Posts tagged: Israel

5 Chapters, 3 Decades, 1 Goal Achieved

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By , May 25, 2019 08:30
Dima (Israel), 19.05.2019

«My history with Supaplex is very long, spanning several different time periods.

Chapter 1 (1990): When I was about 6 years old, my dad and I played Boulder Dash in some computer club and enjoyed it thoroughly (especially dad). I was mostly watching.

Chapter 2 (~1996): Several years later, when we got our first PC in the mid-nineties, we discovered Supaplex, which seemed a near-perfect clone, with puzzles just as hard and interesting! We quickly discovered the save file hack which allowed to mark all levels as “completed” so we could play them in any order. Although he did not have as much experience as me with gaming in general, it quickly became obvious that dad plays Supaplex better than me. Still, I don’t think he managed to beat more than half of the levels, and I probably could ever do like 25 of them (including maybe the first 15-20). Part of the problem was that the PC was too fast and the game was running at the wrong speed. We didn’t know it back then, and eventually both of us kinda gave up.

Chapter 3 (~2002): Fast forward again, and I discovered the “speedfix” version. My first reaction – was “Wow, so this is how it was supposed to be all along!”. I think dad managed to beat a few more levels this way, but we haven’t played too much, as we were both on to different hobbies by then.

Chapter 4 (after 2012): Years passed, but still have the retro-gaming itch awakening from time to time. On a whim I decided to actually try play and beat every level of Supaplex, and this time do it patiently, one by one, in order, so I could keep track. It was surprisingly much easier this time around. I think we did ourselves poor service by hacking the game too early! Playing in order teaches you some of the tricks of the trade and you gain experience and better insight into the game mechanics. Anyways, being a father of two with a full-time job I could not invest a lot of concentrated time into the game, but I think it took me several weeks, or maybe a couple of months to gradually grind through and get to Level 97: Good Job. That one kept me stumped for a while, because I didn’t figure out that it’s easier to get the infotrons in the initial pile if I push zonks across them before eating. After being stuck on it for a few days, I was “fed up” and put the game away for probably 2-3 years.

Chapter 5 (2019): After seeing my wife play a (very different) puzzle game on her phone and become totally immersed in it for several days in a row, I decided to get back to my puzzle game, and made up my mind to not give up this time, until I beat it. It took me probably 30 more attempts across 2-3 days to figure out how to beat Level 97, and after that it was just a matter of perseverance. After the excruciating Sadism (108) and Trouble Ahead (110), the last level – Brainman – was almost a breeze, and I could finally join the “elite” club of players who have completed every level in Supaplex fairly, at least once. I was proud to tell my dad of my achievement, but I don’t think he will try to join me in this club – he has too many other things that keep his interest these days. 🙂

Do I consider myself a very good Supaplex player? Not really. I think that if I tried to go back and replay some of the early levels now, I would have trouble as I’d basically have to figure out all the puzzles again. Do I have the guts to try any of the level packs? Probably not; I know there are probably enough of them to occupy me for life, and I do want to explore other games. 😉 Am I happy to at least be able to say that I beat the original Supaplex? You bet!

Supaplex truly is one of the all-time gems in video gaming. Thank you for making it and thanks for reading!»

Group play

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By , January 15, 2011 17:37
Tomer (Israel), 13.08.2000:

«Supaplex was, maybe with the exception of Digger, the single most popular game in Israel in the early PC days (IBM PC and compatibles were only beginning to gain popularity here around 1989). It was so popular, in fact, that it’s hard to find anyone who has ever used a computer and who hasn’t played it.

[…] People here often bragged about where they managed to reach in Supaplex (most of them getting stuck around level 60 and the best managed to reach the hundred-ish levels), and playing it in groups was not uncommon.»

(source: www.mobygames.com)

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