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darmoknjalad


The GBA port of the 1997 Microsoft Puzzle Collection didn't include Fringer, so ever since I lost the CD-ROM in the early 00's, this game has been living deep in my subconscious.

Was it easier to write a demake than to get an old version of Windows running in a VM, or the archive.org image of the CD-ROM to run in some wrapper, or whatever? Probably not. But I had a ton of fun badly transcribing two of the tunes that live right next to the Tetris theme and the Megaman 2 soundtrack in my brain and trying to express the idea of a Lilliputian in a 12x12 pixel square.

Cart #picofringer-3 | 2024-06-02 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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HOW TO PLAY

  • Eliminate the ropes by untwisting the knots
  • When a rope is completely untwisted it disappears
  • ⬅️ / ➡️ move the frame side to side
  • ❎ twist or untwist a knot
  • Untwist the sparkling knots to collect bonuses
  • ⬆️ or ⬇️ to use a bonus to change your knot's angle without twisting a rope
  • 🅾️ to use the repaint power when the spinning palette appears on the screen
  • Connect a flame at the top and bottom to remove a rope
  • The sliding bar pushes the knots down
  • Don't let a knot reach the bottom

RELEASE NOTES
Update 2

  • The paintbrush power-up which randomly changes the color of strands. Becomes available in world 3
  • More consistent movement and bugfixes when operating at the bottom of the screen
  • Fourth and final background and music track
  • More music tweaks to existing themes

Update 1

  • Levels are now generated to match PC game's difficulty curve for strand colors and knot distribution
    • This might've made things a bit too hard since it results in the starting knots being so close to the bottom of the screen. The bonus distribution is more generous than the PC game, though, which helps
  • Added some safety checks to hopefully prevent some crashes... still tracking down the source
  • Added one more background and theme
  • Cleaned up some instrument and sync issues with existing themes

ROADMAP & KNOWN ISSUES

  • Inconsistent behavior when a sweep starts while there's an active candle/flame powerup
  • Readability issues with colors, especially on the "Sea" backgrounds
  • Expand title theme
  • Options Settings: use ⬆️ or ⬇️ to use bonuses, swap ❎ and 🅾️ for knot and paintbrush
  • Investigate adding a row of knots by using the whole screen height and moving the status row and bonus icons to the side of the playfield
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