Pick of the Week - Dec 29: [View All]
Android
A platform-jumping game based on Lode Runner.
    
 Welcome to macosxhints Over 4,935 hints served!   Monday January 19, 2004
 Android - An addictive platform game
 Mon, Dec 29 '03 at 02:44PM • from: robg
Pick of the Week 
Android imageThe macosxhints Rating:
9 of 10
[Score: 9 out of 10]
While browsing macupdate.com (my personal fave replacement for versiontracker) recently, I did one of my usual "grab a bunch of stuff and see what cool things are out there" tricks -- download 20 to 30 programs of all sorts, and then just try them all to see what's out there. In the process of working through the selection, I got sidetracked (quite effectively!) by Android. Android is a "clone" of one of the all-time classic Apple ][ game Lode Runner.

If you never played it, Lode Runner (and hence Android) is a deceptively simple, deceptively addicting "platform" game. The objective is to collect a number of objects on each level, and then make your way to the exit. You do this by climbing ladders, bouncing on springs, and swinging on vines to reach the objects. Preventing you from accomplishing this goal are the level designs themselves (which forc you to plan your routes carefully), as well as enemies who kill you if you come in contact with them. Your sole offensive (and defensive) weapon is a small bomb. Using the bomb, you can create temporary holes in the platforms. You can fall through the holes to avoid the enemies, or force your enemies to fall through the hole (or get stuck in it, depending on what's below the hole you dug).

Android features some very creative and tough level designs -- you can play 10 levels for free, out of 100 total levels spread across five different "worlds." One nice touch is that the program remembers your last cleared level, so you don't have to repeat history each time you restart the game. I did have one crash while playing that wiped out my progress in the game, which is the primary reason I gave it a 9 instead of a 10. If you wish to back up your progress file, duplicate the android.cfg file (located inside the jade folder in the Android game folder) every so often -- you'll be glad you did!

Android is a very competent update to the Lode Runner legacy, and I think my wallet will be $15.00 lighter in the near future!


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Android - An addictive platform game
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Android - An addictive platform game
Authored by: Sasquatch on Tue, Dec 30 '03 at 10:35AM
I recently installed Android from Jadeware. It will not run on my system. 10.3.2. I have also installed a copy of Ultranium 4, also from Jadeware and it will not run either. ?????????

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Android - An addictive platform game
Authored by: BlakeyRat on Tue, Dec 30 '03 at 04:12PM
Uh. I speak frequently with a software developer friend, and he ensures me that macupdate.com is nothing more than a poorly-run rip-off of versiontracker.com. When he posted an update to one of his products saying that he updated the plist file so that versiontracker could more easily find the version number, macupdate.com sent him an email that read, basically, "oh, so *that's* how they do it!" (As if you'd expect to find the version number anywhere ELSE in an OS X application!)

In any case, don't support idiots like that.

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Fun game, peculiar issue
Authored by: TomorrowPlusX on Tue, Dec 30 '03 at 04:48PM
I tried the game out -- it's nice. It has, however, a peculiar issue I've seen with a lot of games under 10.3.2 -- when I exit out of fullscreen, and the resolution returns to 1024x768 ( from 800x600 ) I get a black rectangle around the frame of the screen. For reference, I've got a 1st gen PB12", and I'm on panther, obviously.

it's hard to describe -- imagine a rectangle just a little bgger than your screen, not filled but outlined about 5 pixels wide. It surrounds the screen so I can't see it itself, but I can see it's *shadow*. When I do the expose "show desktop" in slo-mo I can see it slide to the top of the screen.

In ActivityMonitor it shows up as UniversalAccessApp. What's the deal with it? I kill it, because it's annoying. But I'd like to know how to avoid it all together.

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Android - An addictive platform game
Authored by: edoriv on Tue, Dec 30 '03 at 05:09PM
it seems to be a problem with stuffit and permissions upgrade to the newest stuffit expander...

but to fix the non launching problem you could also control click sand select show package contents...
open contents>MacOS> you will see a file named Andriod
open the terminal and type

chmod +x drag the Android file to the terminal window
hit return

the game will now launch


hope this helps

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Android - Perfect install and runs great!
Authored by: plattapuss on Tue, Dec 30 '03 at 06:49PM
I installed Android with complete success. No problems at all. I then proceeded to waste a LOT of time. If have Panther 10.2.3 on an old 867 G4.

Thanks, Rob.

Another great PotW.

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Android - nice but not good
Authored by: Evil B on Fri, Jan 2 '04 at 07:25AM
Can't get past level 5 because i can't jump high enough. I had the same problem in level 3, as a solution i quit all open applications and indeed i could jump higher, but this doesn't work in level 5 anymore. I'm using a iMac DV SE 500 mhz which should be good enough (there is nothing on minimum system requirements in the help-file).

Anyway a game that lets you jump & all related to processor speed doesn't deserve (IMHO) 9 stars.

greets

evil B

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