Boulder Dash, but made by the University of Bristol

Discussion about Rocks'n'Diamonds, Boulder Dash, Supaplex, Emerald Mine and any other BD hybrid.

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RAP
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Boulder Dash, but made by the University of Bristol

Post by RAP »

So, I was looking through some of the files I downloaded, which can range from weeks to maybe years. I stumbled upon a Boulder Dash-like, which is apparently made by the University of Bristol.

I found this from https://www.softpaz.com/games/download- ... e-4500.htm - it can be played for free, it requires the Java Runtime Environment (or shortened to just "Java"), but doesn't really tell me which minimum version required, so I'm just assuming the latest version of Java. According to that page, it was released on 2017 April 16.

javaw_2021-11-15_01-17-05.png
javaw_2021-11-15_01-17-05.png (188.8 KiB) Viewed 4348 times
Here are the details wouldn't be easily conveyed through images:
  • There's only 3 levels in the game, all of which are single screen and shown fully in a 11 by 11 tile size. I'm assuming that judging by who developed this, it was a student that made it for their class that represented their university. A bit of cursory search about this video game game, only that above link was the only thing I can find.
  • The name of the window is "this is the game", curiously, while the name of the .jar is "md7131.jar". It could've been "this is the game" instead of "Boulder Dash" as said by Softpaz, but it won't attract a lot of attention SEO-wise if the name of this video game is left vague or obfuscated.
  • There are green emeralds and blue diamonds, similar to how they are found in Emerald Mine by how they look, but blue diamonds can't be smashed by boulders.
  • You cannot snap or perform an action to collect a gem or dig a tile of dirt while staying still; you cannot push a boulder while standing still (which is a game mechanic specific to the original Boulder Dash video game).
  • Despite the name of the video game being "Boulder Dash", it leans a bit more to being an Emerald Mine-like for which there are red orb-colored bombs, as it was found in level 2 and level 3; level 2 seen in the below image.
    javaw_2021-11-15_01-18-29.png
    javaw_2021-11-15_01-18-29.png (197.78 KiB) Viewed 4348 times
  • However, it leans towards Boulder Dash in one way more than Emerald Mine in that collecting all the required gems reveals the exit itself from hiding from the walls, and opens up.
  • Movement is tricky as holding an arrow key in one direction moves the player (which is based on Link from the Legend of Zelda video game series) by one tile and stopping for a moment, before being able to continuously move in that direction. This would prove to be a bit of a challenge for the last level.
    javaw_2021-11-15_01-18-55.png
    javaw_2021-11-15_01-18-55.png (202.4 KiB) Viewed 4348 times
  • You have 6 lives for the entire game, but this video game can be beaten without at least losing all your lives.
  • Dying by being hit by a boulder causes you to explode in a 3x3 grid, emulating how it was done in the original Boulder Dash.
  • The video game features a score system:
    • Collecting a blue diamond gives 5 score points.
    • Collecting a green emerald gives 10 score points.
    • Exiting the level gives you X amount of points determined by the amount of seconds remaining when exiting the level multiplied by 2.
  • Oddly, finishing the last level doesn't give score points at all.
I made this topic mainly because this section of the forum isn't limited to just Rocks'n'Diamonds, as other Boulder Dash-like video games can be talked about. Unfortunately there isn't much talking about Boulder Dash-likes in general outside of Rocks'n'Diamonds, aside from one other forum or two. So why not use this space to show and document Boulder Dash-likes that isn't easily found in BD-Fans? It was kinda fun just trying to document and write up, took an hour or two to make this topic.

My final score is 251. If you're interested in taking a bit of your time out of your day, try to beat this score.
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Holger
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Re: Boulder Dash, but made by the University of Bristol

Post by Holger »

Hi RAP,

thanks for sharing your thoughts about this game with us! It was fun and interesting reading it! :-)
I made this topic mainly because this section of the forum isn't limited to just Rocks'n'Diamonds, as other Boulder Dash-like video games can be talked about. Unfortunately there isn't much talking about Boulder Dash-likes in general outside of Rocks'n'Diamonds, aside from one other forum or two. So why not use this space to show and document Boulder Dash-likes that isn't easily found in BD-Fans? It was kinda fun just trying to document and write up, took an hour or two to make this topic.
Writing about BD style games here is perfectly fine, and bringing up other games here is always a good source of inspiration. For me, for example, it is interesting to check which aspects of another game could be "emulated" by the R'n'D game engine, and which features would need changes to also cover it.
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RAP
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Re: Boulder Dash, but made by the University of Bristol

Post by RAP »

Heh, that could be one way to further compatibility, although the engine from Rocks'n'Diamonds could be more standardized to being a top-down tilebased video game engine of sorts. I'm just not sure if the specific movement I described is possible to be replicated at all.

As for this little game itself, there's always that backend thought of making more levels like this, in an unofficial way. I'm just not that good at coding or trying to dig through the coding of this game, heh.
Algebroot
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Re: Boulder Dash, but made by the University of Bristol

Post by Algebroot »

Holger wrote: Mon Nov 15, 2021 7:09 pm Writing about BD style games here is perfectly fine, and bringing up other games here is always a good source of inspiration. For me, for example, it is interesting to check which aspects of another game could be "emulated" by the R'n'D game engine, and which features would need changes to also cover it.
Okay. I was actually hesitant to think of talking about an official(?) Boulderdash game I recently found (but never actually played) when looking through YouTube videos, because of how similar but different it was compared to the original so I was unsure where in the forums to talk about it. But now that you mention it I am now sure I know where to talk about it.
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