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Date: Tuesday, Febuary 29
2000
Hi,
"I
am 24 years old, I just graduated from Acadia University (http://www.acadiau.ca/)
in April 1999, and I am starting an interactive entertainment software development company
(a video game company).
I
saw JezzBall a few months ago at a friend's place. He said he loved the game, and that it
was really addictive, and was wondering if I could reprogram a better version of it. I
didn't think much of the game at the time, since the first thing I noticed was the slow
and choppy frame rate (the games I love are fast shooters and racing games. I am a
real-time graphics programmer so JezzBall, to me, was a example of poor programming,
because of the slow frame rate. Especially considering the minute amount of graphics
involved in the game.). I didn't play the game at this time, so I didn't give it a chance
to see how addictive it was.
A
few months later, 2 other friends said they also loved the game, and played it all the
time. They said they were 'the best' at it. THAT'S why I started playing it - it was a
challenge, which I am always up for, since the game seemed pretty simple. After a few
games, I realized that the trick was to split the balls into their own compartments.
Getting a score of about 120,000 - I searched the net for high scores, figuring that
someone out there probably got a score of 200,000 or more. Well, when I found
www.jezzball.com, I was quite surprised at the scores in 100,000,000 range.
After
reading a bit of the text, I realized that these scores in the millions were achieved by
'tricks'. I believe that these tricks ruin the game, in a sense, since the skill of the
game is switched from one department (timing the walls) to another (waiting and clicking,
once you know where). So I never bothered to try and learn them.
As I
progress into the higher levels, 10 - 18, I realized that setting little traps, 3 spaces
apart (2 spaces for the holes), were the trick to beating the levels. My brother played
the game a bit, and found that when a ball is in a 2x2 area, if you click horizontally on
the spot where the ball hits the left wall, you never die (I explain the full use of this
trick below). I used this trick to squeeze balls into 1x1 areas, so the ball cannot move
anywhere. This is absolutely required passed level 15 or so, since, otherwise, you cannot
achieve 75% cleared.
During
the game I have sent for my first submission (5,396,859 points in Level 45) to jezzball.com, I figured out a new trick. So far, I
have played only this one game with it - since I discovered it during level 15 or so
during this same game.
Here’s
the trick
Here's
the only secret I know and use (with the exception of clicking again after one wall of 2
has stopped, so the pointer shoots off another wall in only 1 direction, not 2)
Given
4 horizontal adjacent spaces of the grid, number them from 1 to 4 from left to right.
1. space 1 and 4 are black (cleared)
2. spaces 2 and 3 containing either ball & space, space & ball, or two spaces
What
to do click on space #2, with the pointer set as left-right, and you will trap the ball,
or fill the 2 spaces, without losing a life NO MATTER WHAT.
(this also works up-down, number the spaces from 1 to 4 from top to bottom)
Use
this trick to achieve perfection in clearing areas in all of the earlier levels (i.e. no
open spaces what so ever). There are many places to use this trick."
Using
this trick, and this trick alone, you can beat level 49, and thus play forever.
Jason Doucette (http://www.jasondoucette.com/contact.html)
My Resume Page http://jasondoucette.com
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