This is a FAQ of slime games. Its really long.

General Questions

What other slime games are there?
If you look on one of my slime pages (look at the links on the left), you will see links to one player games, two player games, different game types (volleyball, soccer, and cricket).

Is there a networked version?
networkslime.com. I am not associated with this project though, please email the author and praise him for his good work :)

How do I enter a competition?
There aren't any competitions planned in the near future, if I do plan one then I will post details on the relevant pages. Please do not email me asking to enter - I don't keep a waiting list.

Why is it called Slime Volleyball?
Well there was originally this game on the web called Slime Volleyball, which was a one player version. We here at UWA discovered it in 1999 and thought "Wouldn't it be great if there was a two player version with better physics?" So Quin Pendragon wrote it. And kept the original name. So don't blame us for the bad name.

Is the source code available?
For some versions of the game, yes. If so, there is a clear link to the source on the game's page. If not, please don't email me asking me to send it.

What is a wabam slam?
Where Psycho slime looks like it's hitting the ball flat and long, but just after it hits it, and after you've started to move back, it spikes it.

What is a skim serve?
Where you move forward slightly when you're serving, the ball hits you and bounces off the back wall, onto you and slides over the net, all without you moving after the initial move. View a demo here.

What is a reverse skim serve?
Where you move backwards slightly, so the ball hits you and goes low over the net, just clearing it. The opposite of the skim serve. View a demo here.

What is a tip serve?
Where you hit the ball high up onto the back wall, then tip it over the other slime at the net. This serve is good for doing fake jumps - don't hit the ball, instead let it go over but the other person might jump back to cover it if you had hit it. This is the serve that the Slime Master and Psycho Slime do most of the time. View a demo here.

What is a bastard serve?
A spike-serve. The Slime Master and Angry Red Slime do this serve.

What is a throw?
Where you seem to carry the ball in mid-air, and then release it and it goes downwards. There is a demo here that shows perfect timing of a throw. Throwing is legal!

What is an ace?
Oh, come on. Where your serve goes hits the ground without the other slime touching the ball.

What is a clanger?
A clanger is when you don't bother to move to hit the ball and you lose the point, you spike the ball into the net and lose the point, you have control of the ball (have touched it at least 3 times) and can't get it back over, or if your serve doesn't go in.

What is a winner?
A winner is when your opponent doesn't touch the ball when it crosses the net and you win the point. An ace is not considered to be a winner.

Can I put your game on my website?
I'd prefer it if you could link to my site instead as it ensures that everyone has access to any changes that I make, and other Slime games. If you really want to post the game on your site, then I can't really stop you, but at least be good enough to post your own email address on the site so that I don't get people emailing me about problems with other peoples' site (it does happen). But linking is easy, it's good, and people can still go through your site to generate traffic. Note that I will be extremely annoyed if you use this game commercially in any fashion (even having an ad on your website on the same page as this game) - people have put their own time into writing this game and you're going and making money for other peoples' work. Note that Google knows everything and we will find you if you do something wrong.

I'm an epileptic. Can I play?
Well yeah, but don't sue me.

Man I had a great replay, how can I show other people?
I actually wrote stuff to save replays on this server back in 2001 but I got told off for not preventing googlebots from searching all the replay pages (I think I was getting almost a thousand a week, which is nothing compared to 30000 hits a day now, they don't complain about that!) which apparently did bad things to the server - it "caused the load on tartarus to go to 180 when it was accessed by the googlebot". Since then, PHP scripting has been taken off the server for "security reasons". I won't be finding an alternate server in a hurry, though.

Can you write a FAQ page for other Slime games?
No.

Can you write some other Slime game for me?
No. I can't see myself writing any more Slime games in the future - sorry.

Tell me how to write games!
The games are written in Java, I suggest you get a good book (no, I'm not recommending any) or look for tutorials on the web (use Google to search :) For compilers, head to java.sun.com and look for the Java SDK (J2SE).

One Slime

How many levels are there?
Five.

Can I change colours like in the other Slime games?
Unfortunately, no. When I did this mod I grabbed some AIs I'd written and threw them all together with a bit of hacking of the original game's code and so the end result isn't all that well written. Maybe one day I'll redo it all.

You should have a high score table!
Hey, that's not a question so it doesn't belong on this page! Seriously though, I did have one for a few months, but then scripting was banned from this web server and hence the high score table disappeared. I moved the game to my departmental server at uni, and promptly was asked to remove the game due to traffic reasons. I can't be bothered moving the game again just to get a high score table. As a guide though, 15000 is a good score, 20000 very good and if you can get over 30000 then you've pretty much mastered the game.

Why is the first level harder than the second?
IMHO it's not. Of course that's coming from the point of view that the first Slime's AI is simply a retarded version of the second one's. So it's a mystery why a lot of people think this is so. No, I won't change it.

Are you referring to Red Symons (sans 'd') for the second Slime?
Yeah. But now it's in there, people who have never heard of him will be asking "Why did you change the name of the second slime?" Or something. He might be gone in the next version (if it every comes out).

How do you beat <insert slime name>?
(click on the serve type to view a demo)
White Slime, Red Slime: Use the tip serve, which draws the slime to the net, and then hit it over it. This serve is also useful against human opponents, except you vary it by occasionally "fake jumping" - jump the second time but don't tip the ball over the other slime. Once the ball is in play, hit it deep into the court.
Black Slime: Skim serve, keep the ball low, try to throw rather than spike the ball.
Psycho Slime: Reverse skim serve, hit the ball low and long. Play a simple game, wait for it to make a mistake rather than playing risky shots.
Big Blue Boss: Be very patient, hit it long and low. I don't know of any serve that will always defeat the boss.

The Big Blue Boss is too hard to beat!
Not everything is supposed to be easy.

The Big Blue Boss bounces the ball on top of his head forever!
I've heard of this (obviously) - I'm thinking of a way to make him stop without making him jump happy and too easy to beat.

Why is the directory for it called /slime1/ ?
In early 2001 Quin put the source code up on his page and I did a mod called AFL Slime (or Footy Slime) which was my Slime mod. After that I stuffed around with writing some AI and it turned into One Slime. But the /slime/ directory was already taken and so i tacked the 1 on the end to get /slime1/ :)

Will you write more AIs for this excellent game?
Maybe one day.

Can I have the source code for this fantabulous game?
Not for this one, not at least while I have a high score table up. If you want to see how the game works though, have a look on Quin's page or the AFL Slime page to get their respective sources.

Awww... how about the code for the AIs?
No. You can probably write better ones anyway!

I found a bug in One Slime!
I'm not surprised, it's a hacked game if there ever was one! But I'm happy to fix any probs you come across - email me (below), but please don't send me any pictures, they are big and mean that you can't adequately describe a picture (and slime graphics are not worth a thousand words!) Besides, Slime is a real time game, which stills don't do justice. Don't take this to mean that I like movies sent to me - if you do send a heap of binaries to me, don't expect a reply.

AFL Slime

What's this AFL Slime business?
It's AFL Slime because the slimes wear AFL team guernseys. The AFL is the Australian Football League if you're wondering. This game is in no way supported by or endorsed by the AFL.

Where are all the points?
Unlike normal Slime Volleyball, AFL Slime counts upwards from zero, instead of sharing points between the slimes. The highest scorer at the end wins.

I know about that but I still don't get any points.
Ahh, so you would be in warm up mode. Just click the mouse again to play for real.

Why do I get big dots?
One big dot is worth a goal, ie six points.

Why is there a number on my big dots?
That's the number of goals you have. It can be difficult to see how many goals you have once you get to about six or seven.

My dots have disappeared under the timer.
You should play someone else who is a bit better at the game!

Warm up mode is stupid.
No, it saves people playing a whole game to warm up. And it gives you a chance to enter the secret codes.

What secret codes?
Well, they're not so secret, if you look on the AFL Slime page, you can see some codes to enter that change some things in the game.

Why can't I change teams?
You can only change teams in warm up mode. Have you ever seen a footy team run out with another team's outfit on after a break? No. Slimes don't change sides during a game either.

What is the difference between touches and possession?
A touch is when you touch the ball, possession measures the time the ball spends on your side of the net. Hence they are different.

How do I get to play at night time?
Wait for the sun to go down. And then turn on the lights. Oh, you mean to make the game look like it's night time? Easy, just type "NIGHT" in warmup mode.

Why does "PLAY ON!" appear every time I serve?
Well you've moved off the mark and so you have to play on. More importantly, the clock is stopped until the play on call, so time between the end of the last point and the server playing on is not counted as game time.

What is time on?
It's the sum of all the time that the ball is not in play, which is after the end of a point, before play on is called and when you're viewing a replay.

How do I see how much time on there is?
You wait until the end of the half. After all, it's AFL Slime and not NBA Slime (so you can't see the clock ticking down). And it makes close games more exciting to play and watch, coz the game could end any second. If you really don't like it, then type "TIMER" in warm up mode to have a countdown timer.

Why does the clock still run when I'm watching a replay?
Because you don't get transferred to an alternate universe where time stands still when you watch a replay. Really, it's because I consider it as time when the ball's not in play, so it can be added in time on.

Why does "BALL..." appear on my screen sometimes?
It means that you're going to be pinged for holding the ball if you keep it much longer. See below.

What is holding the ball?
It's when the ball has been on your side of the net for five seconds. You should be able to get rid of it in less than two or three seconds and this rule is included to speed up play. It's also important so people can't waste time near the end of a close game. Note that the five seconds doesn't start until play on is called if you're serving. You can turn this off if you don't like it.

How do you get to be that flashing Slime?
Easy, just win six points in a row against your opponent. Then you'll be Super Slime and you'll get to move twice as fast. Or, you could just type "SUPER" in warmup mode to turn both slimes into Super Slimes.

How come there's bits of yellow over the screen sometimes?
Thats where the ball has been and it's had to be moved for some reason, so the drawing of the old ball position doesn't completely wipe out all of the yellow. Stop being picky.

Hey the ball just teleported or went through me!
Yeah, it's what's called a "dodgy translation". Slime physics is slightly different to real world physics and sometimes dodgy translations occur.

What's with the team names? And the dodgy jumpers?
Well... it's hard to draw polygons for little things and position them right on the slimes, and it's especially hard to get the colours right when you're colour blind. Anyway, here's a little info on each team:

• West Coast Slime represents the West Coast Eagles. I can't draw a stupid eagle that changes colours easily in Java, so ner.
• Anchor Slime represents the Fremantle Dockers. That's supposed to be a big white anchor on the slime, not a down arrow. Java doesn't have a convenient drawAnchor() method so the arrow will do for now.
• Alpha Centauri Slime represents the Kangaroos, who were known as North Melbourne, then played home games in Sydney and now Canberra. One wag said that they'll be playing home games on Alpha Centauri soon, hence the name.
• Eddie McSlimer represents the Collingwood Magpies. Eddie McGuire is the Prez of that club and you can guess the rest.
• "Yellow and Black!!" Slime represents the Richmond Tigers. It's not just un-imaginative because they are the colours worn by the Tigers but it's the main part of their club song.
• Bomber Slime represents the Essendon Bombers. I couldn't think of a better name, email me with one!
• Navy Blue Slime represents the Caaarlton Blues. Once again, it's not my lack of imagination but from the club song. Also, that squiggle on the front reads CFC, for chlorofluorocarbon oops, Carlton Football Club.
• Hawthorn Slime represents the Hawthorn Hawks. Just like Hawthorn were unimaginative with their mascot, so am I.
• Ford Factory Slime represents the Geelong Cats. There's a Ford factory in Geelong, and they're sponsored by Ford, I think. The footy team that is, not Ford. Ford sponsoring Ford would be stupid.
• Sydney Slime represents the Sydney Swans. Sure, it's not very imaginative, but I thought maybe that's what the company known as Sydney water actually pump out. I can't be bothered drawing an Opera House down the bottom of the red V for the moment.
• Demon Slime represents the Melbourne Demons. Hmmm... email me with a better name.
• Camry Slime represents the Adelaide Crows. They have a big "CAMRY" written on their outfit. More stripes on the slime means more work and slowing the game down, so the three stripes will do for now.
• Saint Slimer represents the St Kilda Saints. Read the bit I wrote for Hawthorn, it applies here too.
• Western Bullslime represents the Western Bulldogs. Apparently they real Bulldogs got that name a long time ago when a real bulldog ran out in front of the team before a game. So this time round, the slime can run out as the team. Of course, because they're a Bullslime, there's no need to draw a Bulldog on the front, and there's nothing there at all because no one has ever seen a Bullslime.
• Brisbane Slime represents the Brisbane Lions. Maybe there's a Brisbane Water company too? The lion is very hard to draw using polygons and circles and that so I didn't bother. I'm sure you don't mind.
• Slime Power represents the Port Adelaide Power. I couldn't be bothered fully doing their strip so the result is what you see.