HSC21 Round 12: FLOB !!

[+therealbountybob]

FLOB v1.03

No idea but we *all* voted for it so here we go! Round will finish in a couple of weeks if the game has enough to it to keep us occupied? Will confirm date nearer the time! A newish game from 2021 and has a whacking 9.5 out of 10 on Atarimania with 94 votes so might be good eh?!!

 

Comments and tips welcome

 

Sorry but we are playing a Cartridge only game or can use emulation - if anyone needs any help please post. I've just downloaded the v.103 car file and opened it with altirra and it seems to work ;)

I didn't realise Flob is a CAR [Cartridge] file (for use with Atarimax etc) and the DD ATR disks are for creating and updating the cartridges.

 

Official web site has all the info on the game and you can freely download the latest CAR version or purchase the game too:

https://bocianu.atari.pl/blog/flob

https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-flob_s28866.html

 

Have fun and join in EVERYONE

 

Edited August 19 by therealbountybob
Flob is .CAR or emulation only - sorry

[jblenkle]

Wow, this is one of the weirdest games I've played. I really have no idea what to do. I've not been able to score any points and have only gotten 16 of 109 slimes. Now I'm stuck four or five rooms in and can't figure how to advance any further.

[McKong]

I like this game

 

Escaped the lab!

Game Time 12:09 Slimes 91 of 109 Score 1611

Game Time 07:53 Slimes 89 of 109 Score 2221

Game Time 09:26 Slimes 91 of 109 Score 2029

 

Sewers

4:27 Score 0 Slimes 49 of 148

15:25 Score 0 Slimes 114 of 148

Edited August 21 by McKong

[+therealbountybob]

I didn't realise Flob is [CARTRIDGE ONLY] on a DD disk so will not work on a 1050 drive (can load via APE etc) - would not have polled it if I had known this. See first post - edited!

 

Official web site has all the info on the game and you can freely download the latest version or purchase the game too:

https://bocianu.atari.pl/blog/flob

[graywest]

For those who have gotten the game to work - are you using the .atr files?

 

I'm opening the .atr (with APE) on an NTSC 130xe and I can't figure out how to get it to boot into the game. It's always opening some kind of flash cart updater, and I can't figure out how to bypass that. 

 

EDIT: Maybe it's cart only and the .atr is just for updating a flash cart?Emulation worked for me.

Escape from the lab

Score 735

Slimes 91 of 109

Game Time 12:49

Edited August 17 by graywest

[MichaG]

As far as I know Flob is a cartridge only game. You can use Atarimax, Picocart or Side3 esc.

On the originals cartridge, the Atarimax and the special version vor AVGCART the progress is saved.

Edited August 18 by MichaG

[carlsson]

I must've misplaced my Atarimax cartridge a couple of years ago, possibly lent it away to someone who claims he never had it. I have the programming device though.

 

I suppose most of us will play this round through emulation, which is fine for some games but a PITA for others. Or maybe reuse one or both of the runners-up games. I checked the other output from the developer of FloB, but those were not very suitable for HSC.

[McKong]

I dont have any means to save progress on this one, I dont think, so I'm starting from scratch each time. 

[+therealbountybob]

19 hours ago, carlsson said:

I must've misplaced my Atarimax cartridge a couple of years ago, possibly lent it away to someone who claims he never had it. I have the programming device though.

 

I suppose most of us will play this round through emulation, which is fine for some games but a PITA for others. Or maybe reuse one or both of the runners-up games. I checked the other output from the developer of FloB, but those were not very suitable for HSC.

 

I've updated the first post - it's emulation or buy or build a cartridge from the .CAR file for this round. Sorry folks

 

Had a quick go - scored 16/109 not sure how to get some of the slime, looks a nice if simple game, will play more soon.

[START] / [F2] is Pause

 

Sort of like Fanda's games e.g. Ollies Follies / Ghost Chaser etc. Not sure if it's cheating to flip and flip again quickly and move mid fall or this is how you are meant to pass some areas?

36/109

[rdrunner]

Emulation has worked for me.  I just ran the .cas file with the newest version (1.03).  Atari800Win treats it like a flash cart and writes to it every time I finish a game. 

 

However progress is not saved.  If you unlock a new level during play, it goes back to locked when you shut down.  The save state function could be used to prevent this, but not sure if that's out of bounds?

 

1 hour ago, therealbountybob said:

 

Not sure if it's cheating to flip and flip again quickly and move mid fall or this is how you are meant to pass some areas?

Definitely not cheating.  Without spoiling anything, you'll need to flip in mid air to get some of the slime.

Edited August 19 by rdrunner

[graywest]

10 hours ago, therealbountybob said:

Sort of like Fanda's games e.g. Ollies Follies / Ghost Chaser etc. Not sure if it's cheating to flip and flip again quickly and move mid fall or this is how you are meant to pass some areas?

36/109

I don't think it's cheating - but note that your score goes down every time you flip the screen so you'll want to do it sparingly. I think it's related to something I saw in the instructions about how you need "slime" to power your flipping abilities...

 

I tried it out just now and verified that it's game over if your score drops to 0.

Edited August 19 by graywest

[+therealbountybob]

12 hours ago, graywest said:

I don't think it's cheating - but note that your score goes down every time you flip the screen so you'll want to do it sparingly. I think it's related to something I saw in the instructions about how you need "slime" to power your flipping abilities...

 

I tried it out just now and verified that it's game over if your score drops to 0.

20 hours ago, rdrunner said:

Emulation has worked for me.  I just ran the .cas file with the newest version (1.03).  Atari800Win treats it like a flash cart and writes to it every time I finish a game. 

 

However progress is not saved.  If you unlock a new level during play, it goes back to locked when you shut down.  The save state function could be used to prevent this, but not sure if that's out of bounds?

 

Definitely not cheating.  Without spoiling anything, you'll need to flip in mid air to get some of the slime.

So that flippimg a lot zeroed my score and I was out - really should read the instructions

On 8/18/2024 at 9:30 PM, McKong said:

I dont have any means to save progress on this one, I dont think, so I'm starting from scratch each time. 

Not sure if new level is a new section of the main game or a completely new game - guess the latter as McKong posted a score for the Sewer - playing from the start vs using a save state at the start of a new section depends on how much there is to the game - if we know there are say 3 sections and that is probably achievable from the start then no, but if say there are 10 sections and that would be the only way to make progress then save states at the start of each section ok. Leave this one up to you guys to figure unless I get further today

On 8/16/2024 at 12:21 AM, jblenkle said:

Wow, this is one of the weirdest games I've played. I really have no idea what to do. I've not been able to score any points and have only gotten 16 of 109 slimes. Now I'm stuck four or five rooms in and can't figure how to advance any further.

 

Hopefully some of the posts here have helped? If not post again? !

 

first tables - just using slime collected for now

LAB

	Player		Score		Points
1st	graywest		91		12
1st	McKong		91		12
3rd	therealbountybob		36		10
4th	jblenkle		16		9

SEWER

1st        Mckong                              110                            ?!

[+therealbountybob]

89 of 109 some of them are very tricky to get, not worth the loss of power e.g. I couldn't get past the middle section spike on the screenshot

[rdrunner]

I believe that there are 6 stages in the game.  Even though at the start you can only play the first stage, you can see the others by scrolling between them before starting to play.  They're just "locked" until you complete other stages.

 

My initial thought was since the game was designed to save your progress and achievements (press Select on title screen) to the flash cart, we could mimic that by using a save state on the title screen.  However, the first level at least was short enough (once you solve it) that maybe it's not a big deal to just replay it.  At the very least, each level is it's own "game", since you return to the title screen when you complete one.

 

Also note on scoring: If you complete a stage, your score is what's left of your power meter, but if you lose, your score is zero.  Not sure how that affects the rankings for our purposes.

 

There is definitely incentive to beat the levels quickly (and without over-flipping) as well as to collect as much slime as possible to maximize points.

Edited August 20 by rdrunner

[McKong]

4 hours ago, therealbountybob said:

89 of 109 some of them are very tricky to get, not worth the loss of power e.g. I couldn't get past the middle section spike on the screenshot

Interesting, I've completed the 1st level a few times and haven't seen that screen

[+therealbountybob]

I will be AFA (away from Atari) for a week or so, should be able to play on emulation though !

This round will end Monday 2nd September 12pm UK time.

I'll start up the next poll now...

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/371258-hsc12-round-13-poll/

 

 

[MichaG]

Lab: 5:25 / Score 2323 / 79 Slimes

 

I realy love this game, it was my first software purchase this century after my "Atari rebirth". The sound is great, try to listen to it in stereo!

[rdrunner]

Really digging this game.  Love how it cracks a joke here and there when you find something:

[carlsson]

Now I've tried this game twice, a total of 12 minutes. My brain says no. Best result was 0 pts, 17 of 109 slimes.

[AtariSphinx]

14 of 109

[Sikor]

Heh, i have no time... My poor result: score 0, slime 31/109

[rdrunner]

I beat the game!  Individual level scores below.  My laptop has the usual pics if needed, but I'm away from the house this weekend.

 

Flob is a really well-made game, that I think is deserving of the rating it got on Atarimania.  Felt like a cross between Metal Storm (another gravity-flipper game) and Super Meat Boy.

 

I found every slime in each level, which included the hidden "secrets".  Each secret is worth a huge bonus, but is usually hard to collect (ex: the "R U MAD" room I posted before requires a bunch of mid-air flips).  Most of these were easy to stumble into with a little exploration (walk over a certain spot and a door opens), but a couple required a lot of hunting.  I just barely found the last one in Silver Dust Mines, which is why that score is a bit lower.

 

Now I'm wondering if I should inquire about a physical copy.  Would be cool to see the flash drive in action and work on the achievements.

 

Escape from the Lab: 13618, 109/109, 7:34

Abominable Sewers: 14888, 148/148, 7:33

Suburban Parkour: 12731, 134/134, 9:35

Hazardous Mudlands: 14672, 150/150, 8:03

Silver Dust Mines: 9137, 165/165, 13:47

Return to the Lab: 10127, 171/171, 16:34

[+therealbountybob]

Some great feedback rdrunner, hopefully the programmers will have spotted this thread

Been a busy month but should be able to get back on track Atari wise now Nice new game worth checking out if you are passing through this thread

Thanks for playing

 

final tables

	Flob v1.03
	Player		Score		Points
1st	rdrunner		109		12+3
2nd	graywest		91		11
3rd	McKong		91		10
4th	MichaG		79		9
5th	therealbountybob		36		8
6th	Sikor		31		7
7th	carlsson		17		6
8th	jblenkle		16		5
9th	AtariSphinx		14		4

 

Rdrunners scores for the HSC records:

Escape from the Lab: 13618, 109/109, 7:34

Abominable Sewers: 14888, 148/148, 7:33 (* McKong 110)

Suburban Parkour: 12731, 134/134, 9:35

Hazardous Mudlands: 14672, 150/150, 8:03

Silver Dust Mines: 9137, 165/165, 13:47

Return to the Lab: 10127, 171/171, 16:34

[bocianu]

Thank you for choosing and playing my game

I'm really glad you found it interesting, and congratulations to @rdrunner for beating the game!  

 

You're one of only four people I know who have completed all the levels.