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Bugs in the MS game logic emulation

  1. There are numerous situations in the MS game that cause a moused goal to be cancelled for which TW will keep trying. A clearer understanding of those situations is needed.
  2. The MS game checks for input more than once per tick. Probably this was done to catch last-minute keyboard events, but it has the effect that by having more than one input event in the queue, Chip can, under certain circumstances, have the latter keystroke processed after he has moved but before any other creatures move. This is more noticeably an issue with the mouse, which seems to be processed differently than keyboard events in the MS game, but not in TW. Level 94 in EvanD1.dat, unsolvable in TW but not in the MS game, is a dramatic example of this.
  3. In TW, the keyboard is scanned twice per tick, once at the beginning and once in the middle. As a result, if Chip makes a move at the beginning of a tick, the game does not update the display twice in a row (once after the creatures move and once after Chip moves), but just does it once. I do not believe that this optimization has a real effect on the gameplay. It does, however, make it easier to examine the screen when pushing against a force floor.
  4. There are a number of miscellaneous emulation bugs, mostly involving "illegal" tile combinations. These are documented more thoroughly in the msbugs.txt file on the website.

Bugs in the Lynx game logic emulation

  1. Under the real Lynx game it is possible to push a block diagonally without moving at all. This is done by pushing against a wall, and then pushing diagonally against a neighboring block very briefly. The block will get pushed, but Chip doesn't follow. This is impossible to do in TW.
  2. Under the real Lynx game it is possible, with carefully constructed circumstances, for Chip to push a block away from him as it's heading towards him. That is, a block starts moving into the square that Chip occupies, but in the same frame, Chip starts pushing the block in the opposite direction. This is impossible to do in TW.
  3. There are a number of miscellaneous emulation bugs, mostly involving Chip being stuck on teleports. These are documented more thoroughly in the lxbugs.txt file on the website.

Other bugs and misfeatures

  1. TW ignores field 8 entries in the .dat file unless they are exactly five bytes long. In this case, it simply ignores the field 6 password. The MS game will remember both passwords and allow either one to be used (although if both are present it will only show the field 8 password).