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Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 7:15 pm
by Dustin
OK, but that was not used at all in the games!!
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 7:29 pm
by Arno
RTADash wrote:Dustin wrote:I can't find anything missing.
Explodable Steelwall?
Yep, that's the missing one (BD1 engine element)!
Now you two may togetter ask the next question!
Or even better, as Dustin found 95% of the answer, he may ask the next question, and RTADash may ask a bonus question related to the same topic...
Just note, if I go further in the classic series, I found out that:
- BD4 introduces destructable titanwall as both random fill and object command;
- BD8 introduces butterflies as random fill;
- BD9 introduces titanwall as random fill. (Unless there are games released earlier which I'm not aware of...)
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 8:56 pm
by Dustin
Hey Rory!
I've got anice question in my mind, I'll PM it to you. If you like it, it'll be our question, won't it?

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 9:16 pm
by RTADash
Sounds good!

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 6:58 pm
by Dustin
OK, so here's RTA Dash's and my question:
Consider BD2, cave K/1. Assume you've never heard anything about BDCFF or similar info sources. You only have the game BD2. Give us a possibility to find out how long the magic wall time of cave K is.
Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 7:15 pm
by LogicDeLuxe
Dustin wrote:Consider BD2, cave K/1. Assume you've never heard anything about BDCFF or similar info sources. You only have the game BD2. Give us a possibility to find out how long the magic wall time of cave K is.
That's easy. Touch a firefly at an appropriate place and exlode in a way that a diamond drops into the magic wall. Then count the seconds.
Here is the prove:
http://www.file-upload.net/download-118 ... e.zip.html (VICE 2.0 recording)
Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 8:29 pm
by RTADash
Exactly! (Nothing wrong with an easy question.)
Your turn.
Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 12:08 pm
by LogicDeLuxe
Why is the gap between the status bar and the cave bigger than normal? Neither the game nor the screenshot is altered in any way. It's exactly the way Dr. Watson released it back then.

gap
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 1:13 pm
by cirix
LogicDeLuxe wrote:Why is the gap between the status bar and the cave bigger than normal?
I don't know, but your fixed version does not have it

bye
Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 1:07 pm
by Arno
All I know about BD4 is that Dr. Watson took the BD1 game and modified the cave data - probably in a trial-and-error fashion at first, as there was very little knowledge about the engine at that time.
Perhaps, in this process, he accidently changed a parameter which controls the height of the screen. At least, as Logic fixed it, it is probably not a consequence of a change in the caves.
Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 2:02 pm
by LogicDeLuxe
Arno wrote:Perhaps, in this process, he accidently changed a parameter which controls the height of the screen. At least, as Logic fixed it, it is probably not a consequence of a change in the caves.
No. He didn't change a thing other than the caves in that engine, which is easy to prove: do a soft reset and type sys36457, and surprise: back to normal!
Hint: take a closer look at the intro!
Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 5:41 pm
by Dustin
All I note is that at the top and the right, there's missing a part of the cave.
Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 5:45 pm
by Arno
Then it must be the 'DR' at the top of the intro screen. Apparently the lines used for this overlap the scrolling part of the screen, like a black bar. Still, the non-scrolling parts (status bar and title screen) seem to display correctly.
Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 6:11 pm
by cirix
you mean, something coded for the intro which is unintentionally left there for the game? that is, some vic-ii mode that boulder dash does not reset back to its default? maybe.
Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 11:18 pm
by LogicDeLuxe
cirix wrote:you mean, something coded for the intro which is unintentionally left there for the game? that is, some vic-ii mode that boulder dash does not reset back to its default? maybe.
It is indeed a vic-ii register which BD does not touch, but instead expects it to be at power on defaults. But which one is it exactly?
Btw. there is nothing missing at the right side. It is the 38-column-mode usually used when horizontal scrolling is desired. Thus 19 visible elements in a row.