Save the Day

December 12, 2012 2:21 PM

Save the Day -- try to save all the townsfolk in your rescue chopper before natural disaster strikes.
posted by boo_radley (52 comments total)

login to social media to play!

no

are you really truly sure? social media is the awesomez!

no

download our special engine to play! we can't be f*cked to write something that works without it!

NO
posted by leotrotsky at 2:27 PM on December 12, 2012 [24 favorites]

I didn't get any of that, and I wouldn't have posted it if I had.
posted by boo_radley at 2:32 PM on December 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

Yeah, worked just fine for me in guest mode, and was kind of adorable. I need to go away now or it may eat my day.
posted by restless_nomad at 2:33 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

...it may just hate me, then.
posted by leotrotsky at 2:34 PM on December 12, 2012

well, maybe if you were more social.
posted by boo_radley at 2:34 PM on December 12, 2012 [8 favorites]

trotsky you are not that special, sorry. I was able to tell it that I wanted to play as guest, good, whatever. Download our special plugin? I press no. Then I try to play again. Download our special plugin? Fuck you, I run noscript for a reason, you are lucky that I am allowing you to do anything.

Then I came here to complain.
posted by Hactar at 2:37 PM on December 12, 2012 [3 favorites]

Look, I get that you have privacy and security concerns, but come on, people: if you don't download our special plugin, the townsfolk are going to die!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:42 PM on December 12, 2012 [14 favorites]

Okay, let's focus on the game and not what happens when you run things that break other things that are free and trying to make money off you because its free.

So, rescuing all 200 seems... beyond my grasp. Is it a matter of mapping out the optimal run to pick up time extenders, etc?
posted by jeffamaphone at 2:44 PM on December 12, 2012

What if I told you guys the plugin was coded by a very friendly family of squirrels.
posted by shakespeherian at 2:44 PM on December 12, 2012 [4 favorites]

Hundreds of people are about to die and the chopper pilot can't stop whining about his goddamn privacy!
posted by vidur at 2:46 PM on December 12, 2012 [3 favorites]

I love the smell of plugins in the morning. It smells like... malware!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:47 PM on December 12, 2012 [5 favorites]

So, rescuing all 200 seems... beyond my grasp. Is it a matter of mapping out the optimal run to pick up time extenders, etc?

It seems to be designed that multiple runs (building up cash to buy upgrades to your chopper) are pretty much required. Although there's a lot of run optimization you can do, for sure - my second run was quite a bit more productive than my first, just because I knew where the helipads were.

I kind of want to try a run where I see how many people I can kill (by squashing, etc.) There's probably an achievement for it.
posted by restless_nomad at 2:50 PM on December 12, 2012

I didn't have to download any plugin to play it as a guest.

It seemed like fun, but it also seemed to be pulling a lot of cheap strings to try and get me to keep playing.
posted by codacorolla at 2:50 PM on December 12, 2012

I kind of want to try a run where I see how many people I can kill

There's another way to play?
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:52 PM on December 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

Yeah I would rather let all 200 townspeople die than install something, sorry. This holds true for actual living human beings as well, tbh.
posted by elizardbits at 2:53 PM on December 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

SPRINGFIELD SHOPPER PURCHASED BY NICE CULT
posted by shakespeherian at 2:54 PM on December 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

I guess if tumblr stays down for much longer I'll be more susceptible.
posted by elizardbits at 2:55 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

What is it trying to install? It didn't for me at all. (I don't run noscript though, so God only knows.)
posted by restless_nomad at 2:55 PM on December 12, 2012

"It's really easy to get playing Turbulenz powered games.

First, let's download the Engine. Why do I need to do this?"

your options are INSTALL or CANCEL
posted by elizardbits at 2:58 PM on December 12, 2012

It didn't try to make me download any plugin, which makes me worry I must already have it and not know.

The game itself is so very very colourful and flashy, easily the most colourful and flashy thing I've seen in weeks. My eyes need to go eat a salad, now.
posted by RobotHero at 3:03 PM on December 12, 2012

Ohhh, Turbulenz IS the engine. Still a little weird that I either never got a download window or clicked through it without seeing it. Although I suppose it's entirely possible that I've played one of their games before.
posted by restless_nomad at 3:03 PM on December 12, 2012

Odd. I was not asked about installing a Turbulenz engine, and it still played for me.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:04 PM on December 12, 2012

Some of you may have already been bitten by zombies. We will have to frag you to save the townsfolk. Sorry.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:05 PM on December 12, 2012 [5 favorites]

What browser is everyone using?
posted by restless_nomad at 3:05 PM on December 12, 2012

Save the Day: Try to save all the passengers in lifeboats before the Titanic sinks! (The lifeboats are affixed to the deck with proprietary pentalobe bolts.)
posted by evidenceofabsence at 3:06 PM on December 12, 2012

I wonder if everyone who was NOT asked to install something is maybe already logged in to Facebook or Twitter in another tab?
posted by elizardbits at 3:09 PM on December 12, 2012

Hundreds of people are about to die and the chopper pilot can't stop whining about his goddamn privacy!

I work with helicopter pilots in a Part 135 charter operation. This is not far from the truth . . .
posted by KingEdRa at 3:12 PM on December 12, 2012

It's kinda cute I guess except I'm not sure what it does for me that Choplifter doesn't do.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 3:14 PM on December 12, 2012

I played it in chrome, not logged into anything, just hit play as guest twice and you're in. Social opt-in is a common thing in web-based games and tools, guys... it would be foolish for developers to require registration or login to play, and they know that.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 3:20 PM on December 12, 2012

No plugin issues, framerate is crap in Firefox, works well in Chrome...colorful & fun game, thanks for posting.
posted by aerotive at 3:25 PM on December 12, 2012

I'm in OS X 10.7.5. Chrome asked me to install something, even though I'm logged into both Twitter and Facebook. Firefox didn't ask me to install anything, even though I'm not logged into either Twitter or Facebook there. Instead, it attempted to load the game, which stalled and crashed, like so many helicopters.

Save the day: Try to save all the gulag prisoners using clues from Stalin's audio diaries! (The file DearDiary.wma is protected using digital rights management and cannot be imported.)
posted by evidenceofabsence at 3:25 PM on December 12, 2012

Wow. For me, it was Firefox that required the Turbulenz engine, but Chrome did not. I'm also logged into Twitter and Facebook on Firefox tabs.

Using OSX 10.8, FF 17.0.1 with NoScript and AdBlock, Chrome v23 with AdBlock.
posted by CancerMan at 3:28 PM on December 12, 2012

Save the Day: Try to save everyone you know and love from a fiery death by transferring your existing Nintendo Network Account to a different Wii U.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 3:39 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

See these games show up and nobody can run them with their browser of choice and everyone complains. (But...HTML5 is supposed to be Teh Future!)

Then a flash game shows up and everyone's like "Flash is deaaaad booo"

I conclude the only way to win with browser games on mefi is JAVA APPLETS

I was able to run this just fine in Chrome. I think this game is super neat and gives me hope for HTML5 games in the future. Thanks, boo radley.
posted by hellojed at 3:45 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

I think the engine just replicates HTML5 APIs like WebGL (which I believe IE doesn't support), so I expect the lack of an option not to download only appears for browsers that can't run the stuff at all?

Safari had a hard time with it, but it ran well in Chrome. It's quite an attractive looking game, but something about the gameplay felt a bit flat somehow. Not in that it was boring, but that it maintained a pretty unchanging level of "you're doing great!", to the point that I couldn't really tell how well I was actually doing. I think a similar thing bothers me about a lot of iOS bandwagon games.

I like the little puzzles with rocks and hidden extra rescue-ees though, that's tempting me back for another go.
posted by lucidium at 3:48 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

Waterfox (a 64bit Firefox variant) on Win 7 64, game loaded and executed as expected, with no mention of any plugin requirements. I am not logged into any other social media sites. There are four lights.
posted by laconic skeuomorph at 3:53 PM on December 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

I went against my normal instinct and actually installed the plug-in. Mainly because I have other plug-ins like Adobe installed so it's not as if I'm against plug-ins as a rule.

The game is pretty fun, but I'm more intrigued by the platform itself.
posted by ob1quixote at 3:56 PM on December 12, 2012

Ah, it does that thing where upgrades have to be "rented" per go. I understand having that in a game where you're encouraging people to purchase currency, but this seems to be completely free?
posted by lucidium at 4:26 PM on December 12, 2012

It's a balance thing - you have to weigh the cost of the various upgrades with their per-game efficiency and how well they fit into your playing style. I tend to prefer the RPG-style continuous progression, but in an arcade game that eventually just breaks.
posted by restless_nomad at 4:40 PM on December 12, 2012

It demands WebGL from me- which suggests it shouldn't need a proprietary plugin. But of course my laptop doesn't run WebGL at all, so boo.
posted by BungaDunga at 4:48 PM on December 12, 2012

The fields are extended caves and the caves are full of lava and when their mouths finally overflow, all the vermin will burn. The accumulated filth of all their coin and time extensions will foam up about their waists and all the dogs and grandmothers will look up and shout "Install the plugin!"...

...and I'll look down, and whisper "no."
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 4:59 PM on December 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

Dude. Stay away from Antarctica.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:05 PM on December 12, 2012

I agree with ob1quixote. I have WebGL enabled on Chrome and it did not ask me to install anything. The fact that this was developed entirely with (pending) web standards and not a lick of Flash is great, even just as an example of a graphics-heavy flash-style game that can be developed without Flash. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy about the progress of non-proprietary web standards.
posted by WaylandSmith at 5:08 PM on December 12, 2012

Jesus this was harrowing. The cries for help as the mountain vanished in a torrent of flames... I came too late...
posted by deo rei at 5:17 PM on December 12, 2012

BlackLeotardFront: ...it would be foolish for developers to require registration or login to play, and they know that.

Oh, how I wish that were true! As somebody who eschews most forms of social media, there's increasing number of things I cannot do. This includes playing various games that require you to log in with your Twitter or Facebook account, and commenting on some websites that require Facebook for verification. And don't get me started on the number of third-party apps that require you to have a Google account, including almost every RSS reader for iOS.

(I was about to point out Fallen London as one such game, but I see they finally made it so you can make an account with an email address. Excellent! For years, you had to use Twitter or Facebook.)
posted by Georgina at 5:24 PM on December 12, 2012

Note to social media curmudgeons (I am one myself): A Twitter account is free, anonymous, and you don't have to do anything with it. I'm pretty sure the game just uses your Twitter/FB credentials to keep track of your high score.

All the bitching about plugins here made me think it was probably a Unity game, but I guess I was wrong there. The plugin seems to be an HTML5 engine, which is interesting because I wasn't aware such a thing existed as a browser plugin. I've seen it done on mobile devices though.

(Now, as an aspiring HTML5 game developer, I'm gonna go check out the actual game...)
posted by neckro23 at 6:38 PM on December 12, 2012

Jeez, what happened here?
posted by boo_radley at 6:50 PM on December 12, 2012

Look, I hear a lot of anger in this thread.

Why don't we all play some Happy Wheels (no login required).

It'll make you feeeeel better......
posted by anthill at 8:37 PM on December 12, 2012

Running Firefox on Windows here. No asking for a plugin, just played as a guest. No visible installs of any kind, or any need to log into non-existent facebook or twitter accounts. The only plugins showing up in Firefox are java and flash player.

Maybe it's only asking for installs of weird stuff in certain browser/OS configurations?
posted by Solomon at 8:50 PM on December 12, 2012

I played this a bunch after it hit Sawbuck Gamer. I got pretty close to getting everyone, but I was at a point where I was just grinding to level up and get access to and afford better powerups to be able to cover the last bit of ground, and it just wasn't worth it.

One trick I figured out though was a good way to get some money: all the way to the right is the abandoned mine, with some explosives out front. There's also an explosive up on a ledge nearby. When the timer gets down to a minute remaining, and the extra fire kicks in, you can go in and knock the one on the ledge down through the fire, to near the entrance. All the explosives will go off, opening the mine. A single large diamond will come rolling out. In order to collect it you need to push it to the nearby landing pad, then get on that pad. It's with $100,000, if I remember right.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 10:35 PM on December 12, 2012

Works fine in Safari after installing plugin...lots of fun. I'd say that I was surprised by the GRAR on metafilter but I'd be lying.
posted by schyler523 at 12:02 AM on December 13, 2012

Blew up my browser with this baby is all I can say.
posted by dhartung at 12:24 PM on December 13, 2012