Let's talk about the Contributions level sets! It can be sharing thoughts about a certain level set, choosing favourite levels, telling which levels were significant for other reasons, or some other aspects of the level sets(Maybe the future?).
I have not done all of the level sets yet, but I have got some thoughts about some of them:
(1995) Jan Hubicka's level 016(Mine after earthquake) is very hard. I had no idea how to get out of the section with a magic wall. In fact, I had to load the solution tape several times to get it! And I thought that every level is easy given enough time with the recorder!
About the level set itself, I like it. It has been pretty fun and creative. Funnily enough, I did not guess what does "Sipkova Ruzenka" mean, even though Czech and Polish are both West Slavic languages!(I am Polish) (1998) I like Ben Braithwaite's level set a lot. It has been very fun, and I like the "it does not have to be challenging to be fun" approach. Some levels can be exited at the start, but you can explore(examples: 000(Come past it!), 005(Collect lots of points), 023(Fun spiral), 053(Don't hurry), 093(Kill the crunchers)). Many levels stood out to me: 022(Doom), 030(Long way up), 061(Doom two), 062(Doom doom doom doom doom doom), 070(Tutti frutti), 078-092(#-#-M) and many more! (2000) I love Arno Luppold's level set! It simply focuses on fun, like Ben Braithwaite's level set! I also love the drawings! My favourite levels: 020(Emerald Mine II), 041(A castle) and 047(Happy new year!). (2001) Helge Hafting's Avalanche is quite big, crazy and fun. (2006) Sascha Mücke has done a great job using custom elements. My favourite level of the set is the last one(008)(CE-experiment).
Another noteworthy thing is that some contributors have put in their contact info(e-mail or phone number) and I thought: "Oh boy, if RnD becomes popular, then they are going to have a bad time."
Oh hey, it seems you've been inspired by my Emerald Mine Club level completion topic. Nice to see people sharing their thoughts on levelsets, new or old! Ben Braithwaite is a particular fun kind of levelset, a levelset that doesn't necessarily need difficulty for it to be fun (or the more appropriate term, engaging). Now only if Holger will put in new levelsets to be beaten (or if the forum will enable level creators to submit levels on their own). Keep it up (if you decide to keep doing this topic!).
Actually, your EMC topic is not the reason I posted this. It was an evolving idea. First, I wanted to ask whether there will be any more updates to the Contributions level set. Then I thought that only asking that is kind of rude, so I thought about discussing the contributions in general and asking about that in the end. Then, I decided not to ask the question at all but keep the rest and this is how the topic was made. Also I finished a level set, so I will discuss it.
(2000) Ben Braithwaite's Ben 200 is a great level set! In fact, I believe this is the set from which I learned most of the gameplay when I played RnD as a child. Like in the other set, most levels are a dare like "You can just exit, but I dare you do collect more gems/points!". It was great returning to childhood memories, I think this and Arno Luppold's level set are the two most memorable level sets from my childhood. I remember when in level 047 I used the 2nd player to come in and out of the Supaplex exit panel to repeatedly hear the exit sound, I just really liked it!
Two more things I want to mention is that some levels are impossible and you may see few swastikas in the set (which I hope are a design choice and nothing related to Nazism). Here are some levels that stood out to me: 000-003 (info levels), 026 (Bombs), 047 (Jumble), 080 (Don't give up!), 097 (How far can you come), 103 (Do it again!), 112-121 (Patwor), 142 (Come on!), 165 (There's no two things the same!), 190 (Falling), 191 (Time). 192 (Run [too many exclamation marks]).
Mine After Earthquake took a lot of trial and error but was really satisfying to finally get right. Though I am a little disappointed that none of the other levels in the set are anywhere near as challenging.
Is there a reason the early Contributions levels (1995-1997ish) all have such a high speed?
Just version issues?
Sorry, forgot to answer this post over the x-mas holidays! Happy new year!
Mine After Earthquake took a lot of trial and error but was really satisfying to finally get right. Though I am a little disappointed that none of the other levels in the set are anywhere near as challenging.
Sounds interesting! Which level set was this? Any maybe you want to share the tape!
Is there a reason the early Contributions levels (1995-1997ish) all have such a high speed? Just version issues?
Yes, the reason for this is that very old versions of the game had a player speed that was a little bit higher than the speed of the enemies (for whatever reason, cannot remember anymore). But it turned out that same speed for player and enemies was better for gameplay, so I changed this again. To keep existing levels solvable, such old levels still have a higher speed for the player (but faster than before, because it is now twice as fast, which was not the case before). But yes, it feels a bit awkward...
Happy new year to you too, thank you for this wonderful game!!
Now that you mention it, the variance in speed is probably why this level is so hard compared to the rest of the levelset (the level in question is level 16 of Jan Hubicka's 1995 set).
Done most of the Contributions 1995-2006, but I either couldn't, or didn't finish the following...
(There are a lot of levels/levelsets in here)
1995 - Jan Hubicka - 016 Mine After Earthquake
1996 - Martin Herrmann - 010 Kafermanaia
1997 - Pavel Machek - 001 Piece of Cake, 004 Catch Amoeba!
1997 - Visa Hastrup - 000 Nameless Level, 014 Test...123...123...Test..., 105 Amoeba Pompeli
1998 - Braithwaite - 050 The Christmas Tree
1999 - Kimball Robinson - 019 I Guarantee This Can Be Done
1999 - Stebytes Worlds - 001 Level1, 004 Small Fantasy
1999 - Tobias Authmann - 12 Nameless Level
2000 - Ben Briathwaite - Ben 2000 - 147 The Yam Yams Made This Level, 148 Quicksand, 101 Fun!, 102 Falling,
2001 - Glenn Alexander - 004 Butterfly H*ll
2001 - Paul Sutton - 001 Nameless Level, 002 Nameless Level
2002 - Gerrit Holl & Timen V. D. Berg - 016 Nameless Level, 017 50 by 50, 019 Nameless Level, 020 Nameless Level, ...
2002 - Jerome Kunegis - 059 The Battle 1
2002 - Sylvan Hancock - 030 Move!, 033 Some Floors Are Bombs
2002 - Yamyam Palace - Cops'n'Robbers - Nameless Levels 026, 037, 042, 043, 044, 046, 050, 052, 053, 054, 057
2003 - Andreas Buschbeck - Level 47, Level 70, maybe more?
For the most part just putting in level numbers from here on, if >1 level in levelset uncompleted ...
2003 - Audrius Saikunas - 001, 003, 004
2003 - Efraim Yawitz - 014, 015, 016, 017, 019
2003 - Gavin Davidson - 030, 034, 049, 052
2003 - Into The Ice Caves - 008, 011
2003 - Paul E Colling III - 048 Life Skills
2003 - Randy Johannessen - 014, 017
2003 - Richard Valvona - 003 Luxury Kills
2004 - Doro - 029, 040
2004 - Doro's Archimedes - 040 Boom! II
2004 - Doro's Boulder Rush - 058, 060
2004 - Falk Sobe - 017, 020, 021, 022, 028, 032, 037, 047, 048, 050
2004 - Negundo - Multiplex - 037, 059
2004 - Negundo - Negundo World - 012, 066, 067, 071
2004 - Negundo - Rocks'n'Diamond - ?
2004 - Negundo - Planet Aventure - ?
2004 - Niko - 019 Buggy Yam
2004 - Philip Winter - 018 Schas Do !
2004 - Remco Mooij - 002 Get Your Driving-Licence
2005 - Bertrand Grondin - 011 Chaque Salle Doit Etre Expl
2005 - Bill Cotter - 024 Just to much fun
2005 - Martijn Mooij - Emerald Hunter - 009 Level 9
2005 - Negundo - Boulder Dash 5000 - ?
2006 - Sascha Muke - 006 Nameless Level
--- Strike a balance between generating new things/ideas, and being good/organized, somewhere between a gibberish mess and nothing said/done. ---
--- I've completed the built-in R'n'D levelsets, and lots of R'n'D downloaded levelsets; Finished enough? ---
Thanks for the tape! It helped me solve that level.
Note: In Linux this tape likely goes here
~/.rocksndiamonds/tapes/rnd_jan_hubicka/016.tape
--- Strike a balance between generating new things/ideas, and being good/organized, somewhere between a gibberish mess and nothing said/done. ---
--- I've completed the built-in R'n'D levelsets, and lots of R'n'D downloaded levelsets; Finished enough? ---
Willing to exchange tapes. Finish any that I didn't? and/or Couldn't finish any that I did?
--- Strike a balance between generating new things/ideas, and being good/organized, somewhere between a gibberish mess and nothing said/done. ---
--- I've completed the built-in R'n'D levelsets, and lots of R'n'D downloaded levelsets; Finished enough? ---
I have just a few you didn't solve. Also, was confused until I figured out that you meant levels 181, 182 on 2000 - Ben Briathwaite - Ben 200; not 101 & 102 on 'Ben 2000'.
Went back an looked at the uncompleted levels, and what I thought was possibly preventing me from finishing the levels. (This was before going over fibo's post, and tapes)
Warning: long post
1997 - Pavel Machek
001 Piece of Cake --> where are the emeralds? says I need 20, found 0
1997 - Visa Hastrup
000 Nameless Level --> no exit
014 Test...123...123...Test... --> no exit
105 Amoeba Pompeli --> not enough time for the magic wall to be active, needs to pass two more stones to emeralds
1998 - Ben Braithwaite
050 The Christmas Tree --> more dynamite needed
1999 - Kimball Robinson
019 I Guarantee This Can Be Done --> can't even get passed the first section, no clue what to do
1999 - Stebytes Worlds
001 Level1 --> bombs blow up exit well before I can get there
004 Small Fantasy --> die before I can even move
1999 - Tobias Authmann
012 Nameless Level --> light bulbs don't push into their holders, can't go in exit even with enough emeralds
2000 - Ben Briathwaite - Ben 200
147 The Yam Yams Made This Level --> Yam Yam blow ups not done right?
148 Quicksand --> 2 more emeralds needed
181 Fun! --> Yam Yam blow ups not done right?
182 Falling --> Yam Yam blow ups not done right?
2001 - Glenn Alexander
004 Butterfly H--- --> no where near as much emeralds as needed
2001 - Paul Sutton
001 Nameless Level --> no way to get penguin out, it's starts in a room with no exit, no way to get in/out of there.
002 Nameless Level --> no exit
2002 - Gerrit Holl & Timen V. D. Berg
016 Nameless Level --> where's the exit?
017 50 by 50 --> no exit
019 Nameless Level --> no exit
020 Nameless Level --> no exit
...
no exit
2002 - Jerome Kunegis
059 The Battle 1 --> can't get passed the rockset shaped like a 5
2002 - Sylvan Hancock
030 Move! --> can't move fast enough, to get to dynamite within time limit, definitely can't make it to dynamite+exit in time limit.
033 Some Floors Are Bombs --> if the hero could move diagonally between walls at a spot that they only touch at a point, would it would be solvable?
2002 - Yamyam Palace - Cops'n'Robbers
Nameless Levels
026 --> no exit?
037 --> if it's solvable, I didn't do it
042 --> looks like the way it was made shield is supposed to blow up invisible walls?
043 --> not enough time to get dynamite before doors shut and trap hero in
044 --> no exit
046 --> is hero supposed to be able to walk through the acid shielded, because I can't; how to get green door at top to stay open longer?
050 --> is here supposed to be able to blow up bricks while shielded? <-- can't do this, but if I could I would make it further
052 --> no exit?
053 --> door with item behind it so hero can't walk through
054 --> no hero starting point
057 --> no exit
2003 - Andreas Buschbeck
The level completion saved had messed up on levels below 47, so I did this trick to remark them as completed -> replay tape stopping just before end, pressing record then finishing the level. Al least one tape was bad, so I restarted them from the point where they went bad.
047 --> redid 47, so that's completed now!
070 --> how to get past 1st section?
2003 - Audrius Saikunas - 001, 003, 004
001 --> emeralds not counting, etc...
003,004 --> what is going on with these levels?
2003 - Efraim Yawitz
014 --> 3 of 4 keys needed are destroyed right after level starts
015 --> path to exit is blocked
016 --> despite having all four keys, it's not letting the here through the doors in front of the exit
017 --> not enough emeralds get made through the magic walls
019 --> level is missing 87 emeralds, or amount of emeralds to get is 87 too high
2003 - Gavin Davidson
030 Bee Very Careful 9/1/2002 --> it maybe possible, but if so I haven't figured it out yet.
034 Squashed Like a Bug 14/1/.... --> in going back to it, I solved it this time!
049 The Wild 3/8/03 --> it maybe possible, but I didn't try hard enough
052 Gravity Chamber 11 7 2004 --> in going back to it, I solved it this time!
2003 - Into The Ice Caves
008 Dynafish --> maybe solvable if Dynafish blew up pipes
011 One Time Around --> maybe solvable if Dynafish blew up pipes
2003 - Paul E Colling III
048 Life Skills --> will the 'life' elements ever blow up the pipe?, doesn't seem beatable otherwise
2003 - Randy Johannessen
014 --> not solvable unless penguins can go diagonally through walls that touch only at one point
017 --> exit and user gets blown up at startup
2003 - Richard Valvona -
003 Luxury Kills --> must go through door that has sand on other side which R'n'D doesn't currently allow
2004 - Doro
029 Bombermaster --> can't get enough emeralds, perhaps I need a different technique?
040 Booom! --> even with luck I can't get enough emeralds
2004 - Doro's Archimedes - 040 Boom! II
040 Booom! II --> even with luck I can't get enough emeralds
2004 - Doro's Boulder Rush
058 Level 58 Rush --> can't move at start, die right away
060 Level 60 --> need to get 15 emeralds, but there aren't any, and the fireflies don't produce any emeralds
2004 - Falk Sobe
017 --> (door blocked by sand on other side, which is blocked from the other side by wall that fell down when spaceship went by it.) or (Hero is blocked shut doors and wall that fell down), looks like 1st is how it should have been beaten
020 --> when the only gem reachable is reached, it goes ha ha and blows up the hero
021 --> when wall that blocks hero is blown up pacman shows up and kills hero
022 --> limited possible path to go when reached end rock shows up and kills hero
028 --> no exit to level, but can get enough emeralds at least
032 --> only yam yam, can only get it from edge, makes 6 rocks, need 4 emeralds
037 --> went back and I solved it this time!
047 --> need blue key which doesn't seem to exist on the level
048 --> don't know what to do, get stuck by wall that appear
050 --> spell something with 7 letters, looks similar to levelset name? ALKDR, can get to F but it doesn't take as an item drop-able, E is behind green door hero can get to, but I don't see a green key on the level
2004 - Negundo - Multiplex
037 Nearly Boring --> can't get the last emerald
059 Lisboa 2 --> made it to exit, but one away from enough diamonds, redid and same results
2004 - Negundo - Negundo World -
012 Second Leveled Game --> blocked by blocks with 255 on them
066 Seventh Leveled Game --> stuck behind blinking sand bridge
067 IQ --> stuck, don't know how to get out of room
071 Expert!? (Last Leveled Game) --> ended in area with shapes labeled 2(115) 1(106) 4(112) 2(109), looks like it'd take a while so moved on...
2004 - Negundo - Rocks'n'Diamond - --> this is one where R'n'D lost completion status, so I have to go back and replay the tapes (and maybe do the trick of stopping them right before then end, and then manually continue to the end, so that the level will show as completed. Note: I don't choose to overwrite tape unless I changed it significantly from original. Is there a better workaround?)
008 Amoeba --> no exit?
012 Kill Machine --> how to get into area with exits?
2004 - Negundo - Planet Adventure --> this is one where R'n'D lost level completion status, see above, the theme that this comes with looks messed up (at least on my system) This bug makes another bug more annoying. The bug where if stopped during playback next time played back will stop there instead of end of tape(until restart of R'n'D), I wonder if this has something to do with the tapes sometimes being bad?
022 Planet 03 Land 02 --> it's possible that I had beaten it, but later overwritten the save and don't know how to beat it now
029 Planet 03 Land 09 --> how to get past the last part without dying?
2004 - Niko
019 Buggy Yam --> how to get the keys AND the gems?
2004 - Philip Winter
018 Schas Do ! --> where is / how to get the blue key?
2004 - Remco Mooij
002 Get Your Driving-Licence --> can't touch exit due to gravity. should there be another bomb and/or one less spot to blow up and/or should gravity act differently?
2005 - Bertrand Grondin
011 Chaque Salle Doit Etre Expl --> this level does some strange things... What am I supposed to do?
2005 - Bill Cotter
024 Just to much fun --> not enough time to complete with enough emeralds
2005 - Martijn Mooij - Emerald Hunter
009 Level 9 --> how to get the emerald near the bomb set shaped like a question mark? The emerald with the row of bombs to go under is, or at least seems impossible to get. End up needing two more emeralds at the end. probably those two
2005 - Negundo - Boulder Dash 5000 --> these were/are done, before I wasn't sure how the theme formatted completed/uncompleted levels
2006 - Sascha Mucke
006 Nameless Level --> as far as I can tell this isn't solvable, how to get past last two creatures?
Last edited by BryanFRitt on Fri Jun 25, 2021 2:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
--- Strike a balance between generating new things/ideas, and being good/organized, somewhere between a gibberish mess and nothing said/done. ---
--- I've completed the built-in R'n'D levelsets, and lots of R'n'D downloaded levelsets; Finished enough? ---
filbo wrote: ↑Thu Jun 24, 2021 2:49 am
I have just a few you didn't solve. Also, was confused until I figured out that you meant levels 181, 182 on 2000 - Ben Briathwaite - Ben 200; not 101 & 102 on 'Ben 2000'.
Good catch,
Ben Braithwaite - Ben 2000 -> Ben Braithwaite - Ben 200, level 101 -> level 181, and level 102 -> level 182
filbo wrote: ↑Thu Jun 24, 2021 2:49 am
Here are tapes for:
Thanks for the tapes! They worked! It's good to see different ways of solving things.
If you want to see any tapes that I've done, feel free to ask.
--- Strike a balance between generating new things/ideas, and being good/organized, somewhere between a gibberish mess and nothing said/done. ---
--- I've completed the built-in R'n'D levelsets, and lots of R'n'D downloaded levelsets; Finished enough? ---
