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Caravel Forum : DROD Boards : Holds : Mark's Penultimate Dungeon (9 levels of tedium)
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Author Name:Mark
Submitted By:Funk
Hold Name:Mark's Penultimate Dungeon
Theme:9 levels of tedium
Author's Difficulty:
Number of Levels:13
Number of Rooms:186
Number of Monsters:4419
Version:DROD: Architect's Edition
High Scores:View High Scores
Hold Karma:4 (+4 / -0)
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File: MPD.hold (58.7 KB)
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License: Other
From: Unspecified
icon Mark's Penultimate Dungeon  
This is, unfortunately, very similar to the version posted in the architecture forum. If you tested it, I imagine you would only want this one if you are extremely curious about the ending text or want to watch demos of me killing myself on every level.
04-12-2004 at 03:02 AM
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gds
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icon Re: Mark's Penultimate Dungeon (0)  
Don't be so negative, the hold is very good.

Big problem though, the secret room on level 1 is marked as required, hence preventing the blue door from dropping.
04-12-2004 at 01:29 PM
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Funk
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icon Re: Mark's Penultimate Dungeon (0)  
Yikes. I would fix that, but I apparently wasn't logged in when I uploaded the hold. If it's possible to attribute it to me, that would be great.
04-12-2004 at 10:48 PM
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Schik
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icon Re: Mark's Penultimate Dungeon (+1)  
Funk wrote:
If it's possible to attribute it to me, that would be great.
Done!

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04-13-2004 at 03:31 AM
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Funk
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icon Re: Mark's Penultimate Dungeon (+1)  
Thanks Schik. It should be fixed now.
04-13-2004 at 11:27 PM
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eytanz
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icon Re: Mark's Penultimate Dungeon (0)  
If you go up the path behind the red door in the entrance without solving 1N1E first, you're stuck.

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07-08-2004 at 01:50 PM
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gamer_extreme_101
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icon Re: Mark's Penultimate Dungeon (0)  
eytanz wrote:
If you go up the path behind the red door in the entrance without solving 1N1E first, you're stuck.

That's what you get for trying to reach a secret warp room ;)!

[Edited by gamer_extreme_101 on 07-09-2004 at 07:29 PM GMT]

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07-08-2004 at 03:35 PM
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techant
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icon Re: Mark's Penultimate Dungeon (0)  
The two snake room has me stumped.
snake room

I have gotten the snakes to be the same size in an attempt to have both in the exit at the same time but I can not get them both there together. I end up with only one and I can not kill it with anything in the room.

If I am going down the wrong road let me know. Actually, any help cuz while I don't hate snakes normally I am starting to.

[Edited by techant on 09-09-2004 at 03:14 AM GMT]

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09-09-2004 at 04:13 AM
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DiMono
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icon Re: Mark's Penultimate Dungeon (0)  
One snake moves before the other, so even if you get them both in there at the same time, one will die and the other will go on. From the screenshot, it almost looks like there's a missing yellow door or something, because I see an orb in the corner. Maybe the room's just not required?

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09-09-2004 at 05:06 AM
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JayS
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icon Re: Mark's Penultimate Dungeon (0)  
The screen shot is somewhat misleading: the snake is covering the yellow door in the bottom right.
09-10-2004 at 03:13 AM
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techant
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icon Re: Mark's Penultimate Dungeon (0)  
Still looking for help :wave:

Swiping the yellow orb only lifts yellow doors that do nothing in helping kill the snake. I have done all the other rooms and can not leave yet so this one must be needed.

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09-22-2004 at 08:14 AM
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stigant
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icon Re: Mark's Penultimate Dungeon (0)  
Ok, here's some hints:

Click here to view the secret text


Pretty big spoiler:
Click here to view the secret text


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09-26-2004 at 01:48 AM
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rowrow
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icon Re: Mark's Penultimate Dungeon (0)  

How can you beat this room exactly? SPOILERS WANTED.

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10-24-2004 at 11:20 PM
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techant
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icon Re: Mark's Penultimate Dungeon (0)  
What room is that exactly?

I played all of this hold except I still never got those snakes, but I do not recognize this room.

Is there one section of the room that is giving you trouble or the whole thing? :)

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10-25-2004 at 12:14 AM
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rowrow
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icon Re: Mark's Penultimate Dungeon (0)  
I still never got those snakes
What snakes are you talking about? :huh This one comes after the blue door. But this one I'm getting stuck on. How do you stop the goblins from going in the force arrows?

[Edited by rowrow at Local Time:10-25-2004 at 12:32 AM]

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10-25-2004 at 12:29 AM
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techant
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icon Re: Mark's Penultimate Dungeon (0)  
The snakes I am talking about are in another room. I had asked for help earlier in this post.

I still do not know where to look for your room at. Can you tell me the level that it is on?

I found your room. I finally kill those nasty snakes on the same level. You must have had no trouble with them.

Try the following to deal with the goblins:
Click here to view the secret text


If you need more:
Click here to view the secret text


Click here to view the secret text



[Edited by techant at Local Time:10-25-2004 at 04:36 AM]

[Edited by techant at Local Time:10-29-2004 at 06:17 AM]

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10-25-2004 at 03:32 AM
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silver
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icon Re: Mark's Penultimate Dungeon (0)  
Click here to view the secret text



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05-22-2005 at 11:43 PM
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Alneyan
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icon Re: Mark's Penultimate Dungeon (0)  
It was not a bad hold: 6 for average difficulty, and 7 for fun. Clever ideas behind some of the rooms, so I would certainly recommend checking it out.
10-13-2005 at 10:09 PM
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fratropea
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icon Re: Mark's Penultimate Dungeon (0)  
I have ended MARK'S PENULTIMATE DUNGEON...
and wanted to say that I like it very much!!!
For me it is between beautifulst that I have made!
Binding, but not impossible.
Every room was ingenious.
It compliments :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup
03-02-2006 at 12:19 PM
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Ezlo
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icon Re: Mark's Penultimate Dungeon (0)  
I too have finished this Penultimate challenge. Now, where's the Ultimate Dungeon?

Now all I have to do is to actually finish each level instead of abusing warp zones. :D
06-14-2006 at 01:49 PM
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jbluestein
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icon Re: Mark's Penultimate Dungeon (0)  
Finished this hold. It was pretty good. Weird mixing of difficulties -- some fairly difficult rooms right next to some autopilot rooms.

Level 7 (Tar Revisited) was a particularly well-constructed level.

I give this a 7 rating and 6 brains of difficulty.

Josh

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12-04-2006 at 08:57 PM
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Jacob
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icon Re: Mark's Penultimate Dungeon (+1)  
[This is one of a set of hold reviews I'm writing. For more information, on scoring etc, see here]

General Description

This a great hold from the AE era. There are a lot of flaws, but to give the architect his due, a lot has changed since then - now it's fairly well established that things like walls and doors under tar make for a bad puzzle. Furthermore, there are a set of established tropes (simple mimic manipulation puzzles, puzzles based around manipulation of monsters to block off serpents, roach queen horde rooms to name a few) that we have now seen again and again and don't feel exciting or original anymore. So we see a lot in this hold that we've seen since, but there's still a lot going for this hold, so I'll go through in a bit more detail.

The first 2 levels are mostly hack-and-slash, with not too many creative puzzles.
Level 3 gets more puzzly, and while there's still a lot of hack-and-slash, it's more interesting – involving limitations on sword direction/movement and we start to see some more ingenuity in the puzzles, including a clever invisibility potion room.
Level 4 has continues to have a few clever puzzles, but is let down by some more hack-and-slash and the (now) unforgivable use of walls and doors hidden under tar.
Level 5 is basically a maze based around the same concept – nothing fancy or groundbreaking, but it's a fairly original idea and the maze itself isn't too bad.
Level 6 reverts to hack-and-slash again, but there's still a couple of good puzzles in there too.
Level 7 is an excellent mazy kind of level which uses tar to create passages that can only be traversed in certain directions. This leads to some clever rooms requiring multiple re-entries.
Level 8, although it contains a couple of silly rooms where you're being chased around by a snake with no real control over where you have to go has some excellent and very original puzzles, including a very clever room involving mimics on trapdoors.
Level 9 finishes the hold on a high note. Abandoning hack-and-slash, the architect gives a set of superb more lynchpin-like puzzles. Shame there wasn't more of this throughout.

Good Points

Numerous original and ingenious puzzles, the more impressive for the fact it's an AE hold. Clever uses of mimics and tar. Good use of humour.
Some warp rooms if you're fed up of a particular level (I wouldn't really recommend them though, I missed out on some of the best rooms the first time I played this hold).

Bad Points

A lot of hack-and-slash and rooms involving trapdoors, doors and walls hidden under tar. Uneven difficulty.

Special or distinguishing features

Nothing other the originality of some its puzzles, using AE elements alone.

Creativity: 9/10
Lynchpins: 2/10
Story: 2/10
Hack and Slash: 8/10
Efficiency: 1/10
Snake charming: 0.5/10
Tar-osity: 6/10
Overall: 8/10
Difficulty: 6/10

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[Last edited by Jacob at 05-03-2009 03:26 AM]
05-02-2009 at 07:41 PM
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