Thoughts on the EMC levels

[RAP]

I recently played more of the levels of the EMC levelsets, with The Adventures of Mr. B Part 1. What happened to Ace Mine 2? I'll tell you in a bit.

While some of the levels seem interesting, using only the objects available back then before the more advanced elements like the Android, and Magic Ball. Some of the levels may be below decent than what I thought. Although I can probably forgive some of that due to the limitations of creating those levels, some people actually dislike "95" percent of the levels due to repetitiveness and/or complicated.
http://www.boulder-dash.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?t=204
And that's where Ace Mine 2 comes in, there's a level that is "almost" impossible to solve. I might be a bit lazy, but seeing the layout of level 9. It's flipping impractical. 4 sticks of dynamites are supposed to be used to free the rest of the diamonds, not kill the enemies down there. And since the level is made of long lines of walking, it's difficult to avoid the bugs and spaceships when trying to go to the other side.

Anyway, I marked that Ace Mine 1 is solvable... in single-player mode. There are a few levels that REALLY stumped me, but otherwise it was kinda good -- uttering not very exciting tho. There are some other levelsets that are considered solvable, but some of the tapes might be lost, so I have to do them again.

Any thoughts or opinions on the Emerald Mine Club levelsets?

[RTADash]

some people actually dislike "95" percent of the levels due to repetitiveness and/or complicated.

That figure might be a bit high (I didn't, by any means, go through every levelset ), but I still stand by that general opinion.

[Sigma]

Although I can probably forgive some of that due to the limitations of creating those levels, some people actually dislike "95" percent of the levels due to repetitiveness and/or complicated.
...
Any thoughts or opinions on the Emerald Mine Club levelsets?

My main gripe with the EMC levelsets is they take too long to load (but I also have many ADF versions for WinUAE). I also wish there were a version to download without the "offensive" content. As far as I know, only the P---- Mines 1 & 2 are questionable, but I also sometimes worry my younger brother will find something I missed.

Some of the levelsets are very well-designed. But as you mentioned, many are repetitive and there are quite a few that are even advertised as being "recycled" or compilations of other sets.
I like the original Emerald Mine levelsets. My definite favourite is Emerald Mine IV - the only version I had when we received our Amiga.

[Holger]

RAP wrote:
> some people actually dislike "95" percent of the levels due to
> repetitiveness and/or complicated.
> http://www.boulder-dash.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?t=204

Yes, I know what you mean. I also like only a few level sets of that huge collection. Its main purpose is to be there for historical reference, to be playable like the original EMC disks and to let people re-discover those EMC disks they once played on the Amiga. But it was never intended to play them all, of course. ;-)

> My main gripe with the EMC levelsets is they take too long to load

Yes. I have to improve this by caching the large directory structure on startup. Currently, although the game does _not_ load the whole content of the collection (including levels and artwork) into memory, it _does_ read the whole directory tree including config files into memory, which currently takes too long.

Sigma wrote:
> I also wish there were a version to download without the "offensive"
> content.

You might also want to check the (title screens of the) Per One Mines...

> Some of the levelsets are very well-designed. But as you mentioned, many
> are repetitive and there are quite a few that are even advertised as being
> "recycled" or compilations of other sets.

Yes, right. I would indeed prefer an additional "best of EMC" compilation (with maybe something around 20 EMC sets) which only contains the few good and playable level sets.

[RAP]

Heh. The collection needs some cleanup, or further scanning. I was actually about to try playing every stinking level in the level collection a couple of years ago but the duplicate levels turned me off from playing further! I have the tapes of proof that shows I solved the levels correctly without the tape feature -- because, that's cheating, and that it was glitchy when I tried using it.

A "best of EMC" compilation would be very good, it will show which levels are best in terms of design, fun, and playability.

I'm playing more levels right at this moment...

[jacksmith]

I think "best of EMC" compilation is better choice for seekers.

[dave]

Its main purpose is to be there for historical reference, to be playable like the original EMC disks and to let people re-discover those EMC disks they once played on the Amiga. But it was never intended to play them all, of course. ;-)

I just want it to play as many existing EMC levels as possible! :-)
(and only added fake acid to be able to play certain levels that were unplayable before)

who is going to do this? you added fake acid to fix 1 level, and broke 6 others.