1980gamer Posted July 6, 2018 Share Posted July 6, 2018 Hello all, A local candy company, NECCO, famous for Valentine Heart's with the I Love U stuff on them. As well as Necco Wafers. The stuff your parents used to like! Mary Jane's, DOTS ( the blobs of sugar on the paper ) New England Confectionery Company... Was just auctioned off and is now the Sweat Heart Candy Company..... Anyway, with this news, I thought I'd put the Hearts and Wafers into a new game. My plan is 3 mini games in one. First, a slid puzzle game, Make the left eye match the right eye. Second, a Kaboom! type game were hearts fall, Don't break a heart! Third, a Kick Man type game. Other mini game ideas welcome.. Anyway, Here is the start... The first mini game is turning out to be bigger than I expected! I just started writing it, with very little planning... It should be redesigned. If someone could help me with a few questions.... First , Is it possible that some of the slide puzzles are unsolvable? Or do I just suck at solving them? Second, I have yet to solve a puzzle since I put the CHECK for completing the puzzle. So, If you finish a puzzle, Can you let me know if it works? Use the E,S,D,X keys to move the cursor. Q key to GRAB a tile. You can move 1,2 or 3 tiles at a time. The cursors can end up in the boarder... Need to fix that. Move back into the puzzle or you will get locked out of it. THANKS for any feedback or advice in advance! Still shows troubleshooting variables on the screen... NECCO.TXT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1980gamer Posted July 7, 2018 Author Share Posted July 7, 2018 i think I have fixed the cursor leaving the puzzle. Still cannot solve the puzzle. Always get to the last 2 pieces and they are reversed.... I am simply placing one of each possible shape and color randomly in each eye. I remember solving these when I was a little kid! The pisser is.. Before I did the puzzle comparison, I was getting easier puzzles! OH, When the cursor is white it can move anywhere inside the puzzle. When you Grab a tile the Cursor is Black. It can only make valid moves.... NECCO.TXT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lee Stewart Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 Still cannot solve the puzzle. Always get to the last 2 pieces and they are reversed.... Fully half of all sliding puzzle starting configurations are unsolvable. Though, perhaps more difficult to program, the best way to insure a puzzle starting configuration is solvable is to have your program start with the solved configuration and randomly perform puzzle moves to arrive at a starting configuration for the user. ...lee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1980gamer Posted July 7, 2018 Author Share Posted July 7, 2018 Thanks Lee, The only thing my algorithm ensures is that each piece is used only 1 time and that all pieces are used. Interesting idea, start each puzzle matching... and do moves on one or both to scramble the puzzle. Sounds like a lot of work? But maybe not?? Only valid moves, random directions and number of times.... I wonder if the solved starting point could be randomly laid out while ensuring solve-ability? Not having to literally slide the pieces. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 Mmmmmmmmmm. . .Necco Wafers. I have several rolls of those in my desk drawer at work. Sweet Hearts and Mary Jane's are good too. I haven't seen the Dots (of the sugar blob type) in years. Usually I just find the gumdrops named Dots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1980gamer Posted July 7, 2018 Author Share Posted July 7, 2018 You are correct.... Not DOTS.... Buttons! Yeah, I like necco wafers too. But I am old! LOL... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 I may have to hunt down some of those candy buttons for my boys to chew on. They're still in an age range where that would be fun. Of course, when I was a teen, there were crazy folks putting little drops of other things on them, things that you didn't want to eat more than one of at a pop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lee Stewart Posted July 9, 2018 Share Posted July 9, 2018 Thanks Lee, The only thing my algorithm ensures is that each piece is used only 1 time and that all pieces are used. Interesting idea, start each puzzle matching... and do moves on one or both to scramble the puzzle. Sounds like a lot of work? But maybe not?? Only valid moves, random directions and number of times.... I wonder if the solved starting point could be randomly laid out while ensuring solve-ability? Not having to literally slide the pieces. You are most welcome. Re determining whether the puzzle is solvable without moving pieces, you could have the program count inversions (out-of-order pairs) to determine whether their number is even or odd. For the 15 puzzle (yours) and the blank slot on the bottom row as yours is, the number of inversions must be even for it to be possible to solve the puzzle. You would need to number the tiles of the right eye 1 – 15 and map those numbers to the tiles in the left eye. You can then count the number of inversions for each tile and total them to see whether the total is even or odd. As an example, the puzzle sequence, 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 13 14 15 X, has only the 11-tile out of order. Starting with the first tile (11) and comparing it with each of the other numbers to its right, you will see that 11 – 1, 11 – 2, 11 – 3, 11 – 4, 11 – 5, 11 – 6, 11 – 7, 11 – 8, 11 – 9, 11 – 10 are inverted, whereas, 11 – 12, 11 – 13, 11 – 14, 11 – 15 are not. Since there are no other inversions, the total of 10 inversions is even, ergo the puzzle can be solved. Here is a link to a generic program (C++ and PHP) that you could translate to Basic and simplify to the 15-puzzle instance, with the blank slot on the last row, that will count the number of inversions and determine whether the puzzle is solvable. ...lee 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1980gamer Posted July 9, 2018 Author Share Posted July 9, 2018 Hi Lee, Thanks again.... I'll check out the C++ code. I do already call each piece 1-15 With an offset 1-3 Add 92 so 93,94,95 then 4-6 add 97 so they as 101,102,103 etc... I hope I can figure this out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1980gamer Posted July 13, 2018 Author Share Posted July 13, 2018 OKAY, I believe the SLIDE puzzle works now. It randomly builds a scrambled puzzle but tests if it is solvable! If it is not, it rebuilds until it is solvable. Also, for now, I show the number of inversions. If it is over 68.. It is very difficult. you can press 1 to rebuild the puzzle. Just don't make a move first! The PEG puzzle is complete. It tests for valid moves etc. the remaining 2 games are not in here yet..... So, don't select them! LOL Thanks again Lee. The formula seems to work. I stink at these puzzles NECCO1.txt 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1980gamer Posted July 24, 2018 Author Share Posted July 24, 2018 (edited) Here is a compiled version! It seems to work pretty well for the first 3 games. 1 - Match the left eye to the right eye. I am getting better at these slide puzzles 2 - Peg jump. This is a harder puzzle than it looks. 3.- Left to right, move the 4 pegs from the left side to the right and the ones on the right to the left. Move the courser left or right, when you press fire/Q the pegs will jump or slide, whatever is needed. Being as left side pieces can only move right and right side pieces can only go left, no need to Grab a piece and move it. 4 -Catch the falling candy.... IT STARTS at the second wave, stacking the caught pieces. Move left and right.. You get a sugar boost by pressing fire/Q Playing with Keys is hard to get used to, you must let go of the direction key and press fire quickly to get the Turbo speed. Easier with Joystick. Game 4 needs some work. But getting better. It will speed up as levels increase in the future, disabled while testing.... NEC4-X.zip Edited July 24, 2018 by 1980gamer 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
senior_falcon Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 Hello all, A local candy company, NECCO, famous for Valentine Heart's with the I Love U stuff on them. As well as Necco Wafers. The stuff your parents used to like! Mary Jane's, DOTS ( the blobs of sugar on the paper ) New England Confectionery Company... Was just auctioned off and is now the Sweat Heart Candy Company..... One of my favorites when I was young was the NECCO Sky Bar. Four different candy bars in one! Yummy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1980gamer Posted July 24, 2018 Author Share Posted July 24, 2018 One of my favorites when I was young was the NECCO Sky Bar. Four different candy bars in one! Yummy. I may have 1 or 2 of those lying around.... I may need to send you for all the help you give me! If you do see them around, grab them... The new rights holder has no desire to produce any of the chocolate line. The last batch was made about 2 months ago. My wife likes them. So she picked up 10 or so and put them in the freezer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 I lived for almost 10 years in Boston, so when I saw this, I chuckled, a little. -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 Unfortunately, they closed the factory yesterday. . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1980gamer Posted November 1, 2019 Author Share Posted November 1, 2019 On 7/24/2018 at 12:48 PM, senior_falcon said: One of my favorites when I was young was the NECCO Sky Bar. Four different candy bars in one! Yummy. The Sky Bar is set to make it's return on Dec 7th. Is this the inspiration I need to try to finish this game? I have played with recursive subroutines in XB and it kind of works. I am just not smart enough to make it work as needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
senior_falcon Posted November 1, 2019 Share Posted November 1, 2019 1 hour ago, 1980gamer said: The Sky Bar is set to make it's return on Dec 7th. Exciting news! I can't wait to have one again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted November 8, 2019 Share Posted November 8, 2019 Oh yessssssss! Sky Bars are delicious! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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