Can We Have Boulder Dash?


Nixot

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Hey all. I love the Wiz because of its emulation powers and some great games that have been ported to it (Doom, Quake, etc.) However, I would love to see Boulderdash being ported to the Wiz, as it's an awesome game and I would love to have it in my pocket. If it had the same number of items as e.g. RoX or a level editor that would be awesome. However, first I will look for a console version of Boulder Dash to emulate on my wiz. Thanks, bye!
 
I did actually start porting my version of BoulderDash to the Wiz - RockRush. There is an olde DOS version available

rush03.PNG

Screenie from Wiz version with updated gfx

rush04.JPG


rush05.JPG

Versions using original C64 graphic set - sorry about the poor picture quality.

I'll get back to it and get it out soon :)
 
@iprice:
Oh yes, please. That rocks. :D

I loved BoulderDash on my Atari 600 XL about >25 years ago.

If you need some beta testing, just let me know.

rds

Kasi
 
iprice said:
I did actually start porting my version of BoulderDash to the Wiz - RockRush. There is an olde DOS version available

rush03.PNG

Screenie from Wiz version with updated gfx

I'll get back to it and get it out soon :)
Yes I have been waiting for a decent BD remake with updated GFX. I have played the emulated versions on the A800 and C64 but the graphics on those are a bit "rough".

Hopefully you will make the graphics skinnable too(ability to make own tiles and sprites) as there can be some great graphics done by the community, not that it doesn't look good now, it does look good. I was always interested in trying my hand at BD tiles though. Making the tiles is part of the fun.

One suggestion, maybe you could make the background skinnable with its own tileset. This way cleared areas aren't just black.
 
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DaveC - making the tiles skinnable should be pretty easy. At the very least I can make the graphics visible, so that people can edit them if they choose.

If you want to make a set of graphics to be included with the game, then the tilese are all 16x16 pixels. Here is a full list of required elements and whether they are animated.

0 - Space
1 - Dirt/earth
2 - Metal wall
3 - Normal wall
4 - Magic wall - Animated
5 - Expanding wall
6 - Rock
7 - Diamond - Animated
8 - Firefly - Animated
9 - Butterfly - Animated
10 - Permeable Slime - Animated
11 - Amoeba - Animated

The animated elements currently have different frame counts (number of frames of animation), but I could make it 8 frames for each, to make life simple (even if you repeat frames).
 
How about the background idea? could that easily be implemented? It would give a nice depth to the look. It would just be the same sized repeated tiles. Basically when you clear an area instead of the current "earth" tile turning to nothing it would turn to a different graphic (a darker tile of earth or something).

Here is just an example of what I mean. It is not a final thing and I don't pretend to be an artist, but you get the idea.

Yes making the graphics visible as png tiles or something rather than some locked down embedded format would be nice. If the sprites could be done the same way as a strip of PNG frames or something that would be cool. It would give some expandability. Users could create "themes" like space, aliens, monsters, bugs etc.

boulder.png
 
A background like that would be easy - I could even incorporate a simple parallax effect. The sprites are all in a simple tilesheet already. :)
 
iprice said:
A background like that would be easy - I could even incorporate a simple parallax effect. The sprites are all in a simple tilesheet already. :)
Cool then I guess it would be implemented? One thing though I wouldn't go too crazy with parallax, you don't want it to look like you dig a 16 pixel wide trench but is 3 meters deep :p A little would be Ok though.

Now I will be getting carried away but do you think it would not be too hard to add a drop shadow of transparency over the top edges of cleared areas? You can't just draw the tiles that way because the shapes of the cleared areas will always be different. You would need some kind of logic here to only do the top and left edge of the whole area.

See below, I think that would give a real "3D" look and make the cleared areas look like they have depth.

boulder2.png
 
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The idea of a drop shadow is a good one, however, it would look odd if only the dirt made this shadow, so it's not something I really want to include. The Wiz isn't a powerhorse of a machine and things like that will only slow down the game.
 
iprice said:
The idea of a drop shadow is a good one, however, it would look odd if only the dirt made this shadow, so it's not something I really want to include. The Wiz isn't a powerhorse of a machine and things like that will only slow down the game.
I don't think it would look odd, look at the pictures it looks good to me. Compare that with the flat version. The other objects could be drawn with a fixed drop shadow too when possible I think it could be made to be OK. To me this would be much better than parallax. Parallax is only noticed when scrolling otherwise it looks flat. Also the concept of the game is you are digging a trench, that would be too shallow to have much parallax, it might look odd.

Another possibility instead of a transparency drop shadow would be to draw the shadow into the background tile. You would then have 4 background tiles (shadow left edge, shadow top edge, shadow left and top edge, no shadow for center tiles.) Yes the game would have to pick between the 4 depending on what green tile is near it. If some kind of simple logic routeen could be done it might be fast enough (that is your area of expertise being the coder, I am guessing). If not though It will still be good without.

If you wanted you could give me the tiles you have. I really don't have huge amounts of time to come up with my own based on your list. I might just be able to add shading to the existing ones though. I could also do a few alternatives too. If you like it you can use them. If you think they suck you are welcome to say so too and not use them, I won't be offended.
 
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tbh i like it without the background :)
so you guys don't rate any of the emerald mine adfs?
 
Audi said:
tbh i like it without the background :)
so you guys don't rate any of the emerald mine adfs?
That is the good thing about it being skinnable, you can just make the background tile a black square.
 
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There is a boulder dash / boulder dash part 2 world rom you can run under Mame4all.
It works just fantastic on my Wiz.

(My apologies for posting a link in violation of the rules)
 
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