Rocks'n'Diamonds

Hello.

I Discovered rNd last week, and am totally addicted to the game and the game style.

having grown up with an amstrad cpc and an amigar, I'm slightly surprised I never came across Boulderdash or emerald mine, but obviously I was just unlucky, well at least I can make up for it now.

looking at Martijn's boulderdash site, I happened to notice that quite a few levels are listed as "In boulderdash style" or "In emerald mine style" and I was wondering, what difference this makes?

Obviously, i've discovered the Supaplex differences in graffics, and (according to the Supaplex page), differences in atmosphere, being set in a computer rather than down a mine, and I've also noticed that sokoban is a very different game (though using similar principles). But what about the other games?

I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, blame it on my current Clueless n00b status (which should hopefully change in the future).

Hello and Welcome, Dark

It's better to be late than to never come. You've got time to make up for the lost years of Boulderdash and related games

The difference between boulderdash and emeraldmine style levels are mainly the kind of elements. When you use the Level Editor in RnD, the elements are grouped under several sections (BD - Boulderdash, EM - Emerald Mine, SP - Supaplex, SB - Sokoban, and more), and some elements do not have a similarity in another category. For example, in Supaplex there's 3 kinds of "disks", the red one resembling of an EM dynamite, the orange which behaves just like an EM "bomb" and the yellow one - which is unique for Supaplex, it can only be blown up by using a remote terminal.

And EM has walls with emeralds - you blow up the wall using a dynamite or bomb or other explosives and you set the emerald free.

And so on, Boulderdash style levels are levels with Boulderdash style of elements, and the same for Emerald Mine and Supaplex.
But of course, the great thing with Rocks'n'Diamonds is that all these elements are combined, and additional elements which doesn't belong directly to these game engines are added (especially the Custom Elements which makes RnD truly increadible, powerful enough to implement many different game styles - and new techniques are often found out and shared here at the forum, lately the World Making Technique has been implemented - making RnD one step closer to "real" Nintendo 8bit Zelda style possibility (even though Alan already made a very nice Super Nintendo Zelda variant) - with rooms and different worlds - and more...)

I hope this answers your question mostly, but I think more members will probably reply to this thread.

And remember that there's no such thing as a stupid question, unless you make it stupid

thanks, that does actually make sense.

Obviously starting with the tutorial levels meant that I saw all the different elements from the various games together in the same level set.

Playing the classic games though, I have noticed a slight difference in emphasis as well.

Supaplex seems to have several levels that are mazes, as well as block puzles for example. Boulderdash seems to have the very complex falling boulder puzles, and I found time a big factor whilst playing the game.

also, in boulderdash levels, I've sometimes had to hunt the exit fairly extensively, where as in the tutorial set and in supaplex it seems to always be in a fairly standard place (though in the Supaplex maze levels, getting there has sometimes been easier said than done).

I haven't yet extensively played emerald mine, so I'm not certain if that has something similar in it's level design.

Obviously, this could also just be different game ddesigner's takes on a similar concept, and I well might find the same things occurring when I play other people's level sets.