Boulder Remake

YouTube · Post by **Arno** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 7:27 pm

My personal favourite remake from BD is Marcin Liwak's Boulder Remake.

A special feature of this remake is that the movement of the characters is smooth (unlike the C64 and Atari versions). Still, the game is very accurate w.r.t. the physical rules.

There is also a nice editor, and a converter to make BR games out of C64 Boulder Dash games (via the memory snapshot). Thanks to this feature many C64 BD games can be played within Boulder Remake!

The latest version can be downloaded from Odo's Fansite.

Some in-game screenshots:

BTW - Boulder Remake can also be played with the original C64 graphics and fonts! Several fans have created (and coloured) an Original Graphics set; my own version can be downloaded here.

Note that I included a "NoFlash" version, as for some people the rainbow-effect in the diamonds cause pain in the eyes!

Below are some screenshots of these graphics:

Any opinions about this remake?

RTADash · Post by **RTADash** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 2:15 am

@Arno, I'm going to send you an email with the Boulder Remake versions of RTAD1-5.

This is my favorite remake, also!

It's great how the smooth movement doesn't interfere with the accuracy of the game engine.

There are two tiles (or elements, whatever) that still need to be added, however

:
1. The hidden exit
2. The destructible titanium wall

There are also a few bugs in the original engine that aren't replicated quite right:
1. The Magic-wall-converting-amoeba trick doesn't seem to work all the time even when all conditions are met. (The option being unchecked, the two time values being the same, and the amoeba being below the M-Wall)
2. The multiple Rockfords are now perfectly synchronized. This wasn't the case in the original engine and at least one cave (RTAD5 int4) requires this bug to merge the 3 partial lines of rockfords into 2 complete lines.

Despite these things, this remake is still the most impressive of them, in my opinion.

[EDIT] I just came across two more [minor] things:
1. The "cave delay" setting is missing. This is especially important for being able to finish some intermissions in time.
2. The magic wall graphic doesn't quite return to a normal wall when it's done working.

[EDIT2] 2 more things, one is quite important
1. (As of version 2.0) The timing of the inbox is a split second too fast which probably makes many caves unsolvable. BD2 cave E/1 is "broken" if you convert BD2 fresh from a memory dump. The cave does work, though, in the crap BD2 version supplied with the game, where there are many mistakes.
2. Time is not supposed to pass while you warp to the other side of the screen.

odo · Post by **odo** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 1:54 pm

HI Arno
i`m updating the site .You gfx will be in the retro pack I don`t want First star problems

BTW i converted 158 new games.
Cheers
Odo

odo · Post by **odo** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 6:10 pm

Site is updated

Hope every thing is ok
Cheers
Odo

YouTube · Post by **Arno** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 6:39 pm

Nice work!

odo · Post by **odo** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 10:05 pm

Thanks

I`ll fix the problems tomorrow

RTADash · Post by **RTADash** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 11:18 pm

Just beware that some of the intermissions in those are unsolvable, or luck-reliant in the .brc format. That is, until Marcin or someone else implements the cave delay feature into BR.

odo wrote:I`ll fix the problems tomorrow

The engine problems? If so, that's great!

I heard that Marcin wasn't willing to fix his own mistakes.

Also, the rockford doll shouldn't kill you if it's caught in an explosion, but only if an enemy touches it. This is especially important in AD11-int3, where you have to blow one up.

odo · Post by **odo** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 12:58 pm

Hi RTA
I mean i made some errors with the site update

RTADash · Post by **RTADash** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 7:58 pm

Alright

.
Marcin really needs to give someone else the 2.1 source code, to take care of these things!

RTADash · Post by **RTADash** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 12:52 am

I'm working on a Spanish translation for the game. My grammar isn't overly great, but this is mostly just words and phrases and, therefore, is relatively easy.

spekacek · Post by **spekacek** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 10:33 pm

this is really really cool remake! i had a lot of fun playing bd1 levels!

odo · Post by **odo** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 8:38 pm

Hi all
If some one made a few levels just email me at odosynths@yahoo.com.
The site also needs to be updated.
Cheers
Odo/Marc

Dustin · Post by **Dustin** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 2:41 am

Hi,
what would interest me is how exactly to convert C64 games into .brc format?
And, sth else: Why aren't the bremake versions of BD1(&2) exactly the same as in original= For example, many amoeba times are changed, and in some cases even elements were added or removed. (at the version I've downloaded from Odo's site)

Volutar · Post by **Volutar** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 2:21 pm

I've noticed some 'buggy' diamonds behaviour in cave processing algorithm (concerning falling state).
When picking diamonds on right side, they are picked each 3rd frame (as in original classic BD). But when picking them on left side - speed is one diamond per 2 frames - WHAT'S NOT RIGHT.

By the way this issue can easely be the reason of Rockford death, when he's turning from right to left (two rows of diamonds, Rockford starts from down-left, going right, and immidiatly left). Turning from left to right is safe, though.

I've noticed this issue because I'm making my own "smooth" remake and faced to the same effect, so I decided to check other remakes too.

subotai · Post by **subotai** » Sat Jul 04, 2009 9:04 am

Volutar wrote: When picking diamonds on right side, they are picked each 3rd frame (as in original classic BD). But when picking them on left side - speed is one diamond per 2 frames - WHAT'S NOT RIGHT.

I don't understand, how you calculate the frames. But in my opinion, it works as it should.

In Boulder Remake, the movements of Rockford take place during the scan routines (which is the best solution in my opinion). Falling diamonds cannot be collected.

In P.B.'s documentation you can read the following:

Rockford is able to collect diamonds while they are falling. In particular, it is useful to hold down the fire button and collect diamonds as they fall past.

I think this doesn't work in the original games.

When a diamond falls to the left side of Rockford, the diamond will change its state in the next scan from falling to stationary before the movement of Rockford is performed. Rockford can therefore collect the diamond during the same scan routine.

When a diamond falls to the right side of Rockford, the diamond will change its state in the next scan from falling to stationary after the movement of Rockford is performed. So Rockford can't move to the right during the same scan, because the state of the diamond is still falling. Rockford has to the wait till the next scan routine.

That's the reason, why Rockford will be hit by the falling diamond in your example.