The Boulderland game is a fascinating mixture of action and strategy. Each level is an underground micro-cosmos full of stones and hostile creatures. The aim is to collect a certain amount of diamonds within a time limit. Then a door to the next level will open.Even though this main idea sounds very simple, Boulderland is a very complex and variable game. In fact, in most of the levels the diamonds are not just lying around, but have to be located, dug out or even produced. And of course, Boulderland is full of dangers and obstacles.
Nevertheless, Boulderland is easy to learn. Just try to play some of the first levels or look at some of the replays available. As you see there, you are moving a small guy through the level. With every step you are digging through the ground, creating tunnels and caves. The boulders lying around are falling down, whenever nothing is below. Then they are dangerous, since they kill every being underneath. On your way through the cave you will meet hostile ghosts and butterflies, that you should not touch. You can also defeat those beasts, by dropping boulders or other items on them. Especially the butterflies are important, since they transform to diamonds when killed. Other features of the game are walls, bombs, worms and amoebas.
On your journeys through the levels you are likely to find many different items and meet some strange creatures. It is best to experience them during the game, but beginners might require some information first. The following list will provide you with the basic knowledge about the important game elements.
Player
This is you in Boulderland. Use the cursor keys to move the guy through his underground realm.
Earth
Those fields can easily be dug away and serve to create tunnels.
Gems
Collect as many gems as you can, and then try to reach the exit. But be careful: If a gem hits you from above, you could be killed.
Boulders
Boulders obey the law of gravity. They fall down if there is nothing below. Falling boulders are dangerous, since they kill everything on its way. You can shift single boulders and move them to where they are needed.
Blocks
Blocks are similar to boulders, but they are indestructible. And they can be stacked without rolling off.
Brick walls
These walls can be destroyed by creating an explosion next to it.
Growing walls
Some walls look like brick walls, but grow if there is space. So watch out not to let them block your way!
Magic walls
These walls, too, look like normal brick walls, but they can be used to convert boulders to diamonds. Drop a boulder on a magic wall. If there is an empty field below it, the boulder will fall through as a gem. Unfortunately this only works for a short time and only once. Diamonds falling through a magic wall are transformed to boulders. If the field below a magic wall is occupied, the boulder or gem will not appear on the other side, but vanish.
Slime
Slime is similar to magic walls. Boulders and gems lying on top of it are falling through. As a difference to magic walls, the items do not have to fall on it from above and do not vanish, if the field below is not empty.
Hard walls
Those walls usually make the edge of the level and are absolutely solid.
Exits
Exits look like hard walls, until you managed to collect enough gems. Then they are open and blink.
Ghosts
Ghosts are dangerous, since their touch is deadly. In any case you must avoid to step into a field directly adjacent to a ghost. The experienced player will fortunately be able to estimate the path, a ghost moves on. And you can kill a ghost by throwing boulders or bombs on it.
Butterflies
Similar to ghosts, butterflies should not be approached too close. But they are much more useful than ghosts, since they transform to up to nine diamonds, when killed. Use this attribute to create the gems required.
Amoeba
In some levels you will find an amoeba. Even though it might consist of many single fields, it is only one creature. It is a (mostly) harmless and very useful creature, that grows permanently. In case it is completely surrounded by walls or other hard elements, it turns to pure diamonds! If - on the other hand - the amoeba becomes too big, it turns too stone and will leave a large pile of boulders behind. The certainly most important attribute of the amoeba is that it kills butterflies and ghosts touching it. Thus it can be used to provide a permanent production of gems.
Worms
Worms consist of a head and a tail. They move slowly and prefer to follow you. This makes them more dangerous than ghosts, but at the same time useful, since you might be able to "remote control" a worm by moving in the direction desired. To kill a worm you need to hit his head. The tail itself is totally harmless.
Bubbles
Bubbles are slowly moving upwards, if there is room. You can shift them like boulders and even more than one at a time. Some bubbles burst after some moments, but most of them remain until someone decides to have them removed. To burst a bubble, use the ctrl key together with the direction to the bubble.
Bombs
Bombs can be collected and then used on any empty fields. To drop a bomb hold the ctrl key down and select the desired direction of dropping it. But be careful to be far off when the bomb explodes. Bombs are especially useful to remove obstacles, like brick walls and boulders.
Shields
In some levels you can collect a shield which makes you immortal for several seconds. As a side-effect, your moves become a bit uncoordinated, too...
The screen is devided into the playfield, the top display and the status display. You can resize the playfield at any time using the small numbered buttons in the left lower corner or the keys F1 to F6. A bigger screen display means a better view of the level, but requires a more powerful hardware. For a Pentium with 166 MHz it is advisable to select a zooming of 5 or 6. For faster machines it might even be necessary to increase the game delay. To do this, use the + and minus buttons at the right lower corner. The game is running on normal speed, if the timer (in the right part of the status display) is ticking like a digital watch.During the game the lower bar displays some status indicators. The two numbers on the left border show the number of diamonds collected and required. With every diamond collected, the first number increases by one. If you manage to get at least the required amount of gems, the exit door will open and you are ready to leave the level. The actual score is shown in the center of the lower bar. For every diamond collected, a certain bonus is added to the score. Apart from that, the only way to increase the score is to be quick: The number of seconds remaining after solving a level is added to the score. A bonus life is granted every 1000 points. The left part of the status bar displays the number of bombs you have currently available. Even though this display stops at the number of six, you are still able to carry as many bombs as you can get.
On the top of the screen you find the active buttons and other displays. After starting the game, it hosts the main menu, with the start button to begin a new game. You can select the starting level using the cursor up/down or page up/down keys. You might start at any level, but the challange is of course to play the round through all of them in one go. In the beginning, you have three lives plus the actual one. The number of lives is shown in the right part of the top bar. You do not have to solve all levels: Some levels are bonus caves, the only purpose of which is to gather points. Bonus levels normally succeed four normal levels and are much smaller than the other caves. You might want to set a higher delay in order to slow down the game in those levels. In the main menu you can also select replays. After having clicked on the Replay button, you will be asked to select a replay from the list. Replays were played by someone else, and usually show the solution of a level.
The editor can be used to create new levels. The applet version is restricted, in that it is not allowed to load and save levels. Those restrictions do not apply to the application version, where you can even edit the existing levels. However, the editor is started from the main screen through the edit button. Then you will see an empty playfield, that is ready for your creativity. You might want to zoom the display to see the whole level. If the level area is larger than the displayed playfield, you can scroll by clicking on the edges of the displayed field. The status bar lists all available game elements, like boulders and ghosts. Those elements can be placed on the playfield using the mouse button. Click on an item in the status bar to change the actual element. There are three different drawing modes available, the active of which is displayed below the status bar. Clicking on the mode words will toggle the mode.The next step in the design of a level is to specify the level settings. Open the settings dialog with the Options button. There you can define the following options:In the normal draw mode you place one item at a time. You can also draw multiple elements by holding the mouse button down while moving the cursor. Frame fields can only be replaced through a single click. A click in the flood fill mode will fill a bounded area of the same field type with the actual item. Be careful, since there is no undo feature available yet! In the random draw mode you draw five items at random destinations near the mouse. This is especially useful to place some boulders or gems by chance. After having created a first outline of your new level, you might want to test it. Click on the test button to start it. Make sure that a suitable entrance is defined, otherwise you will have to start in the upper left corner. After the end of the test game (that you can stop using the k key at any time) you will return to the editor. There you can go back to the main menu, using the Menu button. Only the application version enables you to save your work.Level name: An arbitrary name of your choice. Author: Your name or a pseudonym. Time available: The number of seconds available. Gems needed: The number of diamonds needed to open the exit. Gem value: The score value of a normal diamond. This value should be set in relation to the number of gems needed, i.e. small if many diamonds are available. Bonus gem value: The value of each additionally collected diamond. Amoeba speed: The speed of growth of the level's amoeba. The number specifies the probability of growth for every single amoeba field during a round. A typical value is below 0.04. A higher value means faster growth. Amoeba maximal size: The size at which an amoeba is turned to stone. Slime permeability: The probabilty that slime lets boulders through. A typical value of 0.2 means that in average every 5 rounds the slime is permeable. Magic wall duration: The time span in which the magic walls of a level are active, starting with the first boulder or gem falling into it. Bubble burst probability: The probability that a bubble will burst during a round. The default value of zero means that bubbles never burst automatically.
The application version of Boulderland does not have to be played on-line. Since it is a Java application, it is allowed to access your harddisk. Thus it is possible to load and save levels in the level editor and to record and replay your own games. Shipped with the application version you will also find replays to all 30 standard levels and additional levels. The actual Version contains four level libraries with 30, 31, 46 and 26 levels!
from a command-line environment, like the Command Prompt of Windows95 or NT 4.0. Make sure that Java can be found and the correct path variables are configured in your System. There are also batch files to start the game.jre -vp . BLA
jre -vp . BLA Petr
The two additional buttons load and save appear in the right border of the editor. You are then asked to enter a filename (usually *.bll). To play them you can either start them directly from the editor with the test button or build them into a new level library. Each of these level libraries must contain a file called index.txt which serves as a file descriptor for the game. Please take a look at the index file of the Standard library and you will easily understand the concept.
To record one of your tries, press the r key during the game. The message "replay active" will appear below the status bar. After the end of the current try you will be asked to specify a file name (usually *.blr). You can view this replay later from the main menu, using the Replay button.
Holger Knublauch