Hi filbo, thank you for collecting all issues with the new EMC collection here. I hope I will be able to address a number of them in the next update soon!
I often see identical levels which are not identical,
Yep, right. There are, for example, many identical levels that were simply saved with a more recent EM editor, using a more recent (and slightly different) level format, but which is still exactly the same level. These are not identified using simple hashes, of course.
This is now too much like the original!
... and the new artwork does not have an on-screen dynamite counter!
Likewise, level 43 demonstrates that there is no 'keys you have collected' tray.
Unfortunately, that's right: The original game indeed did not have these counters and panel items. :-/
Speaking as someone who never played the originals and therefore has zero nostalgia for how it 'ought to look', this is a major downgrade.
Yes, I can imagine this.
Even if there was a downloadable installable 'add in all the heads-up info you could possibly want' plugin, compatible with every possible level, most users still would never know about it.
That's right, of course. And I think the simple and quick solution here is to just use the "classic artwork" with those EMC sets where you are missing the panel controls mentioned above. Just use them with "override: yes", and everything should be fine. I put lots of work into making it possible to use both the classic artwork with EMC engine levels, as well as using EMC artwork sets with R'n'D levels, and all EMC elements, old and new, are supported by the R'n'D default artwork.
Using 4.2.1.0's new multiple player functionality, you can even use a dedicated player name just for playing EMC sets with classic artwork, and switching back and forth between this and your usual player using just two clicks of the mouse!
What I'd like to see:
- significantly improved on-screen info even in ultra-'classic' levelsets
- a settings option to disable that and produce the most authentic possible appearance
- said option should be OFF by default; i.e. playability is the default, authenticity is a user-selectable option
That sounds like a very good and practical approach, and I think I will try to do it that way.
The second and third point are clear to me; to implement the first one, I would just add a dynamite counter and a keys counter (4 or 8, depending on what the EM engine version of the current level supports) and maybe a level number indication -- that would bring the information in the panel back to the previous artwork set. Do you think of anything else that would make sense to be displayed on the game panel when playing EM/EMC levels?
Fixing level set permissions should be easy to do.
Regarding two-player levels: Not checked this so far, but will do. Good to know that there are tapes to check this!
- the editor display used to be the same height as the standard EMC playfield (30 elements tall); now it is 28. It was never possible to see everything, but since 99+% of levels have solid steel outer edges, it was possible to see everything that mattered
Yes... the original EM games are a bit strange when it comes to screen dimensions: The title screens usually are 320x256 (640x512 in R'n'D), while the playfield itself is 320x200 (640x400) plus a little bit (8 vertical pixels or something) for the panel status line. Together with using 13 instead of 12.5 vertical tiles, plus game, tape and sound control panel, this is 640x480 now. When also using 540x512 here, it would be possible to both add some more panel counters and to show a complete "standard EM/EMC level" (without border) in the level editor again.
- the 'Level solved!' display takes up a lot of space, diminishing the pleasure of watching amoeba take over the world, or whatever post-victory activity you might have intended to watch. Move this, or make a way to dismiss it without stopping the game engine?
I also do not really like this one, and exactly for the same reason. It's the only solution to get rid of the "right side door requester" I can currently think of when trying to resemble the original EM/EMC artwork as close as possible. :-/
Maybe it would help a bit to make the envelope request as small as possible to just display the required text message...