Virtual Resort - Spring Break aka Beach Life

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[CoconutKid]

Rudy Vallée (July 28, 1901 – July 3, 1986) was way ahead of Bing Crosby, Fred Estair, and Frank Sinatara.

Having played drums in his high school band, Vallée played clarinet and saxophone in various bands around New England in his youth. Rudy's first two records were "A Dream" and "Nola," recorded in 1921. From 1924 through 1925, he played with the Savoy Havana Band at the Savoy Hotel in London. He then returned to the States to obtain a degree in Philosophy from Yale and to form his own band, called the Yale Collegians, and made his singing debut at the Heigh Ho Club in New York City. After graduation it was the Connecticut Yankees, which featured two violins, two saxophones, a piano, a banjo and drums. It was not one of the "Big Bands."

Vallée became the most prominent and, arguably, the first of a new style of popular singer, the crooner. Previously, popular singers needed strong projecting voices to fill theaters in the days before electric amplification. Crooners had soft voices that were well suited to the intimacy of the new medium of the radio. Vallée also became what was perhaps the first complete example of the 20th century mass media pop star. Flappers mobbed him wherever he went. His live appearances were usually sold out, and even if his singing could hardly be heard in those venues not yet equipped with the new amplification, his screaming female fans went home happy if they had caught sight of his lips through the opening of the trademark megaphone he sang through.
And now for something completely different -- on topic.  
The Virtual Resort: Spring Break patch fixes a number of issues seen after release of the game as well as introduces some new goodies for you to play with!
Please note: Once the patch is installed you will not be able to reload saved levels.

Bug Fixes

Closed buildings no longer stay shut forever when they run out of power.

The pedaloes always demolish now.

People no longer sometimes get stuck in the sea when chased by sharks.

The appeal of a building no longer decays while it's still being constructed.

Building shadows on level 9 are no longer partially submerged.

Sandbox levels will no longer become locked if the level is completed twice.

The ferry on level one, day one, will no longer crash into the back of the previous ferry.

After demolishing water-based buildings you can now rebuild on the same spot.

Building animations no longer show through scenery items placed in front of them.

Vertical paths no longer corrupt neighboring paths.

Guests no longer get stuck overnight at the Beach Event Stage if they arrive just before it closes.

The wet t-shirt competition sprites no longer get stuck permanently on screen if you save and load the game while the stagehand is fetching a bucket of water.

Lightning striking a half-demolished building no longer crashes the game.

Placing a bin on top of a piece of litter just as the cleaner selects that litter as her next job no longer crashes the game.

GipAmp empty list refresh, save then load crash fixed.

No power generators and no attractions could cause people leaving the hotel to crash. It's fixed now.

New Features Added

Aerobics - Now this looks hilarious! Check out aerobics on the beach event stage.

Lively barman - No longer dead looking, our bar staff are now fully animated.

Photo captions - We've added another 18 photo captions. Variety is the spice of life!

Version number - The version number (so you know which patches you have) is displayed on the main menu screen.

Topless guests cheat - Shift-Alt-T toggles topless guests on and off.

Security Check - Made some changes to the CD checking.

Program Tweaks

All buildings are now available on all levels in Sandbox mode.

A few levels now have tidier grids and a few stray non-passable grid squares removed.

All beers available on all levels in Sandbox mode.

Cocktail bars now sell cocktails instead of beers.  

Cursor keys can now be used to unlock the viewpoint from a tracked guest.

Star appeal ratings for buildings are now drawn differently so appeal no longer appears to go down on day one only.

[City Builder]

It was a mighty patch to be sure.  Especially the line that you highlighted, that makes the sandbox so much more worth while playing.

[CoconutKid]

... I don't suppose either of you has the patch for the U.S. version or know where to find it on the web nowadays?

I did a search and found Eidos old forums but the link to the patch appears to be dead and everywhere else that came up in google only had the demo but no patch.

I'm browsing the Eidos archived forum, and there is a warning that there are indeed two different patches which are not interchangeable. If someone has the "Beach Life" version, they need a different patch. Khalan's link is to the US version - fortunately because I had forgotten about the two.

So just a heads-up for owners of the different versions. 

[CoconutKid]

(click to show/hide)

The Cape Horn Beer man:



" Cape Horn Beer puts that little extra into your life! "

I think I clicked the thingee that said "ADULT" stuff -- o.k.?  


The various beers decide the people's mood. There are five kinds:

• Grimleys - makes them sad
• Cape Horn - makes them want sex
• Smileys - makes them happy
• Thumpers - makes them get into fights, have security around, you can pick up some cash from the fines
• Smashers - makes them vandalize things, have mechanics ready to repair and security to collect fines

[CoconutKid]

In my browse, I rediscovered a somewhat helpful exchange which I'd like to share here.
My Q: How do you cover a lifeguard station for more than 10 hours? How big is the area covered by a lifeguard station? I have discovered drowning people, but can't find an "on-duty" lifeguard to send to them. I have varied the shifts, but still the guards seem to be goofing off somewhere. Is there some sort of "technique" to overcome the coverage problem when you have to have a separate station for every lifeguard and you can not change the hours the beach is open (at least automatically)?

XENA: Leave your lifeguards working day shifts (7-17) and on completion of their shift, click on the lifeguard towers and close the beaches. This will stop people from swimming after hours and drowning. Just remember to re-open them the next day.

My Q: Thank you Xena - that's a good solution. And you answer my question - there is no automatic way to do it. I have since found that the life guards can't see the sharks. I have also found that there is some magic distance where lifeguard stations (but not the guards) act in unison. I would close one, and other nearby ones would also close. Do you or someone know what this distance is?

EAGLE5469: The distance that I figured out is, that as long as its part of the same beach, As in both lifeguard towers are on the same set of beach that it will close together when you close one. I hope you understand. Nate

Me again: Nate I'm glad someone confirmed that. I was begining to suspect so. I've also discovered that you can see the sharks (as little white dots) in the little locator window in the upper left. So you can leave it open (I usually don't) and react fairly fast without constantly watching the sea.

Anthonyavalon: Change the start shift to 10am as the people normally start swimming after 9am, by 10am the sea will be a bit crowded and thats why the lifeguard comes in. For busy beaches, put two towers with the same shift or u may wish to put one tower starting from 10am and the other one from 9am.

I guess I had stopped watching the forum when AA from Singapore replied.

The question left somewhat open is the definition of the beach boundry. If I recall correctly, beaches are of various sizes and while mostly well defined -- some islands have beaches which are quite large\long and therefore unclear if all the towers will act in unison. Or more probably, my memory isn't so clear.

[CoconutKid]

It was a mighty patch to be sure.  Especially the line that you highlighted, that makes the sandbox so much more worth while playing.

For sure: back on 12-16-2002, 07:40 PM you (or someone going by "Citybuilder") posted:
"Okay, after attempting some senario several times now, I'm pretty much fed up with the scenarios and just want to play unlimited sandbox on *any* island I wish. But they have not yet all unlocked. So what do I need, some save game or what file to edit to unlock all the buildings but more importantly, all the islands."

The answers gave the islands unlock cheat and some stuff about unlocking the buildings which the patch makes obsolete. That makes the old-timer good fun, eh?

[RhiannOn]

In my browse, I rediscovered a somewhat helpful exchange which I'd like to share here.The question left somewhat open is the definition of the beach boundry. If I recall correctly, beaches are of various sizes and while mostly well defined -- some islands have beaches which are quite large\long and therefore unclear if all the towers will act in unison. Or more probably, my memory isn't so clear.

The beaches were well defined and towers had to be put on each of the beaches and the number towers depending on the size of the beach. I don't think the towers acted in unison.
 
On the bigger beach I would put three towers, one tower was left to close a little later, as folk were still swimming there...the others towers also had slightly staggered open and close times. On a beach that was small and was really popular I would still put on two lifeguards..staggered open close times again.

As for sharks, I had to close the beach manually as the life guard didn't seem to notice them.  Which added more challenge as one also had to keep an eye on the map for the shark markers.  Hmm a couple of holidaymakers got caught by sharks  a couple of times until I sussed out to keep an eye on the map....

[CoconutKid]

... I don't think the towers acted in unison. ...

That's interesting. I surely got the impression from the posts that they did, all of them on one beach that is. Eventually, I'll test it out, eh? *

It's sort of a bummer that the lifeguards can't see the sharks.

* edit = Done and reported later.

[City Builder]

Wow, an 8 year old post with my name on it, I'm astonished that I was (I think, although it could be somebody else but doubtful) going by Citybuilder back then too.  Funny that I haven't changed much, I still don't like scenarios in games as they don't feel natural to me like sandbox games in CB style games do feel natural to me and are more enjoyable.  I guess I like to make my own challenges by playing.

Anyway... Question(s)

1. How does the workers hours of operation affect them in happiness, job performance etc (if at all)?

2. Is the only way to make a worker happy, to increase their wages?  And if so, how does it work, I mean how much of an increase must be given to make them get xx% happiness increase?

3.  Does workers working together (i.e. set at least # builders to work the same timeshift have anything to do with performance and or happiness of said workers?

I seem to remember that I always avoided playing on islands that had sharks because it was just too much bother to have to keep closing the beaches and reopening them at the sight and then disapearance of the sharks so I seem to remember just avoiding playing on those islands back when SB came out).

A dirty restroom - Gotta love that they modeled it to show the gamer when it's dirty:


Click to enlarge slightly

[City Builder]

The one thing that I seem to remember most about this game was the "stock" purchases and how they were likely added as a faux way to absorb our profits to make the game more difficult financially.

Anyway, more questions...

1. I'm looking for that elusive optimal build order that I feel really must exist in SB.  In other words there must be certain buildings that should be built first to keep the patrons happy while earning money at the same time so that other buildings can be built.  The maps that I've tried thus far have me running out of funds very fast indicating that I'm not building in the right order.