RTA Dash Discussion (The games - not me!)

Everything about the old and new Boulder Dash games for C64, Atari, ...

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RTADash
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RTA Dash Discussion (The games - not me!)

Post by RTADash »

Here's just another discussion spot...this time for RTA Dash - all 4/5 of them. Feel free to comment, and ask questions (duh!)

Here are some samples:
General Comment wrote: RTAD1 cave 2 is soooo boring!
I know it is :) . The first 8 or so RTAD1 caves were designed for beginners.
In-depth Question wrote: What were you thinking when you designed RTAD3 cave 11?
Pizza! :lol:
Tech Question wrote: Is RTAD fully compatible with NTSC?
Yes, The timing is different but Rockford is never in danger at the start of a cave.


Have fun!
Boulders are round.
Fireflies are square.
I need to find
a'way out of here.
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Arno
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Post by Arno »

As said before, I like the RTA Dash games very much! The caves have a very simple, "professional" design, i.m.o., and most fields are not hard to complete. Much like the classic/original BD games! :)

[Edit] My favo caves are:
- RTAD1: C, H, L, N
- RTAD2: J, M, N, P
- RTAD3: B, int1, L, O, P
- RTAD4: A, G, L, M, N

This is a style I like (although I like others as well...)

I'll leave this topic for others to comment.
Last edited by Arno on Mon Jun 18, 2007 7:10 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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RTADash
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Post by RTADash »

We need some "others".

[Clarification] (Well, we have other people of course, just not "posters")

Anybody out there???

...

...

...

:dunno:
Boulders are round.
Fireflies are square.
I need to find
a'way out of here.
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Sendy
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Post by Sendy »

I really like the RTA dashes. Easy but fun caves are great to relax with and enjoy the whole Boulderdash experience. The RTAD games and also the Falcon Dash games (all of which I completed on my first attempt with no difficulty) inspired me to have a go at making a caveset which emphasizes ease of playability and fun.

So Sendydash 2, when it comes out, which will be soon, will be quite easy because of this.

Sendydash 3 already has 47 caves and is ready to be compiled, too, but the caves are devilishly difficult. Heh heh heh. I have too much time on my hands :thumbsup:

Oh, I also wanted to say: I got caught out WAY TOO MANY TIMES by the slipping boulders on RTAD1 - Cave 3 - Instability. Congratulations on making me feel completely incompetent on such a simple-looking level :lol:
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Post by RTADash »

Welcome to the forum, Sendy!!! :D

(or is it Arno's job to do the welcoming?...well it's all the same :lol: )

I'm glad that you like my games, and that they inspired you!
Sendy wrote:I got caught out WAY TOO MANY TIMES by the slipping boulders on RTAD1 - Cave 3 - Instability. Congratulations on making me feel completely incompetent on such a simple-looking level :lol:
Yes, that cave can do that to you. It certainly has to me, many times. :)
It's like BD2, L with fewer boulders, but more of them placed to cause trouble.

Sendydash 1 was a very well-designed game, but it was too difficult for me (although I did solve the final puzzle) , so I'm looking forward to the the 2nd one!

RTAD5 will still be out by the end of June. I've got 14 days left to design 11 caves, plenty of time! :wink:
Boulders are round.
Fireflies are square.
I need to find
a'way out of here.
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Post by Sendy »

Welcome to the forum, Sendy!!!
Thanks :) . I've been waiting for someone besides Arno to talk to about BD!
it was too difficult for me
Yeah, when I compiled all the levels and played them in sequence (SD1) I realized how terribly, horribly difficult I'd made it. My thoughts are that if the level designer must use save-states heavily to complete the game, it's too hard. (And I am pretty good at BD anyway - well, above average). I might make an easier version in the future. It seems a shame to have all those ideas I had go to waste because of oppressive difficulty.
RTAD5 will still be out by the end of June. I've got 14 days left to design 11 caves, plenty of time!
I'm looking forwards to it! I've found that on a good day I can make 5 or 6 caves in a three or four hour session. Because -

1) Sometimes I have a great BD idea when I'm doing something else, and I jot it down. Once the clever idea for a theme is there it often doesn't take long to implement it in the editor. Usually. That said some ideas take a very long time to get right, with lots of playtesting. But these caves are balanced by:

2) The randomize feature. I love it. Scatter some elements and then spot a good place to draw walls or whatever, and then my brain starts telling me "Oh, if you put just one boulder there near that wall, you'd have to force the player to collapse all these boulders save that one there, push it along and roll it off that diamond from the top of the cave, then use it to blast this wall" (or something equally baffling like that).

And of course if you have no ideas whatsoever, a completely random cave with an attractive colour scheme always goes down well :P
(although I did solve the final puzzle)
Well done. I thought that was one pretty confusing puzzle right there :). Quite hard to pull off, too. Fun times...
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Post by RTADash »

in another thread, Sendy wrote:You may have noticed that I like the colour aspect of BD. It really sets the personality of the level and makes it creative.
Then, you've probably noticed how the colors that I used evolved throughout my 4 games. :shock:

RTAD1-2 used only color schemes found in BD1-2

In RTAD 3, I used any color combination as long as it looked nice.

By the time I made RTAD4, I decided to go all out and use whatever color I felt like. In some caves (A,C,G,I,K,M,O), I just picked random colors. Some of them aren't all that pretty. :)

I'm using even less palette discretion in RTAD5 8) .
Boulders are round.
Fireflies are square.
I need to find
a'way out of here.
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Post by RTADash »

(sorry for double-posting)

As of now, I only have 5 caves left to make! I was seriously on a roll today, and will probably be done relatively soon! :D
Boulders are round.
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Post by Sendy »

Yeah I noticed that about the colours :lol:

Looking forwards to part 5 of the RTAdash series!
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Post by RTADash »

The RTAD pack is already updated with #5! :D
Just DL the whole pack again, and delete everything that you already have. :lol:
Boulders are round.
Fireflies are square.
I need to find
a'way out of here.
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Post by Sendy »

Woo!
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Post by Sendy »

I love that level with the grid of bricks and boulders scattered inside. I may have to swipe that idea later...
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Post by RTADash »

Holger Knublach deserves credit for that one, I borrowed the idea from the java clone "Boulderland". But, feel free to :) , I used one of your puzzle ideas in cave M. :wink:
Boulders are round.
Fireflies are square.
I need to find
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Post by Dustin »

Of course I've already sent you lots of mail to say that, but now everyone shall know that I LOVE these games! :-)
What distinguishes the RTA Dash games from most of the others I've played (most of which are also quite good!) is that they're also very playable for beginners, respectively, if you just want to relax a bit without teasing your brain too much (that's esp. for RTAD 1&2). It's really nice to see how you build up the difficulty from game to game, so that for a complete beginner, playing your games in true order is a real alternative to playing the original games.
For me, the by far hardest game is the 6th (up to now), while the 7th one holds the biggest number of puzzle caves (I love puzzles!! :-) )
On the other hand, I've got a soft spot for caves which are made in style of the original games- the cave filled with some random elements, and then some few regular objects onto it. The RTAD games are a good mixture between such caves and "modern" ones, made with a big effort and very detailed. Of course there are also some caves which I personally don't like very much, but it's clear that everyone has different likings.

Here are the caves I like most of the previous series:

1N(Setup): Simply well- designed!
2P(Narrow Tunnels): Well, I feel something like love- hate towards this cave. I love the design, but I hate it when I have to play it, because I know that I always lose 3-4 lives before I find out how to do it. The by far hardest cave of the first two games, and very interesting!
3F(Wasteland): Of course it is easy ... IF you know what to do! First you have to look at the cave and think well before you do anything- you must even not collect the free diamond too early!
3K(Substraction Reaction): Not only a funny name, but also the idea- simple but good!
4A(Intro): Very funny- the exit is so close, and yet you have to make a detour through the whole cave to reach it!
4D(Hourglass 2): Very stylic hourglass, and a funny race against the time!
5A (Intro): teaches well how to touch a fly without dying- it's like learning swimming by thrown into the deep water!
5B(No Distractions): Exactly the type of puzzle I like!
5D(Grid's Tough) Very classical! Random boulder, the fictive random seed being very important for the difficulty of the cave, and vey few objects make a simple- looking cave with a clear point!
5M(Revers Conversion Filter): Another good puzzle- and it turns out that it is indeed possible to get lots of bonus diamonds!
5O(Passing Act): I find this the hardest cave of the whole series. Mostly all my lives are gone here. But yet I like it very much- clear intention, classical look, and again a good how-to-touch-fireflies-safely trainer!
5P(The Closing): Super construction! Not really hard but you may not make one mistake, so you end the game with a perfectly played cave or by "Game Over" ;-)
6J(Harsh Tracks): I, too, like the cave J from BD1, and I think this is a very good remake- here you clearly see the negative results of a waste of space!
7D(Running Between Floors): Again, a simple but very comprehensive cave idea! I especially like the point behind the positions of the diamonds. A good, hidden hint! And this cave inspires me to ask for the record: How often can you force the player to run up and down between two floors?????????
7G/H(Getting Stuck): Once again, very classical: A different "random seed", and the cave might be much easier- or close to unsolvable.
7J(The Power of 14): Simply funny!
7M(Double Gates): Another puzzle I like- no direct dangers, but quite tricky!
7N(The Hidden Temple): Well, I think the idea of a bonus room in Boulder Dash is a real masterwork!! Of course it's quite easy to complete the cave- but getting the extra lives is very, very hard and demands patience, cleverness and skill. Perhaps you should have made a bit fewer butterflies, but this cave is GREAT!!!!!
7O(Task Choice): I like the principal idea to give the player a choice how to solve the cave. I favor the lower- right room, because it's a really nice puzzle. However, you can make things very easy and boring by choosing the lower- left one. Here, perhaps, you could have used only two butterflies, which you can only hit at the border to get exactly 12 diamonds.
7P(Loop City): So simple- looking at first, so tricky in real! And very aesthetical look!
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