Elasto Mania
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| Elasto Mania | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Balázs Rózsa |
| Publisher(s) | Independent |
| Designer(s) | Balázs Rózsa, Csaba Rózsa |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release date(s) | January, 2000 |
| Genre(s) | 2D motorbike simulation |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Input methods | Keyboard |
Elasto Mania (also known as Elma) is a 2D motorbike simulation game released in 2000.[1] Elasto Mania claims to be "based on a real physical model."[2] It explores the notion of elastic motorcycles. The goal of each level is to collect every apple spread throughout that level, and then to touch the flower to finish and move on to the next level. Some people play the game to try to solve levels as fast as possible,[3] while others enjoy its puzzle-like nature, figuring out how to solve a difficult level. However, in the end, the ultimate objective is to finish a level in the least amount of time possible.[4]
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[edit] Gameplay
Players control a motorbike rider who is tasked with completing each game level in the shortest time possible. The rider is killed if his head or the vehicle's wheels touch a contractor (seen as a rotating spiky wheel), or if his head is hit by a solid structure during movement, forcing the player to restart the level.[5] All the apples in a level must be collected before the player can touch the flower and proceed to the next level. A few levels contain apples that changes the direction of gravity, causing the motorcycle to drive on the walls or on the ceiling. Only the head and wheels of the driver may interact with the level. His body may overlap walls without injury, allowing for bizarre-looking situations, such as hanging upside down with the wheels on top of a thin floating island, with the rest of the motorcycle and the driver's body overlapping the island and his head being at a safe distance below it.
Accelerating the motorcycle uninterruptedly slowly raises its front wheel as the balance shifts. Failure to modify the vehicle's balance results in overturn, causing the driver to hit his head on the ground. This can be prevented by periodically briefly releasing the accelerator, to balance the torque of the back wheel with gravity. The brake applies to both wheels simultaneously. Because of the infinite friction between the wheels and the ground in the game, if the brake is not used carefully, the rider will abruptly be thrown over the front wheel. Rotating left and right, known as volting, is accomplished by the rider either pushing or pulling on the handlebars. This maneuver is used to climb obstacles and otherwise pass through broken ground, and also allows the motorcycle to land on the ground wheels down after a jump. Turning around causes the driver and motorcycle frame to rotate as a paper silhouette in a comical fashion while the wheels remain in place, causing the front wheel to become the back wheel and vice versa.
[edit] Versions
Elasto Mania was created by Balázs Rózsa as a sequel to the game Action SuperCross (1997). The two main differences between the two games are the slight change in physics and the addition of twelve internal levels. There are four official versions of Elasto Mania — 1.0, 1.1, 1.11, and 1.11a, plus four unofficial versions 1.11h, 1.11hb, 1.2h beta and 1.2 (final). While the concept of the game is very simple, the game itself can be very difficult, especially for players new to the game. The free demo version has 18 official levels while the full version has 54, and thousands of fan-created levels can be found online. Some of those are gathered in so-called Level Packs.
[edit] Community
The world records (fastest times) on the 54 levels included with the game are still being improved. The depth in Elasto Mania is not readily apparent; it takes many years for a new player to begin to appreciate the skills required to drive a world record.
The game has a worldwide community, primarily based around #across and #ballelma on IRCnet and the mopolauta and elastomaniac forums. Mopolauta stands for moped-board in Finnish.
[edit] Online Content
For a long time in the history of Elasto Mania, players could join the IRC channel '#battle' and participate in what was known as an 'External Battle' or just 'Battle,' this could be achieved by a player uploading a level to a bot. After a minute or two, the bot would put the level into the IRC channel and players could then download it. Players had a specified amount of time, usually 10 minutes, to either collect the most apples or finish in the fastest time.
Players could upload their times to the bot by simply saying a number into the IRC channel, though this was very flawed and permitted cheaters to submit false times.
On the 26th January, 2006, a patch for Elasto Mania was released to the general public. Developed by Milagros, a member of the Elasto Mania community who helped a lot in improving the game, this patch - Ballelma or "Belma" - allows easy access to battles, an in-game chatting client and the ability to see other players. Since then, programming has been underway for a new patch that includes instant statistics, all the features of Ballelma and more, more battle options and a frequently updated site. This patch (known as Elma Online) is also constructed by Milagros, and it is being tested by several other members of the community.
[edit] References
- ^ Moposite - Information - Games - Elasto Mania
- ^ http://www.elastomania.com/ Elasto Mania Home
- ^ http://www.moposite.com/records_elma_wrs.php Elasto Mania World Records
- ^ http://www.moposite.com/misc_text_files/elma_readme.txt Elasto Mania ReadMe
- ^ Bramwell, Tom (2008-12-01). "Elasto Mania Hands On". Eurogamer. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/elasto-mania-hands-on. Retrieved on 2008-12-17.
[edit] See also
- X-Moto, a clone of Elasto Mania for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X systems
- Bike or Die, a clone for Palm OS PDAs.
- Bike or Die 2, sequel to the above for Palms and now also iPhone
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Unofficial site
- Elasto Mania Blog
- Elma Wiki Elma Online
