Emerald Mine Club level collection 3.0.0 released!

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Holger
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Emerald Mine Club level collection 3.0.0 released!

Post by Holger »

After many years of work, a major update of the Emerald Mine Club level collection is finally available!

The updated level collection contains 28 new level sets for the following Emerald Mine Club disks that were still missing before:
  • Bond Mine 19 - Xmas Mine III
  • Classic DenMine 1
  • Classic Green Stuff
  • Crazy Mine 2
  • DazelDash
  • Eat Mine Update
  • Emerald Mine Beetle
  • Emerald Nep 1
  • Freak Mine Super Pro
  • Haunted Mine 5
  • Head Mine
  • Kevin Mine 4 - 6
  • Kids Fun Mine And Beyond
  • Laser Mine 1 + 2
  • Pawn Mine
  • Revenge of the Yams 1
  • Rock’n’Roll Mine 1
  • Through The Chaos Caves 8 - 10, 17 - 20, 21
The new version of the Emerald Mine Club level collection therefore contains 53523 levels in 604 level sets now.

The new level collection also comes with completely updated artwork that tries to be as close as possible to the original Amiga game, especially regarding the in-game playfield dimensions which are now closer to the original game.

(Screenshots)

Another feature of this update are the newly converted sound effects, which not only have highly improved audio quality, but that come in two variants that can be selected from the game engines setup menu: You can either use the classic Amiga 500 style, low-pass filtered sounds, or enjoy the new Amiga 1200 style sounds with higher quality.

The original title screens and title messages of the original EMC disks are still part of this level collection.

Using the new native Emerald Mine engine (based on the game engine of David Tritscher’s “Emerald Mine for X11”, which was further improved for higher compatibility), even more levels are solvable now. This is proven by solution tapes for as many as 258 level sets that were recorded by Bela Lubkin and Ryan Pineda.

The updated Emerald Mine Club level collection package is available at the Levels & Artwork page!
filbo
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Re: Emerald Mine Club level collection updated!

Post by filbo »

Note: many of the 258 'levelset solutions' are incomplete: some only have a few levels attempted; some have many, but a few levels are skipped or have tapes which don't actually solve the level. Several have 'levelbugs' files which are somewhat a matter of opinion ('this level is too annoying to complete' :), and somewhat obsolete ('this level can't be finished due to lack of wraparound support') -- a work in progress.

The count of 53523 apparently includes files:

Emerald_Mine_Club/emc_super_mine/0a
Emerald_Mine_Club/emc_down_under_mine_08/8-0
Emerald_Mine_Club/emc_down_under_mine_08/9-0
Emerald_Mine_Club/emc_down_under_mine_08/53-0
Emerald_Mine_Club/emc_down_under_mine_08/54-0

-- which I didn't investigate further, but I believe are not 'levels' in the sense that they will appear as playable entities in the game's user interface. The timestamps and naming schemes make me guess they're probably '.orig' pre-edit versions of the corresponding 'normal' level names; but I didn't try loading them in to observe.

In addition to the 28 new level sets listed, I see 22 new levels in Water Mine Update -- new compared to the old extracted EMC collection I have; I don't know how old that is and whether Holger had previously added those in a prior update.

In total this has 2561 more levels than the previous collection I had, across those 28 + 1 levelsets.

I didn't try to check whether any individual levels which existed in both old & new had different contents.
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Re: Emerald Mine Club level collection updated!

Post by Holger »

Note: many of the 258 'levelset solutions' are incomplete: some only have a few levels attempted; some have many, but a few levels are skipped or have tapes which don't actually solve the level.
Yes, I know. But I have only included tapes that are guaranteed to solve the corresponding level (proven by using R'n'D 4.2.0.5 and the "autotest" command), so all included tapes are really working solution tapes.

That means that some tapes for some level sets are indeed missing, but most level sets for which there are solution tapes included either have all or nearly all tapes available. From the 258 level sets that have solution tapes included, only 47 sets have less than 80 solution tapes included (only 24 sets have less than 75 tapes, only 17 sets have less than 70 tapes, and only 8 sets have less than 41 tapes, which is still a solution tape for every second level in an average EMC level set).

The following command gives a quick overview:

Code: Select all

$ (cd path/to/Emerald_Mine_Club ; for i in emc_*/tapes; do echo `ls $i | wc -l` `echo $i`; done) | sort -nr | less
Several have 'levelbugs' files which are somewhat a matter of opinion ('this level is too annoying to complete' :), and somewhat obsolete ('this level can't be finished due to lack of wraparound support') -- a work in progress.
I kept these files by intention (and also the tape variants with different names) for those that are curious; I think they fit very well to the collection, just like some of the title messages which more or less tell exactly the same (even though they inform the user about fixed levels in most cases).
The count of 53523 apparently includes files: [...] which I didn't investigate further, but I believe are not 'levels' in the sense that they will appear as playable entities in the game's user interface.
Yep, that's right. I have to admit that I used a regular expression for counting that apparently also included these files (which are probably level files, but indeed cannot directly be played, but would have to be renamed, just like your alternative tape files.

I should adjust the "total number of levels" count accordingly...
In addition to the 28 new level sets listed, I see 22 new levels in Water Mine Update -- new compared to the old extracted EMC collection I have; I don't know how old that is and whether Holger had previously added those in a prior update.
The previous version 2.1.1 of the EMC collection had a "Water Mine Update" level set with less levels; as far as I can tell, the "older" set is from 1999 and only contains the single player levels, while the "new" set (from the 3.0.0 collection) is from 1994 and contains both the single player and the teamwork levels. It may be possible that the teamwork levels in the original version are only copies of the corresponding single player levels (which is every 4th level for some sets), but I haven#t checked this. (I do log this information when auto-converting all EMC floppy disk images, using hashes of each and every processed level file, to see which sets potentially have identical levels, but I currently do not have access to that log file.)
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Re: Emerald Mine Club level collection updated!

Post by filbo »

> (I do log this information when auto-converting all EMC floppy disk images, using hashes of each and every processed level file, to see which sets potentially have identical levels

I often see identical levels which are not identical, e.g. they changed the color scheme or stamped in a different levelset name / different shoutouts to their buddies. Which has made me muse about some sort of 'level simplificator' which would replace all elements with their simplest counterparts. In particular, all smashable letters etc. with regular stone, all un-smashable walls & letters etc. with steel wall. All multi-color emeralds with regular yellow ones. That sort of thing. Then hash and compare.

... which I guess would probably catch twice as many duplicates, while still missing half of them. Because there are all sorts of other changes one might make which would be nearly impossible to programmatically catch. e.g.: some levels have unreachable bubbles (completely walled off with steel) which might contain yams, or robots, or empty space, or whatever -- makes little or no difference to gameplay, but only a human is likely to recognize such levels as identical. Or walls might be switched between smashable & not, as that's only significant in a limited subset of cases; or sometimes replaced with non-growing amoeba, empty quicksand, magic wall, so many possibilities. Or an entire level might be shifted over one block, that sort of thing.

One way of 'catching' some subset of those: first get a really rough congruence, then attempt to autoplay the level with solution tapes from possible matches. If a possible-match tape solves the level, that's a pretty strong hint they are functionally equivalent. Of course if it does not solve it, nothing is particularly proven, since 'no effect' changes like the addition of a single yam in a walled off bubble will change the random number progression, which is enough to kill many solution tapes.
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Re: Emerald Mine Club level collection updated!

Post by filbo »

I know this is somewhat an individual levelset design issue, but ...

This is now too much like the original! I'm currently playing through Freak Mine 1, and its level 38 is a good example. This is one of those 'here's a bunch of dynamite, now blast your way through the solid rock to dig out the various goodies' levels. Dynamite management is important.

... 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.

Speaking as someone who never played the originals and therefore has zero nostalgia for how it 'ought to look', this is a major downgrade.

I don't mind if the original artwork is used plus whatever modern embellishments are needed to make the game fully playable...

I know people have been demonstrating amazing stuff to show all kinds of status -- all 8 keys, counter keys collected, stuff like that. So I'm sure this is user-repairable. But I don't know how. I could research it and maybe solve the problem, but the next player doesn't know how. 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.

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
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Re: Emerald Mine Club level collection updated!

Post by filbo »

The following directories have permissions 700 (only owner can access) in the 3.0.0 archive. As I had extracted it as root into my systemwide RnD installation, I then couldn't access them as my regular user. All other files and directories have sensible perms (with a little harmless variation):

Emerald_Mine_Club/emc_ace_mine_1/tapes
Emerald_Mine_Club/emc_adventures_of_mr_b_1/tapes
Emerald_Mine_Club/emc_baby_dusty_mini_mine/tapes
Emerald_Mine_Club/emc_bond_mine_02/tapes
Emerald_Mine_Club/emc_bond_mine_04/tapes
Emerald_Mine_Club/emc_bond_mine_05/tapes
Emerald_Mine_Club/emc_bond_mine_06/tapes
Emerald_Mine_Club/emc_bond_mine_08/tapes
Emerald_Mine_Club/emc_emerald_cruncher_1/tapes
Emerald_Mine_Club/emc_emerald_mine_original_1/tapes
Emerald_Mine_Club/emc_emerald_mine_original_3/tapes
Emerald_Mine_Club/emc_pooh_mine/tapes
Emerald_Mine_Club/emc_tutorial_1/tapes
filbo
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Re: Emerald Mine Club level collection updated!

Post by filbo »

So, 5 repairs / improvements waiting so far for the EMC 3.0.1 collection:

viewtopic.php?p=16978#p16978 Instability in playback of 2-player levels
viewtopic.php?p=16979#p16979 Repair emc_crystal_caverns_3 level 3
viewtopic.php?p=16980#p16980 Incorrect default artwork
viewtopic.php?p=16983#p16983 Usability improvements (dynamite & key counters at least)
viewtopic.php?p=16984#p16984 Fix directory permissions

(1, 4, and maybe 3 likely involve RnD changes; but also probably data changes...)

Plus some added tapes, probably :)
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Re: Emerald Mine Club level collection updated!

Post by filbo »

I don't know if these are properties of Freak Mine 1 or the whole new EMC package, but:

- 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

- 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?

viewtopic.php?p=16988#p16988 Restore editor vertical span
viewtopic.php?p=16988#p16988 Move or dismiss after-life-or-death dialog box
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Re: Emerald Mine Club level collection updated!

Post by filbo »

viewtopic.php?p=16978#p16978 Instability in playback of 2-player levels
viewtopic.php?p=16979#p16979 Repair emc_crystal_caverns_3 level 3
viewtopic.php?p=16980#p16980 Incorrect default artwork
viewtopic.php?p=16983#p16983 Usability improvements (dynamite & key counters at least)
viewtopic.php?p=16984#p16984 Fix directory permissions
viewtopic.php?p=16987#p16987 Can't scroll or reach rest of element description
viewtopic.php?p=16988#p16988 Restore editor vertical span
viewtopic.php?p=16988#p16988 Move or dismiss after-life-or-death dialog box
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Re: Emerald Mine Club level collection updated!

Post by Holger »

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!
:mrgreen:
... 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. :-o
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...
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Re: Emerald Mine Club level collection updated!

Post by filbo »

There are many things which could be displayed (at least, if it's technically possible with the skin controls), but might be overkill -- like timers for the 'see invisible' and 'shield' things, magic walls (in fact timers for these things would really be cheats...)

I'm not too clear about which things are EM / EMC vs. RnD only. e.g.: white keys which are a counter rather than boolean?

Possible solution for the end-game envelope on top of the game display: make it a separate window visible to the system's window manager. Then for us oddballs who might want to see the game past time of death, we just drag it aside or minimize it. (Not sure how that interacts with fullscreen mode, though.) Or, simulate such a window, i.e. add a 'minimize' button to the existing thing; which stashes it somewhere onscreen, able to be restored by clicking on its icon.
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Re: Emerald Mine Club level collection updated!

Post by Holger »

There are many things which could be displayed (at least, if it's technically possible with the skin controls), but might be overkill -- like timers for the 'see invisible' and 'shield' things, magic walls (in fact timers for these things would really be cheats...)
Didn't think of these at all, but yes, you're right, of course. But I think only those which are most common in existing levels and which are not cheating should be used -- the player knows how many pieces of dynamite and which keys were collected, but does not want to memorize that. But the remaining duration of lenses, magnifiers or magic walls are not known to the player. So I would just use those panel values that are known from classic R'n'D, plus some specific additions like eight instead of four keys for newer EMC levels.
I'm not too clear about which things are EM / EMC vs. RnD only. e.g.: white keys which are a counter rather than boolean?
That's what the additions like "EM style" etc. in the game element names (as shown in the level editor) are for (if different elements exist for different engines), or why certain elements are displayed in different element sections in the level editor (like the "white key" in the "DC2" section, indicating an element used by Diamond Caves II levels).
Possible solution for the end-game envelope on top of the game display: make it a separate window visible to the system's window manager.
That would not work well with the Android version (well, it could be turned into a system notification) or (as you already said) with fullscreen mode (where it would probably throw the user out of fullscreen mode, back to the system desktop, which seems to be not what is the desired behaviour here).

But I think I have an idea that could work well: Just do it similar to the classic artwork and use the door area. Then it would cover the game panel instead of the playfield (just like it does when using the default artwork). I'll have to do some tests if the available space would be sufficient (but it could work if the game panel is made a bit taller for the additional game panel values as discussed above).
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Re: Emerald Mine Club level collection updated!

Post by Holger »

I will release a new version of the EMC collection in a few days, together with a new minor release of R'n'D to support some of the changes in the EMC collection (which is not strictly required to use the new EMC collection, but improves certain changes, like re-arrangement of keys in the game panel to make it look better -- just try it out with the old and the new R'n'D version).

A release candidate of the new EMC collection package can be found here:
https://www.artsoft.org/RELEASES/rocksn ... 1.0-rc1.7z

The latest R'n'D code can be found in the branch "master-next-minor-release" on git.artsoft.org (beware: this branch is a development branch that is subject to changes due to rebasing, forced pushes and/or removal).

The new code contains the following changes in regard to EMC level sets:

- bugfix for that nasty graphical glitch reported by armanelgtron
- automatically showing keys 5-8 in the default game panel
- rearranging keys in the new EMC level collection
- support to suppress the new extended EMC game panel
- changes required for correctly displaying new EMC request dialog

The new EMC collection contains the following changes:
- extended game panel for dynamite, keys and level number
- fixed EM elements on the "element info screen"
- new position for the request dialog (bottom of the screen)
- several minor changes, like tape recorder font color
- increased vertical screen size for extended game panel items

The last change also helps the level editor (showing more of the level playfield again, and also showing more of long element description texts again, although the "yam" description is still truncated).

A few additional changes (some of what you have listed above -- thanks a lot for that!) may still come into the next minor version, too; else I will have a look at them for the following patch release.
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Re: Emerald Mine Club level collection updated!

Post by filbo »

I can deliver tape updates in ~24hrs, if you would find that useful. Else will just keep accumulating and send eventually.
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Re: Emerald Mine Club level collection updated!

Post by Holger »

No problem, don't hurry! We can release a new "patch version" of the collection when you have them available.

Just wanted to have somebody else take a look at the new version before I release it... :)
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