New Sga Project

[subotai]

Hello everybody

After a long time of development, I decided to release my remake. First, I created this game to play the hidden caves of the game Rockford for PC, but I adapted the game more and more to the C64-engines. It intends to have a high compatibility to C64 fangames and has full support for the game Rockford for PC.

Version:
1.4 (Alpha)

Installation:
No installation is needed. Just unzip the packages and run the game.

Libraries:
- SDL.dll for graphics and bass.dll for sound effects (included)
- The latest version uses OpenGL.

New Features:
- Variable game speed
- zoom in/zoom out
- warp mode
- full gamepad support
- custom settings for levelsets
- many improvements

Features:
- Support for bd1,bd2 and plck engine games.
- Support for Rockford for Pc (graphics and cave-maps)
- Resolution: 640x480, 800x600, 1024*768 & 640*480 in fullscreen
- Configurable keyboard and joystick/gamepad support
- Record and playback of demos (replays)
- Saving of high-score files
- Import of C64 memory dumps (editor)

A CHM Help File with a detailed description is included.

Supported elements:
All bd1, bd2, plck elements, all Rockford for PC elements, acid and growing walls.

I will not distribute the game together with commercial copyrighted games. That's why the game Rockford for PC is not included.

Screenshot:


Download:
You can download the game & the editor from my homepage:
http://home.arcor.de/rushifell/rdgames.htm

I included some fanmade games. I hope that you don't mind. If anybody don't want me to distribute his/her game, please contact me and I will remove it immediately.
My website is in German (sorry for that) but the game and editor are in Englisch language.

I hope you like it. Enjoy playing

subotai

[CWS]

That's great! The engine looks very promising - and I can play the hidden Rockford levels! Veeery nice!

[subotai]

Thanks for the compliment CWS
Feels good to read this. I spent a lot of time to create this remake.

I just uploaded a new version of RD Cave Engine with a minor bugfix:
Changing the sound volume in the Options worked only after restarting the game. Now the changement takes place immediately.

Now, you can also download the RD Cave Tilemanager, if you want to use your own graphics.

What I forgot to mention:
- C64 memory dumps can be opened with the Editor (select "all files")
- Diagonal walking is not supported, but is detected in the memory dump.
- The magicwall breakscan is optional. To use the simplified version, just uncheck "Magic wall breakscan" in the Editor (Settings - Generic).

In following versions, i will note the release date and version history.

Good night

[CWS]

I really hope that development will go on - this remake seems to be very good! Only the resolution could be higher as the tiles are very small...

[subotai]

Only the resolution could be higher as the tiles are very small

Do you mean the tile resolution (16*16 pixels) or the window resolution?

The window resolution should be:
320*240 pixels = small window
640*480 pixels = large window (double sized small window)
320*240 pixels = fullscreen

Default setting is large window.
The resolution of the large window should be 640*480, is this the case?
I could only test the game on Win2k, Vista and 7, not XP.

If a 640*480 window is too small, I could triple size the window to 960*720 pixels.

The resolution for the tiles 16*16 pixels is standard for bd. Of course, I could change this. But I can't say if it's a big deal or not.
For the moment, you can also play fullscreen. That is MY prefered mode.

[CWS]

I think you should not restrict the resolution. It's nice to have low resolutions for retrogaming - I like that as I play it that way on my arcade cabinet. But for modern systems it would be nice to have higher resolutions for window and fullscreen mode. So low res and high res should be supported.

It should also be possible to use different tile-sizes. In GDash it's possible to use any size you want - it should only be a square (e.g. 32x32, 64x64 or else).

[paul_nicholls]

Looking good subotai, great work!

I will have a go tonight

cheers,
Paul

[subotai]

Thank you, Paul

I think you should not restrict the resolution

Do you really need that? I must admit that I never take advantage of this option. I play a lot of different games and I always use the same resolution (640*480 is always good to me). Same with the tilesize. Did you ever see a tileset with a higher resolution for gdash? I didn't. Implementing something like this needs time, and I always consider if it's usefull and worth the time.

Tell me, which tile size and which resolution is good for you. I'm willing to adjust my remake to the needs of the people that play it, not to everybody. I hope that you understand, what I mean.

I also think that a higher resolution would be nice. But I think a tile resolution of 32*32 pixels (as in Boulder remake) is enough to create nicer graphics. That leads to a window and fullscreen resolution of 640*480 pixels? What do you think?

I would like to keep it simple and don't want to make things too complicated.

[subotai]

New Update: Version 1.0 Build 664

- I changed the tile resolution from 16*16 pixels to 32*32 pixels, so you can create nicer graphics. Now, you can use both: tiles with a size of 16*16 pixels and tiles with a size of 32*32 pixels.

- I changed the window resolution. Now, the following resolutions are available:

Small window = 640 * 480 pixels
Large window = 800 * 600 pixels
Fullscreen = 640 * 480 pixels

I still have to adjust the "tilemanger".
On my PC, the performance in window mode 800 * 600 pixels is not always very good. Maybe I can improve this. I recommend using 640*480 windowed mode or fullscreen.

subotai

[paul_nicholls]

@subotai: What programming language did you use to make the game?

I am making a Boulder Dash inspired game using Delphi (Pascal)

cheers,
Paul

[subotai]

What programming language did you use to make the game?

I also use Delphi

[paul_nicholls]

What programming language did you use to make the game?

I also use Delphi

Nice! Welcome to the small club! haha

cheers,
Paul

[subotai]

New update:
Version 1.0 Alpha Build 667

What's new:
Selectable window resolutions:
640*480 pixels (default)
800*600 pixels
1024*768 pixels
Fullscreen:
640*480 pixels

No more framedrops, so the performance should be better in higher resolutions.

TODO: When collecting the last diamond, the game slows down a bit. I will try to fix that.


Note: As the graphics are scaled in higher resolutions, they may differ a little bit from the original tilemap. This version is for experimental purpose. Maybe I will remove the different window resolutions, not sure about that. I don't know if anybody needs a resolution of 1024*768 pixels.

@paul_nicholls
As you already know, Boulder Remake was also written in Delphi with DelphiX

subotai

[paul_nicholls]

Good old DelphiX

Keep up the excellent work subotai!

OT: @subotai - I guess you know of this Pascal programming site?
www.pascalgamedevelopment.com

Perhaps you might find it useful one day

cheers,
Paul

[subotai]

Thanks Paul for your kind words
And thanks for the link to that homepage, looks very interesting.

I must admit that in my opinion playing the original is always the best. But I find it interesting and challenging to make it possible to reach good compatibility to the original games in a remake and to play the games in a different way. I don't know if I spended more time for coding or more time for analyzing the original games. I don't expect to reach highest compatibility in a remake. For that, you should code an emulator (Sorry, I'm a dreamer but also a realist)

As I grew up in the 80's, I'm also a bit retro.

I don't know if I ever restarted to code a remake today. Because it takes hours, days, months...years. But I don't regret the "wasted" time . I did this for the first game that I ever played on a computer, "Rockford" for PC. I know that I'm really nuts

I'm working on the next update and I hope to play your game soon, Paul.

Good night

Richard