Spike-counting contest

[SoulEye]

Hi!

Do what I did: count some spikes in VVVVVV, mail me your answer. I'll send winners an unreleased song that will feature in Mega Man 2.5d

Hint/Rule 1: Posting the correct number of spikes in the forums will disqualify you!
Hint/Rule 2: Terry is disallowed to enter!
Hint/Rule 3: If you're Terry, don't cry, I'll send it to you too
Hint/Rule 4: My email is my nickname at gmail dot com.
Hint/Rule 5: I liked music when I was in school. And arts.
Hint/Rule 6: The answer is more than 1,000, but less than 52,442.
Hint/Rule 7: I have a sense of humor about this and I hope you do too.
Hint/Rule 8: It's 14923! It's 14923!
Hint/Rule 9: The correct amount of spikes cannot be found among these hints. Disregard hint 8.
Hint/Rule 10: This contest's prize is REAL. THAT you can be sure of.
Hint/Rule 11: Since there are a whole lot of spikes, I'll allow a comparably small range of miscalculation error margin in your answers, compared to how many grains of sand there is on all beaches in all the world.
Hint/Rule 12: No more hints!

Get counting!

[Terry]

How do you know what the answer is? Did you count the spikes? 

[SoulEye]

Spikes have been counted, let me tell you!  (what a wonderfully vague answer, eh? =))

[CooL]

Well, good bye summer   

[Whirligig]

I have only one comment:



Also, a few questions:

1. Are we limited to a certain number of guesses?

--> You have 3 guesses!

2. Are we limited to a certain number of simultaneous guesses?

--> You can do 3 simultaneous guesses in one mail, so long as you only guess once!

3. Does "VVVVVV" mean the game or the place? The ambiguity makes it unclear whether spikes in the Polar Dimension are to be included.

--> Ok, "VVVVVV" pertains to the levels in the game, overworld included. Only count standard spikes (not V-shaped formations or words like "SPIKEs do!" etc.

4. Can you tell us the margin now, so that later you can't claim it's 1 spike when we were expecting something bigger?

--> No!  The margin is at the discression of the judge(s). But rest assured that I'm not evil. Just jovial.

[arcticwolf15]

No wai!

[SoulEye]

I have a serious contender already... He's using mathematical algorithms and advanced computer programming to identify spikes and calculate them without manually doing the joyous counting! But don't worry about it - you have until the end of May to do this!

[CooL]

Where's the fun in that 

[SoulEye]

The fun comes when he sends in his number and I disqualify him! ;P

[James]

The spike counts for each level will definately have to be added to the VVVVVV Wiki at the conclusion of this competition.

[Robson]

The fun comes when he sends in his number and I disqualify him! ;P

Haha that guy is going to be so upset.

OH WAIT A MINUTE

[CooL]

I'm half way done 

SHIT I lost the txt file that had the number 

[Shasharala]

Whoa! Is this what I'm going to be doing with my free time now? 

[SoulEye]

Haha that guy is going to be so upset.

OH WAIT A MINUTE

Prizeless!

Whoa! Is this what I'm going to be doing with my free time now? 

Yes. Counting is what brings you joy! Oh the fun of inspiring and motivating tasks, next funny contest will be to intriguingly find and curiously count the amount of happy pixels colored with the 6 joyous colors of the VVVVVV palette in a small 10 megabyte picture of awesomeness. Or maybe I can just ask you to tell me what 1+1 is, I haven't decided yet.

[dinx2582]

Boy I'm lazy, otherwise I'd be taking advantage of what appears to be a sweet deal (or something).  I bet that song completely kicks ass, though.