Emerald Mine Club levelset completion progress

[Steffest]

Hi Rap,
It only took me 20 months to notice you mentioned my name

I've been in contact with Sandancer of EMC GB , his real name is Bryan Waters, I could pass you his email address if you want.
I thought it maybe would be nice to do a little article on the most active EM Clubs, this year marking the 30th anniversary of the game and all.

Recently there's been another update on emeraldmines.net - there are now 590 disks online that qualify as classic "Emerald Mine Disk" (and about 100 other types)
Including some that are not yet in the Rocks'nDiamonds EMC levelset (like Head Mine, or Pawn Mine to name a few)

Speaking of Missing Mines:
Holger, I noticed you have 3 levelsets in your EMC collection from disks that I don't have:

• kings update 1,2 and 3

Holger, Do you happen to have the original .adf files for these?
The intro text and screens are part of their charm and - believe it or not - I still have an original amiga I occasionally play on

Apart from those I think the only ones that are still missing are

• Amiga Mine 6 - 11
• Bobby Dash 2
• Crazy Mine 2
• Eagle Mine 18
• Revenge of the Yams 3-6
• Sky Mine 9
• Through The Chaos Caves 19-21

Cheers!
Steffest

[Holger]

Hi Steffest,

great to hear from you again!

... this year marking the 30th anniversary of the game and all.

Now that you wrote about it... indeed!

Recently there's been another update on emeraldmines.net - there are now 590 disks online that qualify as classic "Emerald Mine Disk" (and about 100 other types)

Wow, that's quite impressive!

Including some that are not yet in the Rocks'nDiamonds EMC levelset (like Head Mine, or Pawn Mine to name a few)

You're absolutely right -- there really should be a *big* update on that level collection for R'n'D, mainly due to the substantial updates on your web site, with lots of new EMC disks not yet contained in the EMC level collection for R'n'D.

Speaking of Missing Mines:
Holger, I noticed you have 3 levelsets in your EMC collection from disks that I don't have:

• kings update 1,2 and 3

Holger, Do you happen to have the original .adf files for these?

Unfortunately, I only have the plain level files for these three sets from the "Emerald Mines CD-ROM", but not the corresponding ADF files.

Apart from those I think the only ones that are still missing are

• Amiga Mine 6 - 11

• Bobby Dash 2

• Crazy Mine 2

• Eagle Mine 18

• Revenge of the Yams 3-6

• Sky Mine 9

• Through The Chaos Caves 19-21

I've checked my EMC archive again, but unfortunately, these are all missing in it, too.

[RAP]

Oh, Steffest, hey! On the email thing from Sandancer, maybe? I could just use the questions I wrote up years ago and pick out the info. I think you can handle the blog article on Emerald Mine Club, if you haven't done so already.

Holger, is there a list of levelsets in the Emerald Mine Club that are duplicates of an earlier levelset? I'm asking this because I'm curious to know how many unique levels are in the collection, and wanted to play levelsets that are not just recycled. This would also help me narrow down the redundancy and focus on playing the more unique levels.

[filbo]

There are levels which are precise duplicates; levels which are duplicate except for some text stamped somewhere (level number and/or levelset name); levels which are logical duplicates, e.g. take level A, replace all grass with sand, replace all steel walls with some other undiggable wall, etc. It's easy enough to compare and find the first sort; hard to propose a general algorithmic method of detecting everything that a human would conclude is a dupe.

[Holger]

When "compiling" the Emerald Mine Club" level collection (running a Perl script that does all the work like extracting the game content from all these ADF, DMS, LHA etc. archives, converting graphics, detecting engine version, creating the graphics that match the engine type etc.), I also automatically check the levels from the currently processed level set to all levels of all previously processed level sets (by using a hash from the level data).

This makes it easy to detect exact duplicates of levels, and the script's output then makes it easy to spot level sets which are completely (or mainly) identical to other sets. (This is especially helpful to detect duplicates of level sets that I received or found under a different name, which sometimes happens.)

As I'm planning to update the Emerald Mine Club level collection anyway, I could post the logfile of the processed sets here, so you can look for yourself how unique or duplicated certain EMC sets are.

But this will still take a while; currently I'm working on a complete re-release of the Supaplex collection. But the EMC collection will hopefully follow soon (and still this year, hopefully). It will get completely new artwork, too, so it will look and feel more or less exactly like the original game, not like a "playing in R'n'D" experience anymore (plus an extra row to contain the tape recorder buttons, to have the additional features of R'n'D available also when playing the game in "classic look")...

[RAP]

Well, I beat Ace Mine II, after that very long delay of fixing the tapes with blindtyping ":ft" without the quotation marks. Ugh, those later levels can be annoying to beat to no end. Level 60 is a prime example of trying to get into the contents but it's prime time trial and error on the outer layer that's roamed by spaceships; that just encourages people to just look at the level editor to see the contents to just cut down the annoyance, or switch to a different graphic set, such a convenience of today that wasn't present back then. I'll probably get to beating the paused levelsets or beat some new ones, partially for completion and for inspiration for level ideas, and post the proof tapes and update stuff in the topic whenever possible.

Ace Mine II, level 60, oh the irritation of trying to get through the first layer of the impassable fake grass that's surrounded by spaceships!

rocksndiamonds_2018-02-04_23-18-15.png (245.59 KiB) Viewed 32097 times

Before moving on, it was rather curious to see that the last 10 levels were done by No One Inc, levels 71 to 80 to be specific; in fact, it was said so in the intro text of the levelset, and in level 71 itself. A substantially different take on the creation of those levels, much more loose than the first 70 levels of the levelset. It's generally more fair than the later levels that were made by Ace-Ware.

Anyways, one of the things that was hanging in my mind the year tracking of the individual levelsets from the Emerald Mine Club. Let's check this link from the Emerald Web: http://emeraldmines.net/default.asp?act ... oads&id=10

For instance, according to the database for Baby Ghost Mine, the release year is "199?", but in the same page, the second screenshot says "(C) 1993!" at the bottom right. So which is it? I can only assume that this type of data was already filled, as most of the date of the older submitted levelsets came from the older Emerald Web, which is at the time, was operated under AMI Sector One, here's the mirror link of the same levelset: https://www.exotica.org.uk/mirrors/ami_ ... tmine.html

Steffest, can you explain what determines if the year is valid or questionable with using the question marks, especially when it comes to the receiving of the recent new Emerald Mine Club levelsets from your website recently?

[Holger]

A little note regarding the EMC disk creation date (year) which I also use/document in the Emerald Mine Club level collection for R'n'D: In cases like this where it's not clear, it often helps to look at the file date of the levels contained on the original Amiga disk file (ADF). For this level set, most level files have a date of 2020 (probably caused by an internal clock that was set wrong for whatever reason -- stock Amiga 500 did not have a battery backed internal clock these days!), but a few level files do have a (probably correct) date of July 1993! So the year on the screenshot apparently is correct.

[Steffest]

@rap:
1993 is the year of the "player": the engine that plays the caves, which is not necessarily the year the caves where designed.
as Holger said: the file date of the levels is 2021, which is obviously not correct.
So I just settled for a question mark: "somewhere in the nineties".
But to ease your mind: 1993 is probably correct so I changed it on the emerald mine site.

[RAP]

Update! I've decided to put the results of the Emerald Mine Club levelset completion progress in a form of a spreadsheet, due to certain circumstances in being restricted from editing my posts. It might be subject to errors. Here it is:

2018 02-Feb 13 (part 3 of 3) [has spreadsheet].zip

Due to uploading only up to 3 files per post, this one contains the spreadsheet. Contains levelset tapes of: Ace Mine 2

(121.01 KiB) Downloaded 943 times

Here are my thoughts on levelsets I played and solved:
ACE MINE 2

• After years of inactivity, mostly from being from playing this levelset, I came back and decided to finish this off.
• Interesting note: the first 70 levels (level 0-70) are made by Ace-Ware Inc., while the other 10 levels (level 71-80) were made by No One Inc.
• No One Inc's levels are much looser than Ace-Ware's.
• LEVELSET SOLVED: ACE MINE 2 (2009 12-Dec 24 = 2018 02-Feb 04): 0-80, 81 levels solved

BOND MINE 3

• Decided to plow through because the way level 49 was rendered and interpreted in the game (an empty space in the outer Steel Wall borders) didn't have much of a a gameplay effect.
• Before progressing on, in my first post in the topic and some of the other posts, I mis-spelled the Bond Mine series as 'Bomb Mine', whoops!
• LEVELSET SOLVED: BOND MINE 3 (2012 07-Jul 30 = 2018 02-Feb 08) 0-80, 81 levels solved

BOND MINE 1

• Dunno why, I stopped playing this levelset.. I was like 7 levels away from finishing up the levelset, I suppose loss of interest.
• This levelset differs from the other levelsets made by the same person in that it's more looser and less structured (and well less repetitive) than the later levelsets where it seems cut and pasted.
• LEVELSET SOLVED: BOND MINE 1 (2013 12-Dec 23 = 2018 02-Feb 05): 0-80, 81 levels solved

BOND MINE 7.5

• There were attempts of one-off levels that deviate from the standard fare by the person (I forgot which levels exactly, didn't typed it down), but they were too few of them.
• Level 15: That thing is wow. The first section is the main difficulty of this level, basically, you have to extract the Spaceships safely and send them into the acid, the big bugger is that those particular Spaceships are behind a series of Emeralds both the top and bottom side, while the very top of it consists of Boulders. So if even one single Emerald is destroyed by the Spaceship's explosion blast, you gotta start over. It takes about 5 minutes to clear that very part of the level, by then, hope that you cleared the rest of the levels, or it's a do-over! I had to do this more than 10 times, about a third of it finishing that section and screwed up the in the other parts of the level.
• There's Level 18: second last part, there's a section where there's 3 Boulders in a seemingly innocent room, and it's complete trial and error on whether you pass or not since some of those those empty spaces are actually invisible walls!
• However, the weirdiest level I came across out of all the Emerald Mine Club levels is level 44, which according to the level text, is not made by De Bond themselves. as it says, "Original El En Vic Cave". The main thing about this level, Fake Acid everywhere! It's disguised as Acid, but can be run under by the player (objects that go into it make the Fake Acid disappear!). It's also quirky that it can't normally be found in the level editor in Rocks'n'Diamonds, is this like a bugged exploit that's used as an element? Anyways, this is high city of trial and error, wow! There's also one other element that I can't even retrieve, that first Boulder you encounter that somehow pushes itself to the left!
• Speaking of this levelset...where's Bond Mine 7? This one has only 45 levels (counting only the singleplayer levels). Is it just Bond Mine 7.5? It's not found in the collection that I downloaded from here: https://www.artsoft.org/RELEASES/rocksn ... b-2.1.1.7z - Whereas checking the Emerald Web website, there's an entry here: http://www.emeraldmines.net/default.asp ... ads&id=460 - Is Bond Mine 7 a thing?
• LEVELSET SOLVED: BOND MINE 7.5 (2018 02-Feb 09 = 2018 02-Feb 10) 0-44, 45 levels solved

DIAMOND MINE

• Meh, nothing too special, just very loose and full of trial and error that's the usual plaque of most of the Emerald Mine Club levelsets
• LEVELSET SOLVED: DIAMOND MINE (2018 02-Feb 12 = same) 0-80, 81 levels solved

BOULDER DASH C64 1,2,3,4

• Made by No One Inc.!
• Slightly more interesting than most of the rest of the Emerald Mine Club levelsets, basically, play levels that were made in Boulder Dash but with Emerald Mine elements!
• Some of the graphical stuff has been altered to try and resemble the look and detail of Boulder Dash in an Emerald Mine-like way, such as dressing up those blue arch portal exits as Hidden Exits (even though they're still destroyable unlike Boulder Dash).
• Certain levels had been altered by the amount of required gems due to Diamonds being worth 3 points or that Amoeba can't turn into gems when trapped.
• Level 80, the last level is a marathon of obstacles in a linear fashion. I'm a bit surprised that it's stitched up levels from the respective Boulder Dash games, several of them all in one level, as seperated by Quicksand (which is represented as a blue slime). It's like as if stitching up obstacles and challenges like that in sections in Emerald Mine is a thing for these levelsets in general.
• LEVELSET SOLVED: BOULDER DASH C64 1,2,3,4 (2018 02-Feb 12 = same) 0-80, 81 levels solved

Here are the tapes:

2018 02-Feb 13 (part 1 of 3).zip

Contains levelset tapes: Bond Mine 01, Boulder Dash C64 1,2,3,4, and Diamond Mine

(164.97 KiB) Downloaded 937 times

2018 02-Feb 13 (part 2 of 3).zip

Contains levelset tapes of: Bond Mine 03, and Bond Mine 7.5

(162.98 KiB) Downloaded 892 times

2018 02-Feb 13 (part 3 of 3) [has spreadsheet].zip

Due to uploading only up to 3 files per post, this one contains the spreadsheet. Contains levelset tapes of: Ace Mine 2

(121.01 KiB) Downloaded 943 times

And here here some notable levelsets that I stopped playing or skipped (the rest of that recent data is in the spreadsheets):
BD4

• I played this game was I was younger! I don't know how far I reached in the game, but I wanna say between 50-60.
• One of the things that's changed that doesn't occur in the original game is the inconsistency of timers in levels, because some of the levels have a strict timer. Younger me would've died first time by the lack of time rather than being smashed by a boulder or harmed by an emeny! There are some that would make levels impossible to solve, such as:
• Level 8, I know for a fact that the Yam Yams that are in the outer borders, they would be rendered as immovable harmless walls upon entering the level, not actual Yam Yams. I know this because I played it when I was young, and that would be much more harder for my younger self (made a tape and replaced the outer-wall Yam Yams with just Steel Walls).
• Level 18...there is no feasible way to even beat the level properly as the amount of given time is too short, thus making it unsolvable (I made a tape with at least twice the amount of time!).
• Level 34...that's actually a reused level from an Emerald Mine Club level. I don't know where though.
• Level 38...that seems like another reused level, as it doesn't seem like the level creator's style of the previous levels.
• Level 42, what an evil level... check literally everything that could be used as a trap against you before moving on!
• Decided to stop because of those stricter time limits, there is no way those levels are strict on the timer.

[RAP]

Here's the spreadsheet for 2018 Feb 24:

EMC levelset status (2018 02-Feb 24).ods

(22.97 KiB) Downloaded 916 times

Here are my thoughts on levelsets I played and solved:
BOULDER DASH BOBIUS by Bobius

• Level 9: Mean, mean, /meeeeean/! Had done this 10-20 times til beating it! You're basically relying on the luck of those Yam Yams to not overshoot (being directly below the Quickand), and undershoot (being directly above the Magic Walls) when dropping down those 3 Boulders for each section. It makes it extra tedious to do this task in the amount of time it takes to not only retireve those Boulders, but to dig out the Dirt under the Magic Wall. Ooof!
• Level 12: You're in a maze, and you get dynamite, and you have to bomb on impassible obstacles with it, but in a certain order.
• Level 16...felt so good to solve, it's a trial and error level in a good way. It's I feel one of the few times where restarting just feels good when you discover what makes things around the level tick...without seemingly annoying me.
• Level 21: Wait, that's it? 22 levels? One of the expectations that appears to be applied in the Emerald Mine Club levelset is that there's going to be at least 80 levels that are played in single player... there's no indication that it would be short by the intro sequences. The rest of the levels are just Emerald Mine 1 (Kingsoft) levels, which includes those teamwork levels. I'm not sure how these levelsets were distributed back then, but I would imagine someone that wants those 80 levels would be short-changed by the amount of levels at the time...it might explain the amount of difficulty that makes the game longer though.
• LEVELSET SOLVED: BOULDER DASH BOBIUS (2018 02-Feb 13 = 2018 02-Feb 14)

GHOST MINE by Wily E.

• Level 62: Out of all the levels in the levelset, this is the most tedious and marathon-running type of level, you have to bomb the walls to get through getting Dynamite and Diamonds constantly. You can afford a few Diamonds being destroyed, the big biter is that the Normal Walls you can bomb is mixed with Invisible Walls! Add in the tension to make sure you retreat from your dyanmiting and not accidentally run towards an impassible invisible wall, and cue many potential fatal deaths. This one took almost 18 minutes, with the mindset of not knowing if you need every single diamond or not.
• As I finish up this levelset, I'm wondering, why a self-contained levelset? Makes me wonder what levelsets did this person made.
  [*The levelset that's ported from the original doesn't have these 2 intro images: https://youtu.be/sWQw6fLBXJc?t=43 - and this one: https://youtu.be/sWQw6fLBXJc?t=48
• LEVELSET SOLVED: GHOST MINE (2018 02-Feb 19 = 2018 02-Feb 20)

JUNIOR CHAOS CAVES - CAVES FOR KIDS by Old Miller

• Level 15: This one displays an interesting element quirk, there are burning dynamites that has even a shorter fuse than the original burning dynamite, and in 3 variations! You can't even replicate it in the level editor as all of those burning dynamites are converted back to the original timing! I wanna use something for this, perhaps for levels that can't be doable without the shortest fuse possible~
• Level 53: The last section is so luck-based, you have to push a rock to smash a Yam Yam to get rid of the column of Normal Walls, but before that, there's a Yam Yam in the pathway that you can't harm. When doing the push, that other Yam Yam is on it's way to try and harm you since the only way you can escape is if that Yam Yam hitches to the top empty space where the other Yam Yam occupies to escape from it's path!
• Overall, this levelset is less strict of the amount of gems needed to go to the exit.
• LEVELSET SOLVED: JUNIOR CHAOS CAVES - CAVES FOR KIDS (2018 02-Feb 20 = same)

THROUGH THE SPRINT MINE by Caveman

• First thing about this levelset, what it says on the tin of this levelset name! These levels have a short time limit and you have to go through the levels as fast as possible. Levels are generally 60 seconds or less!
• Level 13: Another level that has variable burning dynamite!
• The levelset is rough on the edges, but I would recommend it based on the premise and quickplay of having to tackle levels that are usually 60 seconds.
• LEVELSET SOLVED: THROUGH THE SPRINT MINE (2018 02-Feb 21 = same)
• RECOMMENDED LEVELSET with cavets of rough parts in the levelset! Good for pick up and play!

LUKEY MINE by Lukey

• This is a levelset where I can afford to be somewhat lazy and still pass most of the levels that way, at least in the earlier levels, like the amount of dynamite is more than necessary, and extra gems to as additional opportunties to collect, as such, it's freeform in that kind of direction.
• Level 11: The part involving two Yam Yams and diamonds, the second section, there's one part where the Grass is actually fake grass! Was stumped a couple of times.
• Level 20: Last part is where there are 2 Yam Yams that are circling around the exit...whelp, that's going to be random!
• Level 22: Luck-based with 1 diamond being allowed to be devoured by those Yam Yams.
• Level 41, and Level 45 are long, it took around 6 minutes each: both of them involve explosions, the former involving the navigation of randomly placed bombs, the latter on using dynamite to blash through quicksand walls that are buried with boulders and gems!
• Level 46: Long on quicksand diggy! So does level 58!
• Level 57: 3 mins on just waiting for the Amoeba to grow enough and then release the Bugs, and then 3 minutes spent on collecting the gems and bailing to the exit.
• Almost an absolute gamestopper! Level 65: Luck-based in that to win the game is determined by if the Amoeba penetrates through the empty Quicksand so that the bugs can be reached and killed by them. Had to wait 3 minutes, which by then there's like 2 minutes left. Sometimes it wouldn't grow past the Quicksand! You may have to release the bugs while the Amoeba is growing due to this tight time limit. Tried this 20-30 times easily, and then I managed to beat it!
• Level 70: This level is clever in that you have to hit enough Yam Yams from the top side of the levels to get those 2 extra Emeralds each! If you just kill the Yam Yams suboptimally, you won't get enough gems to exit! It's rather repetitive though.
• Level 78: Evil! The robot is standing next to the exit, which would've been easily blocked if you move left immediately after the level starts, and you have go back where you are to unblock it. Not only that, you have to use that Robot Wheel to keep it unblocked.
• Level 80: Fake Grass ahoy, on those patches on all of the sections where there's some Spaceships that are guarding the exposed Emeralds.
• Has some nice ideas, but started going down to the cliche hole later on.
• LEVELSET SOLVED: LUKEY MINE (2018 02-Feb 21 = 2018 02-Feb 22)

New X Mine 1 by Kath

• Level 22: Somewhat luck-based in that you have to go through a linear path filled with Yam Yams, and that sometimes that next Yam Yam is taking too long while the previous Yam Yam caught up and harms you in it's path!
• I noticed that in certain levels, when harming the Yam Yams enough times, you get an Open Exit, despite the levels having a gem count requirement, tis more on score-attack?
• Level 32: It's the exact same level as as Level 24, skipping that level!
• Level 34: It's almost a one to one to Level 0, except there's no Exit to be found without harming enough Yam Yams to reveal it, and part of the first section on Yam Yam rows is tweaked to make it slightly harder.
• Level 38: Wait, beating the level is determined whether or not any of the rocks would drop on any of the 5 Yam Yams, which would make it extremely difficult to beat the level?! It's a lot nastier in the first 3 Yam Yams since there's no Emerald pile to be covered in so that the Yam Yams just past by. Ugh, gross! Even with the Emerald pile, it's luck-based on whether or not those Yam Yams clear themselves out. This took several tries!
• Level 45: Even more luck-based, it wouldn't if the time limit is strict.
• Level 48: Luck of the draw whether you not die from the Yam Yams that spawn from hitting the Yam Yams~ 4 of them~
• Level 73: It's rather maddening! Tons of rocks mixed with Spaceships ahoy! It's like a jungle! Lots and lots of retries!
• On that one level that's a duplicate, I decided that it should be included as solved, as long as the duplicate levels came from the same levelset, as long it doesn't outweigh the original levels, and doesn't have levels that came from another levelset. This now retroactively includes the levelset, Kids Fun Mine, in which level 80, the last level, is a duplicate of level 38.
• Sadly, there's nothing more left, not much of a series at all~
• LEVELSET SOLVED: NEW X MINE 1 (2018 02-Feb 23 = 2018 02-Feb 24), with level 32 skipped due to being a duplicate of level 24

Here are the following tapes for the completed levelsets in single player:

2018 02-Feb 24 (part 1 of 2).zip

Contains levelset tapes: Ghost Mine, Junior Chaos Caves - Caves for Kids, and Lukey Mine

(198.33 KiB) Downloaded 889 times

2018 02-Feb 24 (part 2 of 2).zip

Contains levelset tapes: Boulder Dash Bobius, Kids Fun Mine, New X Mine 1, and Through the Sprint Mine

(125.58 KiB) Downloaded 901 times

And here here some levelsets that I stopped playing or skipped in detail:
EMERALDS OF MINE 01 by Gazza

• Okay first 40 beginner levels for kids, they're admittedly notably bigger than they're supposed to be, which means there's a bunch of downtime between the distances of collecting gems or usually doing tasks. Level 40 is where your patience is tested on figuring out the surroundings and having to do certain things before moving on.
• Decided to stop at level 41 becuase I'm not sure if I love these types of trial and error levels in the form of a maze.
• Sucks that there's no more levelsets from Gazza themselves, as the title 'Emeralds of Mine 01', emphasis on '01' indicates there would be more than one levelset.
• LEVELSET STOPPED by that particular level!

EMERALD DASH 01 by No One Inc.

• Welp, level 0 can't be solved at all. There's an Emerald and a Bug (as a Butterfly), but I can't kill it by dropping an Emerald on it! The bulletpoints seem to imply that this is a modified version of the Emerald Mine engine, but Rocks'n'Diamonds doesn't recognize it. I can't beat it at all!
• To note, this video on playing Emerald Dash 02: https://youtu.be/eSQYy7hCffA?t=69 - shows that the Amoeba is growing Boulder Dash-style, and not Emerald Mine-style. Unforunately I can't find more footage for more evidence for differences that differ from Emerald Mine.
• LEVELSET SKIPPED by level imcompability!

EMERALD HEAD by the Blockheads

• Level 9: Somewhat strict on the amount of gems you need, you need to get every last possible Boulder from the above and go through the Magic Wall. The Magic Wall has a time limit as well,
• Level 50: Difficulty by the amount of time spent on this! You gonna round up the Bugs in that time limit, where it's sectioned off into long boxes with a 3-4 of them inside to make a long vertical hallway. Tricky tricky! Spent more than a few times trying to beat it.
• Level 56: Well, I'm gonna stop playing this levelset because of lack of interest due to the level's questionable difficulty of trying to kill all of the Bugs to retrieve the gems and exit the level. When you open up the box full of those Bugs, they just scatter, which makes it tedious to try and get gems out of it as they'll be trickling in instead of constant action.
• LEVELSET STOPPED by that particular level!

EMERALD MINE PRO

• What is that? That's just Emerald Mine 3 (Kingsoft)! What's the difference? Why 'Pro'? Made by 'No One Inc.'? Is this more on scores or changing the amount of Emeralds you need to collect to beat the levels? Skipping!
• Before that, there appears to be a planned levelset called 'Frodo Mine 01' that was never found or released.
• LEVELSET SKIPPED!

ENEMY MINE by some unknown cloner

• ...This is just a almost 1-to-1 clone of Emerald Mine 1 (Kingsoft), neeext!
• Before moving on, let's check this link out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3Ycf6j6eiw - nothing too interesting except that it's been tested by "SCHRIKKY and BRITTY". I don't think it was included in the levelset for historical archiving.
• LEVELSET SKIPPED!

INTO THE TERRIBLE TUNNELS by Elles & Victor

• Can't beat level 3 at all! There appears to be an exploit that's not emulated fully by the engine in that you can't wraparound the level. So I can't go from the left to right by moving at the left side of the level. The weird thing is that it uses the auto-pushing Bombs to force-destroy normally indestructable outer-border Steel Walls, it has to be applied to both left and right side. Level 37 is a clear display example here.
• Skimming through some of the later levels, it appears the game makes extensive use of auto-pushing Boulders (Level 05), Nuts (Level 05), and even Bombs (Level 03, but easily seeable in Level 15)!
• Various levels (like Level 27, 37, 43 and 54) mention anything that involves 'invisible', but those levels don't use Invisible Walls. Not just those messages in character letter walls form, but also as two specific walls that are repurposed to say 'Go Invisible'. What does it mean? Does it mean the player's sprite goes invisible?
• LEVELSET SKIPPED by level imcompability!

MIKE MINE by Michel Casse

• Playing a early levels, there's some trial and error exists (level 3 [but fortunately it's at the beginning], and maybe level 14 by the mazey nature plus strict timer combo); it is freeform in that it's not tightly boxed into an almost-exact outcome needed to the player to progress while being rather clever about how the levels are set up since you have to pay attention to the surroundings and how things act in a way that's not overly distracting.
• Such freeform feeling would try to nudge you to progress on due to the varied time limits in those levels.
• This is one of the few levelsets that have level names by the use of Letter Walls within those levels, not necessarily in the earlier 15-20 levels, but the later ones definitely.
• These names implictly indicate the focused theme and what contents are to be expected in those levels.
• I stopped and resided at level 18 right now, this is a levelset that I'll definitely come back and it would be a recommendation to experienced players that want novel level design that stood out from the many other levelsets to me.
• LEVELSET STOPPED! Will check it out later!

MIXED MINE

• As said by the levelset info, tis a collection of 'OLD CAVES, STOLEN fromm several mines', yeeeeeah, I don't wanna play the levelset on the feeling of perceived copied/recycled/too similar levels. Bailing~
• LEVELSET SKIPPED!

SURFER MINE by Owl

• Heh, this levelset has it's own dedicated graphics set, it only covers the base Emerald Mine elements, and not Emerald Mine Club. Unfortunately there's stuff like Shells (Rock), and pointed shell (Emerald) look similar enough to potentially be confusing due to both of them having the same color (example on playing level 09). Sucks that there's no dedicated special audio files.
• Level 43: Letter Wall text saying "Thanks Skippy" and "Thanks Again Skippy", is this a special thanks? It's not really mentioned in the level info. Is this a level made by Skippy?
• Level 45: There's Letter Wall text that says "Pooh Mine", what does that mean?
• Level 79 and 80...I seen those before! Yep, I'm officially done with this levelset. It's mostly done, but I don't wanna have to spend time finding those levels and just slot in for those levels.
• Before going, let's check this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW9poesOvQw - Hey Holger, you missed this text content before the relatively simple graphic intro!
• LEVELSET SKIPPED by those 2 levels coming from a different levelset!

SUPER MINE by some unknown level creator

• Skipping, perception of repeated/recycled/reused levels. 1200 levels in a levelset? Eeeeeh~
• Before going, see those two moving nuts? They moved left, but the weird thing is that the right nut wasn't hindered by the left nut's presence! There's no natural instance of two objects moving the same direction and having the behind object not be hindered!
• LEVELSET SKIPPED!

LABAN MINE by No One Inc.

• There are remixed Emerald Mine 1 (Kingsoft) levelset, but there's a perception of levels that are just unaltered from that original levelset, and duplicated levels like level 45.
• LEVELSET SKIPPED!

[Steffest]

Hey Rap,

Great progress!
I totally agree that any current Emerald Mine engine needs skippable levels because some of them are just too tedious or batshit crazy difficult to pass.
I just wanted to make a quick comment on the "go invisible" part of the "into the terrible tunnels" levels.
In the original Amiga Emerald mine engines you could do a "wrap around" of the level (walking from a side and appear on the other side) but then the player sprite would not be drawn so you were "invisible".
So "go invisible" means "go walk form the side and appear on the other side"
There also a difference in the original Amiga engines that you don't stay on the same line when wrapping around.
This is caused by the leveldata being in 1 dimension array (a line) instead of a grid. When you go left and walk from the left edge, you end up on the other side 1 row above on the right side. When you go right and walk from the right edge, you end up 1 row below on the left side.
Some levels in the Emerald Mine site are not possible in other engines for that reason.
There are other minor differences like with "borderless acid" and stuff and delays in pushing rocks.
Actually I still like to play on the original Amiga engines on an emulator because the emulator lets you save state, so you can save your progress in a level and simply start from that point until you get it right. The unforgiving nature of the game - like when you die and have to start all over again from the start, is one of the the worst aspects of the old Emerald Mine levels I think.

Cheers!
Steffest

[filbo]

I've sent Holger annoy-o-grams several times about implementing side-wraparound in the EMC engine. :)

From what you describe, levels should also be configurable whether they wrap to the same vertical position or +/-1 in linear-wraparound fashion. I'd want the RnD save format for the levels (and tapes) to have a bit for this; AND a user tri-state setting 'wrap to same position / wrap +/-1 / use level/savefile setting'. Actually quad-state:

EMC level wrapping behavior:

( ) No wrap
( ) Always wrap to same vertical position
( ) Always wrap linearly like a character terminal (left-up and right-down)
(*) As dictated by level file

[filbo]

Regarding the 'go invisible' part:

Are you saying that your character no longer displays on screen, but otherwise plays normally (will be killed by the usual things, etc.)? Or are you invisible and invulnerable?

For RnD implementation, is it really necessary for that part to be emulated, or can it just be 'normal' wrap where the player teleports around the corner and then plays totally normally? (If you're only invisible, seems like that can be omitted. If also invulnerable, then ... that sucks. I guess it would have to be implemented. blurghhh.)

[RAP]

@fiblo: Yeah, if you go wraparound one part of the level to the other side, the player is rendered rendered invisible, you can do the same things as the player, but are invisible (I'm not sure if it reverts if you just go back). Here's an example video of someone playing level 0 from No One Mine 18: https://youtu.be/srUQkEJWRDM?t=346 - and seeing this video again, well that explains why the player was moved 1 tile upward when wraparound from right to left (you can't see it since the player's invisible, but the sounds of movement indicate that upon wrapping around, you can hear simply one walking sound, and then one digging sound, not two walking sounds).

@Steffest: Ah, playing from an Amiga emulator? Well, I'm playing in Rocks'n'Diamonds, as I want it to do it legit (and to record tapes, which is the reason why this topic was made!), but with the aid of checking the level editor because well, I really find it bullshit that there's trial & error and luck-based part of levels that just waste player time. Since you've been playtesting some of the more recent levelsets, perhaps you can send new caves to me (for playing in Rocks'n'Diamonds), being as an additional playtester?

Since I'm making a post to respond to you two :p, I'm also gonna use this and drop even more progress info on Emerald Mine Club stuff, there's no spreadsheet, I'll put the next one when I send out my next 4-6 batch of completed levelset tapes:

Here's the following levelsets that I halted playing/skipped in detail:
NEW MINE by Kath

• Skimming through the levels, there's 41 actual levels, the rest is from Emerald Mine 1 (Kingsoft).
• Level 0 is reused in BD4...although I can't help but feel I played these levels before, don't really feel like playing the levelset.
• LEVELSET SKIPPED!

NEM MINE and NEW MINE 1995, the latter by unknown creator, and the latter by Kath

• ...These two are the same! Which one came first?
• In "New Mine 1995", according to the files suggests that the levelset was released in 1991 or 1992, while "Nem Mine" has incorrect dates that go to 1979, with hints of the actual date being 1998.
• But why is "New Mine 1995" released in 1992?
• I'm gonna need help which one is the real deal, I'm leaning on "New Mine 1995" because I've seen Kath's work a couple of times~

BEER MINE by Lazarus

• There's definitely some levels that are reused in both of the levelsets between this and Cold Caves, both by the same level creator, but there's definitely some levels that are. For instance, in Cold Caves, level 18 can't be found at all in Beer Mine.
• Even if I can play both of those levelsets, and just skipped the same levels, Beer Mine contains wraparound and some weird items that are not Steel Walls residing at the outer level boundaries, which starts being a requirement in level 34, where you have to get to the Yam Yam area.
• I need to figure out which came out first if I really wanted to play the levels, Beer Mine or Cold Caves? Well, comparing both of the level files, Cold Caves was dated around "5/28/1989", while Beer Mine is around 1994. Note that it doesn't seem to be an indicator on when the level are made, but suggest when the disk was filedumped. Cold Caves it is!
• LEVELSET NOT PLAYED FOR NOW! Will back it out later!

COLD CAVES by Lazarus

• Level 0: Ooooo, that's devious! Using robots as some kind of tripwire! This is what kind of what I'm talking about that makes Emerald Mine distinct from the other rock'n'gems stuff~
• Oh hey, it seems the theme is on making traps that would play in trial and error until finally beating the level, like level 08.
• Level 10: Surprisingly tricky! Not only you have to get the usual gems from this unique layout, you also have to get the keys so that you can reach the exit! Also applies to level 12!
• Level 14: there's a Text Wall that says "Expert.Mines.1", is it advertising or was this level in the levelset?
• Stopped at level 26...oof, another trial and error puzzle, it's a novel one though. Will come back later.
• LEVELSET STOPPED! Will back it out later!

EMERALD MINE 15 - SUPAPLEX by No One Inc.

• You heard it right! Converted from Supaplex to Emerald Mine! Although it appears to be the first time this has happened, it also happened to SubTerra, which is somewhat more faithful in the use of ports that are from Supaplex, but still can't do gravity!
• Stuff you can't do/aren't in Emerald Mine engine compared to Supaplex: Harm enemies with Emeralds, die from the time limit, and can't be harmed by touching the sides of falling objects, oh, and no artwork from Supaplex (or not even a Supaplex-like graphics set!).
• Level 09 and 10 are both 0 and 1 in the original Supaplex game! Why not in order? Oh, it is in order, starting at this place. What?
• Most of the levels have been altered beyond just swapping ports into doors, as there are certain parts that are made more easier or more interesting like the use of quicksand, or acid pools, both of which are not found in the original Supaplex game. The more rare use of it is Amoeba (or the hidden variant, Drippers!), in level 74 and level 75.
• Certain parts of the level have been tweaked to make it solvable or much more easier to solve, such as the extreme example of level 71, where you can collect one gem, and use one dymamite to blast away the bomb which would've destroyed the 2 exits if done without using the dyamite.
• ...oh wow, level 73 is devious. The second section of the level, there's a 2x6 set of boulders, and you have to unhinge it in a certain way. I thought I couldn't do it because you don't need those 2 extra gems!
• Level 76: Stingiest one yet! Death by out of time once! And needed absolutely all the gems for it to pass the level. Majorly frustrated, I'm done with this levelset!
• LEVELSET STOPPED by that particular level!

STOLEN MINE 1 by Denis F.

• According to Level 0, all of the levels after this one are stolen from other levelsets. For instance, level 07 actually came from Lukey Mine, which is level 80, but the Fake Grass is exposed against the diggable sand. At least the user admitted it, perhaps it'd be more interesting to see what levels came from what levelsets. Anyway, pass~
• LEVELSET SKIPPED!

LARRY MINE by unknown creator

• Level 12...that's from a Emerald Mine 1 (Kingsoft) levelset! Waitaminute, only levels 0 through 11 are original levels! There's some levels that are not from that levelset (or heavily remixed levels), like level 60, level 73, level 74, and level 77. Note that I haven't played Emerald Mine 01 (Kingsoft) in a while, but there are certain levels that are ingrained in my mind. Skipping.
• LEVELSET SKIPPED!

LOST LEVELS by Denis F. & Sandancer

• The only original levels are most likely 0 and 1, the rest are just from Emerald Mine (Kingsoft), what's up with these levelsets?!
• LEVELSET SKIPPED!

PROFESSIONAL EMERALD MINE by Larry, Trevor & Steve

• Level 12 and up...Enerald Mine 1 (Kingsoft), just a small levelset. Sigh, skip.
• LEVELSET SKIPPED!

LADYBIRD MINE (KIDS) (see the sub-section bulletpoints!)

• Starting with level 43, other levels are from a bunch of Boulder Dash levelsets.
• Level 03: ...It's very, very similar to that amoeba and acid pool cave level from Emerald Mine 01 (Kingsoft), except it's somewhat more intense in the amount of amoeba drops, and the passages in-between the sections are 2 tiles wide.
• Level 07: Oh hey, varied burning fuse dynamite!
• Level 13: That part with the robots (as a Frog graphic), there's a Magic Wheel but it has no duration at all! Was that an error on the level itself, or how the engine reads and interprets the magic wheel for this specific level? That would mean all the other levels in that levelset would be unreachable without having to skip levels!
• Before moving on, according to this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQKLSi2Wy_o
  • "The first 42 caves were sent to us by HENNY VAN VEENENDAAL"
  • "The last 38 caves were taken from Boulderdash Collection 2 by POSOCOPI"
  • "and cave 80 is made by NO ONE INC."
• According to files, it's released in 1992!
• LEVELSET SKIPPED by engine incompability in regards to reading level files(?)!

GAZZA MINE 1 by Gazza

• Level 12 is once again the start of reusing Emerald Mine 1 (Kingsoft)...but there's some later levels that appear to be made and/or edited by Gazza from existing levels? Like level 16, 17, 32, 76, and 77 just from a quick skim. Really, really?!
• Checking files, it's released in 1995!
• LEVELSET SKIPPED!

STONEHENGE by MKR

• According to the info, some levels may be from other levelsets since the user 'lost control in all those years'. Sadly, unless I know which ones to safely skip (so that I can play those levels from the respective levelsets), I don't wanna play this levelset.
• LEVELSET SKIPPED!

THROUGH THE YAM CAVES by Old Miller

• Not sure which levelset started the trend on levelsets focused primarily on one enemy from the Emerald Mine series, but there's a lot of Yam Yam-based levelsets like this!
• Level 08: Ugh, there's a part where there are small zig-zag diagonal Yam Yam rooms separated by doors, and it's rather luck-based on whether you'll pass on and not die from the Yam Yam or not. It would've been fine if it's just a room that has a Yam Yam, then an empty room, then another Yam Yam room, and so on. Apparently, even though the info on fixing that particular level says "yellow doors almost impossible", apparently that fix wasn't enough, or that it's pointing out the problems with the levels that are left unfixed? Skipping.
• LEVELSET SKIPPED by that particular level!

CAIRNS CAVES by Cairns Cavers

• Quick, without looking at the level editor for this level, which of the three paths doesn't have an invisible wall that leads to the exit? Ugh. About 5 minutes wasted!
• Level 02 ramps up the evil! Basically, gotta do stuff in order, fail to do so, and you won't finish the level. That last spaceship for example, that is required for use to save from using a stick of dynamite! I decided to stop at level 03 because of the amount of difficulty and one mess-up and you're done for type of levels!
• LEVELSET STOPPED by the amount of hard difficulty! Will check out later!

BOULDER DASH PROFESSIONAL by Kuko-Tom

• Level 0: 'Professional' is right, that or it's just trial and error but cranked up! I cleared the gems from the four bugs safely without having a single diamond be smashed, but got smashed by a rock in the more dense areas where there's rooms full of gems. I'll keep a look out for this one if I decide to tackle a difficult levelset.
• LEVELSET STOPPED by the amount of hard difficulty! Will check out later!

MR. RUPPEL 8 by Ruppelware and Mr. B

• Skimming the levelset, there's several levels that remove the outer Steel Walls for decoration reasons (which feels good to not feel like the level is constrained to a box), or the need of wraparound. Level 44 is definitely where it's currently incompabitible from being played. Waiting til it's compatible.
• LEVELSET SKIPPED by level incompatibility!

TOUGH AND DEADLY MINE by Daniel Ter Maten

• This looks familiar, "Level [10] made by Scorpio", does that mean it came from another levelset or it's a speciality level? Level 10? Hold up, that came from Bobby Dash...but that was said to be by Monty Bob...what. And level 9 in is the same as level 2 in Bobby Dash.
• So the ones that are original are explictly marked by the intended level creator, Daniel Ter Maten...? I'm not gonna bother spending more time in this.
• According to the files, it was released in 1995.
• LEVELSET SKIPPED by perception of reused/stolen(?) levels!

NEW EMERALD MINES 01 by PGM & DRD

• ...This is a duplicate of another levelset...what (I know I don't know off the top of my head, but I saw these levels before), skipping.
• LEVELSET SKIPPED!

FUN MINE 1 by Kareljan

• Awwwwn, I was looking forward to this levelset, something more simple, well, simpler than the most thick processed levelsets. Level 01, no matter what, I can't get one stinking Emerald left just to beat the level. ...Is it the way chain explosions in regards to Bugs function that cause this? This could make my progress on levels that heavily involve Bug chain explosions react slightly differently, but potentially just enough that I have to replay those levels again. Sigh, sad skip.
• LEVELSET SKIPPED by level incompatibility!

I'm curious if anyone has any more questions about my progress and how I do stuff.

[RAP]

More progress update, only stopped or skipped levels! There's 1 or 2 levelsets that are beaten, but again, prefer to upload them in batches and upload the spreadsheet at the same time. This will have to do:

Here's the following levelsets that I halted playing/skipped in detail:
FUN MINE 2 by Kareljan

• Level 09: Easily the most difficult one so far, it's a jungle in which you have limited opportunities to harm enemies or try to skirt from being in harm's way, as it consists of Yam Yams, Butterflies, and Robots, and the Robots are the most problematic out of all~
• Level 16: Ugh, I hate those types of levels where it all seems to be down to guesswork if not using the level editor, levels that involve boulders and gems stacked in many columns, and grouped up like this. Gonna stop here right now.
• Suggested release date: 1995
• LEVELSET stopped by that particular level!

VENOM MINE 01 by Venom

• Level 06: You can only see this in the level editor, those Bugs that make those symbols! That's before Rocks'n'Diamonds now show a level preview image to
• Level 23: The level seems to ranging from either the spaceship didn't open the pandora's box full of spaceships and bugs through an Amoeba, or the level is rendered unsolvable if touching the top Amoeba, to overwhelming the Amoebas to the point of extinction once released. Too bad there's no dynamite as an alternative and speedier solution to beat the level!
• Overall, so far, the levelset released in 1991 according to the files, it's a level that doesn't have so much stuff in terms of object variety, but it's pretty laid back in comparsion to the other levelsets, even with levels involving bugs, spaceships, and amoeba mixed together. Unfortunately it might be a skip since that particular level I stopped is so luck-based! It's basically a series of dice roll-like decisions on a series of circumstances whether you'll pass or not.
• Before going by, according to the file timestamps of this levelset, it seems to indicate that it's released in 1991.
• LEVELSET SKIPPED by that particular level!

VENOM MINE 02 by Venom Soft (previously known as Venom)

• First couple of levels are some early random mini-puzzles, per's the nom, and then it jumped into where it involves a lot of bugs, spaceships, and amoeba.
• Level 14: Gamestopper! I can't progress this without retrying this over and over again to see if the Amoeba survives enough by chance to kill enough Bugs for me to collect those gems, and even then I have to wad through the many scrambling Bugs and Spaceships. Pass!
• Before moving on, there was going to be plans for Venom Mine 03, according to level 80, saying "tot ziens bij venom mine 3',...but it was never found, or it didn't come into existence.
• Going on, it is suggested that this levelset was released in 1992 as indicated by the files timestampes.
• LEVELSET SKIPPED by that particular level!

WONDER MINE 01 by Stormbringer, Blupi and Dr. Stein

• Released in 1992 as suggested by date timestamps
• Level 0: "Stormbringer is back", wait, does that mean there were other levelsets made by Stormbringer that hasn't been found in the Emerald Mine Club collection?
• Level 1: That first puzzle involving bombs and boulders going through quicksand took some time to beat, but it was fun figuring out on what to do (or more likely, what not to do at instinct).
• I decided to stop at level 8...mostly because the levels have a lot of downtime in-between set pieces. This is most promiment when trying to do and activity, and die, thus having to go through the downtime, even if you find ways to cut it down considerably. Before moving on here are some text messages in the following levels:
  • Level 10: "Stormbringer strikes back"
  • Level 39: Says "Last cave from Stormbringer", I assume this means Dr. Stein takes over starting in level 40.
  • Level 41: "Created by Blupi", oh, so that's not "Stormbringer Blupi" from the intro stuff, it's by 3 people!
• LEVELSET STOPPED by level pacing!

JUNIOR ICE MINE 01 and JUNIOR ICE MINE 02 by Skippy

• According to the timestamp of the files, they're both in 1992.
• But in Junior Ice Mine 02, according to the intro stuff, it says "THE UMA (febr/march '93)". Hmm...
• I'm feeling rather deja vu seeing the levels via previews, it's as if the levels have been reused before, by the same level creator...yeah, I'm skipping both of the levelsets.
• BOTH LEVELSETS SKIPPED!

JUNIOR ICE MINE 03 by Rebecca

• According to timestamps of the files, it's 1996.
• Huh, why the switchover from Skippy to Rebecca? Are there any rules or guidelines in regards to levelset brands being taken over by the non-originators?
• ...But the game says it's by Skippy? Then that would mean I would have to skippy this levelset then.
• Before mvoing on...level 62 is missing? Is that intentional?
• LEVELSET SKIPPED!

JUNIOR ICE MINE 04 by Eddie

• According to timestamps of the files, it's 1996.
• ...Can't help by feel I've seen this before...and apparently this is by Skippy again, and not Eddie according to the Emerald Web, then again, it says in the intro, "Eddie the Fox presents helped by skippy". Yeah, skipping.
• LEVELSET SKIPPED!

EMERALD MINE 04 by The Blockheads

• According to file timestamps, tis released in 1988.
• This level, that came from BD4, and a couple of them as well, is this the originator of where this levelset came from, before so many other levelsets just copied or have a new coat of spritey paint? I remain unsure...
• Just for fun, that's compare the original Emerald Mine sprite art with this one, since this levelset's spritework was derived from the original
  • Normal wall is a sturdy brown fence, while the slippery wall is a greyed unstable fence
  • The steel wall has a distinctive horizontal hexagon shape embedded on it.
  • The exit consists of a square with a plus symbol, and when it's open, the plus extends and retracts constantly.
  • The doors are squares with colored squares in the center, with the grey doors having a greyed-color and question mark.
  • To make the quicksand more distinct from sand, there's some green ropey flora!
  • The robot wheel has a orange ball that's spinnable
  • The base of the acid pool walls looks blocky and simplified to look clean.
  • Finally, the text letter walls are in a flat grey color.
• Reading the thing closer, "First 40 caves are remixed by the BLOCKHEADS", and "the second 40 caves are the original version"...of one of the Emerald Mine (Kingsoft) levelsets? It looks like the difference wtih the other 40 levels is that it's even shorter than usual...that's the original versions? The remixed ones doesn't look different from the original versions at all, at least on checking level 0 (to level 41) and level 1 (to level 42).
• Yeah...I don't think I wanna spend any more time if this is confusing.
• LEVELSET SKIPPED!

EMERALD MINE 04 PRO and EMERALD MINE 04 PRO EXTRA by Synthetic Line (Pro and Pro Exta) and No One Inc (Pro Extra)

• ...what's the difference between the 'Extra' onem and the one without 'Extra'? Level 41-80 is a repeat of level 0-39 except that you have unlimited time compared to the first 40 levels!
• What makes No One Inc. get credit for this when there wasn't any involvement by them at all in 'Emerald Mine 04 Pro'?
• Ugh, this is just annoying worrying about this...probably gonna skip this for now.
• LEVELSET SKIPPED!

YKIKAKAU MINE 1 and YKIKAKAU MINE 1 by Y. Not

• The first thing that's rather interesting is that both of the intros feature some kind of colorful map of everything on Earth. Noting by the grey and red parts, it seems to look like some kind of weather report?
• ...Huh. Both of these levelsets look /soooooo/ similar...seriously, what's up with levelsets by Skippy?
• It's not Skippy? It's Y. Not? ...It's just...too similar.
• Sigh, before moving on, Yikakau Mine 01's level 68 has a surprise rocks and nuts moving either left or right that make it stand out from the rest of the levels~ Wowzers, with some of the objects even eating through the Steel Walls! And oh, oh! If the two objects roll onto each other, one of them disappears instead!
• Yikakau Mine 1 has some lonely leftover levels past level 80, with level 81, level 88, and the usual level 102.
• Yikakau Mine 2's level 15 displays the same behavior as Yiakakau Mine 01's level 68 but there's a lot more objects that does this!
• Yikakau Mine 2's level 44 has bombs eat the Steel Walls from the left and right side!
• BOTH LEVELSETS SKIPPED!

STYX MINE 01 and STYX MINE 02 by Skippy

• According to the files, both are dated 1994.
• Skipping because perception of duplicated content, or very, very similar level design. There's actually some great outliers like Styx Mine 01's level 14, which features Bugs trapped in Balloons, and the only way you can free them is with the Wind Switches, as they're not Boulders in which you can free them from the left or right side. Actually, there's more than a few levels that use these balloons. Sadly, it's kinda few and far between.
• Styx Mine 01's level 31 has growing walls that are disguised as steel walls, interesting.
• Hmm, even if I can play this in a vacuum as in no past experiences with previous levelsets, there's level incompatibility in regards to wrapround, which sucks.
• BOTH LEVELSETS SKIPPED!

GB MINE 00, GB MINE 04 and GB MINE 05 by Gojkovic Branimir

• Unfortunately, these unique levelsets bears some compatibility issues with the engine implemented in Rocks'n'Diamonds, as it uses wraparound! Sadly skipping.
• Before moving on, except for the 5th game, which dates between 1999 and 2000, the rest of the series doesn't have a strong date. These levelsets look more advanced due to the recent use of new objects like Androids!
• 3 LEVELSETS SKIPPED by level incompatibility!

Small tidbits of trivia info on file timestamps that suggest their release date, this section made due to can't edit previous posts to include dates on levelsets that are talked about before:

• AMIDASHER by The Bullfrog - 1989
• BABY DUSTY MINI MINE by Futureman and ET - 1996
• CAIRNS CAVES by Cairns Cavers - 1994
• COSMOS MINE 01 by Skippy - 1978, which is impossible, or 1989
• DIAMOND DIGGER 01 by SIGI/Dennis F. - 1995
• DIAMOND MINE by C.V.V. / J.J. / Woy - 1992
• EAT MINE 2 by No One Inc. - 1990 (Eat Mine 1 in 1989, and Eat Mine 3 in 1991)
• EMERALD HEAD by The Blockheads - 1989
• ENEMY MINES by Skippy - either 1995, or 1997
• FORGOTTEN MINE 01 by Damir Arh (Autumn Design) - 1996 or 1997 (second was released in 2000)
• GHOST MINE 1 by Wily E. - uh?
• LARRY MINE by ...? - 1996-1997
• MIKE MINE 01 by Michel Casse - 1995
• MIXED MINE by Black Lady - 1994 or 1996
• MR. RUPPEL 8 by RuppelWare and Mr. B - 1996
• NEW X MINE 01 by TUE - 1995
• POOH MINE by Owl / Skippy - 1993
• SPACE MINE by Wily E. - 1992
• STOLEN MINE by Dennis F. - 1993
• THE EXCEPTION ONE by Mark / Leo - 1992
• THROUGH THE YAM CAVES by Old Miller - 1993
• FUN MINE 1 by Kareljan - 2032? That's not right!