Leaderboard November 2020: Traps 'n' Treasures & Spindizzy Worlds

[Biscuit]

Thanks for all the votes this month and the result is a couple of fun pick up and play games.

Traps 'n' Treasures is a good looking platformer that I feel is maybe not as well known as it deserves. An Amiga exclusive from 1993 with four large levels of swashbuckling fighting and loot collecting. Very playable and with some challenge.

Spindizzy Worlds is kinda like a larger adventuring version of Marble Madness. Is that a fair or weird description? Anyhow, your spinning top player character is called GERALD - Geographocal Environmental Reconnaissance And Land-mapping Device. Good job cramming that acronym together, lol. There's some quick paced collecting and undulating terrain to traverse. Lots of small levels to enjoy.


Traps 'n' Treasures
* Get the highest score you can.

Spindizzy Worlds
* Get as many jewels as you can.
* You can retry levels when the game offers you the option.
* Don't use Wind Back World
* You can play levels in any order you like.
* The results screen is only available after you complete a level, so make sure you screenshot it before it goes away.
* On Hard levels the results only show the most recent levels that fit on the screen. Taking a screenshot halfway through the game and at the end will capture all results.
* Results do not display after the last level of each difficulty. So those levels are not counted for scores in this round.
* Two Beat the Game badges are available - 1 for Easy and 1 for Hard.


Round Ends: 23:59 (UK Time) on Monday 30th November 2020


Score Badges:

• Post a screenshot of your score and write it nearby.
• All scores must be achieved during this round without the use of save states, trainers, passwords or any other cheats.
• No continues. No infinite score leeching.

Beat the Game Badge:

• Finish the game during this round and post a screenshot of the ending as proof.
• So long as you are not submitting a score, you can use continues, passwords, and in-game saves. Play the game as originally intended.

Downloads:

• Traps 'n' Treasures - ADF 1 - ADF 2 - WHDLoad -
• Spindizzy Worlds - ADF - WHDLoad -

Full Rules and Hall of Fame - Blog - Twitter


Never played here before? Why not? Chat, play, chill.


Traps 'n' Treasures

 58,740 arcanist
 43,830 Biscuit

Spindizzy Worlds

 956 capehorn 
 478 Harry 
 263 manossg 
 259 Biscuit 

[RuySan]

Traps n treasures is unbelievably good and was one of the last games I remember getting into before I got my first pc.

It ends up being very hard though.

[manossg]

Originally Posted by RuySan

Traps n treasures is unbelievably good and was one of the last games I remember getting into before I got my first pc.

It ends up being very hard though.

It seems like a good game at first glance, but it ends up ruthlessly hard and unfair. And you also need a map in the later levels.

[linesmachine]

2 games that are new to me so I'm looking forward to this. Particularly Traps n Treasures.

[Biscuit]

I've heard that Traps gets hard but I'm up for it. The levels look interesting with being able to pick up blocks. If the score runs get too tough at least it has passwords so I can have a better chance at finishing it.

[malko]

If maps are allowed, there are available on HOL

[Biscuit]

Anyone can look at maps and longplays if they want.

Although after Darkmere, I've somewhat rediscovered the enjoyment of making maps. We'll see how long that lasts.

[malko]

I agree. Drawing the maps on a sheet of paper may be part of the enjoyment of a game.
The lasts I have done recently were with my mini-godzillas (I have helped them mapping the 'cave' and 'forests' in The legend of Kyrandia )

[arcanist]

I had a go at Traps N Treasures yesterday. It felt challenging but not unfair in the first region. Solving the puzzles and finding the hidden map pieces was fun. I'll go for some high scores first and then use passwords later to start from the beginning of each region, if I get that far.

Spindizzy is my kryptonite. I was never good at that on the Spectrum. Will give it a go.

[Biscuit]

I've added an extra note about Spindizzy to the OP. You can play the levels in any order. Some are definitely harder than others, so tackle it however you prefer.

If you're going for the badges/completion. I'd recommend saving after the penultimate level on Easy so you can take as many tries at the last level (big planet/ball) as you need. When testing I quit without finishing it because the time limit is tough. It won't affect score runs as the last level isn't part of them. You'll need to format a save disk from the menu beforehand.

[capehorn]

Just a few small things to point out about this game to help people get started:


The spacebar acts as an emergency stop. The game is almost unplayable without knowing that!

You can rotate the view any of 90, 180 or 270 degrees by pressing the T button.

There is a hidden screen on Tutorial that has 4 gems in it.


Easydizzy: 148 gems, a bit of a silly score as I fell off one of the bonus platforms immediately and lost several gems there. Also a screenshot of the main planet explosion to show I completed the whole solar system.

[Biscuit]

Great start. Thanks for mentioning the spacebar. I hadn't read all the instructions and had no idea. Oops.

[arcanist]

46,450

I made it to the second level. It's a bit harder than the first.

Most of my score came from the bonus round, for finding all the map pieces.

For practice I think I'll need to make a save state. The password system doesn't save upgrades. Playing this level with the basic knife is a bit outside my ability!

[capehorn]

I've just started noodling with the Hard levels and I wanted to find out what the rules are for training/saving/rolling-back levels in the Leaderboard.

So my feeling is to try and go for 100% gems in all the levels, but the problem is that a large number of gems are in the final bonus screen of each level, and that is time limited and ends immediately if you fall off an edge. It can take 15-20 minutes of play to reach these screens on some levels, so I was thinking of making savestates of each one to practice them (in the rules thread it says this is ok for training).

If that's ok, then they question becomes... does the score playthrough have to be done in one attempt? The game has it's own save features, which would usually be a no-no, but it also has 'Wind Back World' which means you can have another go at the level you'd just completed if you're score wasn't great. Are we allowed to use Wind Back World in a score attempt? If yes, are we allowed to practice the levels using save states in-between Wind Backs?

If the answer is yes to all of that, then I could try to get as close to 100% on every level in a score run, if not then I'll probably just have a run-through and see what score I end up getting.

[manossg]

Originally Posted by capehorn

Just a few small things to point out about this game to help people get started:


The spacebar acts as an emergency stop. The game is almost unplayable without knowing that!

You can rotate the view any of 90, 180 or 270 degrees by pressing the T button.

There is a hidden screen on Tutorial that has 4 gems in it.

These are some very useful tips, thanks, mate!

[capehorn]

Originally Posted by manossg

These are some very useful tips, thanks, mate!

No problem! I just refreshed my memory and here are a couple more:


M shows a map on most screens
T and R toggle rotation

Originally Posted by capehorn

I've just started noodling with the Hard levels and I wanted to find out what the rules are for training/saving/rolling-back levels in the Leaderboard.

So my feeling is to try and go for 100% gems in all the levels, but the problem is that a large number of gems are in the final bonus screen of each level, and that is time limited and ends immediately if you fall off an edge. It can take 15-20 minutes of play to reach these screens on some levels, so I was thinking of making savestates of each one to practice them (in the rules thread it says this is ok for training).

If that's ok, then they question becomes... does the score playthrough have to be done in one attempt? The game has it's own save features, which would usually be a no-no, but it also has 'Wind Back World' which means you can have another go at the level you'd just completed if you're score wasn't great. Are we allowed to use Wind Back World in a score attempt? If yes, are we allowed to practice the levels using save states in-between Wind Backs?

If the answer is yes to all of that, then I could try to get as close to 100% on every level in a score run, if not then I'll probably just have a run-through and see what score I end up getting.

Having played a bit more, 100% will be impossible on some levels, particularly the timed ones with multiple routes, and some of the bonus levels are almost impossible to do perfectly, so I'll practice bit with saves states (if allowed) and then to a full runthrough and do as well as I can. Still interested to see if Wind Back World is allowed during my run though?

[Biscuit]

I knew there was something else I forgot.

I've had a look. The Wind Back World option is something of a grey area. It's a bit like saving and a bit like practicing.

The intention behind the rules is that practicing and score runs are kept separate. You can of course make a save state during a score run but only use it later, after you have done with your score.

With that in mind I think we should keep the gameplay for Spindizzy more like most other games we play where there is no option to endlessly repeat a section. I know the rules were relaxed for Harlequin because it's also a little unusual with it's lack of score and save anywhere function. This time I think the Retry option is enough of a middle ground, to allow some practice when scoring but not endlessly.

So, no to using Wind Back World.

Hope that reasoning is okay with everyone. It's an odd one.

[Biscuit]

Of course, having just thought about all that. If you really want to retry a level just use up all your fuel and suicide it.

Makes Wind Back World a little pointless.

Edit: To be clear. Retry could be used endlessly but I think stopping short of re-doing the score makes sense.

[capehorn]

I think that's fair. Going for 100% was too ambitious anyway.

As it's such a long game, it is ok to do your score run in pieces? Like playing for an hour, then have a break, maybe even returning to it the next day? In the Superleague they are not keen on that (although I never had a problem with it) but as this is such a long game, then as long as you don't redo any of it, you can walk away and then return to the game several times?

[Biscuit]

Take as many breaks as you like for as long as you like.

Any idea how long hard takes? I have a bad feeling it's very long. Like a few hours.

And a shame that 100% is not possible. Thought that might be the case just because of some of the time limits and level layouts.