Introduction
This is a special page about this site itself: Martijn's Boulder Dash Fan Site with the URL http://www.bd-fans.com. It will tell you why this website has been created, what its purposes are, if anything is copyrighted and if it is legal to offer all these Boulderdash clones, where the site has been published and at last which people earn special credit for their help.
History
When I was still quite young we got a copy of the well-known Boulderdash clone Supaplex at home. I really enjoyed it and we have had it on our family computer for years. Later, when we got Internet, I discovered the game Rocks 'n' Diamonds, in which Supaplex could be played as well. Other games that could be played in Rocks 'n' Diamonds were Boulder Dash and Emerald Mine for example.
Soon I had built up a collection of some Boulderdash games that I really liked and that worked on my Windows 98 computer (unlike Supaplex, which was getting too old): DX-Boulderdash, Rocks 'n' Diamonds and RoX. I played these games but what I didn't like was that especially Rocks 'n' Diamonds had a very chaotic levels directory. The multiplayer levels were mixed up with the single player levels and the different kinds of single player levels were also chaotically mixed. Furthermore there was a common upload site, Zomis' RnD Files Archive, to which many loose levels and levelsets were uploaded.
I wanted to have my Rocks 'n' Diamonds levels ordered, which would mean a good overview of everything and an easy way to decide what kind of level you want to play. And I also wanted the new levels from the Files Archive to have my collection complete (although there was no actual reason to have it complete, as there were thousands of levels already). So I made a file structure, which contained different folders, such as 'Additional Classic Levels', 'Additional Player Levels' and 'Multiplayer Levels'.
Then I started making some pages about my favourite Boulderdash clones and while doing this I got a unique copy of the game High Carats (because it could not be downloaded anywhere on the Internet, I got it directly from the author via ICQ) and I also made a page for Diam Diam, a game that I discovered then.
Because the Boulder Dash Data Base (BDDB) site (a site with information about many Boulderdash clones for many platforms) didn't provide any downloads for the games, I considered extending my website to a real fan site with many clones for different platforms to download, using the information about the games from the BDDB site and about games I had found or someone else had found for me. When the maintainer of the database site saw my site, he stopped hosting it and gave it to me. Keep in mind that my site is not a copy of his site, but I just used information from it and besides, there are quite a lot of games on Martijn's Boulder Dash Fan Site that could not be found on the Boulder Dash Data Base site and I also offer comprehensive pages with many levels and fan stuff. This not to boast or so, but just to indicate that it's my own work and no plagiarism.
Although it has already been launched long before, this site is still in development. There are still many things to publish and every time I get new tips and own ideas for a new thing to add. And because Boulder Dash still has many fans, there are still many clones being created, which can be added to this website later.
Purposes
This site has got the following aims:
1. Giving a complete overview of all Boulder Dash games and clones that
have ever been published with as many additional things, such as
levels, tools, etc., as possible.
2. Making all the downloads easy and ready to use, which means setting the right things in the files and providing instructions about their usage if necessary.
3. Saving files that would otherwise be lost forever.
3. Attracting more people to the 'world of Boulder Dash'. For: the more interested people, the more levels, the more clones and the more sites!
2. Making all the downloads easy and ready to use, which means setting the right things in the files and providing instructions about their usage if necessary.
3. Saving files that would otherwise be lost forever.
3. Attracting more people to the 'world of Boulder Dash'. For: the more interested people, the more levels, the more clones and the more sites!
Copyright
Maybe you will find copyright a strange issue, but it is very important. Some Boulderdash clones have been taken from the Internet or were forbidden to be developed any further because they were against the Copyright Law. Boulder Dash is still licensed and therefore it contains copyright.
Because I've never studied Law I am not completely sure that everything on this website is free to publish. But I've tried to avoid getting problems by only providing demos of the commercial games and not providing downloads for games of the Boulder Dash series on the Classic Boulder Dash page. Still, there may be clones that contain copyrighted material. This is something I cannot always check.
Below are some important things that have to do with copyright and this website. Everything is based on the U.S. Law.
1. It is allowed to create games that embody ideas that are embodied in
other games. You'll
run into trouble if you utilize the same expression
of those ideas as the other games, generally speaking. So making a
Boulderdash clone is actually not illegal and for that reason there
exist
commercial and licensed clones like Emerald Mine and Supaplex.
2. It is illegal to use the same graphics, music, sounds or source code of Boulder Dash (or any other game) for your self-made clone, a screensaver or anything else.
3. It is not permitted to slightly modify game graphics, music, sounds or source codes. The point is that the original works are copyrighted, and to the extent you copy them, even if you alter them, you'll be infringing. At some point the changes are so extensive that the new works may not be considered copies at all. Probably it is allowed to start from scratch and make your own graphics, music, sounds or source code in the same way as in Boulder Dash.
4. A webmaster may not put illegal Boulderdash clones on his website. But if he meets the requirements of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), he can avoid liability. According to this Act, an online server provider must:
5. Making screenshots of a copyrighted game is copyright infringement, but may be excused as fair use depending on what you do with the screenshots.
2. It is illegal to use the same graphics, music, sounds or source code of Boulder Dash (or any other game) for your self-made clone, a screensaver or anything else.
3. It is not permitted to slightly modify game graphics, music, sounds or source codes. The point is that the original works are copyrighted, and to the extent you copy them, even if you alter them, you'll be infringing. At some point the changes are so extensive that the new works may not be considered copies at all. Probably it is allowed to start from scratch and make your own graphics, music, sounds or source code in the same way as in Boulder Dash.
4. A webmaster may not put illegal Boulderdash clones on his website. But if he meets the requirements of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), he can avoid liability. According to this Act, an online server provider must:
a. have no knowledge of, or financial benefit from, the
infringing activity;
b. provide proper notification of its policies to its subscribers;
c. set up an agent to deal with copyright complaints.
b. provide proper notification of its policies to its subscribers;
c. set up an agent to deal with copyright complaints.
5. Making screenshots of a copyrighted game is copyright infringement, but may be excused as fair use depending on what you do with the screenshots.
Publications
I'm proud to mention that my site appeared in Het Info Bulletin, in Volume 13 Issue 6 (December 2005). In the 'article' it says that there is a new Boulder Dash site and you can read there what my site is about the future plans for it (which may be out of date, as we are now somewhere further in the future). Read the article (Dutch).
Future Prospects
This website has been growing rapidly since its start and still many things need to be done in order to get this site really complete, leaving all new contributions of files and information out of consideration. To give you some image of what this so-called 'TODO list' roughly looks like, you will find an abridged version below, only containing the very main points. Any help would be very welcome, so if you are interested in helping with one of the things that are mentioned below, please contact me.
The following things are still to be done (but remember: this is only a rough sketch). They are not ordered after importance.
1. Adding a great deal of games that I have on my hard disk, but are
still missing on my site.
2. Sorting out Amiga Disk Files (ADF) containing games that have been created by the Emerald Mine Club. These levels are planned to be added on the Classic Emerald Mine page, which is currently being worked on.
3. Creating new indicidual game pages (such as now for games such as RoX and Rocks 'n' Diamonds), for games including Igor - The Time Machine, Cave Chaos 1-3, Rockfall - The Return, Greensy in the Wabe, etc.
3. Gathering more information about other classic games besides Boulder Dash, Emerald Mine and Supaplex, such as Repton, Digger and Dig Dug (and probably some others) in order to be able to design a special page for them as well.
4. Extending the platforms pages (such as currently the Windows, MS DOS and Mac OS X pages) with new platforms, including mobile phones. If I were able to open the Boulder Dash Data Base site (the prequel to this site, which has now disappeared from the Internet), I would already have a lot of information about other platforms, as this site contained platforms which I have not added to this site yet. I have got a backup of this site for you, if you are willing to help me with it.
5. Collecting source codes of games to be able to offer them in a special category on the Fan Stuff page.
6. Converting many authentic Boulder Dash games (on D64 disks) to Boulder Remake files for the upcoming Boulder Remake page.
7. Interviewing several 'well-known' people, such as Holger Schemel (creator of Rocks 'n' Diamonds), Philip Jespersen (one of the creators of Supaplex), etc.
8. Spreading http://www.bd-fans.com more about the Internet.
2. Sorting out Amiga Disk Files (ADF) containing games that have been created by the Emerald Mine Club. These levels are planned to be added on the Classic Emerald Mine page, which is currently being worked on.
3. Creating new indicidual game pages (such as now for games such as RoX and Rocks 'n' Diamonds), for games including Igor - The Time Machine, Cave Chaos 1-3, Rockfall - The Return, Greensy in the Wabe, etc.
3. Gathering more information about other classic games besides Boulder Dash, Emerald Mine and Supaplex, such as Repton, Digger and Dig Dug (and probably some others) in order to be able to design a special page for them as well.
4. Extending the platforms pages (such as currently the Windows, MS DOS and Mac OS X pages) with new platforms, including mobile phones. If I were able to open the Boulder Dash Data Base site (the prequel to this site, which has now disappeared from the Internet), I would already have a lot of information about other platforms, as this site contained platforms which I have not added to this site yet. I have got a backup of this site for you, if you are willing to help me with it.
5. Collecting source codes of games to be able to offer them in a special category on the Fan Stuff page.
6. Converting many authentic Boulder Dash games (on D64 disks) to Boulder Remake files for the upcoming Boulder Remake page.
7. Interviewing several 'well-known' people, such as Holger Schemel (creator of Rocks 'n' Diamonds), Philip Jespersen (one of the creators of Supaplex), etc.
8. Spreading http://www.bd-fans.com more about the Internet.
Again, this is only a list of the most important issues to be done. Of course there many minor tasks to do as well, such as adding more information to the history section on the Main page. If you can help me with any of these things (it does not have to be very much work), I would be very thankful for that, as it takes loads of time... Thanks in advance!
Acknowledgement
There is a number of people who have somehow helped me with this website. My credit goes to the following persons/companies:
First Star Software and Peter Liepa,
for making Boulder Dash. Without them this website would never
have
existed!
Tomi Belan, for helping me with the first steps to build this site's source code into a more professional one.
José Brandão, for providing me many missing Boulderdash clones and levels.
Francesco S. Carta, for giving me instructions to complete Tomi Belan's work to get a better source code and also a better lay-out because of this change.
Adam Crews, for having provided an excellent hosting service for this site in order to get it built up.
Ryan Pineda, for suggesting many games that were not on this website yet.
Claus Skrepek (Shabanak), for contributing many missing (classic) Boulder Dash games.
Tomi Belan, for helping me with the first steps to build this site's source code into a more professional one.
José Brandão, for providing me many missing Boulderdash clones and levels.
Francesco S. Carta, for giving me instructions to complete Tomi Belan's work to get a better source code and also a better lay-out because of this change.
Adam Crews, for having provided an excellent hosting service for this site in order to get it built up.
Ryan Pineda, for suggesting many games that were not on this website yet.
Claus Skrepek (Shabanak), for contributing many missing (classic) Boulder Dash games.
Donations
The development of this site takes a lot of time - and some money as well. You could support this site by sending me some money. I would appreciate that very much.
If you want to give me a donation, please contact me. You can find my e-mail address in the menu at the top-left corner of this page.
Guestbook
As the maintainer of this website, I'm curious to hear about your opinion of this site. Of course, you can send me an e-mail about what you like or what you'd like to see improved, but it would also be nice if you left a message in the guestbook of my site. Thanks in advance!
Statistics
For a detailed report about the number of visitors, their language, the site where they came from and many more things, you should have a look at the site statistics. You can also see there that the site's popularity has grown during several months! And that is because of you! Thank you!
Another useful opportunity to measure the popularity of this site is Google PageRank. That is a numeric value that represents how important a site is on the Internet. The value is calculated by the number of links to the site of which the PageRank is given. The importance of the site which links to my site is also taken into account when the Google PageRank value is computed. The number can vary from 1 to 10. Only the very well-known website, such as Microsoft.com have a PR (PageRank) of 10. So if a site has got a 5 for example, it is not as bad as it seems, but rather good.
The current Google PageRank (PR) for http://www.bd-fans.com is:
You could help to improve it! Please link to my site if you can. The more links, the higher the value will be!
If you know more about a certain
game or if you have a new game, new levels, music or whatever, please
send it to me and I will put it on this website! You can find my
e-mail address in the menu to the left.