Boulder Run 0.91

by pahammond

Cart #boulderrun-5 | 2021-04-16 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA

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Best C64 Game of All Time?

This is my pico-8 remake of one of my favourite C64 games of all time: Boulder Dash.

Featuring all of the classic caves and levels (hopefully!) plus a handful of puzzle levels thrown in for good measure.

Controls

x dig/collect/push without moving
z give up and restart level
q quit

Version History

• 16/08/2020: 0.90
  • Rounded out original music on level select. My original version was thrown in hurriedly and a little jerky.
• 17/04/2021: 0.91
  • Sped up to make controls feel less "sticky"

This is excellent! It looks, sounds, and feels like the real thing. (Or rather, like my aging memory of the real thing!) I always liked this C64 game too. :-)

Thanks and I’m with you too on the aging memory!

Nicely done!
Faithful recreation of levels - impressive work.

Minor complaints:

• the jewels should be more flashy - the grey/brown/black gradient is not sparkling enough !
• is the player just a bit slow?

Wow! So cool!!! <3<3<3 I love this game, thank you!!

I like the physics and real time factor. I've only played a version where boulders where falling straight and I'm not sure if it was real-time not turn-based. Here you have the time to run away to escape a boulder if you can predict where it will be falling. Otherwise, you need to move carefully as the boulders will slip on other boulders and some surfaces.

I noticed that in cave C, boulders slip on bricks, which wasn't too intuitive for me though. Do they only adhere to diggable ground thanks to earth being malleable?

Firstly, thanks for the feedback.

Boulders will roll off other boulders and brick walls. In later levels, there are magic walls which look pretty much the same but, when a boulder falls on them, they are activated for a few seconds and any other boulders that fall on them will fall through the other side as diamonds.

Pretty sure I've got most of the rules correct as per the commodore 64 version anyway.

Nice!
Sound effects are a bit too harsh, though.

Also, consider:

1. Making it so we can skip the level set up animation
2. Reducing the time it takes for the camera to align with the player. At the second level, I started getting a bit dizzy because of the camera "lag". I'd rather have it a bit more snappy.

Incredible. I played the C64 version until the tape wore out. There's nothing I'd change - it even lags the camera behind the player faithfully! That was always a particular skill to release the butterflies while running off the screen on Cave M! Thank you so much!

I love it, but Cave K is impossible, as it requires you to collect six of the five diamonds.

If something looks impossible, it’s probably not. Magic walls form diamonds when you drop boulders through them. Butterflies explode into diamonds

No, this was meant to be a faithful recreation of Boulder Dash. In that game, Cave K had no magic walls, nor any butterflies. Just 6 diamonds and a tight time limit. Boulder Run's Cave K has only 5 diamonds; one was omitted somewhere.

Hmmm. I’ll look into that one. Was sure I’d play tested all the levels!

Yup, it appears that the diamond near the bottom right is missing - well spotted. If I get a chance, I'll try and revisit the code in the next week or so, see if I can fix it and post an update. Unfortunately, I wrote this 2+ years ago and it was my first pico-8 project. Guess I never tested cave K properly!

I look forward to the update!