Rocks'n'Diamonds

Hello Holger

The Spaceships, Yam Yams and Bugs don't go into the Acid Bath like everything else.

Various Levels cannot be continued because they just stop and keep turning when maybe they should be eaten up by the Acid like everything else

Just wondering

Hello lonesomekiwi,

> The Spaceships, Yam Yams and Bugs don't go into the Acid Bath like everything else.

Are you speaking of the "Emerald Mine Club" levels?

Yes, you are right -- the main reason for this is that the levels need to be re-converted, to use the latest game engine (which fixed these issues). Using "latest_engine: true" does not work here, because this property is stored in the level file and is not a pure engine version thing which is only controlled by the level version number. (This is true for any property that can be configured in the level editor).

So the solution to that problem is re-converting all EMC style levels, which I will do soon. (In fact, they won't be re-converted anymore, but will then be read in their original file format. This way, any bugfixes and changes will directly work without any level re-conversion.)

At latest, the upcoming new 99% compatible Emerald Mine engine will fix these problems you described. You can expect the new EM engine in the next major release version 3.2.0! :-)

hello Holger

That explanation sounds great to me and I will happily wait for the next version


Regards

Great! I'll hope for the 3.2.0 release!
Keep up the good work!
and lonesomekiwi, You've wrote the 1200th post!

Holger wrote:Using "latest_engine: true" does not work here,

huh? I never came across that! Where can I find that? In the options screen?

Why don't you use the original level files? Then you never have to convert them. Or does the level loader not support that file format?

Wow! In version 3.2.0 already!

> > Using "latest_engine: true" does not work here,
> huh? I never came across that! Where can I find that? In the options screen?

No, it's a token in the "levelinfo.conf" file. Look into "levels/Classic_Games/levelinfo.conf" for an example. When set to "true", it causes all affected levels to always be played with the latest game engine version (with all bugfixes etc.), but note the following: Some settings are stored in the level itself (like "move into acid" or "deadly when colliding" etc.), so they are not affected by the engine version if the levels are converted to R'n'D format. When using the original level format, it would be set to the latest defaults, though.

> Why don't you use the original level files? Then you never have to convert them. Or does the
> level loader not support that file format?

The level loader supports the native format of Emerald Mine and Supaplex levels, so using the original levels would solve this problem, yes. For all levels that were never part of any original game, I will change the converted levels to the native level format (like the Emerald Mine Club levels and the additional Supaplex levels). For the "classic originals", I may stay with the converted levels instead of using the native, original levels.

> Wow! In version 3.2.0 already!

Yep. But maybe I'll release a bugfix version 3.1.1 before that version...

Holger wrote:When set to "true", it causes all affected levels to always be played with the latest game engine version (with all bugfixes etc.), but note the following:

Is it standard set on 'true'?

And about the original emerald mine files: RnD does not support .adf files.

Holger wrote: Yep. But maybe I'll release a bugfix version 3.1.1 before that version...

And with the two new zonk sounds? And will the supaplex package be updated on the site then?

> Is it standard set on 'true'?

No -- this would make most existing levels unsolvable.

It's only really useful for levels that were designed to be played with one of the main "classic" engines.

> And about the original emerald mine files: RnD does not support .adf files.

".adf" is not an Emerald Mine level file format, but just an archive format that contains an Amiga floppy disk image (ADF = Amiga Diskette File). So all you have to do is just unpack that archive file and use the EM levels, which are in a directory "pla" or "PLA" in most cases. (".adf" files are something like ".zip" files, but no level files.)

> > Yep. But maybe I'll release a bugfix version 3.1.1 before that version...
> And with the two new zonk sounds? And will the supaplex package be updated on the site
> then?

If I should release a version 3.1.1, it will only contain bugfixes. The Supaplex package is not affected by the release of this version.

and the zonk sounds will also be released in 3.1.1?

And this:
do you know a program to unpack adf files?

> and the zonk sounds will also be released in 3.1.1?

I don't know.

> do you know a program to unpack adf files?

You can use "unadf" -- see http://perso.club-internet.fr/lclevy/adflib/unadf.html

Martijn wrote:do you know a program to unpack adf files?

The easiest way to to that, depending on what you want them for, would be: a) having an Amiga (for putting them back to disks) or b) running UAE (for using them on pc).
For some further info you might want to take a look at this thread or peek into that FAQ (Q 5&6).

I found ADF View and it works fine.

But the original files also contain the emerald mine song, but RnD does not support that very well.

And some levelsets can't be read, like Amiga boulderdash:
http://amiga.emucamp.com/emerald/a/abdash11909.html

> But the original files also contain the emerald mine song, but RnD does not support that very
> well.

What do you mean by "not very well"? ;-)

> And some levelsets can't be read, like Amiga boulderdash:

Of course they can't -- this is not an Emerald Mine level pack, but a completely different program, with a completely different level format.

no, mistake... The game music was still set on emerald mine (experiment of mine)

Not sure what you mean here...