WOOT 2020 is out. Happy ZXMAS.

[R-Tape]

Bloody hell! I managed 29 seconds. There's still room for marginal gains.

[clebin]

Wayhey, 13 seconds! I try to create a little corridor or a spiral for the mouse to go down and then shut him off. I've managed 15 and then 13 secs this way. Definitely marginal gains from this point, but I do think it could be done faster.

[R-Tape]

but I do think it could be done faster.

It can! I got 16 earlier, and then somehow got 11. I think the starting positions have to be right, but this can probably be improved on. Surely not single digit seconds? It takes the game engine several to decide that the mouse is trapped.

[clebin]

It can! I got 16 earlier, and then somehow got 11. I think the starting positions have to be right, but this can probably be improved on. Surely not single digit seconds? It takes the game engine several to decide that the mouse is trapped.

11 seconds, wow! The quest for a single digit finish is on then! Can it be done?

[clebin]

10 seconds... Thought I might sneak it in 9 then - the wait for it to register the finish is excruciating.

[R-Tape]

10 seconds... Thought I might sneak it in 9 then - the wait for it to register the finish is excruciating.

Oh my. Dare we dream of a sub 10 second Mousetrap? That should be at the Olympics!

[clebin]

Oh my. Dare we dream of a sub 10 second Mousetrap? That should be at the Olympics!

Dreams can come true! as Gabrielle once sang (check me out with the modern cultural references). Don't ask me how this happened...! I even thought I'd messed it up so maybe there's another second left out there.

[Morkin]

This is getting silly now

[TMD2003]

Shenanigans!

After around 50 attempts I finally managed to trap the mouse for the first time ever, and it took 55 seconds. I have not managed to repeat the performance. The coincidences it must take to trap the mouse in SEVEN seconds, I am not going to believe until I see it done in real time, especially given that the trap doesn't register instantly.

YOU, Mr [mention]clebin[/mention], after swiping away my Corned Beef Sandwich Of Victory in the Crap Christmas Games Competition, I now challenge to prove yourself on the Mousetrap board. Show me that you were worthy of leaving me with sawdust for lunch that day.

Here is your challenge: REPEAT THIS PERFORMANCE, AND RECORD AN RZX IN TOURNAMENT MODE. No Rollback, no assists, nowt.

The gauntlet has been thrown down!



(You get the idea.)

[clebin]

The gauntlet has been thrown down!

Haha! No rollbacks or assists were involved with the making of that score, but A LOT of repeat goes. I think it could be a long time before I can repeat the feat but I’ll see what I can do!

[uglifruit]

I'm now rather embarrassed by my 35 second 'victory'.

You are even kinglier-of-the-worldlier than I claimed to be. Well done.

[R-Tape]

Which emulator do I need for tournament mode (or even rollback for future reference in other games)? SPIN and Spectaculator don't seem to do either.

It's more than double the surely fastest possible 7 seconds by clebin, but here's an RZX culminating in a 15 second trap.

[clebin]

Which emulator do I need for tournament mode (or even rollback for future reference in other games)? SPIN and Spectaculator don't seem to do either.

It's more than double the surely fastest possible 7 seconds by clebin, but here's an RZX culminating in a 15 second trap.

I haven't matched the 7 seconds yet, but here's an RZX with a 9 second finish at the end.

[R-Tape]

I haven't matched the 7 seconds yet, but here's an RZX with a 9 second finish at the end.

That's a beautiful piece of mousetrappery! It's also nice to see you cock it up quite a few times too

[TMD2003]

I haven't matched the 7 seconds yet, but here's an RZX with a 9 second finish at the end.

All right, I'll let you have that one. You've rightfully earned a premium-grade corned beef sandwich made with Wagyu beef, HP sauce made to Garton's original Victorian recipe, and some Irish-style soda bread I've made myself (and I've even picked the weevils out the flour that Asda's less-than-happy customers tell me are definitely in there somewhere). Also, a complete stripdown and service for the Patio Sprintette that'll give it razor-sharp blades.

[clebin]

[Morkin]

The answer to the ultimate question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.



(nowhere near you sub 10 seconds peeps but a record for me)

[R-Tape]

Dare we dream? (BWT To be very clear - that is a mockup and NOT my score!)

[Morkin]

"Nothing suspicious to see here, officer..."

[R-Tape]

"Nothing suspicious to see here, officer..."

Aah nice one. That's a great test of 'cage time'. Did you hack the code to do that, or dump red paper on screen? I see from [mention]cmal[/mention]'s source code that it counts 250 'red' passes of the main loop to qualify as completion, which is apparently 2 seconds.

And of course it means that we* have 5 seconds of actual trapping time to play with to beat the latest record.

*or more accurately, clebin

[clebin]

*or more accurately, clebin

You called?

At what point does this stop being a bit of fun and turn into a cry for help?

I've got an RZX but it's really long and punctuated with me going to downstairs for a bit. I assume you can chop these things down?

[R-Tape]

Absolutely incredible clebers!

I was about to post that 6 seconds is possible, because I cheated by hacking & setting the red cage to x,y = 23,5, and you've gone and done it in fair play!

Even with an optimal cage position, 6 seconds does seem to be the absolute limit...

With [mention]cmal[/mention]'s permission, I could make a snapshot available with hacked optimal cage position, as a trainer?

[Morkin]

Aah nice one. That's a great test of 'cage time'. Did you hack the code to do that, or dump red paper on screen? I see from @cmal's source code that it counts 250 'red' passes of the main loop to qualify as completion, which is apparently 2 seconds.

And of course it means that we* have 5 seconds of actual trapping time to play with to beat the latest record.

*or more accurately, clebin

POKE 29930,86

Weirdly when I start the game in ZX Spin my time gets logged as 2 seconds, but in Spectaculator using the exact same file it's 3.

Not sure why, maybe we should ask [mention]clebin[/mention] as he appears to be able to see the Matrix at the moment.

I'm sure it can be counted as a valid time, as if [mention]cmal[/mention] didn't want us to POKE the game he wouldn't have provided the (distressingly clean compared to anything I've written) source code.

[Edit: Also, for those of you finding this far too easy - give POKE 30039,201 a try...]

[R-Tape]

[Edit: Also, for those of you finding this far too easy - give POKE 30039,201 a try...]

And there's the Dinamic Software re-release

[cmal]

Absolutely incredible clebers!

With @cmal's permission, I could make a snapshot available with hacked optimal cage position, as a trainer?

Please go ahead, [mention]R-Tape[/mention] . A trainer version would be useful. I would need one because my best time is a shameful 19 seconds

Aah nice one. That's a great test of 'cage time'. Did you hack the code to do that, or dump red paper on screen? I see from @cmal's source code that it counts 250 'red' passes of the main loop to qualify as completion, which is apparently 2 seconds.

And of course it means that we* have 5 seconds of actual trapping time to play with to beat the latest record.

*or more accurately, clebin

POKE 29930,86

Weirdly when I start the game in ZX Spin my time gets logged as 2 seconds, but in Spectaculator using the exact same file it's 3.

Not sure why, maybe we should ask @clebin as he appears to be able to see the Matrix at the moment.

I'm sure it can be counted as a valid time, as if @cmal didn't want us to POKE the game he wouldn't have provided the (distressingly clean compared to anything I've written) source code.

[Edit: Also, for those of you finding this far too easy - give POKE 30039,201 a try...]

Go ahead, poke away.

I like the red screen test. Something I should have tried when I was play testing this back in 2002.

That '250' red passes was something I played with for a quite a while to get the best minimal time to consider the mouse "captured". I know, two seconds can feel excrutiatingly long.