Emerald Mine Club levelset completion progress

Ryz · Post by **Ryz** » Tue Mar 06, 2018 11:41 pm

Well, this should be the last of me outright skimming and deciding to skip levels. For a reason for me doing this, I've been trying to figure out what stuff to quickly clear out so that I can play levelsets that are less super reused or levels that came from other levelsets, and I cleaned out those that didn't have much of a release year from cross-referencing with Emerald Web. That also occurs in 1 or 2 previous posts.

Here's the following levelsets that I halted playing/skipped in detail:
WATER MINE UPDATE by Mr.Practice & Mick Williams

The update is apparently 1999? I don't know if right...
I can't play this mostly because most of the levels from the original are in here. I could play the replacement levels, but I don't know if there's tweaks on the original levels in the updated version, like a higher gem count requirement.
LEVELSET SKIPPED!

PROFI BOULDERDASH 02 by EDV (according to Emerald Web), or S.S.P. (according to files)

Date suggested: 1989
Waitaminute...level 0 is the exact same as the one from Boulder Dash Professional. In fact, it seems all of the levels are from that levelset. Even in level 80, there's a bunch of objects that make it say "KukoSOFT". Yeah, skipping.
LEVELSET SKIPPED due to being the same levelset as Boulder Dash Professional!

COSMOS MINE 06 - REVENGE OF THE ALIENS by Skippy

Files timestamp: too random and thus unknown.
Waitaminute, is that just Cold Caves? Level 0?! Even checking https://youtu.be/Jb2NeuFX7WM?t=30 ! Even if it is just one level, I'm suspcious. Skippy, why? Skipping.
LEVELSET SKIPPED due to perception of duplicated/reused/almost same level design!

SOLOMON'S LOST MINE 01 and SOLOMON'S LOST MINE 02 by unknown creator

The first one suggests 1993, while the other is eh?
These two just use one of the Emerald Mine (Kingsoft) levelsets! Instant skip!
BOTH LEVELSETS SKIPPED!

GOLD NUGGETS 1 and GOLD NUGGETS 2 by Skippy

Unknown date to both sadly.
...They look too similar/copied/reused...the levels! Sigh, skipping.
BOTH LEVELSETS SKIPPED!

HAUNTED MINE 01, HAUNTED MINE 02, HAUNTED MINE 03, HAUNTED MINE 04, and HAUNTED MINE 04B by Skippy

...Sigh, skipping. Skippy, why?
According to data, it's unfortunately uh to all of them but 4b, which is released in 1994.
5 LEVELSETS SKIPPED!

PACMINE DELUXE 01, PACMINE DELUXE 02, PACMINE DELUXE 03, and PACMINE DELUXE 04 by Skippy

Data unfortunately doesn't suggest a date.
I'm always been hoping that Skippy has a unqiue standout levelset that isn't like the others...but sadly it's a nope. Too many levels from Skippy exposed to me by the amount of reuse and rehash these have been concevied.
The only thing interesting is most likely the graphic artstyle of trying to ape on Pac-Man~
Pacmine Deluxe, level 30: There's text that says "Ykikakau 1", which might refer to Ykikakau Mine 01...why? Did Skippy snagged a level from that levelset and used it here? Yeah, there's even text that says "L64", which may refer to the level 64.
4 LEVELSETS SKIPPED!

EAGLE MINE 19 by Eagle

Skimmed through the levelset... the levels look familiar, even in level 33, it says 'Watermine 1' from the Boulders. I'm now immediately suscipious of this whole levelset series. Even more so than 'Eagle Mine 15' and the seemingly huge upgrade of level design, and then more or less reverted back. Skipping.
Data suggests 1997.
LEVELSET SKIPPED to be perception of reused content!

EAGLE MINE 21, EAGLE MINE 22, EAGLE MINE 23, EAGLE MINE 24, EAGLE MINE 25, EAGLE MINE 27, and EAGLE MINE 28 by Eagle

...Skippy, is that you? There's some of those levels made by Skippy that's found in the earlier levels. Sigh, you know the song and dance~ On Eagle Mine 21 and Eagle Mine 22.
Eagle Mine 23 has some Bond Mine levels, such as level 03 through level 18. There's even question marks that usually say 'De Bond', there's more than that, level 80 is just level 0 of Emerald Mine II (Kingsoft).
Eagle Mine 24 seems to be more of a Skippy levelset.
Eagle Mine 25 appears to be a mix of De Bond's levels and Skippy's levels, as there's explict evidence of De Bond's work in level 67.
Eagle Mine 27 has markings in level 12 (De Bond), and level 14 (Blockheads).
Eagle Mine 28's level 22 is the exact same level as level 14 from Eagle Mine 27!
Data suggests 1998 on Eagle Mine 21, Eagle Mine 22, Eagle 23, Eagle Mine 24, and Eagle Mine 25, while 1999 suggests on Eagle Mine 27, and Eagle Mine 28.
There could be more levelsets that I may be skipping as I play more of the other levelsets.
7 LEVELSETS SKIPPED to be perception of reused content!

PACMINIA 01 through PACMINIA 12 by Skippy

It has an interesting theme artstyle...but Skippy?
It's rather curious that there's some levelsets that have levels errored out and replaced with a manual error level, or it just doesn't exists. Example: Pacminia 10, level 22.
There's no info on the dates of all of those levelsets.
12 LEVELSETS SKIPPED to be perception of reused content!

COSMOS MINE 03 through COSMOS MINE 5, and COSMOS MINE 7 through COSMOS MINE 10 by Skippy

Skippy? Skippy...
7 LEVELSETS SKIPPED to be perception of reused content!

In the next post, I will definitely post solution tapes on levelsets that at least are not level recycling/reuse heavy. I have a feeling that skimming through all of the Daddy Mine series, that I would be in a treat on loads of fun that's not trial or error, or even luck-based.

Post by **Holger** » Thu Mar 08, 2018 10:16 am

Thanks a lot, Ryan, for your detailed observations on EMC level sets!

I think they are very valuable in several regards:

- first of all, finding out which sets are worth playing from that huge lot of level sets!
- finding out which sets contain levels that may be unsolvable with the current EM engine
- (this will be helpful for a future rework/update of the EM engine)
- finding out which sets are merely copies of other sets

Regarding the last point, I still have to post an automatic comparison of levels in sets using hashes, which might help in detecting duplicate sets...

filbo · Post by **filbo** » Thu Mar 08, 2018 6:38 pm

> I still have to post an automatic comparison of levels in sets using hashes, which might help in detecting duplicate sets...

There are pure duplicates, there are duplicates with small tweaks (stamping in a levelset name & number, e.g.), and there are duplicates where certain mass substitutions have been done (like replacing grass with sand, regular walls with some equivalent letter or something).

I've done something in the past where I basically did:

cat $level_a | xz -9e | wc -c
cat $level_a $level_b | xz -9e | wc -c

Use the strongest currently available compression engine. If two files are nearly identical (changed name stamp), the resulting output is only a few bytes larger than for one file alone.

A filter which could be used to preprocess levels, changing all elements to their simplest equivalent forms (grass -> sand, all smashable letters and other wall-like objects -> normal wall, all unsmashable letters etc. -> steel wall, and so on), could be used before this sort of comparison. I imagine the combination would find many times more near-identical levels than a simple hash comparison would.

It is not always the case that a near-identical level is a total ripoff. Changes like: requiring to collect every emerald, when the original let you be sloppy (and there were difficulties like unstably placed bombs, downhill acid pools, etc.); moving a few spaceships or bugs around so that timings are more difficult; adding a single wall which requires more complex strategy to figure out how to break; etc. -- can transform a simple level into a completely different challenge.

But, most near-identical levels are just crappy ripoffs. It's worthwhile to detect them and be able to report something about them (identical, restamped, no-effect element changes, etc.)

Ryz · Post by **Ryz** » Sat Mar 17, 2018 12:47 am

It's time for the long awaited update, 8 levelsets solved with solution tapes! But first, spreadsheet list!:

EMC levelset status (2018 03-March 16).ods: (25.84 KiB) Downloaded 2484 times

Here are my thoughts on levelsets I played and solved:
BOBBY DASH by Monty Bob

Before playing this levelset, according to "Tough and Deadly Mine", some of the levels that came from this were made by Scorpio, but this is made by Monty Bob. Are those two names from the same person? This levelset was released in 1991, whereas "Tough and Deadly Mine" was released in 1995.
Level 25: Interesting, one of the outer border Steel Walls is replaced with a spot for Player 2...there's no wraparound involved though.
There are levels like level 48 where you have the dynamite through Amoeba, which for the latter is usually indicated that you have to use enemies to blast through it. It could've been just Normal Wall, unless there's enemies that act as additional use to go through those walls.
Level 57: Bombing Amoeba is rather tense since it can spawn Amoeba Drops, which could harm the player when it lands on it...yeah.
Just for sillies, level 102 (not intended to be there) is a duplicate of level 42.
This levelset is pretty normal, which is nice as a break from the more devious levelsets.
LEVELSET SOLVED: BOBBY DASH (2018 02-Feb 26 = 2018 02-Feb 27): 0-80, 81 levels solved

PORNO MINE 01 by De Bond

What the hell is this dumb stuff? I can say that it's pretty novel for being an Emerald Mine levelset that has this particular theme, unsure if the likes of Supaplex, or even Boulder Dash has something equivalent to this (Supaplex way less likely due to seemingly no custom graphics, and Boulder Dash more likely due to the amount of abundant user levelsets this game has!).
After playing a few rounds with this graphic set, the novelty already wore off.
Level 16: Most tedious so far, bombing the Robots safely and occasionally dropping Rocks that pop out from Quicksand, in a level of repeating diagonal patterns of quicksand!
Level 19: I'm honestly stumped about this at first, basically there are 4 sections where it consists of a set of boulders, a series of nuts that's shaped into a diamond, and a magic wall with empty space pre-cleared out. Oh, I just have to dump just the rocks into the magic wall and just collect the emeralds that came from the nuts; though it would've been more difficult (I could make a level from that).
Level 38: Took 10 minutes to get almost all of the gems that are present in the level, in which it involves a rougher quicksand and acid pool layout, with no presence of dirt, and use of dynmite to get to the gems as necessary.
Level 44: Took almost 8 minutes to finish that level! There's a lot of repetitive and time consuming stuff like releasing spaceships into the acid pool, and filtering gems from rocks with quicksand, and among other things that are dense and take time.
Level 45: There's Letter Wall text that says '1994'...released or made in 1994?
Level 77: Takes 10 minutes to beat it, what. Basically the last several levels take a bunch of time!
This levelset, good if you want a palette clenser from playing the first 10 Bond Mine levelsets in the series. Otherwise, probably pass.
LEVELSET SOLVED: PORNO MINE 01 (2018 02-Feb 28 = 2018 03-Mar 01): 0-80, 81 levels solved

DADDY MINE series by Big Daddy

According to the files, all of the levelsets have been released in 1996.
There's been some confusion on whether it's by Big Daddy (according to R'n'D) or if it is by Bealinea and Nordlicht (according to the Emerald Web)...help clear it up?
A couple of distinctions from the other levelsets:
- You generally are always located at the top-left side of the level (there's some exceptions where the player is located somewhere else), where you can collect your dynamite that varies by number and leave the room with a colored key or through some other means. You're occupied by not only the name of the levelset, but also the level number.
- All the levels, you need all 255 Emeralds, the max it can be collected before level exiting!
- Levels' time limit is 500 seconds, although later levelsets cough out even more time!
A funny running trend on a level archtype in regards to a maze-like level filled with gems at the end of the dead paths:
- Daddy Mine 01, level 64: Maze full of Emeralds!
- Daddy Mine 02, level 18: maze and diamonds! ...but Steel Wall!
- Daddy Mine 02, level 65: emeralds and diamonds!
- Daddy Mine 03, level 27: Diamond-filled mazey~
- Daddy Mine 03, level 49: gems in the mazes!
- Daddy Mine 04, level 05: you can blast through the walls!
- Daddy Mine 04, level 13: Not this one though, but you collect tons of Emeralds!
- Daddy Mine 06, level 06: the start of the same feeling!
- Daddy Mine 06, level 17: and it goes!
- Daddy Mine 06, level 46: less mazy, more roomy areas, but still generally the same
- Daddy Mine 06, level 62: back to mazey!
- Daddy Mine 07, level 21: more like a loose maze
- Daddy Mine 07, level 07: repeating, even if the maze is shifted around
- Daddy Mine 08, level 42: samey same
- Daddy Mine 09, level 04: oh the same
- Daddy Mine 09, level 21: and the same
- Daddy Mine 09, level 25: filled with absolute Emeralds!
- Daddy Mine 09, level 45: Not much diggy, but still a maze
- Daddy Mine 09, level 65: mazey!
- Daddy Mine 10, level 06: can it be not the same?
- Daddy Mine 10, level 44: Even more mazey!
- Daddy Mine 11, level 31: oh hey, you can blast through the walls again, yaaaaay!
There's probably more archtype levels, but it's not as obvious as that!
Another archtype level that's used a lot, too many to count: Lots of levels that involves sending tons of Bugs to Amoeba for their gems, non-growing or growing. Despite the amount of shapes and obstacles the levels have, most of the levels can be cheesed by using dynamite to blow up a huge group of Bugs, and you can quickly collect them efficiently and exit out quicker than normal. I'm not sure if that's the level creator's intention, but it feels nice just to clear it, not so much on wanting to crave levels like this where it's attacked in different ways.
It's time to say my thoughts on the first 5 levelsets:
- Daddy Mine 01, in most of the levels that involve tons of Bugs that need to be killed for their gems to be harvested, you can quickly take a shortcut and use dynamite, which gives more than enough gems to finish the levels.
- Daddy Mine 01, level 16: Oh, that's a bit funny, it's the exact same as the previous level, except that the top layer of rocks that's aside the blue door is replaced with Steel Walls.
- Daddy Mine 01, level 55: That level that you'll start feeling the pressure of the time running out due to the slow process of freeing the Bugs in a spiral corridor, accompanied by occasional Amoeba, and when letting go, exposing to a medium-sized area of Amoeba to die from.
- Daddy Mine 01, level 80: One of the few levels where dynamiting may not be guranteed because the Bugs are scattered in a relatively open area! Which means you have to play the level and can't cheese it!
- LEVELSET SOLVED: DADDY MINE 01 (2018 03-Mar 06 = 2018 03-Mar 07):
  0-80, 81 levels solved!
- Daddy Mine 02, level 0: Almost the exact same level as the final level in Daddy Mine 1...I decided to march on because the difference is there's no text that would make Bug killing a bit easier...or more harder, hmm~. And that each play of the level is different by how you set up the kill and the Amoeba growth.
- Daddy Mine 02, level 47: It's time to slow to a crawl, as you have to wait for the Android to replicate the Bug slowly, which would take until 4-5 minutes later to just dynamite only one to chain explosion all of them out of existence!
- Daddy Mine 02, level 48: Another useless area, even more useless than that other level, there's a section that's all just Spacehips rotating in place.
- LEVELSET SOLVED: DADDY MINE 02 (2018 03-Mar 07 = same):
  0-80, 81 levels solved!
- Daddy Mine 03, level 00: It's the exact same level as Daddy Mine 2, level 80! Skipping that level!
- Daddy Mine 03, level 17: Tedious getting the gems, it's not that exciting because there's less and less Yam Yams, which makes the level just boring than somewhat exciting. This is also because there's not much other options to collect gems, with 2 gems leftover. This is also the first level in the Daddy Mine series where it's not the maximum 255 gems needed to exit (it's 200!).
- Daddy Mine 03, level 52: W-waitaminute, isn't it just level 51? Literally the only differences that a Quicksand tile with a Boulder is removed, and the bottom-right corner that is Empty Space is filled with simply Dirt. Is this an error? I'm skipping that level!
- Daddy Mine 03, level 59: Longest level to play so far, gotta harvest all the gems with 2 Emeralds to spare, and you have to get them through dynamiting a bunch of rock and normal wall in which unlike regular Normal Walls, this one doesn't make gems roll off~
- Daddy Mine 03, level 75: Probably the only level in this levelset where you can't leave from the top left door of the starting area.
- Daddy Mine 03, level 75: And probably the only level in this levelset that you can leave from the right side of the starting area.
- Daddy Mine 03, level 80: So it continues, the trend of connecting from this levelset to the next. I wonder if it has an ending.
- LEVELSET SOLVED: DADDY MINE 03 (2018 03-Mar 08 = 2018 03-Mar 10):
  1-51, 53-80, 79 levels solved!
- Daddy Mine 04, level 00: Skipping because Daddy Mine 03, level 80 was a thing, the only difference is that there's no Letter Wall text that says "This is level 0 von Daddymine 4", and that doesn't really effect anything major gameplay wise when you're just getting the gems the same way, as the difference in distribution of Bugs roaming isn't substantial enough to be worth playing.
- Daddy Mine 04, level 03: First level where the exit resides in the starting area!
- Daddy Mine 04, level 07: First level in the whole series that is 180 seconds and not 500 seconds!
- Daddy Mine 04, level 10: First level to not only have a Magic Ball and its' switch, but the exit can't be accessed easily unlike many other Bug and Amoeba levels~
- Daddy Mine 04, level 14: ...this is a Skippy-esque level, very repetitive, it's more of a marathon to not screw up on collecting the gems and not drop into the acid as it's covered in Boulders to make it annoying to deal with. There's a reason why these types of levels have not shown up in the difficulty compliation levelsets in BD4. At least it doesn't require you every single gem, and if you lose even just one, start over the level again.
- Daddy Mine 04, level 40: One of the few levels where you spawn outside of the usual starting area. You can't even go back to the starting area. This is a rather curious level in which you have to optimize how the Spaceships move and not somehow bump each other, by making hard 3x3 turns and not 2x2 turns, which would make clearing out them much more annoying.
- Daddy Mine 04, level 45: It's lasting way more than just the usual 500 seconds, it's 900 seconds due to having to wait until all the released Spaceships are cleared out into the Acid Pool.
- Daddy Mine 04, level 72: 640 seconds instead of 500? I'm not sure, you could argue it's because of dealing with Spaceships, but there's an abdunance of Diamonds that would give way to finishing the goal quickly.
- Daddy Mine 04, level 75: 600 seconds instead of 500...for trying to retrieve gems equivalent to Bugs from the Yam Yams? I could just hold the snap button and collect the rolling gems as the boulders pass by. It's boring, but it's better than dying by being hit by a rock or gem.
- Daddy Mine 04, level 76: 1000 seconds instead of 500? Because of those robots? I could just use dynamite to bomb them off one by one, or lure them into Acid as a longway. Took almost half the time needed to do this.
- Daddy Mine 04, level 77: 900 instead of 500 seconds...just dynamite the Bugs, they chain explode into gems!
- Daddy Mine 04, overall, from the half of the levels, you can't really rush some of them as the creator did some implementations in a way that you have to do them legit and can't use dynamite!
- LEVELSET SOLVED: DADDY MINE 04 (2018 03-Mar 10 = 2018 03-Mar 13):
  1-80, 80 lvls solved!
- Daddy Mine 05, level 00: You know the drill, it's the same as Daddy Ming 04, level 80, but without the text that says "This is level 0 von Daddymine 5", but the removal doesn't effect how the level is played enough to make a gameplay difference. Skipping as usual.
- Daddy Mine 05, level 02: ...wow, this is horrible and repetitive, just trying to free the Spaceships and send them into the acid...at least 15 times!
- Daddy Mine 05, level 20: The explicit markings of "Daddy" in Diamonds
- Daddy Mine 05, level 23: 900 seconds instead of 500, yeah, because of breaking those nuts
- Overall, there's an increasing amount of levels that have varied time limits and there are less opportunities to use dynamites to cheese the levels, but it's rather a blur to be honest.
- LEVELSET SOLVED: DADDY MINE 05 (2018 03-Mar 13 = 2018 03-Mar 16):
  1-80, 80 lvls solved!

Here are the following levelsets solved in single player:

2018 03-March 16 (part 1 of 2).zip: Levelset tapes: Daddy Mine 01, Daddy Mine 02, Daddy Mine 03, and Daddy Mine 04; (214.8 KiB) Downloaded 2199 times

2018 03-March 16 (part 2 of 2).zip: Levelset tapes: Bobby Dash, Daddy Mine 05, and Porno Mine 01; (231.98 KiB) Downloaded 2068 times

Ryz · Post by **Ryz** » Fri Jul 20, 2018 6:49 am

Oh hey folks, I'm not MIA, I was rather busy for the last couple of months, but I did indeed went through a lot of levelsets that I had to skip, with 6 levelsets that are fully solved and taped in single player! First, here's the spreadsheet list:

EMC levelset status (2018 07-Jul 19).ods: (27.13 KiB) Downloaded 2063 times

Here are my thoughts on levelsets I played and solved:
DADDY MINE 06 by Big Daddy

Level 00: Well then, there's no text as usual, not having "This is level 0 von Daddymine 6", but the fourth Yam Yam set at the left set has been adjusted to be somehwat easier...technically that means it's a viable level that's different by gameplay differences to the point that I have to play it even though they are very similar!
Level 03: There's text that says "Daddys Ausgang"...wonder what that means.
Level 31: Text made with Emeralds, "Daddy-1996".
Level 48: Wow, this is easily the most tedious level I've encountered so far, perhaps out of all the levels in the Emerald Mine Club. Basically, get gems from the nuts in the most tedious and stressful way possible, with Yam Yams distributing the Nuts and Boulders as they go down repeatedly until not spawning anymore by that Steel Wall. You can pick the stuff slowly, but that's really all you do. Took 13.5 mins to get all the necessary gems! Can't imagine a mistake that would lead to starting the level all over again.
Level 59: Text that says "Daddy-Mine 6", "Oktober", and "1996"...this is made in October?
Level 60: What?! This is the exact same level as level 03, but with the text that says "Bonus level"! Skipping this level!
Level 69: This definitely looks like a De Bond-equse level (from the Bond Mine series), with 1 or 2 gems contained in just 1 Empty Space and they're surrounded by doors, the way you open containers from killing Yam Yams, the way the nuts are set up as you have break 2 columns worth of it, and having to escape from the Robots as you go to the exit in a set-defined Dirt path.
Level 80: Unsure if conversion or human-made error, text says "Dies?ist level 00 von Daddy-Mine 7", noting the "?" in the text.
LEVELSET SOLVED: DADDY MINE 06 (2018 03-Mar 16 = 2018 03-Mar 17): 0-59, 61-80, 79 levels solved

DADDY MINE 07 by Big Daddy

Level 00: It's like Daddy Mine 06, level 80, but it's faster to finish the level because with the lack of added text, there's additional gems at the bottom of the level, thus, this is played! Although, there's added text at the top of the level that says "Willkommen zu Daddymine 7 1996", with those pockets of Diamonds removed.
Level 06: The nuts, rolling to the left, and they ate the Bugs...what, why?
Level 20: Same level as Daddy Mine 06, level 68...it's only some decorational differences...skipping!
Level 38: This level layout looks familiar...a bit too familiar... I can't seem to find it in the previous Daddy Mine levelsets via skimming, but I can't help but feel it's been reused somewhere else. The way they're released through the use of quicksand, or having the boulders drop on Bugs to make chain explosions is distinctive enough for me to feel like this.
Level 42: The rocks, they push themselves to the right once and smashed those Yam Yams!
Level 58: Most time-consuming level ever, due to the fact that even after collecting the necessary 255 gems, you need to clear your way to the exit that's guarded by a load of Bugs! You can't dynamite your way because it would destory the exit as well!
Level 60: ...Is this the same bonus level as level 20 in this levelset? It's like Daddy Mine 06, level 03, but this one has the gem sets from the left and right side, which means I have to beat it because it's easier to finish the level faster.
Level 69: ...It's too similar to the previous bonus levels, even though the difference is there's two of them instead of just one.
Level 74: Unsure if first level in Daddy Mine series to feature an Android (but tis needed to create more Bugs...which seems to be a specific direction, which according to the editor, is all four of them, interesting)
LEVELSET SOLVED: DADDY MINE 07 (2018 03-Mar 17 = 2018 03-Mar 20): 0-19, 21-80, 80 levels solved

DADDY MINE 08 by Big Daddy

Level 00: Same as last level in Daddy Mine 07, only removal is the usual text, but it isn't game changing enough if I can just dynamite those Bugs and get those gems accordingly.
Level 09: Growing walls? Vertically?
Level 20: Bonus level...way too similar...to Daddy Mine 07, level 20! Skipping!
Level 40: Bonus level...so similar, even with the inclusion of Bugs to kill with Amoeba. Hmm... Still played it though.
Level 60: ...this is the exact same bonus level as Daddy Mine 07, level 60...instant skip!
Level 74: Unsure if engine quirk, but it appears that when Yam Yam explodes, the contents of a Amoeba seems to be always in Amoeba drops, and not Amoeba itself?
LEVELSET SOLVED: DADDY MINE 08 (2018 03-Mar 20 = 2018 03-Mar 22): 1-19, 21-59, 61-90, 78 levels solved

BUG MINE 02 - THE REVENGE by Noshtromo 2000

Bug Mine 02, level 03: An invisible Dripper? In that part where there's a Spaceship, and the next area is sealed by Invisible Walls (or more importantly, Drippers?). Also, I like that fun sequence where when the Nut breaks from the rock, only the Emerald will roll off into the Magic Wall, not the Rock, due to the slippery properities of Steel Walls when it comes to gems.
Bug Mine 02, level 08: Oh hey, 1 in 4 chance of getting the key by bombing an Invisible Wall with a Dynamite in the hopes that there isn't yet another one behind that very key.
Bug Mine 02, level 11: I like the way that in the last part of the level, you have to weave through the doors and pick up dynamite to bomb on the walls to acces to the next weaving part of it as you collect the last gems upon forwarding to the exit.
Level 18: There's the code incase you wanna see the solution via level editor.
Level 22 (26?): The first part of dropping rocks on Yam Yams, it's rather tricky (and luck-based) in that you have to hit them when they are in the middle of the Yam Yam's path. Any deviation to the point of blockage by its contents means a do-over.
Level 26: This level is mean in having you go back and fourth, with the last part involving Quicksand being a backstabber if you don't think ahead of what the level traps you up from progressing further since you can't see boulders in Quicksand. Took around an hour or two to beat this, with a recording of about 9 minutes!
Level 53: Most difficult level so far, it's a Bug and Amoeba level!
Level 55: "Soon coming Bugmine 3", which it happened!
Level 57: A bit of a maze trying to figure out the use of the dynamite against Invisible walls. Also, what a crafty level, especially on the bug and spaceship contacting with Amoeba part!
Level 58: 80-90 percent of the level involves going forward to get the item and backward to the hub part of the level, and 10-20 percent is actually doing some non-walking actiony stuff like collecting gems or using dynamite, or at the core, dodging those Yam Yams.
Level 59: Oh dear, the repetition of square-dancing Spaceships, 31 times? No variety maybe? I mean there's variety, but most of the time it's just one Spaceship, perhaps varied by the placement of the spaceships, which is 4 ways, and whether it goes clockwise or counter-clockwise.
I've been noticing the pattern of door colors, the most obvious being level 63. Was it supposed to go from Red, Yellow, Blue, and then finally Green, or what most of us think of nowadays, which is Red, Yellow, *Green*, and *Blue*.
Level 67: Interesting message, "Im out of ideas now I must checking in my idea list for some other ideas".
Level 73: That was very tedious, to the point of me using single-step mode because those Yam Yams just stress me out, one mistake, progress loss, sometimes to hours!
Level 74: 12 minutes of a lot of waiting, freeing Bugs, and the occasional collecting.
...I can say there's no levelset stopping level like that level 18 from Bug Mine 01, which means I beaten this levelset!
LEVELSET SOLVED: BUG MINE 02 - THE REVENGE (2018 03-Mar 25 = 2018 03-Mar 30): 0-80, 81 levels solved

Here are my thoughts on an ongoing levelset series (which has a mix of solved and stopped/skipped levelsets):
SPUD MINE series by Big Daddy

Oh, Big Daddy made it's debut with this levelset series? And not Daddy Mine? This series is around 1993, while their other series is 1996! According to the Emerald Web, the Daddy Mine series is supposedly by Bealinea / Nordlicht, but according to R'n'D, it's Big Daddy.
Spud Mine 01 through 04 had a similar starting anchor point as the Daddy Mine series, but you're not surrounded by Dynamite, and you're not contained in a box where you have to leave by collecting a key to pass through the doors that keep the player safe. Lack of dynamite equals it's not easy to cheese these levels easily, especially in doing stuff unintentionally.
Compared to most levels in the Emerald Mine Club levelsets, this series seems to be somewhat to fairly loose to the amount of gems you can afford to lose through explosions, being smashed, or dumped into acid.
There are 9 levelsets, with SPUD MINE 06 made by both Big Daddy & Oasis, and SPUD MINE 09 created by the friends of Big Daddy.
Here's the first 3 levelsets:
- Spud Mine 01, level 07: Probably the longest level you have you beat, it's about 12 minutes! Marathon!
- Spud Mine 01, Level 47: "Oasis 1993".
- LEVELSET SOLVED: SPUD MINE 01 (2018 07-Jul 15 = 2018 07-Jul 17): 0-80, 81 levels solved
- Spud Mine 02, level 16: The last Yam Yam and the two bugs is very luck-based in whether or not you get the rest of the 3 keys!
- Spud Mine 02, level 37: Copy and paste of Level 17, but there's less gems and there's a higher gem quota requirement, and no robots.
- Spud Mine 02, level 38: The Yam Yam part, too strict on the timing, have to get either key on the first go without any delay, since most of the time, the Yam Yam will go towards the player!
- Spud Mine 02, level 40: ...is this possible to beat? This seems extremely luck-based!
- LEVELSET stopped by that particular level!
- Spud Mine 03: ...Eh, there's nothing noteworthy to talk about, but I indeed solved all the levels. Seems to be the same, but less complaints.
- LEVELSET SOLVED: SPUD MINE 01 (2018 07-Jul 17 = 2018 07-Jul 19): 0-80, 81 levels solved

Here's the following levelsets that I halted playing/skipped in detail:
DADDY MINE 09 by Big Daddy

Level 00: This is interesting, not only the level is slightly different enough (the exit is shifted) to the point that I have to beat this level again, there's text that says "1997", which implies it's released in 1997. Also, there's unique text on how to contact the person at the time, which says, "Deutschland tel:040-7152986". Wonder if still contactable~
Level 19: The first level where dynamite is placed outside of the starting area.
Level 20: Same exact level as Daddy Mine 08, level 20. Skipping. Made me curious when was the first bonus repeating level...which is Daddy Mine 07, level 20.
Level 24: Magic wall, gems, and patterns! Woo!
Level 30: Bonus level similar to Daddy Mine 08, level 40...except there's a lot less Amoeba, and the exit is located somewhere else. I decided to skip this because for it to be a duplicate, if I can put a tape of Daddy Mine 08, level 40, and make it take in place of this level, and it beats it, it's a duplicate.
Level 32: "Daddy Mine 9" but using gems to spell it! ...And surrounded by Bugs and Amoeba.
Level 35: Waitaminute, this is rather interesting engine behavior (and it can only be seen with Small Game Graphics being on). The Amoeba Drops when the level plays has a delayed reaction before it starts falling down, when playing it via level editor, the amoeba drop immediately does it's falling down without any delay whatsoever. I wonder if there's a variation of when Amoeba Drop spawns (similar to variation in burning dynamite), and the frames on when they fall down.
Level 36: Then there's text that says "Daddy Mine 9 1996"...which is it, 1996, or 1997?
Level 40: Exact same bonus level as Daddy Mine 08, level 40. Skip!
Level 50: ...I'm a bit shocked that I'm gonna have to skip this levelset, because this level is unsolvable! It uses the "Bombs destroy Steel Walls via autopush" trick to make an opening in the bottom left and right side of the level as a wraparound for the Spaceships made via Magic Ball to happen by flowing through and into the Amoebas. Before moving to the next levelset, something notable to point out:
Level 80: Text has the usual offerings of "Dies' Ist Level 0 Von Daddy-Mine 10", but unlike the previous levelsets, there's now text that says "Wann ?". This seems to imply that more could be made by the creator if there's enough demand for it.
LEVELSET SKIPPED by level imcompatibility (wraparound)!

DADDY MINE 10 by Big Daddy

The starting area of this levelset...it's slightly more time consuming to retrieve the key before exiting, I got used to the same feeling for the last 9 levelsets.
Level 00: I couldn't play Daddy Mine 09, level 80; but I pre-emptively skipped it because once the wraparound issue in level 50 is resolved, I'll play that level instead of this, which I'll be skipping. The changes like having the same telephone number as Daddy Mine 09's level 0, and the invisible Drippers instead of visible Amoeba isn't substantial enough.
Level 20: Bonus level that's unchanged from the last couple of levelsets equals a skip!
Level 28: Huh, retrieving gems from dropping Bombs on Bugs...who are trapped in patterns of Steel Walls, and their explosions are enough to leak out such gems.
Level 36: Has text that says "Daddy-Mine 1997".
Level 40: Same, bonus, level, as the previous levelsets. Skipping.
Level 53. Skipping this levelset now because wraparound. It's solvable still, but it won't have as much Bug hecticness as the level is intended to have. Before moving on...
Daddy Mine, level 80: Yeah, more requesting if there's demand or unsure about more Daddy Mine, with the text "???".
LEVELSET SKIPPED by level imcompatibility (wraparound)!

DADDY MINE 11 by Big Daddy

Level 00: Preemptively skipping this level, same reason as the previous levelset.
Level 13: It's neat that when dropping the Yam Yam, after a sequence of events, the last one is a a series of rocks, with the last one being a Bomb at the right bottom corner, which drops last to blow up the Magic Wall. The "left, right, left, right" rolling sequence was intentionally used for this one.
Level 20: Same, exact, bonus, level. Skip.
Level 22: Huh? I can't seem to figure out how to get those gems from the Yam Yams when they did their Yam Yam content sequence. It's buried behind Steel Walls, which makes it inaccessible! Welp, unforunately that's it with this levelset. Before moving on to another series though...
Level 80: This is the level I would consider playing because, as far as I know, there's no such thing as a Daddy Mine 12 and beyond.
LEVELSET SKIPPED by that particular level (unsure if intentional or engine quirk mishaps)!

YOUNG DENMINE 01 THROUGH YOUNG DENMINE 04 by Dennis F.

...is this Pacminia? ...Skippy? Young Denmine 01 is that Pacman-like skin, the second and third one is Bond Mine but in that Christmas skin, and the fourth one is that skin from Emerald Runner MIne 05 - Easter Mine. All four are a definite skip!
4 LEVELSETS SKIPPED to be perception of reused content!

BUG MINE 01 by Noshtromo 2000

Before starting, watching this video - https://youtu.be/QfxTx5oGt5M?t=75 - it doesn't have that unique art of a yellow-orange square with some red markings on it!
Level 18: Stopped there because there's seemingly too much trial and error, it seems you have to write up notes in order to remember where to go, as dynamite usage is limited! Too bad you can't draw notes in-game!
Oooooh...I played this before...well, that was a bit embarassing, if checking my records correctly. My original attempted play was back in 2014 Febraury, which I beat level 0 through 11. In this instance, on 2018 March, I played through level 0 through 17; that's an extra 6 levels!
LEVELSET stopped by that particular level!

BUG MINE 03 by Noshtromo 2000

According to the intro info, the creator (or creators) that made this levelset also made Expert Mine (unsure if first or all 3 of them). It says "Coming soon Expert Mine 3".
Also in the intro info, it's rather interesting to see that some levelsets like this may not be "100%', as in there might be missing levels. What would cause missing levels when they are made back then? Looking further, it's only 70 levels instead of 80 levels...but at least better than stuffing rehashed stuff from earlier levelsets or other peoples' work.
Corrected by No One Inc...so that group is more like some kind of distributor or correction type of group? And sent out on 'april 11 1993'.
Level 10: Greetings text...wondering if any of those people are still alive today~
Level 15: Special level made by Leo, involving swimmable fake acid!
Level 16: Interesting text that says,
"Theo Boetzkes
Burg Van Houtlaan 123A
5701Go Helmond Holland
Telefoon 04920 27900"
...Hmm, does it still exist?
Level 22: Unfortunately I'm not sure if I can beat this level, as it seems to require every single Bug to get both of those keys in the core in a specific certain order. Heh, even checking with the level editor, it won't cough out the solution to you. I'm gonna probably move on.
LEVELSET stopped by that particular level!

BUG MINE 04 by Noshtromo 2000

Level 02: This level's gonna take forever to just literally guess unless you cheat by checking the level editor. It's just a literal time waster in composes 4 parts: 1) Dropping the Bomb onto the correct section (that's fortunately numbered) that isn't blocked by an Invisible Wall, 2) Getting the red key at the bottom side (also Invisible walls), 3) Getting the Blue key at the top side (yet more invisible walls), and 4) Finally find the exit (...that's also behind invisible walls), while dealing with a small amount of Yam Yams overall in the level. And mind the counting!
Level 06: Two part mazes (grey doors and invisible walls), in one package!
Level 17: What a bait and switch on those Yam Yam hit by Rocks part! First part gems, second part robots! ...Yeah, I think I'm done probably playing that levelset for now. Gonna check out another levelset, the Expert Mine series from the same creators that made the Bugmine series. Before moving on...
Level 40: It's a wraparound level, and the game currently doesn't support such a thing. Welp.
Level 80: Says there will be a Bug Mine 5...it doesn't exist sadly.
LEVELSET stopped by that particular level!

GROTTO MINE 1 by Pistol

What's common in every level in the levelset, the text words "Pistols Grotto". Perhaps a watermark incase people just blindly steal and use such levels without scrubbing the evidence.
Level 11: Ugh, fake grass! Tried getting to the section where there's a Spaceship that's circling around a Red Key from the above area, but got stopped in it's tracks and got smashed by a rock. Eck!
Level 19: Well, this is kinda concerning me, I'm not sure if I can beat this level legit. There seems to be a strict amount of Bugs you can kill, and the way you send them to their doom with Amoeba is complicated with 4-5 layers of Boulders from above. This is not to mention that the chain explosion content quirk has not been fixed. I attempted to finish the level with like 60-80 emeralds left to get, and that was after collecting the stuff above (the two boxes full of Emeralds, and the contents from the Yam Yam), I feel that I can't collect enough from the Bugs below. An unfortunate stop for me as of right now.
LEVELSET stopped by that particular level (by unfixed engine quirks?)!

GROTTO MINE 2 by Pistol

Level 0: Interesting text: "Circ 1994". Released in 1994?
Level 07: This one is more clear in needing that chain explosion quirk fixed, since there's a limited amount of Bugs to kill with Amoeba. And I had about 10-20 gems left to collect when there was no Bugs left, and collecting the left side of the gems. Unfortunately I have to stop playing this level.
LEVELSET stopped by that particular level (by unfixed engine quirks)!

OZ MINE 1 through OZ MINE 05 by Skippy

If it is a Skippy levelset, and you already played a levelset or two, it's recycled/reused/unremixed stuff that seems to plague the entire collection from figuring out which levelsets have unique level designs. Auto-skip!
5 LEVELSETS SKIPPED due to perception of reused content!

RECYCLED MINES 01 through RECYCLED MINES 12

...as if there's levelsets that aren't recycled enough, there's now literally a levelset that's explictly about recycling levels into a levelset.
Special mention to Recycled Mines 01 for being a literal duplicate of New Emerald Mines 01 (which is a duplicate of an earlier levelset that I still couldn't figure out from the top of my mind), down to the last 40 levels being from Emerald Mine 01 (Kingsoft).
Recycled MInes 03, there's some simple but interesting remixed levels from the first two Emerald Mine levelsets that came from Kingsoft...but they are too rare as they're overwhelmed by the unaltered levels from such two levelsets. Eck!
Recycled Mines 05: A second levelset on apeing the Emerald Mine (Kingsoft) levelsets (1 and 2)?
Recycled Mines 06: This weirdly looks unique level design-wise (except for level 12), but halts after 13 levels, ending with the message "This cave was empty! Sorry! The UMA". And then cue the rest of the levelset filled with filler of Emerald Mine (Kingsoft)!
Recycled Mines 07: A third Emerald Mine (Kingsoft) recycled levelset?! Top to 8 to 10, and that counts as 6 levelsets on questionable rehasing on Emerald Mine (Kingsoft) levelsets.
Recycled Mines 11: ...is it normal for a levelset to have missing levels? Level 12, 13, 15, and 51 are missing!
Recycled Mines 12: And lets end it with a Skippy-esque levelset.
Seriously, what's the point of these levelsets? A budget version of the real deal more or less? All of this a skip!
12 LEVELSETS SKIPPED due to perception of reused/recycled content!

NIGHTMARE ON EMERALD STREET 1 by ...? (Level 0 says: Sharon and Geezar)

The name tis a spin on the 1984 movie, "A Nightmare on Elm Street"...thought it doesn't really reference anything from said movie, not even from an artstyle or audio viewpoint. According to the file timestamp, it's from 1995.
Level 00: Interesting text: "Long live the mine games for 1997". According to the files, it's dumped in 1994 but suggests it's released in 1997? Also interesting, there's text that says the levelset's tested by Geezer. Doesn't really clarify if Geezar is a level designer for this levelset or not though. Anyway, on the level itself...it's rather tedious to dynamite the rocks with dynamite, as if it's like some kind of marathon of repetitiveness; it's even more repetitive on trying to get dynamite after smashing Yam Yams to reveal them as they occupy a small space.
Level 01: ...a quick or you'll die scenario, that Spaceship killing the player if not enough reaction time. Also, growing walls, Emerald Mine Club-type exclusive!
Level 02: Surprise! Dynamite that falling bomb! Run up and you'll die. Noting on the how the screen size is vertically small compared to horizontal, there's no way someone (except someone who's hardcore about trial and error parts of levels) would know that until they died. I wonder if they realize that there's a dynamite, and the open exits are surrounded by normal destroyable walls.
Level 04: Lots and lots of traversing, mostly just to drop 2 row sets of bombs to get the gems, and going back and fourth.
Level 05: Ssssh, another way to beat the level in another way.
Level 14: Novel way of eliminating loads and loads of Robots, with Springs!
Roadblock! Level 29: Using of the destroying outer level borders, not only with bombs, but with rocks too! Unfortunately the journey to completing this levelset stops here. Before moving on...
Level 30: Uh...is it possble to beat this level in any way? The dynamite would've destroyed almost everything that's needed to beat the level. There has to be something that made the Emeralds survive, anything! This is infinitely much more werider than the wraparound trick~
LEVELSET SKIPPED by level incompatibility (wraparound)!

NIGHTMARE ON EMERALD STREET 2 by Sharon and Geezar

Also in 1995.
A common trope that's sprinkled in the previous levelset, is that there's a Magic Ball that absolutely spawns nothing, as it seems it's more like a noisemaker, just spawning literal emtpy sapce. I didn't really hear it that much because I still play on 4.0.0.0, which I'll migrate to the latest version more or less soon.
Level 15: A rather quirky case in using one of the pillar normal walls to have Emeralds rest on, because if it is just normal walls, it would've been an entirely different level, which gems rolling off from it!
Level 17: The use of the Growing Wall to make the Bomb travel to the right, piece by piece. Nifty! ...and do it 3 times!
Level 25: Oh, the border walls are not indestructible...but they're not really much of a problem as long as you don't explictly try to go to a wraparound (level doesn't really require to do it).
Level 33: Explictly confirms on use of doors so that Emeralds (and most likely Diamonds) won't roll off from sitting on top of it (unlike say a Normal Wall or Steel Wall).
Level 35: Data says it's tested in February 1998.
Level 51: Welp. What an unfortunate showstopper. You done all the stuff in the earlier parts of the levels, until you come across a section where all the Robots have to be killed by the Bombs' explosions through luck. I've done this 3 separate times, and there was one or two robots that were left alive still!
LEVELSET stopped by that particular level (due to sheer amount of luck after doing the earlier parts of the level successfully)!

PRESTON MINE 01 By Sharon and Geezar

Emerald Web says "199?", but the Rocks'n'Diamonds data suggest "1996", but most of the individual level files suggest 1995. Which is right?
...Thought it would be a good levelset to chew onto, until level 03 (and level 55), which is the same level from Nightmare on Emerald Street 02, level 47...skipping the levelset on perception of duplicated levels!
LEVELSET SKIPPED due to perception of reused/recycled content!

PRESTON MINE 02 By Sharon and Geezar

...Is it 1994? It's rather confusing when looking at the dates of the files they've been extracted.
Perception of duplicate content, most tripping is level 10 (which is from level 64 from Nightmare on Emerald Street 02).
LEVELSET SKIPPED due to perception of reused/recycled content!

SNEL MINE 01 (ALMATHERA) by Boboric

Huh? not on the Emerald Web? Rocks'n'Diamonds suggest 1992, but the individual files suggest 1994. Hmm...
Even from level 00, it definitely came from somewhere, which means I'm skipping this entire levelset! The rest of the levels apply!
LEVELSET SKIPPED due to perception of reused/recycled content!

SNEL MINE 01 by Boboric

Level 11: Grouping of fallable objects all shift to the left once!
Level 55: Trial and error in that there's 4 doors to close, 1 to pick, which is required to beat the level, 3 out of 4 will make you retry the level.
Level 57: Trial and error, needing most of the gems, have to go top the bottom 2 first before the top 2 at the bottom-left side, and then have to selectively find the safe routes for extracting the minimum remaining Emeralds in the rock-filled QUicksand maze. Eck!
Level 59: Unsolvable? Think it has to do with how explosion content spawn works, which is fixed in the later versions of R'n'D (I'm still playing in version 4.0.0.0). Have to stop for now...
LEVELSET SKIPPED by level incompatibility (explosion content spawn)!

SNEL MINE 02 by Boboric

Level 09: So many 'psyches' to deal with, that you have to replay the level again and again to get things right.
LEVELSET stopped by that particular level!

SNEL MINE 03 by Boboric

Level 03: Quicksand level that takes more than a few tries, but it's not fair either.
LEVELSET stopped by that particular level!

Here are the following level tapes solved in single player:

2018 07-Jul 19 (part 1 of 2).zip: Levelset tapes: Bug Mine 02, Daddy Mine 06, Daddy Mine 07, and Daddy Mine 08; (209.96 KiB) Downloaded 2352 times

2018 07-Jul 19 (part 2 of 2).zip: Levelset tapes: Spud Mine 01, and Spud Mine 03; (182.38 KiB) Downloaded 2103 times

Ryz · Post by **Ryz** » Thu Sep 26, 2019 6:13 am

Oh hey, it's been over a year since I posted my update; a bunch of stuff happened that made me not go through playing the EMC levels as much as I wanted to. For me to try starting up again, I'll have to submit this report, since I forgot to do so...and I might forgot a step or two in the process because of how particular my set up is. My apologies in advance if I managed to miss anything. To start off, the spreadsheet list (which I think I missed something or two there):

EMC levelset status (2019 09-Sep 25).ods: (30.76 KiB) Downloaded 1870 times

Here are my thoughts on levelsets I played and solved:
SPUD MINE 04 by Big Daddy

Well, this is interesting, this is the first that I saw a levelset that doesn't have fake hiscores cleared out from the data, since usually a group named No One Inc. would verify if the scores are faked.
Level 02: And so, the era of levels that don't have strict gem quotas appears to be coming to an end, with this level requiring all the gems. One drop in the acid and it's starting all over again. The layout is pretty repetitve and relatively simple though.
Level 10: One of the few levelset instances where the Magic Wall is graphically similar to a Normal Wall, akin to how Boulder Dash functions whereas Emerald Mine has Magic Walls easily identifiable (usually a blue wall).
Level 14: ...and the start of levels with less generous amount of time than the previous levelsets, this is one of the first ones that I truly noticed, even though I never died to the timer running out from this series.
Level 17: The closest to running out of time! Let's deal with a series of bugs (and the occasional spaceship) in those clusters!
Level 20: ...And unfortunately, the first in which trial & error is involved in finding the exit after doing the main part. Level 10 would've involve something about going through the Robots successfully, but it's fair because you have to pay attention to the bottom; this one, this is pure trial & error, moreso if the time's limited.
Also level 20: ...it took some time to figure out the trick to successfully getting all the gems without being destroyed by explosions or rocks smashing the Diamonds. This is probably the first where the keys have a purpose to not only act as slippery Dirt since there's no required doors to go through, but the random rainbow of colors is intentionally distracting you and part of the challenge of trying to figure out the noise, and weave through it.
LEVELSET SOLVED: SPUD MINE 04 (2018 07-Jul 20 = 2018 07-Jul 23): 0-80, 81 levels solved

THROUGH THE CHAOS CAVES 04 by Old Miller

1995.
A brief trend in probably the first ten levels, guarding Spaceships, with only one way to entry as the rest of the diggable pieces are actually just disguised walls known as Fake Grass.
Level 08: One-frame dynamite kaboom, followed by another stick of dynamite in a slight longer fuse!
Level 10: An Android?! Has there been any in the previous levels or even the previous levelsets? What's it's purpose? To serve as part of the trial and error if you pick 2 out of 3 paths wrong before entering the field of Yam Yams, Robots, and enemy-only diggable Plants!
Level 53: I wonder if this is intended behavior, the rock not hitting the bomb (but was interrupted by the horizontal growing wall).
Level 54-56: ...3 levels of a very similar archetype (collect tons and tons of gems while dealing with Boulders, and not trying to harm yourself with falling gems; also, mind Nuts and Bombs in the next 2 levels), a failed level that needed a quick replacement? This will do~
LEVELSET SOLVED: THROUGH THE CHAOS CAVES 04 (2018 08-Aug 07 = 2018 08-Aug 11): 0-80, 81 levels solved!

THROUGH THE CHAOS CAVES 05 by Old Miller

1995-1996!
Level 01: Lol, when the Android duplicates an unburnt stick of dynamite, it makes the hi-pitch scream sound that occurs when a dynamite's lit and is about to blow up (but the cloned dynamite isn't lit!).
A trend, starting with level 41 (and again at level 51), there's accompanied text on what will happen during the level...not sure if that was necessary. But it was something to point out from out of all the previous levels I played so far.
Level 52: "This level designed by Dogman". Guest special!
Level 60: ...really getting paranoid at the use of Fake Grass on unsuspecting lands like this, notably when being chased by Spaceships from behind!
LEVELSET SOLVED: THROUGH THE CHAOS CAVES 05 (2018 08-Aug 11 = 2018 08=Aug 13): 0-80, 81 levels solved!

THROUGH THE CHAOS CAVES 07 by Old Miller

1995-1996!
...only mentioned in level 00, "The Butterfly Levels", and "Caves for Kids 2". Where was the first one?
Level 25: ...this is almost the exact same level as level 20. What.
...not much to say, it's probably the easiest levelset out of all of them so far.
This will be the last levelset I will be playing in Rocks'n'Diamonds version 4.0.0.0.
LEVELSET SOLVED: THROUGH THE CHAOS CAVES 07 (2018 08-Aug 13): 0-80, 81 levels solved!

Here are my thoughts on an ongoing levelset series (which has a mix of solved and stopped/skipped levelsets):
SPUD MINE 05 by Big Daddy

Wait a minute, "Released By De Bond in 1993"? What this levelset's relationship?
The trend of stricter time limits continues even at level 0!
Level 17: ...This level is completely unsolvable! There are exactly 232 emeralds that need to be collected, and the last one is stuck in the center right side of the level. There's no stick of dynamite or even a nearby droppable Bomb to make it more likely to get that last gem. This is totally a stop for me!
LEVELSET stopped because of a factually unsolvable level!

SPUD MINE 06 by Big Daddy & Oasis

Oh hey, a collab! Big Daddy and Oasis! Unfortunately it doesn't really say how much of it is the former, and the latter, and how the process of making the levels together for this levelset goes.
Oh, huh, it seems that there's a theme running in which some of the levels take 5-10 minutes for a successful level finish! This differs from the previous levelsets where levels are finished in less than 5 minutes. Examples: Level 03, level 04, level 10, and level 14.
LEVELSET stopped due to mixed consistency of that take a short or long amount of time!

WATERMILL MINE by Old Miller

Made in 1994 (according to Emerald Web), dumped in 1995 (according to the file dates).
Particular quirk of the levelset (that some levelset creators also do): Each level mentions the level number!
Most of the levels are simple, and that most of the time you don't need to use the snap button; a bit of a palette cleanser from the more time consuming levels of the past.
Level 22: ...what. I'm not sure how I can finish this properly, there has to be something I can do to finish this, otherwise it seems I'm just stuck and can't progress properly.
Before moving on, it appears that one way of getting the word out of upcoming levelsets is through the intros, like the first Porno Mine from De Bond.
LEVELSET stopped due to this seemingly impossible level!

WIND MILL MINE by Old Miller

1994 (according to the intro)
Level 06: Trial and error by knowledge - go one way and ended up in a dead end full of Spaceships; occurs at the start of the level
Level 16: "Dead End Sucker"...you can see when will that occur~
Level 32: ...Is this possible to beat? This seems to require a lot of dynamiting against the Spaceships and the necessary Bugs! Oh dear, probably a game stopper for now. It's probably possible to finish it, but would have to use the 1-step mode.
LEVELSET stopped due to this seemingly impossible level!

THROUGH THE CHAOS CAVES 01 by Old Miller

1995, if according to the dumped files' timestamps per say.
Tested by No One Inc. and Dead Runner; how often is it more than one group or person testing the levels? Who else but those two tests the levels? The level designers themselves or a group of people that tries to maintain such order?
Level 0: Even on this first level, it starts off all mad and unwieldly! All the fun in misdirections and having to do more than a couple of retries~
Level 06: ...This seems a lot more harder than I anticipated. How to get the gems from the Bugs when having 15 Dynamite, and that the Amoeba is mostly contained in the Yam Yam area in the starting area?
Before moving on... Level 31: Different set of Normal Wall use!
Various mentions of the word 'Chaos', like in level 38!
Level 77: Moving rocks to the left, eating through the Steel Wall
LEVELSET stopped due to this seemingly impossible level!

THROUGH THE CHAOS CAVES 02 by Old Miller

Another 1995 via timestamped dumped files.
...Intro, what's that skeleton skinny repear holding that scythe thing?
This and the previous levelset, it seems that it introduces level numbers in anything but a letter wall, like level 09.
Sigh...it's not fun having the level in order to be beaten is all up to luck, it was increasingly painfully obvious with level 40, 41, and 42. Infact, I stopped at level 42. Ugh.
LEVELSET stopped due to a level requiring a lot luck!

THROUGH THE CHAOS CAVES 03 by Old Miller

1995, via timestamped files, when will it end?
Huh, has a sub-title to the levelset name "Covert Operations".
Level 14: Well, this is a potential stopper. There's seemingly a bit too much luck (thus a lot of time spent on finishing the level, and failing a lot), as determined by the Amoeba growth.
Before moving on, it appears the levels played are sometimes called 'Missions'. Huh.
LEVELSET stopped due to a level requiring a lot luck!

THROUGH THE CHAOS CAVES 06 - THE ALIEN LEVELS by Old Miller

1995-1996!
Huh, the subtitle, 'The Alien Levels", it kinda means every level must involve robots (or aliens back then). There is, but their importance varies, as if not all of them has them as the main threat but rather they're side threats.
Oh dear, level 63 and level 75: It has wraparound! I can't play this levelset properly (I would beat them in a way that's not intended in the first place).
Even more oh dear, even if the levelset is wraparound-compatible, there's too many familiar levels from previous levelsets (and maybe in future levelsets of the same series?).
LEVELSET skipped due to lack of wraparound compatibility!

WATER MINE by Dino

According to the files, the non-update version released in 1989, but the update one is 1999?
Awwwn, there's no Water Mine 2.
Hmm...I'm not exactly sure the Update version is a restoration of those damaged levels, it seems fine in the original version. In the update version, one way to tell is that the levels that take up the whole space are the replacement levels, since in the original version, all the levels take up a smaller amount of level space. Thus, I decided to play this version instead.
The first levelset that's played with Rocks'n'Diamonds version 4.1.0.0.
The quirk with the majority of the levels, most of them are lifted from countless fan Boulder Dash levelsets, but there's a bunch of levels with integrated Emerald Mine elements in it! Yam Yams! Dynamite! Those main oodles! Even if ignoring the subtle differences of Amoeba and two different gem types (the lack of snap-pushing level size similar to Boulder Dash's compared to Emerald Mine's).
Level 44: Is this possible to beat this level? Seems like it would take a lot of luck to get enough gems to exit, with the small starting amount of Amoeba and most likely no way to chain explode all of the Bugs.
LEVELSET stopped due to a level requiring a lot luck!

OPAL MINE 1 by an unknown author and Skippy

The scars of skimming and playing Skippy's countless reused/repurposed levels, that particular design style, it's all to familiar! All the driven perception as I skim all the levels via preview makes me not wanna play this levelset at all. Eck!
LEVELSET skipped to due perception of reused levels, and because Skippy!

SBB Lost Mine by (not filled according to Emerald Web)

According to the dates of the files, it was released in 1996
It's by "S.B.B" according to level 14. I wonder if they're initials for a real name.
Level 15: There's an interesting message: "FEBRUARi 1991", and "TWR", it was made in 1991?
Level 16: There's two messages, "Cool is the rule", and "Fresh is the word"
Level 34 and 36: "CCF"
Level 35: "L42"
Level 64: "LRC", although it could just mean to harm the Yam Yams in the left side, right side, and center side in that area in that order.
Now onto the actual playing...what's up with the first three levels (Level 00 to level 02) having open exits to get into at times? Not that I'm not okay with, perhaps someday there will be a levelset where it's a 50/50 if you have to play the level legit, or if it is just secretly a hidden object game involving finding the way to the open exit (and that if you try to do it legit, make it infuriating by having one gem more required than actual amount to unleash all mayhem). That would be a pain of a levelset.
Level 03: Whoa, this is really tight on the amount of gems you'll get~ With easily available gems gone and go, the only reliable way is via through Yam Yams (which are either in the beginning, isolated at one location, or surrounded by Robots).
Level 13: ...is this the first level in the Emerald Mine Club collection that has unlimited time (the time limit is 0, in Rocks'n'Diamonds, that means unlimited time). And the amount of levels that does this increases later on in the levelset!
Level 19: ...this is strangely a simple level, because why this long-winded path towards the exit (with a small amount of gems, save for the one that's behind an Invisible Wall), with the room of just 5 robots completely isolated from the rest of the level, and next to it is a Dynamite and gem (but both of the rooms are sealed with Invisible Walls). Also, why burnt dynamite at the bottom, surrounded by Steel Walls that explosions can never blast through at all? Perhaps it could be a distraction because there's stricter time limit, but the amount of time in this level is generous!
Level 21: Welp. This appears to be the first level that in order to beat the level, you have to kill the Yam Yam that has the Open Exit in it (and the amount of gems needed to open the exit is a distraction!).
Level 32: In using rocks to spell a word, "Ruby".
Level 34: This seems too much luckbased in not only waiting for the Spaceship to be killed by the Amoeba to detonate the chain of Bombs to free the player, but to also wait until the Amoeba is sufficiently large enough that it would take on numerous Bugs that would give enough gems to exit. On top of that, with the limited time limit straining this process to potential multiple restarts, you also have 2-3 more layers of enemies (a mix of Bugs and Spaceships) which needs to be cleared out in order to get the red key to access the exit. What madness!
Before moving on, it appears that this is the first I seen Nuts in level 40 that are explicitly used to not harm Bugs, because it would make collecting the non-Bug gems pointless!
Level 58: "I love Emerald Mine". Quite the message being made out of Magic Walls, and that the V is replaced with a heart symbol~
LEVELSET stopped due to a level requiring a lot luck!

MICRO MINES by Pekka Kemppainen

The name of the levelset...it's anything but 'Micro'! That would probably imply that the levels themselves are smaller, perhaps Boulder Dash sized, not the usual Emerald Mine size!
Level 00: Sixth content property of the Yam Yam, a stick of burnt Dynamite that immediately explodes!
Level 01: Oh great, a literal guessing game trying to go through 4 of the grey doors, and there are 5 spaceships as chances on what keys to get; what an artificial way to increase the amount of time playing the game~ It doesn't help that in the original Emerald Mine games, the keys that you obtained are not shown in the HUD, you have to remember them! ...Time to open up the level editor just to cut this madness down~
I decided to skim through the levels in curiosity, and I'm not sure if I wanna play more of this levelset considering the mix of trial and error...it looks like I would wanna rip my hair out from these things.
Before moving on, level 42: Explicitly confirms that Boulders will not fall into Empty Quicksand immediately as long as the player continually pushes them.
LEVELSET stopped due to the levelset overall requiring a lot luck to overcome trial and error!

SB MINE series[/b] by Scorpio & Black Lady

All from 1996 (probably according to the dumped files).
There are 10 levelsets!
First thoughts of skimming all the levels in the earlier levelsets, this seems to be too close to being a Skippy-like levelset.
Oh... SB Mine 01, level 0 is the same as SB Mine 05, level 0...that means level recycling within the same levelset series! That's...that's too bad. Don't wanna waste my time playing these levels.
In SB Mine 05, level 56 has a number marker that says 'L69', meaning 'level 69', which means it's reused, or somehow stolen from another levelset!
SB Mine 06 is just either of the Ace Mine levelsets, seriously, what the hell? (Or at least the first few levels at best from my memory).
SB Mine 08 is literally one of the Bond Mine levelsets!
SB MIne 09 is one of the unofficial Emerald Mine levelsets, what, seriously?
SB Mine 10 is just a conversion from the Boulder Dash levels into Emerald Mine form, or more likely, stolen from another levelset (if the last level is any indication!)
LEVELSET series skipped to due perception of reused levels, and because Skippy-like!

NORMAL MINE series by Scorpio and Black Lady

Released in 1995
Due to the SB Mine series making me really suspicious of this levelset, I'm gonna have to skim through a bunch of these 10 levelsets. And seems a loadful of these are pretty unique, a bunch are pretty similar archtypes to other similar levels in other levelsets, but it appears to be handcrafted that makes it unique. Of course I need to check their other series, Amiga Mine series (which has 25 levelsets, but 06 through 11 are missing), and the Spooky Mine series (which has 10!).
...Of course, that really applies for the first five levelsets: Normal Mine 06 is just the original Emerald Mine 01 with more or less remixing (which isn't standing out much enough I feel, since there's a mix of remixed and unaltered levels); Normal Mine 07 is a mix of some unique levels (marred with seemingly reused De Bond-like levels); and Normal Mine 08 through 10 supposedly has unique Boulder Dash-like attributes applied to the Emerald Mine game (but right now, Rocks'n'Diamonds 4.1.0.0 doesn't seem to support that).
For more detail on Normal Mine 08 through 10:
- Normal Mine 08: There's a definite lot of uniques, but unfortunately some same-ish/reused levels from others.
- Normal Mine 09: Here's the thing, it's definitely inspired from De Bond levels, but they're so /similar/ that it would be easily mistaken as De Bond without having a stamp of your spin to make it not like that. Level 11 is a first example, perhaps level 17 would be. And it's just weird for level 80 to say, "Scorpio and Black Lady Present To You Normal Mine 9", when it's the last level!
- Normal Mine 10: Oh, nudity from the title screen. Oh, and this is definite stealing territory, there's markings that indicate they're made from other levelsets! Such as the last level: "People with no fantasy steal other people caves!! NOI 1996".
So yeah, it's rather troubling that the earlier levelsets seem to be unique, but the later ones is definite stolen territory. Who knows if the earlier levelsets is tainted in bits and pieces.
Curiously, the first levelset has an additional person, Daniel (or "Daniel TM").
LEVELSET skipped to due perception of reused/stolen levels

SPOOKY MINE series by Scorpio and Black Lady

...this is definite veering towards Skippy-like level design territory! Ugh. There's some somewhat unique ones, but it's all marred by the rest of the levels that make it feel difficult for me to like 'em as their own.
Yeah, some of the last levels in Spooky Mine 02 seem to originate from The Exception Two. Why.
Spooky Mine 05...it's just a De Bone-like levelset, what.
LEVELSET skipped to due perception of reused/stolen levels

CRAZY MINE series by Black Lady and Scorpio

Imagine this series, but it seems like rename 'SPOOKY MINE' to 'CRAZY MINE'... because this is yet another set of stolen levels. Whhhhhy.
Crazy Mine 03 is just one of the two Beer Mine levelsets (at least the first couple of levels, and even then, it makes the whole series just suspicious).
Lol, whould never expect for a Nike logo in yellow repeated in a tile in Crazy Mine 05 at the intro sequence.
LEVELSET skipped to due perception of reused/stolen levels

EINSTEIN MINE series by Black Lady

26 of these levelsets? There is no way it was made all by that user! Because even from the first levelset in the series, it's all too familiar, familiar level design pieces from other levesets (probably reused/stolen/recycled too!). It's most likely even recycled from the previous levelsets too they made too!
Einstein Mine 06, level 21: "SSP", totally not stolen by Black Lady at all~
Einstein Mine 07...this is a Bond Mine levelset; even down to the ? marks (that when used with their artwork, would have a "De Bond" text instead).
Einstein Mine 12, level 43: "Denmine 4"... remind me to properly play that series so it can get the credit it needs instead of playing this stolen level~
Einstein Mine 14 is just a copy of a De Bond levelset~
Einstein Mine 16: Thought it was finally an original levelset, but nope, it was entirely stolen from Expert Mine 03, with all the attempted erase of evidence.
Einstein Mine 17, level 55... "Elvis Mine". Mmpf :c
Einstein Mine 18 is just Through the Chaos Caves 06 – The Alien Levels.
Einstein Mine 19, level 03, and level 55 in the same levelset...the same thing it looks (but 03 is green grass, and 55 is brown dirt!).
Einstein Mine 22, level 40: "Een Runnerke Part 2 just one blue egg to go !!"...this might be from an Emerald Runner Mine levelset, since there's no other levelset names that have the name 'Runner' on it. Yeah, infact, the last level mentions something involving "Runnermine", and "The Runners".
Einstein Mine 25, level 00: That level is just from a Laser Boulderdash level, why.
Einstein Mine 26, level 26: "Elvis"...that's from an Elvis Mine levelset.
LEVELSETS skipped to due perception of reused/stolen levels

AMIGA MINE series by Black Lady & Scorpio

I can safely say this is a levelset series that is most likely stolen from countless levelsets that did their hard work in creating unique takes on level design, since there's no way they would make 26 levelsets without retaining to a certain style (unless the style is copying 1-to-1).
Amiga Mine 06 through 11 is missing, but I don't really want to play them since they're copied; I want them as even more evidence of this madness.
Amiga Mine 02 is literally just Highlander Mine, ugh. Biggest example is level 05.
Amiga Mine 03, level 16: Most notable out of the all the levels in this levelset as stolen.
Amiga Mine 05, level 30: "Met love Schrikky"...most likely this stolen levelset was done by Schrikky. And it's mixed with De Bond levels.
Amiga Mine 16: This is literally one of the two Beer Mine levelsets.
Amiga Mine 17: ...this is from one of the Crystal Caverns 01 levelset.
Amiga Mine 18: ...and this is the second Crystal Caverns levelset.
LEVELSET skipped to due perception of reused/stolen levels

DOWN UNDER MINE series by Skippy

...Even in the very first levelset, No One Inc recognized that there were several Ruppelware levels that were stolen and not credited. A sad bad start.
It's a bit hard to tell whether to play them, unsure if these are the originals, because it looks /so/ bland~ Doesn't help that they've been repeated over and over again in other levelsets by the same person passing off as original.
Skimming through all the levels in all those levelsets, I have a feeling Black Lady & Scorpio snatched a bunch of these and made them pass off as their own work in their leveset brands.
Down Under Mine 18...is this corrupted? There's a bunch of levels missing! Down Under Mine 19 too~
LEVELSET series skipped to just being boring levels even from just previewing them

PRO ICE MINE series by Skippy

...yeah, that's what I expected. Even if it's not a 1-to-1 copy of Skippy's previous levelsets, it's so similar that it's as if I'm replaying those same levels again and again. It doesn't help that it's very bland overtime, as if it's hinging on, "Played one level of that type, you played 'em all".
Pro Ice Mine 03 is just grabbing those 3 official Emerald Mine levelsets. Pro Ice Mine 04 too, at the later half of the levelset.
Pro Ice Mine 11 has missing levels! Yikes!
LEVELSET series skipped to just being boring levels even from just previewing them

OH! NO MORE YAMS series by Skippy

...This is 10 times more painful than their other levelset series. It's all about Yam Yams, but the amount of repetition is amplified as there's no unique takes on Yam Yams being the focus.
LEVELSET series skipped to just being boring levels even from just previewing them

SPUD MINE 07 by Big Daddy

Level 03: I'm not sure if this is solvable; it could be, but it would take a lot of time and luck seemingly from trying to tame both the Spaceships and Bugs.
LEVELET stopped because unsure if I can beat this level without lots of patience

Here are the following level tapes solved in single player:

2019 09-September 25.zip: Levelset tapes: Spud Mine 04, Through the Chaos Caves 04, Through the Chaos Caves 05, and Through the Chaos Caves 07; (239.53 KiB) Downloaded 2156 times

ACME · Post by **ACME** » Mon Jun 28, 2021 9:33 am

The complete BUG MINE levels (99/100) can be found under the name: NOXON MINE 1,2,3,4,+5 (in Diamond Caves II) and the "new" ones NOXON MINE 6,7,8,9 (in Diamond Caves 3). Rebuild/made by the same guy Theo Boetzkes you mentioned here.

Post by **Holger** » Tue Jun 29, 2021 10:12 pm

That's interesting, and I didn't know this! I thought they were newly created levels for Diamond Caves II.

ACME · Post by **ACME** » Sat Jul 03, 2021 12:44 pm

RAP wrote: ↑Wed Feb 28, 2018 7:06 am 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.

I don't know why you can't get one emerald. I tested the level and it works properly. Here is the tape for Level 01.

ACME · Post by **ACME** » Sat Jul 10, 2021 6:49 am

RAP wrote: ↑Sun Mar 04, 2018 9:47 am
JUNIOR ICE MINE 01, 02, 03, 04 by Skippy

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...

I agree, a lot of reused/not original/mixed levels. I'm starting to wonder if the guy Skippy was a levels creator or just copying them from others.

Also, JUNIOR ICE MINE 01, 02, 03, 04 is the same with ALADDIN MINE 01, 02, 03, 04.

Here is a screenshot from ALADDIN MINE 1 he didn't even bother to modify / delete the text JUNIOR ICE MINE II

: AladdinMine01.png (41.1 KiB) Viewed 42074 times

ACME · Post by **ACME** » Wed Jul 21, 2021 8:09 am

Boulder Dash C64 1,2,3,4
Levels 13 and 29 are the same.

Boulder Dash Professional
Levels 32 and 34 are from Emerald Mine (Kingsoft).
Levels 81 to 101 can be deleted, they are previous levels.

Crystal Caverns 4 (Galaxy)
From level 26 everything is identical to Crystal Caverns 1.

ACME · Post by **ACME** » Sat Aug 14, 2021 1:56 pm

RAP wrote: ↑Thu Sep 26, 2019 6:13 am
SPOOKY MINE series by Scorpio and Black Lady

...this is definite veering towards Skippy-like level design territory! Ugh. There's some somewhat unique ones, but it's all marred by the rest of the levels that make it feel difficult for me to like 'em as their own.

Yeah, some of the last levels in Spooky Mine 02 seem to originate from The Exception Two. Why.

Spooky Mine 05...it's just a De Bone-like levelset, what.

LEVELSET skipped to due perception of reused/stolen levels

I know what you mean. Look at this ridiculous copy/paste

Into the Frusty Mines (1991)

: emc_into_frusty_mines.jpg (1.52 MiB) Viewed 41802 times

Spooky Mine 01 (1994)

: emc_spooky_mine_01.jpg (1.5 MiB) Viewed 41802 times

ACME · Post by **ACME** » Sun Aug 15, 2021 2:18 pm

Oh not again... similar levels are mixed. These things ruin all the fun!

Emerald Mine Final (1989)

: emc_emerald_mine_final.jpg (573.83 KiB) Viewed 41780 times

S.B.B. Lost Mine (1991/1996)

: emc_sbb_lost_mine.jpg (575.52 KiB) Viewed 41780 times

ACME · Post by **ACME** » Sun Aug 29, 2021 11:40 am

The same levels are mixed. Only slightly modified in appearance so that identical CRC is not detected.

Nightmare On Emerald Street 1 (Levels 01, 15, 41) are the same with Nightmare On Emerald Street 2 (Levels 32, 48, 77).

There may be more but there is no point in wasting my time with dubious level sets.

Here is an example:

: emc_nightmare_on_emerald_street_1.jpg (1.68 MiB) Viewed 41644 times

: emc_nightmare_on_emerald_street_2.jpg (1.57 MiB) Viewed 41644 times

Ryz · Post by **Ryz** » Wed Apr 01, 2026 10:41 pm

Heya folks,

Got back to the Emerald Mine Club stuff once more, but in actuality, been playing various levelsets on and off while I've been focused on other things or distracted by other things. I've been meaning to update this, but it's been so scattered about that I decided that I'll post an update on whether a levelset I played has been finished instead of batching all of my progress in one post, just to save the headache.

So, before I get on the levelset I finally finished, so, I've been playing most of the levels in version 4.1.0.0, and had updated (or rather have a separate version on the computer) to the latest version being 4.4.1.3. I'm admittedly a little low-key upset that randomized pushing was supposed to be a thing in the Emerald Mine levels, since before, it was constant consistent pushing. Reason for slightly being a bit upset is some of the levels I made in my 15 by 15 levelset I've been working on over the years may make it difficult or impossible to finish those with that more accurate tweaking, welp.

Anyway, the levelset I finished which took quite some time is Denmine 01.

I started playing back in 2022 February and stopped after level 16, and then came back to it on 2023 October and stopped after level 24, because level 25 felt borderline impossible to beat. I was wondering if there were any engine tweaks to make it more accurate, since the amoeba growth seemed too slow, or that I have much less time than usual. I came back to it on 2026 March, and after hitting and racking my head around, it turns out I had to this in a specific way to get all the gems and also exist while the enemies are circling around. As I was trying to get to the exit, the bomb doesn't push consistently like I wanted to, which eventually I figured out that it was because of making the engine more accurate, which is oof.

Playing the levels after that was relatively a breeze, until I hit level 61.

: Tape being played on level 61.; rocksndiamonds_2026-04-01_15-25-44.png (14.26 KiB) Viewed 750 times

This is the first time that on level 61 that I decided to just abuse the pause function as I see fit, because you have to get 250 gems, while having to deal with a ton of Yam Yams moving around when trying to get to the exit, either at the top right or bottom right. I tried doing it legit as I can, without pause buffering, even without using save states, I didn't want to save state, but I broke in having to do an excessive amount of pause buffering, because this looks inhumanely impossible to finish reliably without a ton of luck.

Level 80, a bit amusing, almost all of the exits are behind fake dirt, I'd be low key annoyed if the exits were barricaded by fake dirt or invisible walls as I was trying to avoid being hurt.

The levelset overall? It didn't really stick out much, then again I played this on and off, so my impressions would've dulled considerably.

I do like that there's a level archetype that I haven't seen too much before from my experience playing the countless Emerald Mine Club levelsets taht starting in level 19, where you have a ton of dynamite and you break through the walls to get gems or deal with obstacles from it, as it can't be dug like dirt, and repeats on level 32, 56, and 69.

: Tape being played on level 19.; rocksndiamonds_2026-04-01_15-36-51.png (9.59 KiB) Viewed 750 times

They're quite a bit long as one misstep and having to start over again, but I find them pretty neat and novel to do, maybe make a levelset that's just dedicated to that extensive amount of dynamite excavations.

Here's the tapes for all levels beaten in Denmine 01, keep in mind with single player only:

emc_den_mine_01.zip: Tapes for the Emerald Mine Club levelset: Denmine 01; (77.19 KiB) Downloaded 3 times

Rocks'n'Diamonds

Emerald Mine Club levelset completion progress

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detecting identical & near-identical levels

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