When I was in high school (yes, way back then in the "dark ages!"), computer games had just developed beyond the level
of "Space Invaders" and "Asteroids". The games that were common back then were all called "Side Scrollers". These were games
in which you controlled a character who stayed more or less stationary on the screen while the landscape scrolled by sideways.
At the time, as a beginning programmer, I was fascinated by computer programs, and spent a lot of time studying those games, though
I rarely spent my quarters on them! But as a Mathematics and Physics student, I was annoyed by the fact that, in most cases, these games
had an utter disrespect and disregard for the physical laws of the universe. Speeding rockets would stop on a dime and suddenly be going in the
opposite direction at full speed. Objects would free-fall from the sky at a constant velocity...
You get the idea.
Skip the explanations and let me try a level!
Fizziks and Fizziks 3D
One of the very first computer games I ever wrote, back in high school, was a game I called Fizziks.
in which players rolled a marble around a maze. The game was played using the arrow keys on a keyboard to apply forces to the ball. The resulting
game was unlike most games available at the time, since the ball behaved in a more life-like fashion.
Much later I wrote a second version of the game, in which the maze was three dimensional, and rules of gravity applied to the movement of the marble up and down hills.
Fizziks Tilt
Finally, it's time to rebuild this game for The Problem Site. This version of the game is a cross between a 2D and 3D game. How does that work?
Simple! Though the maze itself is a flat surface, as your marble rolls through the maze, it may hit "triggers" which cause the entire maze to tilt in a variety of different directions. Thus,
the forces of gravity may produce different results each time you play the level.
In addition, this new version of the game includes fun things like planets, wind, bonuses, and nasty critters which wander back and forth across your path, making navigation more difficult.
Choose a difficulty level below...
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