[poll] Tell your story

[Dustin]

Here's my own story. It's easy to tell:
When I was a child, my father presented me with BD1. I was hooked on it from the beginning, though I wasn't a very good player and couldn't even play through level 1 for a long time. The cave that gave me the most trouble to succeed in was J. I remember that my mother (back then, mummy ) was really fascinated by this cave, and I don't really know anymore who of us managed to succeed in this cave first. In any case I remember I was very excited finally to see cave K, which also turned out to be quite difficult for me. Another cave that I found hard was P, and when I finally managed to play through this one, I was very excited to see cave Q. I remember I was very disappointed to see A/2 instead... I believe I wasn't very motivated to play the higher levels (also I thought that they must be so incredibly hard that I could never solve them, anyway.) I remember that my ambitioned dad(dy) tried level 5 once, and progressed until E or so.
In the meantime BD2 had come out, and I liked this one, too! I cannot remember exactly, but I believe I found BD2 easier than 1 (at least on l1)! I believe I even tried the higher levels here, but every time I made my way to cave E, I lost all my lives faster than I could count them down...
In the meantime I had also made many many own caves (on paper), even with five difficulty levels. I painted these caves on a table and then my mum had to tell me a way how to solve them I still have a Micky Mouse folder on which, with a big edding, "BD5" is written, but unfortunately all my self-made caves got lost, not least due to my sloppiness.
Another present from my dad was BD3, but I didn't play through this one much; I remember that I tried level 5 , and didn't find the "trick" how to escape the inbox cage...
Because of my rough treatment, the disks with the games got bust, and as the game wasn't fabricated anymore, I thought that my BD "career" would be over forever.

This believe lasted until some years ago, when a friend told me about emulators and even found download links for the old games! I was so excited and now I also had the heart to play the higher levels, and soon I had managed all five levels of BD1+2!
And it came even better: I discovered this great site with all you fans and that there were many many fan-made levels and games! This modernised my wish to make own games, too. Within a few weeks, dozens of ideas came to me which I all wrote down, but I didn't know yet how exactly to make, pack etc. the caves. Here, you all helped me a lot (thanks!!) and I started to make the games in Boulder Remake (as I actually wanted to make five levels, which the great CLCK didn't sipport.). Rory, who became a good friend for me meanwhile, agreed to test my caves, and meanwhile we both test though the other's new games and exchange ideas! Then Gdash came out and now I think I've found the perfect clone for making level- based BD games. I'm having a lot of fun making and playing BD games, and I hope you enjoy my games, too!

[shaneandriu]

Then I heard the line, and made BDCK RTAD1 RTAD and 2 in a row, I have rarely had, but I enjoyed watching my uncle play, I thought it was too difficult and I was afraid of the Fireflies.Clones are only repeated when she went into hibernation C64 However, two years ago, I found the wonderful world of emulation.

[Mr Escape]

Seeing as i've only just joined, I guess i should add my story too, i'll try to keep it short-ish.

I first played Boulderdash when I was quite young (about 5 I think) in the early 90's, on my parents C64. We had a copy of BD1,BD2,BD3, and BD4 (which I now know were the levels included with the PLCK). The two games I played the most were boulderdash 1 and 3. BD1 was my favourite because it was the only game I could complete the caves by myself on. Though at the time I was scared of the fireflies for some reason. Also I didn't know butterflies made diamonds, or how the amoeba worked.

After a few years, and some lessons from my Grandma who is the best at boulderdash in the family, I learnt how to do most of the caves in the official boulderdash games, apart from BD3 Cave K, and Cave N. I still have trouble with those even now. Then, there was a few years where I didn't play Boulderdash at all.

A few years later, on our PC, my uncle showed us a C64 emulator, and I was able to play boulder dash games again. One time I tried searching for Boulderdash games online, and found a site owned by Marek Roth. I was shocked to see how many fan-made games there were. I had no idea how many people enjoyed the game as I do.

A couple of years ago, I found this website and downloaded all of Arno's boulderdash games. I was surprised to see they looked like actual games, not just seperate caves on a disc. I thought that this must've been incredibly advanced stuff to do, and was really impressed.

At the present, I have quite a few caves created over the last few years which I will sort through, re-do, and make some games out of them using the Deluxe Packer. I also eventually joined the forum, so I could talk about the game with other fans like myself.

So this is my story so far. Once i've finished my games, i'd like to share them so other people can try them, and I hope to get to know other people who visit here also.

Thanks for reading.

[Arno]

Thanks for your story, Mr Escape! Keep on posting, and hope to play your games soon!

[paul_nicholls]

Hey all,
I am 38 years old, and love programming, reading, and playing games.

I received my first computer, a C64, somewhere between my 11th and 12th birthday (around 1983 I guess).

My parents didn't realise what they had done...from then I was hooked on computers (and electronics)! The C64 had a data-cassette (tape drive), no 1541 disk drive yet, but I loved it.

I think the next year I then got a 1541 disk drive, and that was most awesome

The first game I can remember on the C64 was a TAPE game with hornets (insects) in it, and you were underground, shooting up at the hornets through the ground - but I just can't recall the name of the game, I wish I could

I don't know when I first got Boulderdash, but it was on the C64 I first played it, and it was great! I wasn't very good though LOL

Eventually I sold the C64 and got a C128-D. The next computer after that was was an Olivetti 286 PC. Then it was a 486DX-66MHz (I think)...

Anyway I now have a Laptop I use at home since the previous desktop computer died in the butt.

That is my computer story so far

cheers,
Paul

[V-12/Tropyx]

Everything started in 1993 when I got my C64 and few months later tape with Boulder Dash. When I firsly saw this game, I felt in love! It was 19 years ago and BD is still my favourite game all the time!

[Dr Guru]

Hi everybody,

despite having read in this forum for one and a half years now, this is my first post.

I used to play Boulder Dash with my father on our C64 in the mid-80s. Both he and I loved the clever physics of the game. Of course I also built some (lost) caves with the PLCK back then. I found the idea of a computer game level editor amazing, but I was very annoyed by the many bugs of PLCK and the fact, that you couldn't build stand-alone games. Between 1995 and 2010 I completely stopped playing computer games. Then my brother installed VICE on my machine and I discovered CLCK. What a great tool!

My main interests are the puzzle aspects of BD. I am not into crazy action caves. I don't use random seeds and I use the amoeba only sparesly, since it is difficult to use in puzzle caves (because of its random growth). I like the puzzle caves in Sendy's games.

I started building Brain Delicacy in February 2011 and finished it in May 2012. I tried my best to put original ideas in every single cave to keep the player interested. Of course I was overwhelmed with joy by the decision of the jury of C64 Power Game Mod Compo to give me the silver medal!

Dr Guru

[korakgomanji]

Must be back in the 80's 90's when my neighbours had the MSX gamecomputer and one of the games was Boulderdash and we were all amazed by it and couldn't stop playing.
My neighbour was into rockclimbing and since i climbed trees, build treehouses and played Boulderdash at their home, he took me rockclimbing, showed me real caves that we visited carrying nothing but a flashlight and some ropes.
Then puberty came and all went our seperate ways, people got married, got jobs etc.. etc.. and no one played Boulderdash anymore. Somehow something went wrong and i didn't possess the car, the job and a stunning girlfriend, instead i kept on climbing rocks, trees and even buildings in the meantime still playing Boulderdash..

That's the story sofar..