Space Worms

August 11, 2005 5:01 AM

It is the year 3065.
Mankind has long been extinct, and the only forms of life left are two warring species: the worms, and the dots. You happen to be one unlucky worm, having crash landed in the middle of a whole crapload of evil dots. Luckily you have infinite lives.
Friday Flash Fun
Also, check out "The Search For Fonzie's Treasure," winner of the 2005 'hardest RPG of the year' award.
posted by Edible Energy (47 comments total)

but... it's not friday yet!
posted by slater at 5:16 AM on August 11, 2005

Eh who cares if its Friday or not? Its flash, be happy!!
posted by wheelieman at 5:32 AM on August 11, 2005

but... it's not friday yet!

In New Zealand it's Friday, so that's a good enough reason for starting the weekend early. A little bit of solidarity with our Antipodean cousins never goes amiss..
posted by Nugget at 5:36 AM on August 11, 2005

*shakes fist at time-travellin' antipodeans

nice game tho :)
posted by slater at 5:41 AM on August 11, 2005

It is the year 3065.
Mankind has long been extinct, and the only forms of life left are two warring species who don't have calendars: Fridayists and Thursdayists. You happen to be one unlucky Fridayist, having crash landed in the middle of a whole crapload of evil Thursdayists. Luckily you have a Flash plugin.
posted by Plutor at 5:46 AM on August 11, 2005

I, for one, welcome our time-traveling antipodean overlords.

(Hadda do it, hadda do it....)
posted by alumshubby at 5:50 AM on August 11, 2005

Has anyone lasted longer than 2 seconds? I think I must suck real bad.
posted by LunaticFringe at 5:56 AM on August 11, 2005

I've lasted for about 30 seconds, but I don't know what to do other than move around? My score never seems to get past 1000. *shrug*

Gonna try hitting more buttons while I'm moving...
posted by mrzer0 at 6:01 AM on August 11, 2005

Got to level 8 after lucking into a trick that overwhelms the AI but can't see how to make it out of that many of them.
posted by biffa at 6:02 AM on August 11, 2005

Oh, guess It wasn't 30 seconds. More like 10, cuz thats how long it takes to get to level 2. All you do is move around and avoid the dots. WHICH ARE RAVENOUS!!

AHHH!! :)
posted by mrzer0 at 6:03 AM on August 11, 2005

mrzerO, one level should finish and the next start each time the clock gets to 1000, you also start with 1000 points and you get 1000 more points for each level you get through.
posted by biffa at 6:04 AM on August 11, 2005

Thx biffa, I had just figured that out :)

Now if only I could last past 200 in level 4! Oh wells. Back to work.
posted by mrzer0 at 6:07 AM on August 11, 2005

Ah! How do you get past them when there are 4 chasing you! From all sides! Ah!
posted by voltairemodern at 6:14 AM on August 11, 2005

Ok, got to the next level.

Ah! How do you get past them when there are 6 chasing you! From all sides! Ah!
posted by voltairemodern at 6:17 AM on August 11, 2005

7000... Then it gets hard!!!
posted by Pendragon at 6:37 AM on August 11, 2005

The post text reminds me of the weird plots from Atari 2600 games.

"So, Bill, we've got a game with dots and lines and squiggly lines. The dots turn red when they touch the lines. The squiggly lines turn into straight lines when they touch the dots. Can you write a blurb in the manual?"

"IN THE YEAR 3204, THE YZGNOBIAN DEFENSE FORCE IS ATTACKED BY..."
posted by selfnoise at 6:39 AM on August 11, 2005

I'm at level 8, but as far as I can tell, you just get lucky getting out of the first few seconds.
posted by psychotic_venom at 6:40 AM on August 11, 2005

Yeah, up to level 8 you can survive by going off immediately at angles then reversing then if you go into a diagonal cutting off 2 corners of the screen the dots will fall into a little group in the middle, but getting out of the group of 8 was just too hard.
posted by biffa at 6:54 AM on August 11, 2005

ARGGGHHHHHHHH!

/hatred of all life
posted by bdave at 7:07 AM on August 11, 2005

Has anyone gotten past 8 yet? I gave up there.
posted by voltairemodern at 7:24 AM on August 11, 2005

Just made it to level 9!
posted by cameleon at 7:25 AM on August 11, 2005

"So, Bill, we've got a game with dots and lines and squiggly lines. The dots turn red when they touch the lines. The squiggly lines turn into straight lines when they touch the dots. Can you write a blurb in the manual?"

Degenatron!
DEFENDER OF THE FAITH
"Save the green dots with your fantastic flying red square!"
MONKEY'S PARADISE
"Swing from green dot to green dot with your red square monkey!"
PENETRATOR
"Smash the green dots deep inside the mysterious red square!"
posted by CrunchyFrog at 7:25 AM on August 11, 2005

And my dot ... eh, spaceship just made it to level 10! Flying out at an angle seems to work well. Changing direction doesn't work for me anymore at higher levels.
posted by cameleon at 7:33 AM on August 11, 2005

OMG my fingers are BLEEDING!!!
posted by gwenzel at 7:38 AM on August 11, 2005

So is it worth pointing out that the Fonzie's Treasure game is meant to be a demonstration of how people could be reading your commands through Ajax? It was set up for this article. (I won't get into how the article was written by Captain Obvious.)
posted by patgas at 7:45 AM on August 11, 2005

It's the year 2005, ah the hell with this... this game sucks... it's no PeekABoom
posted by Debaser626 at 7:48 AM on August 11, 2005

umm.... PeekABoom, that is
posted by Debaser626 at 7:50 AM on August 11, 2005

i can't seem to beat level 9. incredible what simple mathematical rules can do to a system... just like conway's life.

however, after spending about 5min on level 9, not being able to bring the pack into a cluster, i think that i can say, without reservation.

math is hard.
posted by stefan at 8:12 AM on August 11, 2005

I beat level one by hiding out near the edge and getting the dot to ocilate in the center. Level 2 by simply weaving around randomly.

Level three is intresting. Go left, obviously, and slow down enough so that the black ball hurling in from the right can follow you to the other side, then you can fly straight between the two side dots (which are now moving sinusodialy at this point). You can do this twice before they'll getcha. but it's intresting to look at.
posted by delmoi at 9:30 AM on August 11, 2005

got to level 4.

Fuck that's a hard game.
posted by delmoi at 9:39 AM on August 11, 2005

I love these lazy fridays, not like that fake friday that almost got me fired!
posted by Edible Energy at 9:50 AM on August 11, 2005

Level six. Holy BALLS.
posted by 235w103 at 10:13 AM on August 11, 2005

that game is going to inspire me to commit violence
posted by cpchester at 10:26 AM on August 11, 2005

Metafilter: Holy BALLS!
posted by The Bellman at 10:55 AM on August 11, 2005

That game got sinister real quick.
posted by Citizen Premier at 11:02 AM on August 11, 2005

Can't get past eight. I got past the previous levels by darting off at a diagonal and then alternately looping/zig-zaggin left and right around the dots, which curiously all cluster themselves in the middle.
posted by pmbuko at 11:03 AM on August 11, 2005

The AI doesn't seem to use any kind of cooperative strategy at all. It is way to easy to get them into a tight grouping on the lower levels. Of course it doesn't matter any more once there are 8 or 9 of them, but I bet even level 4 would be impossible if they cooperated more effectively.

I have no idea what a good cooperation strategy would look like, but even just having one attacker at a time take a rest for a moment or two would break up the group and make it much harder.

For the record, ya it looks like level 8 is passable but really really hard. I guess level 11 might be passable too, for somebody somewhere, but I bet that is the absolute limit.
posted by Chuckles at 11:51 AM on August 11, 2005

I made it to level 14; at that point I decided that I'd had enough of the even numbered levels. The odd levels are generally easier, as you can usually go at an angle (up-left or down-left) to get out of the initial demolition derby; the even numbered levels are more of a pain - you have to deke the enemies, and the start direction varies between straight (usually to the left for me) or at an angle depening on the enemy layout. As mentioned above, the basic goal is to get the 'enemies' into a cluster, and not let them wrap around.
posted by lowlife at 12:16 PM on August 11, 2005

i got to level 9 before i gave up
posted by schyler523 at 12:44 PM on August 11, 2005

PeekABoom is AMAZING
posted by papercake at 1:18 PM on August 11, 2005

got to level 11. The trick is A) get out of the center in levels where all 4 directions, plus all four composite directions are blocked. Once you get out, you can get into a stable patern, where you travel diagonly, and all the dots get stuck in the middle. I'm now on level 11 :)
posted by delmoi at 2:15 PM on August 11, 2005

bleh. Level 12 made me its bitch
posted by delmoi at 2:24 PM on August 11, 2005

man, i got to level 17 and died
posted by Satapher at 3:01 PM on August 11, 2005

so what is the password to the fonz's safe?
posted by schyler523 at 7:48 PM on August 11, 2005

on my system it runs about 3 times as fast in internet explorer than in opera.

might explain why some people are able to reach high levels
posted by spacediver at 9:30 PM on August 11, 2005

so what is the password to the fonz's safe?

check in the bathroom.
posted by juv3nal at 11:45 PM on August 11, 2005

Okay, I guess my prediction is garbage, I just made it to level 21.

Here are a few tricks:

The attackers can't chase you over the edges, they can only come across an edge due to inertia. This can be very useful for herding them together because you can bounce back and forth across the boundary a couple of times to slow them down, etc.

Also, when trying to get out of the middle at the start, you have to find holes in the attack. They don't all aim perfectly, and if you watch the pattern you can find little eyes of safety which open up and then disappear. You can learn where those eyes will appear and arrange to be in the right place at the right time. Account for your reaction time by changing input before you can see the space you are aiming for. It isn't easy, but even on level 21 you can get out of the middle with three perfectly timed changes of direction.

Finally, watch the speed, it isn't always helpful. Slowing down at the right time can really help to herd the attackers together. Of course flying around at full speed will keep you alive for a while, but even if they can't hit you, you are bound to accidentally hit an attacker eventually. Much better to herd them together, and a few moments of very little motion can cause them to group up in a hurry.
posted by Chuckles at 12:47 AM on August 12, 2005