Rocks'n'Diamonds

Loading tapes with F2 has always been a problem for me to the point where I never actually use it, preferring instead to fast-forward through several minutes of tape at each retry, since that actually works consistently. Allowing partial tapes to play through to completion and recording from where t...

Last year, I rebuilt my machine using modern parts, which obviously included a 64-bit processor and OS, after I had been on a 32-bit system for the previous 9 years. Soon after that, I recompiled my custom RnD installation for the new architecture, and tried to play back some of my existing collecti...

The timer in the SP engine counts way too fast--once every 20 frames, which disagrees with the tape time if nothing else. Furthermore, it gets screwy at the end of a level--using the level 93 tape I linked earlier in the topic, many years ago (0:37.08 by the tape display), the timer counts up at an ...

The long downtime significantly dampens the unveiling, but presenting... Snake Bite (Entire Set) in 56:30.08 In the time since this video was compiled, my tape files directory has seen a few improvements, in level 12 (-0.04), 19 (-2.36), and 29 (-1.00), so the current chart looks like this: LEVEL |M...

Zelda 2 might be worth a try once I finish out the SB books. I remember trying Zelda 1 and got to the water section before the large number of enemies and cramped spaces made it just too crowded to run through without fighting the whole population in every room, and that just looks slow. So on the w...

I claim that 93 was completable on the old engine, even if not in a way you'd want to play. From my TAS tapes folder... This tape completes on the RnD engine: http://soniccenter.org/sm/rnd/supaplex32_093_38.tape And this one completes on the SP engine: http://soniccenter.org/sm/rnd/supaplex_093_37.t...

Construction-wise it would be easier, but I don't see why a mushroom-snapping tape would desync in playback in 3.2. Pressing into a red mushroom causes it to change into a new object which looks the same, but now has all the fancy control features (and notably the new object is snappable). Snap keys...

It's certainly been much smoother sailing since 3.3.0.1 came out. It turns out Spike isn't the only element you can use to get god mode (the disembodied 1-square snake). I just found a much simpler way that only needs a chemical vat, plus room to move on the top or left side. In fact, god mode is us...

A couple new SB level tapes: Level 20 "hunted!" in 2:00 -This is of course meant as quite a rigid level, hampered further by the expectation that the player will turn around at times and wait on Yorick to make it think "Hey, this is a dead end" and buy more time. Of course, it no...

I first tried it and found that it didn't work (the attempted snaps ended up being full steps), but I mapped the keys to KP4/6/8/2, which I would later discover to conflict with player 2's controls. After moving those controls off of the keyboard, they work just fine. I also made a first attempt at ...

Null snaps for single-frame advance have been in since well before the current release--it's just that before, if you were pressing in a direction you couldn't move, it would remain unpaused and keep playing until the first chance you could move in that direction, and you could cancel the wait and r...

I have a bunch more levels done from Snake Bite. My video card broke since last time, so that I can't record the screen (especially not when it's displaying an SDL game) without an unacceptable amount of lag, but I do have tape files. They should all synchronize on at least 3.2 and 3.3 releases. Lev...

I'm sure you're familiar with levels that put you in a tight spot and force you to "Snap right...but don't dare move right or you die!" Have you ever accidentally reached for snap+right in those situations only to hit right a bit too early? If we had a dedicated key that registered a snap ...

More recently on this front, I've taken to putting up actual videos. Niko Böhm's full tutorial, pretty much exactly as outlined in the top post Some Emerald Mine levels: Level 11 Level 72 Level 99 (without a second player!) I've recorded some other EM levels too (06, 20, 28, 48, 60, 64, 68, 70, 90, ...

The current collections have been updated with some improvements: NB4: down a few frames, still 0:23 (it turns out the BD gem can be obtained with no time loss over the inevitable waiting for dynamite) NB10: down 5 to 0:17 (much better route selection, with one less dynamite to wait for) NB30: down ...