Tidbits and Trivia

 

When Doug's original 1991 CyberBox game ended, the player was presented with a score report. 200 points were awarded for every room completed and 50 points were awarded for every attempt the player had left. Furthermore, for every single move made, a point was subtracted.

Thus, your final score was maximized by finding the absolute shortest solution for each puzzle, without once making a mistake and having to hit RETRY.

Doug reported his highest score was 2,492 but he thought it was possible to score as high as 2,500.

A year later, in 1992, Doug came out with a sequel, CyberBox II. In this documentation file he reported many people were able to beat his 2,492 score. This highest score reported to him at the time was 2,648.

For what it's worth, I believe the absolute highest score is 2,660. Here's the proof:


Doug's Room
Numbers and Names

Shortest Known Solution
(moves)
   
1 The lobby. 14
2 No problem. 52
3 Think ahead. 84
4 Choices, choices. 40
5 You can do it! 76
6 Chain reaction. 44
7 Your guess... 30
8 Go with the flow. 30
9 Don't get zapped! 25
10 Prioritize! 85
11 Fifty-fifty. 60
12 Watch your step! 47
13 Move it or lose it. 135 *
14 Zapperland. 25
15 Logistics. 74
16 Last but not least... 91
17 ...almost 28

TOTAL

940 moves

 

* June 2013 Update:  Misha Ratkevich fond a shorter solution (by 2 moves) to Move it or lose it!  Nice work!  Doug's rooms can now be solved in 940 moves!  2,660 is now the highest possible score!

17 rooms completed x 200 points each equals 3,400.
4 unused attempts x 50 points per attempt equals 200.
3,400 + 200 = 3,600
3,600 - 940 moves made equals a final score of 2,660.


 

 


 

Fans of Doug's original game surely saw the "hidden" question mark in his room titled Your guess... as well as the secret "You Win" message in his final room.

 


 

I believe there is a small bug (probably never reported or found) in Doug's original game.

In his room titled Last but not least. the position shown below on the left is obtainable after the player has made 11 moves. (up, left, up, left, left, down, left, up, up, up, up.):


Here, zapping through the purple
Zapper is not possible.

Here, zapping through the purple
Zapper is possible.

 

(Note: Obviously, only a portion of the entire screen is shown)

I'm sure Doug wanted a player, in this type of position, to be able to zap through the Zapper, located to the immediate left of the player-cursor.

However, if you take the time to play through Doug's game and reach this level and try it, you'll see it's not possible!

But if you spend a move stepping to the right, and allow the north-moving Mover located directly south of you to push itself forward, you can then spend another move and step back, and THEN you are able to zap forward through the Zapper!

While writing my version, I had several bugs like this creep up from time to time.

 


 

I'd again like to thank Daniel F. Schwallie for his excellent alternative box-image file.

(I knew if I didn't hard-code the data for the boxes, and instead simply read the data from a text file, someone would take the time to alter the data to create boxes and give them a different look.)

I still prefer the original boxes, since those are what I'm used to, but it's nice to have a choice and new players may prefer these. Thanks again, Daniel.

 


 

The most difficult puzzle room created so far, in regards to the number of moves it takes takes to exit, is Room #130, by Kyle Wightman titled Yes, but can you break 2,300?

Although the solution is not difficult to find, the absolute shortest known solution is currently 2,285. Whoa! Nice room, Kyle.