Doctor! We need help!

[mathgrant]

This puzzle is based on a famous Nintendo puzzle game with the word "Dr." in its name. You may have played it before; if so, skip to the bold stuff, but if not, read these rules. If you have further questions, ask!

In this game, the playfield starts with viruses that can defy gravity. The player puts in capsules which fall until they land on something, like Tetris. Just like Tetris, they can be moved left and right, or rotated. Then they remain attached until one breaks apart.

Pieces (capsules and viruses) disappear when a capsule lands and thus 4 of a color line up horizontally or vertically. If one half a capsule disappears, the other half will become a round half capsule. If after these events have occurred, certain capsules or half capsules are unsupported, they will fall because of gravity. After falling, they may make more rows; this is a Chain Reaction. In the example on the right side of the picture below, if the capsule is placed in the outlined spot, then a row of 4 will disappear. This will lead to the upper right picture when they fall. This makes another row disappear, and obviously this will cause another row to disappear.

When the game generates a layout, it always obeys two rules:

• No viruses above the white line. The virus shown above the line with the grey background is illegal.
  
• No two viruses of the same color can have exactly one square between them horizontally or vertically. The two viruses below the line with grey backgrounds, while not illegal by themselves, are illegal together because only one space seperates them. This guarantees that no row of 4 will have 3 or 4 viruses of the same color.
  

IF ONE OF THE MIDDLE 2 SPACES IN THE TOP ROW IS OCCUPIED BY AN UNCLEARED CAPSULE OR HALF CAPSULE, THEN THE NEXT CASPULE WON'T BE ABLE TO ENTER THE PLAYFIELD AND YOU'LL LOSE.



Question 1: Using only 8 capsules, can you eliminate the four viruses in the bottle in a single chain reaction?

Question 2: What's the most viruses that one can clear in a single chain reaction, in theory?

My record, in theory, is 16. Surely you can do better.

------------------
Sometimes life gives you a deck without any aces. Deal with it.



[This message has been edited by mathgrant (edited 03-07-2002 09:25 PM).]

[ralphmerridew]

#1:

code:

---

..B


..B


.RB


.R


.R


.YY


..Y?


?Y--


.YY


.RB





Then slide a Y? where the two dashes are.

---

#2:
I think I can clear 52 viruses with a single capsule.

[mathgrant]

That won't work for Number 1 because before placing the dashed capsule a capsule above it will be unsupported and will be defying gravity. Also, it requires 9 spaces above the viruses, but the playfield has only 7. The capsules would crash at the top of the bottle.

[This message has been edited by mathgrant (edited 03-07-2002 09:20 PM).]

[ralphmerridew]

1:

As for the fact that there was an unsupported capsule, that was simply a copying error; my original paperwork did have a horizontal YY capsule over both viruses in the right space. As for the fact that it goes too high, that is a genuine error. But it can be fixed:

code:

---

.RB.


.RB.


.RB.


.YY.


..Y?


.YY.


?Y--


.YY.


.RB.

---

[This message has been edited by ralphmerridew (edited 03-08-2002 12:05 PM).]

[pikachamp]

that one's still too high, i'll fix it