The 1st version of R'n'D

[Holger]

How about spoiling the differences?

You can now look for yourself -- see below!

I am sure about the old music(they were not even MODs!) and the death laugh.

That's right -- the first version of R'n'D uses XPM (X11/Pixmap) files for the graphics and 8SVX (Amiga/IFF) files for sounds and music loops.

There definitely were not any custom/group elements.

Definitely true! These came years later, with R'n'D version 3.

The level editor emerald mine key graphics were different.

Yes.

It was not available for Windows.

Right.

Just for the fun of it, I've fixed the code of the very first version 0.9 to compile on modern systems (current gcc and 64-bit systems), and checked it into the repository as a separate branch "0.9-compilable". Do the following to build it:

Code: Select all

$ git clone http://git.artsoft.org/rocksndiamonds.git
$ cd rocksndiamonds
$ git checkout 0.9-compilable
$ cd src
$ make

There should be no compiler errors or warnings. (You probably have to install some additional development packages, like Xpm stuff etc., from your package manager.)

Just copy the resulting binary "rocksndiamonds" over the old, non-functional binary of the package "rocks_n_diamonds-0.9.tgz" from "http://www.artsoft.org/RELEASES/unix/rocksndiamonds/" and enjoy!

There will most probably be no sound, if your system has no "/dev/audio" or "/dev/dsp" device. To play those old sounds and music loops, install the "sox" package and play them with "play sounds/xyz.8svx".

[MateFizyChem]

After I successfully installed 4.0.0.2 (and became unable to experience fullscreen without breaking the system until restart, but it probably is a buggy sdl (re)setup) I installed 0.9(hopefully without any more damage to the computer). I am suprised by the changes.
Many of the textures were flipped(Why?) and instead of a more pixelated Rockford(I saw the pixelated Rockford in a screenshot of R'n'D 1.3.0 from Google, but I played a version with the current Rockford back then.) I saw a smiling face. I can understand the lack of animations, it is 0.9, after all!
It took me a while to find out how to put explosives and snap, because there is not a keyboard setup. Also the normal invisible wall's icon in the level editor is really some dark purple diagonal lines. The sidebar(the thing on the right with the recording "screen" and the "universal screen")was very different, especially in the level editor.
Oh, and the icon is a candidate for the 2nd Mona Lisa!

[Holger]

After I successfully installed 4.0.0.2 (and became unable to experience fullscreen without breaking the system until restart, but it probably is a buggy sdl (re)setup)

That sounds strange! Because the changes from 4.0.0.1 to 4.0.0.2 are very minor and not related to fullscreen, and should not break anything in this regard.

Does this mean than with 4.0.0.1, fullscreen was (and still is) fine for you on your system, but with 4.0.0.2 something was seriously broken?

Could you please describe in more detail what exactly does not work correctly when attempting to use fullscreen mode in R'n'D? What do you mean exactly by "breaking the system"?

If there should be a serious bug introduced with 4.0.0.2, I really would like to fix it.

Many of the textures were flipped(Why?)

Because in R'n'D 0.9, all graphics were designed with the light coming from the upper RIGHT corner, while computer desktop graphics (like icons etc.) most of the time were designed so that the light source is in the upper LEFT corner, so playing R'n'D 0.9 on the desktop (there was no fullscreen mode in earlier versions of R'n'D) somehow just did not look right (because lighting did not match the surrounding environment). So this was changed in a later version.

Oh, and the icon is a candidate for the 2nd Mona Lisa!

Hm, looks shrunk. Maybe some buggy conversion from the original graphic...

[MateFizyChem]

That sounds strange! Because the changes from 4.0.0.1 to 4.0.0.2 are very minor and not related to fullscreen, and should not break anything in this regard.

Does this mean than with 4.0.0.1, fullscreen was (and still is) fine for you on your system, but with 4.0.0.2 something was seriously broken?

Could you please describe in more detail what exactly does not work correctly when attempting to use fullscreen mode in R'n'D? What do you mean exactly by "breaking the system"?

If there should be a serious bug introduced with 4.0.0.2, I really would like to fix it.

No, it is nothing wrong with the game. I setup the sdl_music and stuff, but then I deleted them next, because I did not think they were necessary. This caused many games(not just R'n'D) to break the system graphically when the full screen mode was triggered(this is like running a system with only a cursor visible) I reinstalled SDL and SDL2 and the additional packages(sdl_music etc.), but it looks like the glitch is staying in my computer. This trouble could be avoided if R'n'D would be updated in Mint's package manager, but I was so hyped I tried (a little bit too) hard to use the source. But I can just turn off the full screen options.
In summary, I messed up the SDL package installation and I caused the glitch. It is not the game's fault, it is my fault.

[Holger]

Thanks a lot for the clarification, and good to know that there's apparently nothing buggy with R'n'D 4.0.0.2 itself (which could have bitten others, too).