Elasto Mania

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Elasto Mania

Elasto Mania example screenshot. To solve a level, the player must collect all the apples and then reach the finish (the flower). Touching the black spikey objects (killers) or hitting a wall with your head means losing the level.
Developer(s) Balázs Rózsa
Publisher(s) Independent
Designer(s) Balázs Rózsa, Csaba Rózsa
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Release date 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 for Microsoft Windows, and was originally released in 2000.[1] Elasto Mania claimed to be "based on a real physical model." 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, while others enjoy its puzzle-like nature, figuring out how to solve a difficult level.

Contents

[edit] Versions

Elasto Mania was created by Balázs Rózsa as a sequel to the game Action SuperCross (1997). 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). The concept of the game is very simple, but the game itself can be very difficult, especially for players new to the game. The free demo version has 18 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] Gameplay

The motorcycle is controlled by keyboard keys that cause it to:

  • Accelerate. If used uninterruptedly the motorcycle will slowly raise its front wheel, and as the balance shifts, quickly 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.
  • Brake. 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 very carefully, the rider will abruptly be thrown over the front wheel.
  • Rotate Left/Right. This 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.
  • Turn around. The driver and the motorcycle frame turns around as a paper silhouette, in a comical fashion, while the wheels stay put, causing the front wheel to become the back wheel and vice versa.

Additional keys: in player list (Main Menu - Options - Player A) you can remove the name of a player name (not his or her times though) by pressing ALT-CTRL-ENTER. Elma has also the supervolt bug. When pressing both rotate keys simultaneously the bike rotates faster clockwise. Usually a normal volt is needed in advance unless you manage to press the buttons exactly at the same time (this varies a bit on different kinds of computers). When you make a supervolt immediately, it's called an alovolt (alone supervolt). During the playing you might want to decrease or increase the screen size to get the game run smoother, this is possible to do by pressing + and ´ keys (next to the backspace in many keyboards). Also note that the fast Page Down and Up isn't working in menus as it was in Across.

Keys offered in unofficial versions: alovolt, alias ESC and alias brake keys. Professional players wanted to have an opportunity to configure even the ESC key to avoid moving your hands (usually you need to move your left hand to reach ESC) and when you press ESC thousands times in a day it is affecting. Alias brake was needed because some levels require an unoriginal key combination in the start (for example Freefall). Alovolt key was included because on some computers it was quite easy to do an alovolt and on others almost impossible. To have one specific key for doing an alovolt made it fair for everyone.

Note in the text above that Alovolt is mentioned, which is a very central part of the game nowadays. You will not be able to do any good times without using alovolt. Alovolt is normally set to "A" or "CTRL" but its up to the player to put it where most likeable

Touching a contractor (a rotating spiky wheel) with the wheels or helmet of the rider or hitting the drivers head into the ground, walls or ceiling will "kill" the driver, forcing you to restart the level.

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 in the ceiling.

Only the head of the driver is vulnerable. His body can 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.

[edit] NOS Patch

A "NOS Patch" for the game exists, which gives the player invincibility and super speed. It is considered to be an "official" cheat to the game, however, it adds 10 minutes to the time, thus preventing cheating. It is only available for the official 1.0 version of the game however.

[edit] Community

Elasto Mania example screenshot.
Elasto Mania example screenshot.

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 enjoys a healthy worldwide community, primarily based around #across and #ballelma on IRCnet and the mopolauta and elastomaniac.com forums. Mopolauta stands for moped-board in Finnish.

Fans are still hoping for a sequel, but it looks like there won't be one. The creator of the game, Balazs Rózsa has announced in many emails from questioning players of the game that he is currently working on a sequel, but it seems there won't be any after all.

Balle is a term originally used by Elasto Mania players as a slang term for a "battle" — a contest in which (previously unplayed) external levels are released to the Internet, and players have a set period of time in which to drive their best time.

Elasto Mania has been said to be[who?] one of the most addictive games of all time among players and reviewers. Some players have even said that they were addicted from their very first try.

Elasto Mania or Elma is one of the most downloaded games, and has been so ever since it was first released in the year 2000. The in-game level editor which is very easy to use is the main reason why the game is so popular. Without the in-game editor, there would be no such thing as level-packs, battles or even ballelma (see below)

[edit] Online playing

[edit] EOL

In the early months of 2006, a new patch for the game was published. This was unofficial though. One member of the community, "Milagros", had been developing an online patch, so players could compete or cooperate over the internet. This has been opening new doors, especially regarding the multiplayer record tables. Now players from Australia and Norway are playing together to make new world records.

However, the patch was never updated. Many people announced having trouble with bugs in the patch, but the problem was never solved.

[edit] Ballelma

Milagros released another unofficial online patch for the game on 22 January 2007 which allows practically unlimited number of players to see each other while playing in single player mode. A new update for the patch is currently under development and has an expected release of February 08. The update contains many additional features that have been requested by players over the past year (2007), including new battle modes and private chat, to name just a few.

You can download battle levels directly in-game and compete with up to dozens of other players. Chat has also been implemented, and nowadays most of the communication between players happens there instead of the irc channel #ballelma on IRCnet.

Players have the possibility to draw small bitmaps that replace their character's shirt so they can easily be identified.

[edit] Physics

 This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.
Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (April 2008)

[edit] Measurements

The height of the rider was approximated to be h = (1.9 \pm 0.1) m. In the editor with the help of a ruler a ten meter test fall course was measured and made. Time of the fall was measured with the clock of the game. Fall time was measured to be t = (3.44 \pm 0.01) s. Acceleration constant of Elasto Mania was obtained with the formula

g = \frac {2d}{t^2},

where d is fall height which was d = (10.0 \pm 0.5) m. The error was calculated with formula

\delta d = \sqrt {(\frac{2\delta d}{t^2})^2+(\frac{6 d \delta t}{t^3})^2} .

Obtained result was g = (1.69 \pm 0.09) m/s^2.

[edit] Conclusions

This calculation shows that Elasto Mania has a similar gravity to Earth's Moon, as the gravitational acceleration on the Moon is 1.622 m/s2 and on Earth it is about 9.8 m/s2.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Moposite - Information - Games - Elasto Mania

[edit] See also

[edit] External links