Games Competition 2010 - Round 4 - Boulderdash

Parpala · Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 3:15 pm Post subject:

My first score Very Happy

3756

Toggle · Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2010 2:01 pm Post subject:

3,805

jt-3d · Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 1:03 am Post subject:

Dammit, not only can I not get as far as I did back in the day, I can't even get to my score from the previous BD compo. Rolling Eyes

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Apollyon · Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 1:41 pm Post subject:

The controls of this game suck.
Playing with just three lifes sucks as well.
What, you did not play it to death 25 years ago? - Bad luck dude!

Bottom line: playing Boulder Dash is not fun.

Toggle · Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 6:07 pm Post subject:

Apollyon wrote:

The controls of this game suck.
Playing with just three lifes sucks as well.
What, you did not play it to death 25 years ago? - Bad luck dude!

Bottom line: playing Boulder Dash is not fun.

Same here! But don't give up yet, I'll still try my best as well.

thewizardofwor · Groupie in Training Joined: 28 Sep 2009 Posts: 99

Just a little better.

1,562

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jt-3d · Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 10:29 pm Post subject:

Apollyon wrote:

Bottom line: playing Boulder Dash is not fun.

It was fun enough back in the day and it's fun now. It's just that your average gamer type has changed. You have to figure out how to complete the levels and that takes time.

If I recall this was my third C=64 game and I spent a hell of a lot of time trying to beat it. This was before my weekly shopping spree, so it might be six months before I got a new game. before the interwebs and pr0n, you were really limited on what you could do with one of these computor thingys. Games were big part. So if you threw out fifteen or twenty bucks for a game, you really had time to play with it. But times have changed.

It's not really a good competition game. Still, we can't play Leaderboard every month. Smile

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shteev · Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 10:42 pm Post subject:

Apollyon wrote:

What, you did not play it to death 25 years ago? - Bad luck dude!

No use lamenting that as a disadvantage...You wouldn't have liked it if you'd have played it then either...

New score from me:

4,590
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Apollyon · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2010 5:15 am Post subject:

jt-3d wrote:

You have to figure out how to complete the levels and that takes time.

That's not the problem. But i'd like to have a reasonable chance to reach the level i am currently working out. Dying the umpteenth time because Rockford went into some unintended direction while running away from a firefly is utterly frustrating.

Voidoid · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2010 6:37 am Post subject:

Apollyon wrote:

That's not the problem. But i'd like to have a reasonable chance to reach the level i am currently working out. Dying the umpteenth time because Rockford went into some unintended direction while running away from a firefly is utterly frustrating.

I'd say the same thing, I've been using the regular version for practise, it's the only way to figure out the later levels. I didn't own this game back in the day, I picked it up in an eBay spree a few years back and only played it once or twice... At this point in the contest, I still mostly like the game but I'm finding it on the annoying side and I'll be glad to be done with it.

shteev · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2010 12:28 pm Post subject:

You can choose your start cave and level on the title screen; you can start on cave A, E, I, or M.
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dynamite · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2010 1:43 pm Post subject:

Voidoid wrote:

Apollyon wrote:

That's not the problem. But i'd like to have a reasonable chance to reach the level i am currently working out. Dying the umpteenth time because Rockford went into some unintended direction while running away from a firefly is utterly frustrating.

I'd say the same thing, I've been using the regular version for practise, it's the only way to figure out the later levels. I didn't own this game back in the day, I picked it up in an eBay spree a few years back and only played it once or twice... At this point in the contest, I still mostly like the game but I'm finding it on the annoying side and I'll be glad to be done with it.

I am having similar problems to Apollyon. I don't have a problem figuring out what to do, what I do have a problem with is the controls.

Whether I use joypad, joystick or keys, Rockford periodically doesn't respond to my inputs, overshoots the mark or goes in the completely wrong direction. Invariably that's a man down. I've gone from one extreme to another in the space of 2 competitions. In Lemans I was able to use paddles to dink and dive between cars with great precision, with Boulder Dash it all seems to be a bit of a fudge.
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Toggle · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2010 2:23 pm Post subject:

dynamite wrote:

I am having similar problems to Apollyon. I don't have a problem figuring out what to do, what I do have a problem with is the controls.

Whether I use joypad, joystick or keys, Rockford periodically doesn't respond to my inputs, overshoots the mark or goes in the completely wrong direction. Invariably that's a man down.

I fully agree. The only problem of Boulder Dash are the sluggish and imprecise controls of Rockford.

For me that's a very sad thing as I like the genre and the level design of this game as well. But due to the bad controls I find Boulder Dash hardly playable at all. Could have been a real classic otherwise.

Parpala · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2010 4:17 pm Post subject:

5287

shteev · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2010 6:42 pm Post subject:

Toggle wrote:

I fully agree. The only problem of Boulder Dash are the sluggish and imprecise controls of Rockford.

Well I'm a huge fan of Boulder Dash but I have to agree with this statement. (Oh, and the scrolling. That's not good either). Personally, tho, I think you can play around it. The key to movement in Boulder Dash is to realise that everything in a level moves at the same time: you, boulders, fireflies, everything. If you try to tap the joystick to get a small movement and it's not at the right time, you'll get nothing. If you're running, then, never tap the stick to turn a corner, always hold it until you have moved. It's easy to time, since you can hear each movement that you make. If you need to move a single square, then do it when there's nothing dangerous around, tap the stick in the direction you want (or better, dig with fire+direction). If you've just let something nasty out then immediately run off somewhere safe. If the game ignores your movement, then come back and try again.

This problem becomes less pronounced on the later levels when the game speeds up.

I'm very surprised to hear reports of the game making you travel in the wrong direction, tho, I've never encountered this. I'd be suspicious of the joystick itself. If you're using an emulator try narrowing the input bands for each direction.

Moving too far... well that's just your hand Razz

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Apollyon · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2010 7:35 pm Post subject:

2564
H/1

Troy · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2010 9:02 pm Post subject:

12,297 Bite me!

Got to cave K, level 2 - forgot how to do it.

I never used to have a life once - this game was one of the reasons why. Actually, this game was the only reason why.

Tips: You gotta know the methods for Cave E and Cave J if you want to keep the sweat off your brow.

About that joystick causing Rockford to run the wrong way - well, in the long long long ago me and me brother used to play this with a crappy quickshot 2 (but not for long) and it would sometimes send you the wrong way, before sending you the right way.

Parpala · Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2010 10:57 am Post subject:

Troy wrote:

12,297 Bite me!

Damn you!

Ina · Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2010 9:53 am Post subject:

got to level 2,,, finally!!

8827

Jolly_Roger · Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 6:55 am Post subject:

4354

I hate that stupid blob in cave G.

mailman · Groupie in Training Joined: 09 Oct 2005 Posts: 60

Back in C64 era of mine, I remember that my bad, hundred-times-fixed-joystick behaved strange making Rockford move in different directions. Currently I play this game using Vice (keyboard) and Frodo (joystick) and nothing like this happens.

Well, Boulder Dash is a classic game with or without its flaws. It is not ideal but still can be a lot of fun and we should stick to this point Wink

merman · Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 10:51 am Post subject:

Just to get on the board for now...

1490

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mailman · Groupie in Training Joined: 09 Oct 2005 Posts: 60

4,494

zaraza · Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 9:21 pm Post subject:

3341

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dynamite · Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 10:35 pm Post subject:

Ugh, I don't think I can take much more of this game.

3,330

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