'm wondering, it seems that this remake is based on the disassembly and the original files, which would be good. I just feel it needs some polishing.

[DragonsLover]

No problem for the demo! And yeah, you're right, we can watch the solutions with the "Watch demo" feature of the demo version.

As for how to record demos, I think we have no choice to do it "manually" by hex-editing the screen files. There's maybe some key combinations for recording and playing demos, or commandlines...

And no, I didn't solve all your levels. Only the last one (Mechanic) remaining, but it lags so much... I think I'd be better playing on my WinXP computer.

About the shading, yeah, this is exactly what I talked about. It's just "a bit" better.

[DragonsLover]

I've just done your Mechanic level and DAMN, WHAT A LEVEL!