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--- Disclaimer: Any connection between the 2013 Boston marathon bombings and this 1991 game is purely coincidental. Please treat the game as any other. Promotion of and discussion about the game should not be viewed as malicious or ill-intended. --- Boston Bomb Club is a DOS game where you try to let bombs roll into the goal by changing tiles on the table. You have to be fast thinking in order to not let bombs roll into dead ends or into each other. There are bystanders that interact with the table which can ruin your plans. Or babies crawling across the table who grab your bombs and place them elsewhere on the table. I think this would make a fun little TAS where you can try to finish each table as fast as possible with just one bomb. (Although I think a few of the later tables require at least two bombs.) When I played the game as a kid I got about as far as level 22 with difficulties. You can start out with level 13, and the game has 30 levels total. So a TAS would be about 15~20 minutes.
Player (79)
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... The irony of this is not lost on me...
Editor, Expert player (2310)
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I found a very little trick that enables "straight path" tiles to be used like "curve" tiles. As far as I tested, a bomb that reaches the middle of a "straight path" tile like this will go either to the top or to the right, depending which path is free. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN6lulo_950
Editor, Expert player (2310)
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Screenshots for all mandatory levels. Sorry I messed up with some of the newspaper guys but I think they don't matter too much with the TAS planning. I think TAS would be to get only 1 bomb into the goal - Level 20 needs 2 bombs but others only need 1, it looks like. I don't know if certain levels are still easy to beat if you go hardest difficulty (i.e. is Level 25 with 1 bomb hardest difficulty possible?). Level 13 - Baby is present Level 14 Level 15 Level 16 Level 17 - Tiles in bottom left change every 15 seconds or so. Level 18 Level 19 Level 20 - Looks like this level requires 2 bombs. The 2nd bomb would roll into a switch that spawns a tile that you need. Level 21 Level 22 Level 23 - When a bomb travels onto the machine, it looks like it merely falls to the depth. - When a bomb travels onto the silver tile, it will stay on it for 2 seconds before moving on. - Clicking on the silver tile makes the thing go up and down. Level 24 Level 25 - The silver plates act like teleporters. - The switch in the bottom left has to be hit, then a switch in the top right has to be hit, in order to complete this level. - It looks like you can beat this level with just one bomb though. Level 26 Level 27 - Looks like you have 60 seconds (1 unit on the timer being 10 seconds) before the two tiles are removed. Level 28 - Baby is present Level 29 - Baby is present Level 30
Editor, Expert player (2310)
Joined: 5/15/2007
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Plan to TAS soon Just a heads-up, I'm probably going to pick this game up as soon as I'm done with Star Trek. I would start at the latest available level (13?) and go through to level 30 as fast as possible. Some testing will be required to see in which levels it is beneficial to have 1 or 2 bombs, and how to get that amount of bombs by the time you reach said level. Level 20 requires 2 bombs. Level 25 might or might not be possible to complete with only 1 bomb (on hardest difficulty). Other levels can be completed with 1 bomb no questions asked - but 2 may speed thigns up maybe. Perhaps you can abuse the spectators and the baby, to end levels quicker. It needs to be tested how to manipulate the RNG. Editing the game You can edit the game's file "game.fic" to edit the maps. Though I don't understand the structure much... It seems to start tile by tile from the bottom left, going up, then the 2nd column, and so forth. 0x0b is a goal tile, 0x0c is a water bucket, ... Difficulty The only thing affected by difficulty seems to be the longevity of bombs, before they explode. As a rule of thumb, a bomb takes ~0.9 sec to travel 1 tile. Easiest - 120sec Easy - 105sec Medium - 90sec Hard - 75sec Hardest - 60sec Hotkeys P = Pause X = Gameover Scoring - For each bomb you save, you gain [level number] points. So in level 1, you'd get 1 point for each bomb. In level 15, you'g get 15 points. etc. I will refer to this as "splash points". - Cherries = extra bombs - You gain 1 extra bomb for every 1000 points. Game mechanics - Only one "action" can happen at a time. Actions include: Bridge disappears, silver tile is moved, curve tiles are moved, a bomb is splashed, ... - If a bystander tries to cause an "action" on the board, a) if he does it, you cannot do an action until his action is done. b) if you do an action, his action will be queued and finished right after yours is done. Routing - It is best to go through levels 13~19 with a single bomb. You need 2 bombs in level 20. It seems possible to barely get an extra bomb by reaching 1000 pt, by the time you reach lv 20. - In level 20, only 1 bomb survives. Unless you can somehow get the 2 bombs going right next to each other to bypass the auto-switches. Go through level 21~24 with 1 bomb. - In level 25, you can go through with 1 bomb. Having 2 bombs would probably be a bit faster, but you cannot get an extra bomb. And going through earlier stages with 2 bombs takes too long, I think. - Go through levels 26~30 with 1 bomb. In level 28, it might be possible to have the baby grab the bomb and speed things up. You might get an unwanted extra bomb by the time you reach level 28. Needs testing to see if it can be avoided.
Editor, Expert player (2310)
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There are several bugs regarding the baby. - The baby can pick up a bomb after it has exploded. - After the baby leaves the table, a curve tile may become unclickable until the baby returns. - After the baby picks up a bomb, a nearby bomb may collide with the bomb even though it no longer is on the table. Score plates are dropped on the table depending on RNG. The RNG cannot be manipulated directly. It seems to be trial-and-error dependent to manipulate the score plates in order to get the extra bomb by the time you reach level 20.
DrD2k9
He/Him
Editor, Expert player, Judge (2036)
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Looks like it may be interesting. Good luck.
Editor, Expert player (2310)
Joined: 5/15/2007
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Link to video I went forward with 2 bombs despite my initial plan. Sinking the 2nd bomb in level 13 seemed faster than destroying it. I need to redo these levels with better RNG (so I can grab point plates). Mouse clicks are behaving weird in JPC-rr... I can't seem to make it register a click when I press 7 and then advance a frame. I had to rely on wild mashing while the game was running. At other times, I was done clicking but then it clicked by itself 5 seconds later, randomly.
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MUGG wrote:
Mouse clicks are behaving weird in JPC-rr... I can't seem to make it register a click when I press 7 and then advance a frame. I had to rely on wild mashing while the game was running. At other times, I was done clicking but then it clicked by itself 5 seconds later, randomly.
Huh, that is weird. When that happens, have you tried closing and reopening JPC-rr? Does that fix it? I'm just seeing this now, and I have to admit I have trouble seeing this get many "Yes" votes for entertainment, especially if it's upwards of 20 minutes long. If you're aiming for Vault, then I think this will be a good fit.
Editor, Expert player (2310)
Joined: 5/15/2007
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I could aim for a maximum score but then the problem remains that I have to luck-manipulate score plates which is very difficult (you don't have direct control over it). With my initial plan of going through levels 13~30 with 1~2 bombs it will take maybe 10 minutes. I agree with your point on entertainment though.
Editor, Expert player (2310)
Joined: 5/15/2007
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Location: Germany
Huh, that is weird. When that happens, have you tried closing and reopening JPC-rr? Does that fix it?
No, it doesn't get fixed like that. From testing with Xplosive's level editor, it seems that pressing 7 does a mouse-press without releasing it. It takes another 7 press to release the mouse click. For example, in Xplosive's level editor, I press 7 on the toolbox (on a tile I'm choosing) and move the mouse around the field and it places the selected tile everywhere I move the cursor. When I press 7 again it doesn't place more tiles. Perhaps Boston Bomb Club's logic is that when holding the cursor for many seconds, due to a bug or a "lag frame", it forgets the fact that I had already clicked down so it registers again. Therefore activating a tile without me pressing 7 at all.
Editor, Expert player (2310)
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Turns out RNG can be manipulated by clicking on the "random" tile (the one with a blue-ish line over it). In fact, when the arm with the score plate appears, you can click the random tile to manipulate what the score on the plate will be. Random events so far are: The baby starts crawling over the table, the arm with the score plate appears, the score plate is placed, the random tile is clicked. I will see if I can manage to improve the previous video. EDIT: Level 20 luck-manipulation gave me trouble because no matter what I did, the game always spawns a 100 score plate in the right side. But I've seen the game drop score plates elswhere in different playthroughs.. But I ended up with a good result nonetheless and now I'm in level 21. Since having a 2nd bomb in level 25 will be beneficial, I will try to use the random tile in level 21 to manipulate score plates in level 22 and 23 (so I finish level 24 with 2000 points = extra bomb). If it doesn't work out I will do a small detour in level 24 to get a 500 pt plate, in order to get the extra bomb. I'm trying to do some entertainment by moving the cursor in an interesting way. I have not looked at it in a real time video, but I think it will be nice.
Editor, Expert player (2310)
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In level 28 now. Should be finished very soon now.