Rekkaturvat

August 3, 2003 12:30 AM

Rekkaturvat: You've already pushed a hapless dummy down the stairs. Now you can see what happens when that same guy gets behind the wheel - or at least inside the cab - of a truck speeding toward a wall. Scant on documentation, but not hard to figure out (the 1 and 2 sliders control the position of two ramps). Anyone find a good technique for a high score? (2 MB Windows .exe)
posted by wanderingmind (51 comments total)

Before I forget: [via Slashdot].
posted by wanderingmind at 12:31 AM on August 3, 2003

my scores are uniformly sucky, but i tend to do better when he doesn't fall out of the cab and kind of juggles between his seat and the top of the cab

i remember being able to get some insanely high scores in the other one...nothing doing here. not yet anyways.
posted by juv3nal at 1:09 AM on August 3, 2003

as far as i can tell, the positions where he's standing in front of the truck to start are absolute crap.
there's no bonus for vaulting him onto or over the wall either.
posted by juv3nal at 1:13 AM on August 3, 2003

I love the soundtrack.

"Pizza? I didn't order a pizza!"

*ziiiiiiiiiip*
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 1:21 AM on August 3, 2003

I'm #98 on the online hiscores, "j". My technique was to have the van launch the dude towards the wall, then trap him between the van and the wall when the van rebounds off a jump. Good luck.
posted by j.edwards at 1:35 AM on August 3, 2003 [1 favorite]

Damn, I've been bumped! It's all those people with 202408 points.
posted by j.edwards at 1:37 AM on August 3, 2003

I love how they call it "Stair Dismount" and "Truck Dismount" as if it was a sport. I keep picturing an olympic games ceremony featuring them as events.
posted by Dillonlikescookies at 3:41 AM on August 3, 2003

This is pretty much the best thing ever! I don't know why, but it's thoroughly engrossing.

(consider putting the guy in the cab with no windshield.)
posted by Mayor Curley at 3:48 AM on August 3, 2003

Am I a fool, or what? I CANNOt figure out how this works....
posted by lometogo at 6:24 AM on August 3, 2003

you are a fool
posted by delmoi at 6:40 AM on August 3, 2003

as an asside, the greatest thing ever is to have the truck jump, have the guy fly out (by positioning him near the edge of the cockpit) and then get the truck to land on him. hehehe.

Not that high of a score, but funny to watch : P
posted by delmoi at 6:44 AM on August 3, 2003 [1 favorite]

this is why I love mefi.
Anyone have a good technique to share with me? I can't break 50k points..
posted by ac at 6:59 AM on August 3, 2003

You can get a cheap 50k score by just setting it on position 5 and running the guy over at max speed, no ramps, at slightly-off center character alignment (will take at least a few tries to get the alignment right though). The key is to make him land under one of the truck's wheels, so that it continues to inflict crushing damage while the timer runs out. Me though, I'm partial to making him fly, even if it's not so good for points like wall-crushing is.

What this game needs is a pit of death on the other side of the wall. Or a school bus version.
posted by DaShiv at 7:39 AM on August 3, 2003

any combination of the guy flying through the air and being crushed by the truck seems to work well
posted by apathetic at 7:52 AM on August 3, 2003

My happiest moment happened when I got the truck to fling the guy forward (no windshield), into the wall, the truck ramming up to hit him against the wall and then the truck landing on it's TOP.
posted by agregoli at 8:30 AM on August 3, 2003

Here's a twist: Try to inflict as *little* damage as possible. I got it as low as 2587 points.
posted by jpoulos at 8:40 AM on August 3, 2003 [1 favorite]

Needs a "Level of gore" setting.

FINISH HIM!
posted by RylandDotNet at 8:42 AM on August 3, 2003

yes!!! a 'level of gore' would be great. i've seen the guy bounce up and down and rake in more damage than the wheel of the truck running over his head....running over his head....mmmm sweeeeeet.
posted by poopy at 8:51 AM on August 3, 2003

btw, fantastic post wanderingmind!
posted by poopy at 8:55 AM on August 3, 2003

haven't found a way to exploit it yet, but if you put the guy in position 6 and place a ramp so that the peak of the ramp is centered on the guy's feet, he gets a little launch into the air instead of dropping immediately to the ground.
posted by juv3nal at 8:57 AM on August 3, 2003

oh, and lometogo, don't feel bad; it took me a while to figure it out too. just start clicking on everything.
posted by poopy at 9:00 AM on August 3, 2003

I took me a while to figure out that there's ramps involved, but once I found those, I had a lot of fun launching him over the barrier.
posted by angry modem at 9:03 AM on August 3, 2003

I managed a super-low score of 1308 by setting up the ramp right in front of the truck and having him cower behind it.

Can't seem to crack 100,000 though.
posted by JoanArkham at 10:05 AM on August 3, 2003 [1 favorite]

It's oddly unsatisfying in a way, because it's possible to set it up such that he falls on the ground and the truck falls upside down on top of him, which by rights should mash him into a thin paste, but I can't seem to get more than 40,000 points for it. WTF are people doing to get 100,000+?
posted by RylandDotNet at 10:30 AM on August 3, 2003 [1 favorite]

cheating.
posted by crunchland at 10:39 AM on August 3, 2003

I want those IK algorithms.
posted by gentle at 10:48 AM on August 3, 2003

I got a low score of 252.

Grinding him under the chassis of the truck is really satisfying. I also discovered you can mash him through the windscreen or the bumper.
posted by dydecker at 11:06 AM on August 3, 2003

No ramp, guy in position 6, lined up with the trucks left wheels, truck as slow as it'll go. The part where the guy is s-l-o-w-l-y dragged toward the wall under the truck is quite satisfying.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 11:10 AM on August 3, 2003

So...how do you cheat???
posted by JoanArkham at 11:12 AM on August 3, 2003

They're probably not cheating the actual game, but rather uploading bogus high scores, by monitoring outgoing HTTP requests to figure out how the program sends it's scores to the highscore page and then spoofing it. But that's just a guess.
posted by RylandDotNet at 12:35 PM on August 3, 2003

No, they're exploiting flaws in the physics model used in the "game", just like in "Stair Dismount"
posted by slater at 1:35 PM on August 3, 2003

Interesting how big a difference the windshield sometimes makes in the way the truck behaves, even if the victim doesn't interact with it.

So far, my highest score is about 78k, and the set up has the truck run over the guy, which slows down its progress up a single ramp.
posted by crunchland at 4:10 PM on August 3, 2003

Juv: if you get the ramp in just the right place he flys far, now you get the truck to roll towards him slow enough that he lands on top of the cab, I got him to rebound off the cab, off the wall, and into the cab, he ended up sitting back in the drivers seat, only 29000 damage, but really funny to watch...
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 5:22 PM on August 3, 2003

I was about to congratulate myself on a low score of 505 (guy partially supported by ramp does minimal damage to himself while falling, other ramp directs truck harmlessly out of the way) but 252! Jeez. I have so much to learn.
posted by jplummer at 5:25 PM on August 3, 2003

gentle: Here ya go. I know they used that for Stair Dismount, anyway. I assume they stuck with it for the truck.
posted by whatnotever at 7:07 PM on August 3, 2003

FYI - It is possible to have your dude completely clear the wall and sail out behind it.
posted by NortonDC at 7:36 PM on August 3, 2003

Low Score: 43

Probably the same or similar method that dydecker and jplummer above are using (i.e. man in position 6, one ramp to let him fall gently and another ramp to keep the truck from running over him).

Positions/settings of slide bars/options:
Man: Slide bar to top.
Ramp 1: Slide bar slightly above middle.
Ramp 2: Slide bar slightly above middle but below Ramp 1.
(Note: The key is to make sure that the ramps catch his body but that one of his arms are off the ramp.)
Man Position Number: 6
Windshield: Off or on - no difference.
Truck Speed: Can be set to any speed but if you set it to about 75% of top speed the truck will bounce back to the ramps and crush the man with the rear tire (also fun).
Ramp 1 Distance: Slide bar slightly (about the man's shoulder width) to the left of middle.
Ramp 2 Distance: Slide bar slightly (about the man's shoulder width) to the right of the middle.
(The key is to give him a soft landing by making sure his head hits his heels instead of the second ramp but that the second ramp is close enough to prevent him from sliding and protect him from the truck.)

Cool FPP. Thanks, wanderingmind!
posted by cup at 10:50 PM on August 3, 2003

Revision of the above post:

Windshield: Off or on *does* make a difference at higher speeds (will affect the distance the truck bounces back) so keep the speed at the lowest setting when going for the low score and high speeds when going for "hilarity ensues".

Thanks for pointing out the difference a windshield makes, crunchland.
posted by cup at 11:00 PM on August 3, 2003 [1 favorite]

whatnotever, thanks! I've read about that engine before, though I don't think it was on SourceForge the last time I looked at it. I have used MathEngine before, great kit but hugely expensive. This is very useful.
posted by gentle at 11:05 PM on August 3, 2003

Thanks, cup. And using your technique I got a low score of 35... I'm still wondering about those 200k+ scores on the Internet high-score list, though. Cheating? Probably - but how? What's the magic combination of settings to trigger the bizarre glitch (apart from embedding the guy's feet inside one of the ramps, at which point he'll do a passable impression of the Cingular logo).
posted by wanderingmind at 11:18 PM on August 3, 2003

I just managed a score of 85K, and here's how:

One ramp, guy in position 6 with the ramp maximally overlapping his feet (so he flies through the air instantly). The truck has to go just fast enough to catch him in the cab (no windshield). It should then hit the ramp and smal against the wall, causing Mr. Hapless Dummy to fall out to the left... and then the truck will topple over on top of him, with the corner of the cab right on his neck. If it weren't for some kind of infinite loop detection, this would lead to a potentially infinite score, as the guy's head is continually being forced away from his body (the cab acting like a wedge), but everything is at rest.
posted by wanderingmind at 11:26 PM on August 3, 2003

This just might replace Vice City as my favourite cars-running-over-pedestrians game.

Or not, but it's still enormously fun.
posted by arto at 2:47 AM on August 4, 2003

Low Score: 1

Positions/settings of slide bars/options:

Man: Slide bar to top.
Ramp 1: Slide bar about 2/3 way up.
Ramp 2: Same.
Man Position Number: 6 (of course)
Windshield: Off (or it won't work)
Truck Speed: 100% (Full Speed)
Ramp 1 Distance: Slide bar to slightly left of middle.
Ramp 2 Distance: Slide bar to right (about the man's shoulder width) of middle.

Still can't find a way to damage him substantially, though, but having lots of fun trying...
posted by cup at 5:12 AM on August 4, 2003

i hate how the game just stops after a few seconds. I've got this great setup where the truck gets stuck on the guy while he lays on a ramp, it hardly moves and keeps crushing him, but then the simulation just stops when I get to 29k.

rrrr
posted by delmoi at 6:50 AM on August 4, 2003

Man slider: middle
1&2 Slider: about 1/3 of the way up
Man position:1
Windshield: on
Speed: highest
1 ramp: all the way left
2 ramp: all the way right

Truck ends up standing on its tailgate

Change only Man position, to #2, and he ends up on top of the wall.

Change Man to position 6, and the truck ends up standing on its tailgate, on top of the man. 3574 points, but way cool.
posted by MrMoonPie at 7:40 AM on August 4, 2003

Using a ramp and the trick that makes him fly up in the air right at the beginning, I was able for him to be crushed aganist the wall with the windshield and the his hand got stuck IN the windshield, i got 50k pointS a new record. twas cool
posted by ac at 10:14 AM on August 4, 2003

Stopped going for low (I can't seem to get below 200) and started going for high: 93700! Exploits a couple of quirks:

1) If the guy and the ramp are coincident, the guy will be thrown into the air when the simulation begins. Watch out, because he's also thrown a bit to his left.

2) Sufficient mashing will embed the guy in other objects, in this case the wall. Get him embedded in the wall and he'll continue to rack up damage until time runs out.

Guy almost all of the way to the left, position six, with his knees maximally embedded in a centered ramp. The other ramp all the way forward, centered. Truck with windshield on as ~55% speed.
posted by jplummer at 7:11 PM on August 4, 2003

Sorry; windshield OFF. On puts him in the windshield instead of the wall, foir a measly 54761.
posted by jplummer at 7:12 PM on August 4, 2003

High Score: 179,942

Hint: Here.
posted by cup at 10:25 AM on August 5, 2003

166,638. Windshield on, fourth position. Centered body position, one centered ramp slightly closer to the truck than the middle. Head badly embeds into the windshield inside the truck and the body stays on the outside. The head ends up wiggling frantically until the time runs out, racking up a ton of points. Good game!
posted by waxpancake at 10:39 PM on August 7, 2003 [1 favorite]

I broke 100,000 a while back, breaking the compulsive need to play. Now I can take it or leave it. No, really!
posted by NortonDC at 11:12 AM on August 8, 2003