General BDCFF questions

Everything about the various Boulder Dash tools, and other stuff created by the fans.

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Dustin
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General BDCFF questions

Post by Dustin »

Hi, I've got some problems to understand how the BDCFF work.
I've just used the BDCFF to reconstruct the original BD games. (unfortunately I don't have the games, and in my favorite clone Boulder Remake some caves are slightly changed)., and now I wonder how these files can be made. Can I simply open Microsoft Word and start to write the file, and this file can be converted and read by a BD clone to make a game out of it? Or how does it work?

Another question about the BD2 file on this homepage. In Cave A, is there really no bonus diamond value? (You can get lots of bonus diamonds in this cave!)
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LogicDeLuxe
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Re: General BDCFF questions

Post by LogicDeLuxe »

Dustin wrote:Can I simply open Microsoft Word and start to write the file
No, you need an editor which supports plain text files like the Windows Notepad, Notpad++, Emacs, etc.. There are many such editors: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_editor
and this file can be converted and read by a BD clone to make a game out of it? Or how does it work?
AfaIk, there is no such converter (yet). You need a clone which does support BDCFF natively.
Currently Gdash is the best bet. It has the most advanced BDCFF support. Though it is still under heavy development and attributes which are open for discussion may change in future versions. Also there is no sound yet.
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RTADash
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Re: General BDCFF questions

Post by RTADash »

Dustin wrote:Can I simply open Microsoft Word and start to write the file, and this file can be converted and read by a BD clone to make a game out of it? Or how does it work?
Well, if you follow the correct format, and save it as a .bd file then, yes, it will probably work. However - you'll be better off making it in notepad because that's a better program in terms of "what you see is what you get".
Dustin wrote:Another question about the BD2 file on this homepage. In Cave A, is there really no bonus diamond value? (You can get lots of bonus diamonds in this cave!)
For me, the error is in the BDCFF: The bonus value is equal to the initial value and, as such, in the BDCFF it's only listed once without a seperate number for the bonus. This causes the BDCFF>Maps program to read the bonus value as a 0.

[Looks like Logic beat me to this one :cry: ]
Boulders are round.
Fireflies are square.
I need to find
a'way out of here.
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LogicDeLuxe
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Re: General BDCFF questions

Post by LogicDeLuxe »

RTADash wrote:For me, the error is in the BDCFF: The bonus value is equal to the initial value and, as such, in the BDCFF it's only listed once without a seperate number for the bonus. This causes the BDCFF>Maps program to read the bonus value as a 0.
In fact, this is a known oversight in the BDCFF specification. The problem is, there are caves where only one value really means 0, thus a BDCFF parser wouldn't know the difference. It is highly recommend to use always two values to avoid this problem.
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Dustin
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Initial fly directons wrong?

Post by Dustin »

Hi,
I have noted a probable bug concerning the initial directons of flies in the BDCFFs on this site. Here are examples where the given diredtion cannot be correct:
- BD2, Cave H. According to the BDCFF, all the butterflies "look" at the inside of the ring at the start. But this would mean that they move counter-clockwise, and follow Rockford as soon as he leaves his cage.
- BD2, Cave J: The trick to force each firefly into a looping while the butterfly comes to you doesn't work with the given initial directions (at least not the way it actually does in the game). I've noted this because I took the bdcff to play BD2 with Gdash.
I haven't (yet) found any examples of definitely wrong firefly directions. I played with the problem a bit and found out that both examples can be fixed if you rotated all the butterfly initial directions by 90° counter-clockwise. At least in BD1&2 there would not appear any new problems, either (BD1- Cave D and Int1 would still be ok without looping butterflies). The firefly directions, as mentioned, can stay as they are.
Boulder Dash X Rock, Paper, Scissors:
ROCKFORD collects DIAMOND, digs DIRT
DIAMOND outvalues DIRT & BOULDER
DIRT carries BOULDER, blocks FIREFLY
BOULDER kills FIREFLY & ROCKFORD
FIREFLY kills ROCKFORD, guards DIAMOND
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