Rocksndiamonds for mobile

Herman · Post by **Herman** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 1:19 pm

Does anyone know if there is a freeware rocksndiamonds game available for mobile phones?

It would be good to have one. Loads of people will have there mobile with them and time to spend.

Cheers,
Herman

Flumminator · Post by **Flumminator** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 5:31 pm

Which kind of mobiles had you in mind?

I was thinking about porting it to Symbian Series 60 phones, but - as usual - i don't have enough time...

Making a Java-Version would need very large parts of the game to be rewritten...

Someone here started a palm-port iirc, this could be used as a base for other stripped-down version. (have a look into the "Programmers" forum)

That's all I can say.

Herman · Post by **Herman** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 8:59 pm

Not that big a screen. I don't know a lot about programming, so I'll be no great help there.

But I think it will be a great game to have on a mobile phone.

I'll ask around. Maybe I can find someone interested in doing it.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 11:35 pm

They cannot support big games. Most games have a low quality on mobile phones. So, would't r&d be reduced to a regular BD game? Can a phone do what a computer can do? Not yet...

Post by **Holger** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 11:45 pm

Very interesting topic (as I'm always happy to see R'n'D on different platforms). And now that I'm working for a mobile phone services company since the beginning of this year (which is also the reason of nearly having no free time at the moment), this would be a nice task for me (although I'm afraid that my company is not very interested in developing freeware games ;-) ).

But yes, the Palm port (which works surprisingly well even on my old Palm Vx) would probably be the best start to port R'n'D to a mobile phone OS. Especially the screen size should be no limitating factor, as the game itself can be played even with less visible elements in the playfield (smaller view window). The size of the game elements could probably be halved to get more of them on the visible playfield.

Unfortunately, I have no experience at all with programming mobile phones (and my new job won't help me much here, as I'm in the server/backend team)... :-/

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 4:16 am

While a regular cell phone may not be practical, a Smartphone or Pocket PC port of Rocks'n'Diamonds may actually work.

Post by **Holger** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 1:53 pm

That's right, as SDL also (inofficially) supports Windows CE.

(Also see the other thread about this topic.)

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 4:23 pm

Probably I can make R&D clone for mobiles, but how I can cell it? Should I license it or something? This kind of games is very popular now. May you tell me about licensing boulder dash and similar games, are they copyrighted?

I'm going to remake

1) boulder-dash
3) rock and diamonds
4) supaplex

Are they names registered as trademarks?

NightmareZ · Post by **NightmareZ** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 4:36 pm

To me to spit on your laws. A principle of patenting of ideas - nonsense.

In the nearest we shall engage in development of several similar games and we shall distribute them free-of-charge.

Just for fun.

P.S. The information should be free.

Flumminator · Post by **Flumminator** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 8:49 pm

Anonymous wrote:Probably I can make R&D clone for mobiles, but how I can cell it? Should I license it or something? This kind of games is very popular now. May you tell me about licensing boulder dash and similar games, are they copyrighted?

Afaik you cannot patent an idea behind a game. I.e. if you re-program it completely from scratch you cannot be sued for "stealing the concept". Any lawyer please correct me if i'm wrong.

The Name "Boulder Dash" should be registered I suppose.

_and_ even if R'n'D is free Software, there are licensing issues: if you use any code or graphics from Rocksndiamonds for your game, you have to apply the GPL to it, which states (for short) that you have to make the source available to anyone who buys the binary.

Post by **Holger** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 10:13 am

> Probably I can make R&D clone for mobiles, but how I can cell it? Should I
> license it or something? This kind of games is very popular now. May you
> tell me about licensing boulder dash and similar games, are they
> copyrighted?

If you make a 100% clone of a commercial game, you would have to license it from the original copyright holder. For example, the company holding the rights of the game "Boulder Dash" would have to sell you a license for such a direct clone (and if you also want to use the name etc. exactly like in the original game).

If you write your own game from scratch (just like R'n'D), this wouldn't be needed, as a game idea or basic game concept cannot be patented.

> Are they names registered as trademarks?

1) "Boulder Dash": This name is definitely not only copyrighted, but also registered as a trademark (not by me, of course, but by First Star Software, the publisher of the original Boulder Dash game).

2) "Rocks'n'Diamonds": This name is copyrighted by me (simply by creating and using it for ten years) so it wouldn't be possible to use it without my permission as the name of a new game when respecting copyrights. But if you want to port it to a new platform (like a mobile phone), we would surely find a way to release it under that name.

3) "Supaplex": Although I don't know about the state of the original company, the name is most probably also still copyrighted.

In all three cases, you cannot release your game under one of those three names, but of course you can use the name to describe your game, like "this is a Boulder Dash / Rocks'n'Diamonds / Supaplex clone".

Rocks'n'Diamonds

Rocksndiamonds for mobile

Rocksndiamonds for mobile

I currently own a Siemens M55

To me to spit on yours copyrights.