“DreamLight Verttice is refreshingly original.” -Laurie Yates, Electronic Games
DreamLight Verttice is a mesmerizing game of skill and strategy. Race
against time to contain a laser light reaction. Carefully transfer Photons
from the central Reactor Node through the ever
changing Laser Lattice to waiting Power Nodes.
Use your wits and reflexes as you struggle to prevent the lattice’s
collapse. There are 18 levels of six Laser Lattices
each, for a total of 108 mind-bending lattices of increasing difficulty.
The award-winning DreamLight
Verttice was selected as one of the ten best games and
exhibited in the Multimedia Gallery of the Macromedia International
User Conference. It has also been reviewed and published worldwide
on television, magazines, CD-ROM’s, and the web. Originally released
in 1993 for the Macintosh, this award winning classic was also one of
the very first on-line interactive Shockwave games available on the Internet. It has now been
completely rewritten and updated to take advantage of current technology
and, for the first time ever, is now fully cross-platform for both
Macintosh and Windows. DreamLight Verttice may be played on-line (above) using Shockwave or it may be downloaded to your computer to play off-line.
For an, in-depth, behind the scenes case study about this award-winning project, complete with multimedia tips & tricks, don’t miss DreamLight Insight #02: DreamLight Verttice.
Your goal is to contain the laser light reaction while preventing collisions
that collapse the Laser Lattice. You must close off all four sides of
the ever changing Laser Lattice through a delicate energy transfer.
Sign
in by entering your name in the Player Info panel. Type your name followed
by RETURN. The player info panel will remember the top 15 players. Start
the game by pressing the play button, which energizes the Laser Lattice
and begins the light reaction.
Photons will be generated by the central Reactor Node.
As each Photon emerges from the Reactor Node, it starts moving in a random
direction and glides along the laser beams.
The laser beams are deflected by the Vert Nodes at each beam
intersection. To switch the direction of a beam, click the Vert Node at
the intersection you wish to change.
As a Photon travels along the beams it absorbs energy, growing ever brighter,
and will eventually explode. At higher levels, the Photons absorb energy
faster and will not last as long on the open lattice.
You must guide the Photon to an empty Power Node where it may
dock, releasing its energy and energizing the Power Node. If a Photon
collides with another Photon already docked, they both explode. After
an explosion, all docked Photons are agitated and ejected, one by one,
back onto the Laser Lattice where you must once again guide them back
to empty Power Nodes.
Each
level has a minimum number of Photons that must be maintained. This minimum
Photon number is shown by a highlighted section at the bottom of the Photons
Indicator. (See left) As each Photon is docked, it will be added
to the Photons Indicator. If you fall below the minimum number of Photons,
through an explosion, the lattice will collapse and you lose the game.
When you energize all eight Power Nodes, you complete the lattice and
advance to the next lattice. The number of completed lattices for the
current level is shown on the Lattices Indicator. (See far left)
When you complete six lattices, you advance to the next level.
The Levels Indicator shows the highest completed level by the
illuminated number. It also shows the current level being attempted by
the white rectangular slider. (See right)
Recruit
New Player
Neophyte
Complete Level 1
Intermediate
Complete Level 7
Master
Complete Level 13
Virtuoso
Complete Level 18
There are 18 levels of increasing difficulty for a total of 108 lattices.
Your highest completed level determines your DreamLight Verttice Rank.
Photons are generated by the Reactor
Node and start moving in a random direction. As they glide along
the beams of the Laser Lattice, they accumulate energy. They will
explode unless docked into a Power Node where they may release their
energy.
Intersection Nodes
Reactor Node:
The Reactor Node at the center of the Laser Lattice is where new
Photons are generated. If a Photon crosses
the Reactor Node, it travels straight through.
Vert Node:
Vert Nodes refract the laser beams, changing the Photon’s
path. You reverse the direction of the refraction by clicking on
the Vert Node, this is called “Verting.”
InvisoVert Node:
InvisoVert Nodes work like basic Vert Nodes
except that they hide the laser beam when released. You must remember
the beam’s direction.
AutoVert Node:
AutoVert Nodes may be verted manually like normal Vert
Nodes. However, they also vert automatically as a Photon
passes through.
InvisoAutoVert Node:
InvisoAutoVert Nodes hide the laser beam when released and they
also automatically vert as a Photon passes
through.
End Nodes
Power Node:
Power Nodes are located at the end of the corner laser beams. You
must guide the Photons to empty Power Nodes.
When a Photon enters a Power Node, it releases its energy which
energizes the Power Node. This is called “docking” a Photon.
Warp Node:
Warp Nodes are located at the ends of the center laser beams. Warp
Nodes transport Photons to the opposite side
of the Laser Lattice where they continue traveling in the same direction.
Bumper Node:
When the Power Nodes adjacent to a Warp
Node are both energized, the Warp Node is also energized and becomes
a Bumper Node closing off that side of the Laser Lattice. (See right.)
When a Photon hits a Bumper Node, it bounces
and reverses direction. Bumper Nodes are one-way gates. A Photon
can still warp through from an open Warp Node
on the opposite side of the Laser Lattice.
Set up structures in the lattice that force the Photons to go where you
want them to. Rather than waiting for the Photon, and reacting to it,
think ahead. You must play offensively rather than defensively to win.
Try to vert the second node ahead of the Photon rather than the one directly
ahead. This gives you more time to think. You may also set up closed structures
such as a figure eight to keep the Photon contained while you decide what
to do next.
Protect Your Back
Once a Photon is docked, press one of the last two Nodes it passed. This
will prevent other newly generated Photons from following the same path
and colliding into it. Once both Power Nodes in a corner are energized,
close the Vert Node at that corner. This will prevent other Photons from
colliding into the full Power Nodes in that corner. After a Photon explosion,
open any corners that have two energized Power Nodes. Otherwise, the Photons
in that corner will collide into each other when they are ejected back
out onto the Lattice.
Reversing Direction
Use the Bumper Nodes to reverse the direction of a Photon if necessary.
You may also reverse the direction by changing the configuration of the
Laser Lattice itself.
Work the Warp Nodes
Don’t forget that an open Warp Node will wrap the Photon around
to the opposite side of the Laser Lattice, even if the opposite side is
closed. Plan ahead and use this to your advantage
Recent updates to Shockwave had broken DreamLight Verttice, since it
was written way back in Director 3. The latest versions of Shockwave no
longer ran old code written using “factories.” So, in a brief
pause during the development of Quipples:
The Internet game show of satirical riddles. We decided to update
DreamLight Verttice for the newer versions of Shockwave as well as for
cross-platform distribution.
Rewrote all Lingo code in D7
Added more robust audio handling.
Converted all graphics from 4-bit to 8-bit
Converted all audio from 5kHz to 11kHz (PC’s couldn’t play
5kHz sounds)
Added commands to pixel double the screen up to 1024x768
Linked the game to the DreamLight WebSite
Prepared for cross platform distribution.
Updated the DreamLight Verttice page of the DreamLight WebShop
Version 2.0 updated in Director 4 for Shockwave: Early 1995
When Macromedia Shockwave was being beta tested in early 1995 we decided
that updating DreamLight Verttice to run on-line would be a great way
to learn Shockwave. We completed the update and posted it to the Internet
as soon as Shockwave itself was released to the public. That’s how
DreamLight Verttice became one of the very first interactive Shockwave
games on the Internet.
Version 1.0 written in Director 3: 1991-1993
During our early work on DreamLight Interactive Characters we were exploring
object oriented programming using a new feature of Director, “factories.”
We set out to create an original object oriented computer game for our
early DreamLight Interactive Characters to play. We quickly determined
that the current state of computing was not quite ready for our vision
of interactive characters. The computer game itself however, was turning
out quite interesting, so we decided to split the game from the interactive
character project and release the game by itself first. This game became
DreamLight Verttice. We later continued work on our interactive characters
which recently led to the creation of Quipples:
The Internet game show of satirical riddles.
DreamLight Verttice is exclusively intended for use by the original
purchaser and is nontransferable. By downloading or playing DreamLight
Verttice you are agreeing to these restrictions.
DreamLight(R) Verttice(TM) is a commercial game. It is not
in the public domain. It remains the property of DreamLight Incorporated.
It may not be distributed, redistributed, posted for downloads,
sold, used as an inducement to purchase any other items, bundled
with any other items or altered in any way without the express written
consent of DreamLight Incorporated.
DreamLight Verttice is provided as-is. Use at your own risk.
DreamLight makes no warranties whatsoever regarding this item or
its use in any way. DreamLight’s liability is limited exclusively
to a refund of your DreamLight Verttice license fee.
DreamLight is a registered trademark of DreamLight Incorporated.
DreamLight Verttice is a trademark of DreamLight Incorporated.
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