Heartlight, a 90s single-screen Boulder Dash-like by Janusz Pelc

RAP · Post by **RAP** » Sun Aug 13, 2023 4:30 am

: Level 1 of Heartlight, based on https://www.playheartlight.online/; firefox_2023-08-12_20-50-13.png (1.45 MiB) Viewed 55767 times

So, about a week ago, I played a game called Heartlight, which I didn't know until recently that it was an older game that I thought! I originally played it as an Adobe Flash game all those years ago, and I thought it was made in the 2000s, but realizing it was released on 90s!

The version I played right now is on https://www.playheartlight.online/ - for which there are 70 of the original levels. The one I played before, the Adobe Flash version, there was an unusual system where your name is your save file, so that means, if I type another person's name, I would play their save file and their progress. This is one of the main reasons I didn't finish the game properly if I keep playing different levels and losing track of how much I done, that, and I was pretty dumb and couldn't figure out how to beat the much harder levels.

Details:

You can play any level from level 1 through 70, although I'm not sure if that's in the MS-DOS version.
Playfield of each level is 20 tiles horizontally, and 12 tiles vertically.
Movement overall is similar to the original Boulder Dash's movement of tile to tile, sudden warping from one tile to another.
You cannot snap or perform an action while staying in place, no grabbing nearby hearts or digging dirt while standing. This one simple distinction makes certain levels more difficult intentionally because of the lack of this tool.

Notable obstacles in this game:

The blue grenade; when dropped onto anything that isn't the soft grass tile, it explodes a 3 + 3 tile! Don't die being caught in the explosion!
One-way passageways, left or right variations; lets the player tunnel through them, the other side must be either empty space or grass, or else you cannot pass through!
Pink balloons; these things can push an 1 upward as they float towards the ceiling of the level, which includes the player! If it's 2 gravity-oriented objects, the balloon will actually be push downward by the weight instead!

Pointing these things out, one thing that stuck out from most of the Boulder Dash-likes in this genre is the lack of other creatures or enemies. This doesn't necessarily mean this game lacks action, as there's some levels in the original game on having to push rocks and having to deal with blue grenades when performing chain explosions as a form of a timer.

It took a couple of days to finish this, or 3-5 hours, and I felt really proud of finishing all 70 levels without looking up the solutions, especially the last level!

: Level 54 of Heartlight, based on https://www.playheartlight.online/ - showcasing the majority of the game objects; firefox_2023-08-12_20-53-33.png (1.25 MiB) Viewed 55767 times

I do wonder, since this game is freeware and the the original creator made it open source, I ponder if anyone else has played this before besides me ever since then.

Also, Any idea if there's been any custom levels? Surely in this genre of Boulder Dash-likes, there's levels to share!

ellipirelli · Post by **ellipirelli** » Sun Aug 13, 2023 9:05 am

Hi RAP, these colorful images have me excited. I have never heard of this game, but immediately thought that you can certainly replicate these graphics well. So I immediately
and found this site among many others(for all who like me don't know the game and like your pictures) :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heartlight_(video_game)
https://www.mobygames.com/game/753/heartlight/
(both with a good description of what the game is about).

https://www.classicdosgames.com/game/Heartlight_PC.html and https://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=4251 (ADF can be converted well with the appropriate tool)

The game was also offered on an old site by Martijn:
http://www.bd-fans.com/CommercialMSDOS.html (A small, bearded, delightful Elf has to perform a special task to prove his skill and ingenuity: collecting all of the hearts in each level and exit through the door! Heartlight appeared in the normal version (with 50 levels) in in the Deluxe version (with 70 levels).
And even here in the forum it has been discussed before, I guess it is the same game:
viewtopic.php?t=118

On the following page, someone has already tried their hand at this game:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/commen ... ?rdt=65341

Unfortunately, I have also found nothing about whether there are custom levels. On most pages it says that it is freeware, so it should be no problem to rebuild the levels for RnD and create your own.

RAP · Post by **RAP** » Wed Aug 16, 2023 6:42 pm

Nice stuff you found, ellipirelli! Seems this is all what it had right now on the internet, which is unfortunate. I feel there should've been a lot more back then but time hasn't been kind for a lot of the obscure and forgotten games, this one Heartlight being no exception.

So, a week ago, I was trying to search up the walkthrough solutions of the original Heartlight game, to see if they solved the more difficult levels differently than me, not really, thy were the intended solutions.

However, I stumbled upon a YouTube channel named "simperror", this is where I saw the solutions of the levels, but also, custom levels, but in a video format, even though they're still images. This person made 39 custom levels, and from a glance on some of them, they're a ton more harder than the original levels!

Here's what the description of each of the custom levels they made (from say https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy4kbmOxzMs):

Level created for PC version of Heartlight Deluxe.

If you don't own Heartlight and you would like to play my chambers you can download the whole game from this site (is legal - developer released this game as freeware):

http://www.classicdosgames.com/genre/...

You will also need a DosBox emulator to run this game, here is the link:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/dosbo...
To get the levels contact to me via youtube (give me your e-mail address) and I will send you levels.hl file.

Important notes:

1. All my levels can be won.
2. Every next level is tougher, so I suggest playing in numerical order.
3. In some of these levels to finish are needed extreme knowledge about the game ("special tricks" - which weren't used in original game) and excelet fingers skills (quickness and control).
4."Special tricks" - during many years of levels constrution (over 10) I discovered many unbelievable fantastic things, so if you don't know them you propably wont be able to win most of my chambers.
5. I didn't test my levels on PSP, so I don't know if it possible to win them on that platform (maybe some of "special tricks" dosen't work in this version).
6. If you found original levels tough don't waste your time on my levels (I made them for real Heartlight fanatics)
7. Don't give up too fast. To create some levels it took me 7 to 30 days, so dont be surprised if it will take you the same amount of time to finish them.
8. To save your time I suggest playing with using notpad editor. When you manage to pass some crucial parts of chamber go to the levels.hl file and edit it. But don't be too selfconfident that your are on the right way. You may discover at the end that somewhere you made a mistake (eg. losing of a rock). So make history of editing in your levels.hl file.
9. Thanks for everybody who plays my levels. If you won some of them I would really appreciate to watch your walkthroug on video (maybe I missed some bypasses of my puzzles)
10. If you find yourself as the Heartlight fanatic and after days of playing you gave up and you are sure that some of the level can't be won ask me for a walkthrough video. I will proof that you are wrong. But remember your request is my victory. It means that I defeated you ;-)

I am curious what they exactly mean by special tricks, but one strong example is on level 02, there are multiple players that I assume you have to control all at once, which wasn't a thing at all in the original Heartlight levelset, here's the image down below as an example:

: Level 2 of simperror's custom levelset - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL3DObLF5O0; Level_02.png (420.34 KiB) Viewed 55720 times

Apparently according to this person, this took months to create these levels. almost all of it from level 1 through 38 being on 2009. A bit more eye-opening, earlier within the past year, simperror actually made a new level, level 39, on 2022 November! Level 38 was released on 2009 August, which is almost 12 or 13 years, whoa! So this person is still alive recently as of 2022 November, nice:

: Level 39 of simperror's custom levelset - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhlo28_C7TQ; Level_39.png (832.61 KiB) Viewed 55720 times

If anyone's interested in simperror's levels, in the next couple or few posts, I can just document all of the levels that were posted, perhaps with me posting some limited commentary since I haven't played these levels before.

jm28121977 · Post by **jm28121977** » Thu Aug 17, 2023 8:13 pm

Thanks, RAP, for making us aware of this game. I binged to level 55 this afternoon while the wife and kids were out somewhere. I've decided to save the rest for tomorrow. It's got some really clever little puzzles and the grenades and balloons are interesting game elements.

Cheers,
Jamie

equinox · Post by **equinox** » Mon Oct 02, 2023 11:59 pm

RAP wrote: ↑Sun Aug 13, 2023 4:30 am So, about a week ago, I played a game called Heartlight,

An old MS-DOS classic, mate. I remember it very well, and I've re-played it a few times. I think it has about 70 levels.

Heartlight has that "Scandinavian" DOS feeling (simple and "just works"... I don't remember any "select your graphics card" nonsense... maybe made by demosceners). But the levels are also very small and clever: I'd like to say "concise" or "terse", although we only use those words for text. There's no nonsense, no bullshit, and not much learning curve. But it's fair and sweet. A very, very good game. Nothing random!

Also, the game doesn't have that many "elements" (there are rocks, bombs, hearts [jewels]) -- no moving enemies at all! -- but they are very carefully placed. The balloons (which can lift a single item) are particularly interesting.

RAP · Post by **RAP** » Mon Oct 16, 2023 9:04 pm

jm28121977 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 17, 2023 8:13 pm Thanks, RAP, for making us aware of this game. I binged to level 55 this afternoon while the wife and kids were out somewhere. I've decided to save the rest for tomorrow. It's got some really clever little puzzles and the grenades and balloons are interesting game elements.

Cheers,
Jamie

How has been progress through the game? You finished all of the levels?

equinox wrote: ↑Mon Oct 02, 2023 11:59 pm
RAP wrote: ↑Sun Aug 13, 2023 4:30 am So, about a week ago, I played a game called Heartlight,
An old MS-DOS classic, mate. I remember it very well, and I've re-played it a few times. I think it has about 70 levels.

Heartlight has that "Scandinavian" DOS feeling (simple and "just works"... I don't remember any "select your graphics card" nonsense... maybe made by demosceners). But the levels are also very small and clever: I'd like to say "concise" or "terse", although we only use those words for text. There's no nonsense, no bullshit, and not much learning curve. But it's fair and sweet. A very, very good game. Nothing random!

Also, the game doesn't have that many "elements" (there are rocks, bombs, hearts [jewels]) -- no moving enemies at all! -- but they are very carefully placed. The balloons (which can lift a single item) are particularly interesting.

Yeah, I'm surprised there isn't an official level editor of sorts that would extend the life of this game with custom levels!

Speaking of custom levels, for archiving preservation purposes, talking about a YouTube channel named 'simperror' regarding custom levels in an earlier post, I decided to screenshot all of the custom levels this person has made and posted it here so they can be recreated incase those YouTube videos. First, here's the list of all the levels in the form of videos:

Level 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHT5IAVld_w
Level 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL3DObLF5O0
Level 3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzgfVHd4U-U
Level 4 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r_PlcPW5WY
Level 5 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJQkfrlKhBM
Level 6 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNFHVU5xja0
Level 7 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncxJviEAWAk
Level 8 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR5fMwvpwjo
Level 9 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDGIaVqwIbE
Level 10 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeEXTtSm0gk
Level 11 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CElVH67hng
Level 12 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nziwQdwLGzI
Level 13 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psAbll-eu3M
Level 14 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-gQBYr9YcE
Level 15 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_KZS_EKj_Y
Level 16 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCNmz4-1WFE
Level 17 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6hdxIorT6w
Level 18 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z_11Snc_a4
Level 19 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET3RZ-J5D50
Level 20 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KX4uP4tW9k
Level 21 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KXtTcFLl1w
Level 22 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVvMKMTCwL0
Level 23 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZqwYI3i1UI
Level 24 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYytMG1aPMI
Level 25 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T28nZdYXfTM
Level 26 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBHD9wkpmGI
Level 27 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ieCh2Rnm0U
Level 28 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQWnwXP7dSk
Level 29 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7zMACO-kcU
Level 30 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQjyn1ScgsE
Level 31 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hUnCTL-JUE
Level 32 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha6C3lM0xeQ
Level 33 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qye_eDjAqLY
Level 34 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy4kbmOxzMs
Level 35 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5Ufc-7TkxA
Level 36 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUIl8xmSo-0
Level 37 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvhgsv874oM
Level 38 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aax56VZ85Xs
Level 39 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhlo28_C7TQ

And here's the screenshots so there's another source incase the videos were taken because of problems with YouTube; unfortunately I can only upload 8 attachments per post. Here are the first 8 levels from simperror, level 1 through 8, out of 39 so far:

: Level 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHT5IAVld_w; Level_01.png (562.88 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL3DObLF5O0; Level_02.png (420.34 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzgfVHd4U-U; Level_03.png (559.04 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 4 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r_PlcPW5WY; Level_04.png (573.96 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 5 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJQkfrlKhBM; Level_05.png (583.69 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 6 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNFHVU5xja0; Level_06.png (561.42 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 7 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncxJviEAWAk; Level_07.png (632.84 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 8 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR5fMwvpwjo; Level_08.png (587.5 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

RAP · Post by **RAP** » Mon Oct 16, 2023 9:06 pm

Continuing on uploading screenshots of the respective levels, here is level 9 through 16, out of the 39 levels from simperror:

: Level 9 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDGIaVqwIbE; Level_09.png (522.48 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 10 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeEXTtSm0gk; Level_10.png (588.31 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 11 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CElVH67hng; Level_11.png (614.83 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 12 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nziwQdwLGzI; Level_12_more_clean_480p.png (473.35 KiB) Viewed 55500 times

: Level 13 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psAbll-eu3M; Level_13.png (586.83 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 14 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-gQBYr9YcE; Level_14.png (498.94 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 15 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_KZS_EKj_Y; Level_15.png (525.36 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 16 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCNmz4-1WFE; Level_16.png (580.11 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

RAP · Post by **RAP** » Mon Oct 16, 2023 9:10 pm

Here's level 17 through 24 from simperror, out of the 39 levels. As a reminder, I can only upload 8 attachments per post:

: Level 17 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6hdxIorT6w; Level_17.png (405.23 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 18 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z_11Snc_a4; Level_18.png (523.26 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 19 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET3RZ-J5D50; Level_19.png (546.09 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 20 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KX4uP4tW9k; Level_20_more_clean_480p.png (536 KiB) Viewed 55501 times

: Level 21 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KXtTcFLl1w; Level_21.png (531.06 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 22 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVvMKMTCwL0; Level_22.png (558.48 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 23 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZqwYI3i1UI; Level_23.png (591.53 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 24 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYytMG1aPMI; Level_24.png (467.82 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

RAP · Post by **RAP** » Mon Oct 16, 2023 9:14 pm

Level 25 through 32, from simperror, I'm almost done uploading all the screenshots of the levels from the YouTube videos in this forum topic. These .PNG images were losslessly compressed as much as possible.

: Level 25 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T28nZdYXfTM; Level_25.png (553.74 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 26 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBHD9wkpmGI; Level_26.png (572.28 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 27 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ieCh2Rnm0U; Level_27.png (488.48 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 28 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQWnwXP7dSk; Level_28.png (542.6 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 29 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7zMACO-kcU; Level_29.png (531.94 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 30 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQjyn1ScgsE; Level_30.png (511.4 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 31 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hUnCTL-JUE; Level_31.png (526.68 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 32 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha6C3lM0xeQ; Level_32.png (411.34 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

RAP · Post by **RAP** » Mon Oct 16, 2023 9:19 pm

Finally, level 33 through 39, out of all of 39 levels from simperror!

: Level 33 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qye_eDjAqLY; Level_33.png (571.42 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 34 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy4kbmOxzMs; Level_34_more_clean_480p.png (494.33 KiB) Viewed 55499 times

: Level 35 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5Ufc-7TkxA; Level_35.png (557.62 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 36 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUIl8xmSo-0; Level_36.png (513.34 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 37 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvhgsv874oM; Level_37.png (521.63 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 38 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aax56VZ85Xs; Level_38.png (582.01 KiB) Viewed 55530 times

: Level 39 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhlo28_C7TQ; Level_39_more_clean_480p.png (837.52 KiB) Viewed 55499 times

I must say, these levels look absolutely insane even from a glance, as some of the people in the YouTube comments section weren't sure if the fanmade programs that recreate how the game logic functions would be able to replicate the glitches that were present in the original MS-DOS version of Heartlight.

If anyone that reads this can recreate the levels in some way and distribute it to make it easier to tackle the levels, that would be awesome!

filbo · Post by **filbo** » Mon Oct 16, 2023 9:43 pm

@RAP -- just curious, I went to the first youtube video link and see these comments from the author:

simperror via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHT5IAVld_w wrote:Level created for PC version of Heartlight Deluxe.

If you don't own Heartlight and you would like to play my chambers you can download the whole game from this site (is legal - developer released this game as freeware):

https://www.classicdosgames.com/game/Heartlight_PC.html

You will also need a DosBox emulator to run this game, here is the link:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfi...

To get the levels contact to me via youtube (give me your e-mail address) and I will send you levels.hl file.

Important notes:

1. All my levels can be won.
2. Every next level is tougher, so I suggest playing in numerical order.
3. In some of these levels to finish are needed extreme knowledge about the game ("special tricks" - which weren't used in original game) and excelet fingers skills (quickness and control).
4."Special tricks" - during many years of levels constrution (over 10) I discovered many unbelievable fantastic things, so if you don't know them you propably wont be able to win most of my chambers.
5. I didn't test my levels on PSP, so I don't know if it possible to win them on that platform (maybe some of "special tricks" dosen't work in this version).
6. If you found original levels tough don't waste your time on my levels (I made them for real Heartlight fanatics)
7. Don't give up too fast. To create some levels it took me 7 to 30 days, so dont be surprised if it will take you the same amount of time to finish them.
8. To save your time I suggest playing with using notpad editor. When you manage to pass some crucial parts of chamber go to the levels.hl file and edit it. But don't be too selfconfident that your are on the right way. You may discover at the end that somewhere you made a mistake (eg. losing of a rock). So make history of editing in your levels.hl file.
9. Thanks for everybody who plays my levels. If you won some of them I would really appreciate to watch your walkthroug on video (maybe I missed some bypasses of my puzzles)
10. If you find yourself as the Heartlight fanatic and after days of playing you gave up and you are sure that some of the level can't be won ask me for a walkthrough video. I will proof that you are wrong. But remember your request is my victory. It means that I defeated you ;-)

... my question: have you attempted to contact YouTube user 'simperror' to request their 'levels.hl' file, as stated in the comment?

Granted, they may not still be attached to the account 15 years later, but it should definitely be attempted...

BTW I patched the game line in the above quote, so it's an actual working link. That link includes a 'play it in dosbox' live game link (but afaik only gives access to the game's original levels, not 'simperror's). I didn't try to patch the dosbox link, it's 404 and, well, people can figure that part out themselves. DOS emulators exist for all sorts of platforms and I can't provide a single comprehensive substitute link!

BTW#2, a few of your images are fuzzy -- I think 12, 20, and especially 34. I didn't chase down the videos to see if they're inherently fuzzy, or maybe the video creator used some sort of 'fade in' and you mistakenly captured from the fade-in period.

Also the images are out of order in one or two of your posts (not important, just a little weird :)

Post by **Holger** » Mon Oct 16, 2023 9:53 pm

First of all, thanks a lot, RAP, for posting about this game that I did not know before, and for posting all that interesting stuff about Heartlight!

I have played it a bit in the browser version, and also played a few levels in the original DOS game using dosbox. I like it!

And I especially agree with Equinox about the game regarding the "no frills" aspect! I immediately liked the simplicity of the user interface and player interaction -- just playing with simple direction input (that is, cursor keys), without things like "grabbing" or "snapping" game elements (like in most other BD/EM clones), which is not obvious to those who never played this kind of games. And simply (and quickly) just selecting any level you like (but with a progress indicator on those levels that were solved, even though this is lost again after a restart). Escape key simply restarts the level. Everything works very easy, directly and as expected. Well done!

Yeah, I'm surprised there isn't an official level editor of sorts that would extend the life of this game with custom levels!

Because you just need any random text editor to create your levels! (Agreed, an integrated (or separate) level editor would make things easier, of course.)

If anyone that reads this can recreate the levels in some way and distribute it to make it easier to tackle the levels, that would be awesome!

It's easy, even though it may take a while (but not too long) to transfer the above levels from screenshot to text format. It would just be another text file that would replace the "LEVELS.HL" file in the DOS program package. The original version looks like the following, so it is immediately clear how to add those new, custom levels:

Code: Select all

            -------------------------------------------------------
                     Heartlight PC levels definitions
            -------------------------------------------------------
                empty space          (space)
            $   heart                (dollar sign)
            @   rock                 (at, SHIFT + 2)
            .   grass                (period)
            *   the dwarf            (asterisk, SHIFT + 8)
            !   exit door            (exclamation point, SHIFT + 1)
            &   bomb                 (ampersand, SHIFT + 7)
            0   balloon              (the number zero)
            =   plasma               (equal sign)
            #   brick wall           (number sign, SHIFT + 3)
            %   metal wall           (percent, SHIFT + 5)
            <   tunnel to the left   (less than sign)
            >   tunnel to the right  (greater than sign)


author: Janusz Pelc
{
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%....@.....@.$.....%
%.*..@$...@@@@...@.%
%....@...$.......@.%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%.$.%
%....@@...@....@...%
%.@...$..@...$.@...%
%.@.%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%$.@...@.@...$@....%
%....@@..@$...@$..@!
%.$....@.@..@..$..@%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
}

author: Janusz Pelc
{
...
}

But yes, the easiest way would be if the author would just add a download link to the corresponding text file for his custom levels!

Update: Apparently you can get the level file by mail directly from the author -- I wonder if he would mind if it would be published here, for example.

jm28121977 · Post by **jm28121977** » Mon Oct 16, 2023 10:11 pm

[/quote]
How has been progress through the game? You finished all of the levels?

I finished it the next day. Loved the last level

equinox · Post by **equinox** » Mon Oct 16, 2023 10:13 pm

Holger wrote: ↑Mon Oct 16, 2023 9:53 pm First of all, thanks a lot, RAP, for posting about this game that I did not know before, and for posting all that interesting stuff about Heartlight!
I have played it a bit in the browser version, and also played a few levels in the original DOS game using dosbox. I like it!

So we shall see it in the next R&D release. You've even already got a balloon graphic!
wink

Holger wrote: ↑Mon Oct 16, 2023 9:53 pm And I especially agree with Equinox

hearts and lights

You've reminded me that I really need to post about "BD4" while it still exists... (not what you think)
(and maybe some other games -- and some other things -- I had a large "BDDB" Boulder Dash database a zillion years ago, but a guy stole my content so I tore the site down)

jm28121977 is correct: the last Heartlight level is savage but simple and beautiful. (Oh, he was talking about the new fan-made levels, not the originals, right?) By the way, it can't be difficult to find the author, if you need to do so.

RAP · Post by **RAP** » Tue Oct 17, 2023 1:13 am

filbo wrote: ↑Mon Oct 16, 2023 9:43 pm ... my question: have you attempted to contact YouTube user 'simperror' to request their 'levels.hl' file, as stated in the comment?

Granted, they may not still be attached to the account 15 years later, but it should definitely be attempted...

BTW I patched the game line in the above quote, so it's an actual working link. That link includes a 'play it in dosbox' live game link (but afaik only gives access to the game's original levels, not 'simperror's). I didn't try to patch the dosbox link, it's 404 and, well, people can figure that part out themselves. DOS emulators exist for all sorts of platforms and I can't provide a single comprehensive substitute link!

BTW#2, a few of your images are fuzzy -- I think 12, 20, and especially 34. I didn't chase down the videos to see if they're inherently fuzzy, or maybe the video creator used some sort of 'fade in' and you mistakenly captured from the fade-in period.

Also the images are out of order in one or two of your posts (not important, just a little weird

I have not contacted YouTube user 'simperror' sadly. I created the screenshots of those respective levels shortly after making my post back in 2023 August, but I was too preoccupied with other things at the time. I restumbled the screenshots earlier today and thought that I gotta upload those images or else who knows if I'll restumble upon those files and actually do it.

I'm not sure if there's a way to contact said person, as there's no email address at their YouTube channel 'About' page, and leaving an email address even if it has spam protection in the YouTube comments section doesn't seem to sit well with me personally, and who knows if the person is still alive, although they did upload level 39 as recent as 2022 November.

filbo wrote: ↑Mon Oct 16, 2023 9:43 pm BTW#2, a few of your images are fuzzy -- I think 12, 20, and especially 34. I didn't chase down the videos to see if they're inherently fuzzy, or maybe the video creator used some sort of 'fade in' and you mistakenly captured from the fade-in period.

Some of the images were unfortunately blurry like that, especially level 20 with some slightly different coloring compared to the other videos relatively, although I do now realize I captured them with the video resolution of 360p, since it seems like most or all of the videos are in 480p. It doesn't seem to matter with links like level 19 still being blurry even in 480p. Some of them do look okay even blurry, but I can see some concern on the tunnel tiles not being able to be easily recognizable from a glance unless paid attention carefully.

I'll see if I can replace the existing images from the previous posts through editing the existing posts, I hope so!

EDIT: I have replaced images of level 12, level 20, level 34, and level 39 being the one of the worst offenders.

filbo wrote: ↑Mon Oct 16, 2023 9:43 pm Also the images are out of order in one or two of your posts (not important, just a little weird

Oh? Can you please tell me which images are out of order? I thought I uploaded them in the correct order, and wouldn't mind correcting it.

jm28121977 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 16, 2023 10:11 pm I finished it the next day. Loved the last level

Awesome! Nice! How did you felt playing all the levels and finishing them? Beat them without looking the solution? For me, it felt awesome being able to best the game without looking up for solutions, I find that majorly satisfying.

equinox wrote: ↑Mon Oct 16, 2023 10:13 pm You've reminded me that I really need to post about "BD4" while it still exists... (not what you think)
(and maybe some other games -- and some other things -- I had a large "BDDB" Boulder Dash database a zillion years ago, but a guy stole my content so I tore the site down)

Off-topic from this topic, but I seriously want to see this! The Boulder Dash database to note! Please talk about this in another topic, I wanna go through playing a ton of these Boulder Dash-likes and chatter here in this forum.

Rocks'n'Diamonds

Heartlight, a 90s single-screen Boulder Dash-like by Janusz Pelc

Heartlight, a 90s single-screen Boulder Dash-like by Janusz Pelc

Re: Heartlight, a 90s single-screen Boulder Dash-like by Janusz Pelc

Re: Heartlight, a 90s single-screen Boulder Dash-like by Janusz Pelc

Re: Heartlight, a 90s single-screen Boulder Dash-like by Janusz Pelc

Re: Heartlight, a 90s single-screen Boulder Dash-like by Janusz Pelc

Re: Heartlight, a 90s single-screen Boulder Dash-like by Janusz Pelc

Re: Heartlight, a 90s single-screen Boulder Dash-like by Janusz Pelc

Re: Heartlight, a 90s single-screen Boulder Dash-like by Janusz Pelc

Re: Heartlight, a 90s single-screen Boulder Dash-like by Janusz Pelc

Re: Heartlight, a 90s single-screen Boulder Dash-like by Janusz Pelc

Re: Heartlight, a 90s single-screen Boulder Dash-like by Janusz Pelc

Re: Heartlight, a 90s single-screen Boulder Dash-like by Janusz Pelc

Re: Heartlight, a 90s single-screen Boulder Dash-like by Janusz Pelc

Re: Heartlight, a 90s single-screen Boulder Dash-like by Janusz Pelc

Re: Heartlight, a 90s single-screen Boulder Dash-like by Janusz Pelc