2025-02-16
This release mainly adds support for the second game panel for the BD game engine,
but also fixes a few bugs related to playing BD games with multiple lives:
- added support for game panel values for native BD game engine
- added support for toggling extra game panel items by left Shift key
- added setup option for key shortcut to toggle extra game panel items
- added support for reading two extra colors from BDCFF file
- fixed clearing off-screen areas in window mode after resizing window
- fixed not setting BD multiple lives if first level has level story
- fixed crash bug (accessing undefined cave with non-BD game engine)
- fixed compiler warnings with GCC 11, GCC 13 and Clang 18
The new version is available from the download page!
2025-01-25
This patch release fixes a few bugs and adds some polishing here and there:
- fixed cave score (tape score) when playing BD games with multiple lives
- fixed flickering panel score when playing BD games with multiple lives
- fixed fast-forwarding BD game engine when skipping player hatching
- fixed pressing Ctrl/Cmd/Meta keys with 0/-/+ keys to change window size
- fixed pressing right Alt key with Return/Enter key to toggle fullscreen
- added continuing at game end by pressing configured snap or drop key
- added support for custom window sizes for most relevant screens
- changed positions of “colors” and “engine” tabs in level editor
The new version is available from the download page!
2025-01-20
Another patch release is required to fix some nasty bugs in the last two versions:
- fixed adding extra life when playing BD games with multiple lives
- fixed clearing touch buttons in off-screen areas on Android
- fixed getting file size of BD caveset file inside Android APK file
- fixed bad use of function pointers that was breaking Emscripten port
Get the new version from the download page!
2025-01-18
A new patch release version is available which contains the following changes:
- added support for playing BD games with multiple lives and global score
- added support for showing multiple lives for BD games in game panel
- added support for showing level set name in game panel
- added setup option to save tape without asking
- added support for animated BD player with bomb or rocket launcher
- added showing color settings in editor also for non-BD engine levels
- added support for color gradients for level specific colors
- improved (un)covering screen when using BD game engine (GDash style)
- fixed black screen flickering when using Metal render driver on Mac
- fixed bug with looping death sound when killed by voodoo in BD engine
- fixed drawing crumbled graphics when moving diagonally in BD engine
- fixed playing sounds for levels with small playfield in BD engine
- fixed showing level story when playing without hall of fame after game
- fixed bug with sounds not being played in native BD sound engine
- fixed multi-line request text overlapping with request buttons
- fixed bug with saving BD style snap element in level file
- fixed bugs with random level specific colors when loading level
- fixed bugs with potentially using off-playfield position
- fixed various other errors
The new version is available from the download page!
2024-12-24
Finally! 40 years after the first release of
The Game That Started It All,
nearly 30 years after the
first release
of my own little clone of this game, around 20 years after I first planned to add
native BD support to it, 10 years after something like a
vague announcement
in the Boulder Dash forum,
and after more than one year of hard work,
it is finally done: Rocks’n’Diamonds has a new native game engine that is compatible
with levels for the classic game Boulder Dash!
The new game engine is based on the famous BD clone
GDash by Czirkos Zoltan,
which most probably has the best freely available BD compatible game engine.
This game engine will make it possible to play all those thousands of BD games
created since the Atari and C64 era, up to the present day! The new game release
comes with a large collection of BD level sets, available from the
Levels & Artwork page.
Besides the new BD game engine, there are some other new features:
- added support for opening level set zip files in Android version
- added support for updating level sets installed by drag’n’drop
- added support for level specific colors by using specially crafted images
- added support for level specific information text messages from main menu
- added support for optional level info (“story”) before starting the game
Now available from the download page!
And I wish you all happy christmas holidays! :-)
