Tetris bug?

[MarkA]

How come every time I play Tetris, at the end of the game it tries to go to a page it says I don't have permission to access? The page in question is: http://www.dbstalk.com/tetris.php?action=reg Is it just me, or is everyone banned from reaching this page? Anyone else notice this? It automatically forwards you at the end of every game.

[James_F]

Hmm, that page says I don't have permission either, but I'm always sent to a page for high scores...

[MarkA]

Who has the high score (I didn't know there was a feature like that)? And what was it? (I need to practice so I'll one day be able to beat it - I'm pretty bad at tetris) It sounds like I'm probably banned (accidentally I assume?) from looking at the high scores and am forwarded there? I wonder why? Any help from the admins on this would be appreciated

[James_F]

When I hit the back button to see who had the high score I got the same permission error you are getting. We must be getting to the page in a way that the program didn't expect.

Ray_Clum at 126614 points is #1. In fact he has 4 of the top 5 scores.

I don't think you're banned from any page, its probably just a bug...

[Scott Greczkowski]

Hmm, I will look into it Monday.

[MarkA]

Thanks Scott! Have a great day!

[MarkA]

Hmmm... An update if it helps you (sorry for the second post but I felt this was worthy). It appears to be a bug relating to browser compatibility. I even see a score I made (81589 - currently number 6 - I remember making that score) on the list with no username. It appears the Tetris game only works properly with Microsoft Internet Explorer (or at least it doesn't work with Mozilla, I haven't tried Opera or Konqueror). For what it's worth, it's sending me to the same page for high scores that it does in Mozilla, only I'm being told I'm banned from seeing it in Mozilla. Also, the "high score" part works in IE and not Mozilla, and in IE the intro says "DBSTalk presents". I wonder if this has something to do with that new "scriptable" Flash, would this be so Scott? If so - I believe there's a Mozilla Flash update I'll look into getting for it.

-----UPDATE!!!-----

Unfortunately (because it would be an easy fix) it appears my guess about it being the version of Flash not being scriptable was wrong. Apparently starting with 6.0 r40 the Flash plugin (as opposed to the ActiveX) was fully scriptable, and I have 6.0r47. Oh well, it was a decent guess:) As an additional note, it doesn't work in Opera either (again, Flash player version is 6.0 r47 - the latest)

[Ray_Clum]

One thing that I've noticed is that when you complete level 10 (which I have done twice) the game ends, but does not put your score in the high score list... Awful shame throwing away two 120,000+ scores :(

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yeah the level 10 thing is a bug.

The author of the VB port is working on it (the problem is that the game was written in Italian so he is trying to decode it)

My advice for the moment is to intentialy get killed in round 10 so that your score is recorded. :)

The problem with trying to see the leaderboard is the program is dependent on your session number, if you don't enter a valid session number you get the permssion denied screen.

Click this link for the leaderboard. (http://www.dbstalk.com/tetris.php?action=leaderboard)

I will also upgrade the Tetris Play screen so there is an option to view the leaderboard from within the game screen.

[James_F]

Thanks Scott, I like being able to get to the leaderboard from the Tetris screen. :righton:

[Scott Greczkowski]

Ok I just reset the leaderboard, Ray is the man to beat!

[MarkA]

What about Tetris not working properly except in IE? It still doesn't work properly for me. Is there any way to fix this?

[Scott Greczkowski]

Nope. Its working fine for me in Netscape too.

[MarkA]

Hmmm.... It doesn't work for me in Mozilla 1.1beta or in Opera 6.0. What version of the Macromedia Flash Player do you have? I'm running 6.0 r47. The GAME works, but at the begining it doesn't say DBSTalk, but instead eovie.com. Next, the high score and user name part in the game don't work. And finally, at the end - the permission denied (now "you have attempted to play Tetris by "unconventional" means" or something like that). Do you have any idea what could be causing this?

[Scott Greczkowski]

I will forward your problems to the author. He is activly working on the problems. yeah I noticed in netscape mine said eovie.com as well. Wierd.

[MarkA]

Thank you very much. Did you try playing it through all the way in Netscape? Because I assumed the eovie.com was related to the rest of it (I am assuming because the Flash Player should be the same (I THINK I have 6.0r47 for IE but I don't pay much attention) that there is a problem with how the site is interacting with the Flash "Movie" (even though it's a game, I assume you know all Macromedia Flash files are called movies. Which I find weird. Even though it's been that way since the days of the old FutureSplash Player (quick history pop quiz: Who else remembers FutureSplash? (early Flash Player, then Macromedia bought it, raised the price of the authoring software a ton, called it Shockwave Flash, and then later renamed it to plain old Flash)). Anyways, my point is I can't get my Tetris games on the high scores right or anything (Not that it matters since I couldn't ANYWAY, but that's another story:) ). Anyways, thanks again, and have a great day!

[Scott Greczkowski]

I am currently chatting with the author via IM. Seems like there is a bug in the flash player for Netscape, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. (Which explains why it worked for me the first time I played in Netscape and why I am getting eovie.com when I play now)

What is happening is the swf file is supposed to call the database and get the board name (i.e. DBSTalk.COM) however that query is not made so the default board (eovie.com is shown), also its the reason your username is not shown (it's supposed to get user usernumber so when you are done it can enter you in the leaderboard.

John the author is a cool guy. :)

[MarkA]

Hmm, interesting. Thanks for the information. Good luck! And I hope you can fix it:) I would assume this affects all browsers except IE, correct? (It certainly affects Opera, and if it's related to using the plugin version of Flash it would affect everything except IE - at least on Windows)