www.whyville.net Aug 8, 2003 Weekly Issue



JasmineK
Guest Reporter

Zero Gravity Chamber: Population Zero

Users' Rating
Rate this article
 
FRONT PAGE
CREATIVE WRITING
SCIENCE
HOT TOPICS
POLITICS
HEALTH
PANDEMIC

Doubtless you have seen it mentioned in the game list, the WASA lobby, and the Whyville Times. But do you really know anything about the Zero Gravity chamber? If you're like most of the Whyvillians I interviewed, you're clueless. I asked several citizens, "Have you ever played the Zero Gravity game?" Here are some of the responses I received:

"Yes, but I don't get it."
"Nope."
"No, it's too difficult."
"Never heard of it."
"I attempted it."
"Yes, but I'm still on level one."

It seemed that most people had been less than successful in the Zero Gravity Chamber, so I decided to check out the scene. I waited in the chamber, a square sheet of ice with a colored light on each side, for a full five minutes, counting the number of people who came. The result was a big fat ZERO!

Why is this game so unpopular? I wondered. The reason I'm suggesting is that most people just don't want to take the time to figure out how this complex challenge works. Well, being the utterly generous person that I am, I took some time out of my busy schedule to read the directions and all related articles, and then practice until I had a pretty good grasp of the game. I will now divulge my discoveries to you: (drumroll...)

1) How to Get to the Zero Gravity Chamber: Just click on Zero Gravity Levels in your salary ledger. You can also go through the WASA building, but that is way more complicated. Stick with the little red satchel.

2) What You Need for the Game to Work at All: You are going to need projectiles. They're these little things you throw. To get them, go to the "Projectile Shoppe". I would stock up on Winks, since they're cheap and cute. You're going to need a lot of projectiles, so cheap is definitely good. To learn more about projectiles, read this article by Bigfoot.

3) For all of you to lazy to read the article: Basically, to throw a projectile, you say "throw", then the name of the projectile (ex. "wink") and then the angle you want to throw it. "180" throws the projectile to the left. "0" throws it to the right, "90" throws it up and "270" throws it down. Anything in between throws the projectiles anywhere in between. So to throw a soccer ball to the lower right, you would say "Throw soccer 310". (Knowing how this angle stuff works will help you in all sorts of math and physics classes.)

4) How this relates to the Zero Gravity Game: The only way to move around in the zero gravity chamber is to throw projectiles, causing a reaction that will propel you in the opposite direction. Therefore if you want to move left, you throw a projectile to the right. If you want to move up, you throw a projectile down. The intermediate angles get tricky, so I recommend drawing a little diagram that you can refer to.

5) How to play the Zero Gravity Game (finally!): At the beginning of each level, the lights will light up in a certain order. This is the order in which you have to touch them to complete the level. On Level 1, only one light illuminates. You have 39 seconds to propel yourself to that light using projectiles. On level 2, two lights will light up, one after the other. You will have more time to visit these lights in order. On the next level you will have 3 lights to go to, and on the next 4. I'm pretty sure it stops at four lights, although there are ten levels. Each completed level results in a one-clam salary raise.

Unfortunately, if you run into a wall or don't finish the sequence in time, you get bumped back to level one. This makes the game REALLY hard, but what can you do? Just make sure you have plenty of time and projectiles before you start. It would be awful to get to level 9 only to realize you've run out of projectiles, and have to start over at the beginning.

Anyway, I hope these directions have helped you. If you're still confused, you could try facing your fears and actually reading the instructions under the link "Can't Move? READ THIS!" Although this game does cost some clammage to play, the 10 clam raise in salary will pay off in the end. For me, I'm off to conquer Level 4!

-JasmineK

 

Did you like this article?
1 Star = Bleh.5 Stars = Props!
Rate it!
Ymail this article to a friend.
Discuss this article in the Forums.

  Back to front page


times@whyville.net
3067