4 versions of BD1 and more Construction Kit versions on C64

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

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LogicDeLuxe
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4 versions of BD1 and more Construction Kit versions on C64

Post by LogicDeLuxe »

Did you know that there actually were four versions of BD1 on the C64 (different loaders, copy protection schemes, box arts etc. not counted in, but only the bare engine)?
Those releases are:
Microfun
First Star Software
Statesoft
Electronic Arts (Super Boulderdash)

Interestingly none of the BD1 engine based fan games seems to be based on the First Star Software release, eventhough it is probably the most known version.

My next BD-FAQ will have all 4 versions nevertheless.

The only noticeable difference between the First Star and Statesoft releases seems to be that Statesoft has a loading screen.
Last edited by LogicDeLuxe on Wed Feb 27, 2008 8:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Arno
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Post by Arno »

Hi Logic! :)
Do you mean that the engines of these releases are all different? Do you know what the differences are? Are they visible in the game (possibly by constructing some special caves in the engines)?

From another topic I understood that the FSS and Super Boulder Dash have identical engines, or haven't they? Think I'm mixing up things... :?
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Post by LogicDeLuxe »

What do you know? There is even more official C64 Boulder Dash. This is hopefully a complete list after juggling with all those different releases.
This list is ordered like this: Gameversion, startadress-endadress entryadress
(edit: typo fixed: Epix/Maxx: 2800-81db 7f94)

Code: Select all

Boulder Dash 1:
Microfun:               5000-8b86 8ab3
First Star Software:    5000-8f48 8e50
Statesoft:              5000-8f3d 8e69
Electronic Arts:        4ff4-8fc0 4ff4

Boulder Dash 2:
First Star Software:    53fd-c033 c000
Electronic Arts:        53f9-bd04 53f9

Boulder Dash 3:
American Action:        5000-8b86 8ab3
Sijben Soft (Bootleg):  5000-8b86 8ab3

Construction Kit (2nd line=Game Modul):
First Star Disk:        2800-8187 7ef0
                        2800-5e8b 5997
First Star Tape:        2800-8187 7ef0
                        2800-5e86 59a1
Epix/Maxx:              2800-81db 7f94
                        2800-5ea1 59a1
Now, I'm curious. On what dates did all those versions appear? Anyone knowing something?

There are three versions of the First Star Construction Kit (the cave editor): One disk and two tapes. However, they only differ in uninitialized variable bytes and really are the same after initialization, thus I only listed one tape.

There is also a bootleg of the Construction Kit with all BD4 caves appearing in the Kit's default colors (black black orange brown cyan).

And believe it or not, there is a genuine bug fixed Construction Kit disk. The crash caused by the stupid STA$29 within the joystick poll routine is not present in the Epix/Maxx release! I have to check for all the other bugs, also in the Construction Kit which is a different version, too.
Arno wrote:Hi Logic! :)
Do you mean that the engines of these releases are all different? Do you know what the differences are? Are they visible in the game (possibly by constructing some special caves in the engines)?
I have to check this out. As you see, I have quite some versions here right now. :)
One difference in the Game Modul I notice (besides that crash bugfix) is that the text "game1" appears automatically which is the name of the BD4 game file.
From another topic I understood that the FSS and Super Boulder Dash have identical engines, or haven't they? Think I'm mixing up things... :?
Yes, the only difference is that EA added a routine to add the EA logo every time the title screen appears. I was quite surprised that it was not the FSS release version Dr. Watson and Don Pedro used for modding.
Last edited by LogicDeLuxe on Wed Feb 27, 2008 9:43 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by LogicDeLuxe »

Game Modul checked:
2 player hatching delay: not fixed
STA$29 crash: fixed
magic wall ringing: fixed
2 player score display update: fixed
timers in pause mode: not fixed
backward cave selection: not possible

Overall, they did fix some bugs including the worst one. :)
Now, I have to check the Construction Kit.
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Post by LogicDeLuxe »

Construction Kit (the editor) differences in the Epix/Maxx version:
Saving lower border: not fixed. (Though this would not really be useful either, since it is not scanned and would break compatibility, too.)
Nothing on borders allowed, not even an Outbox! Considering that the lower border is not saved, this change prevents possible problems due to this, so this can be considered a fix.
Never touch the Restore-key, or your cave is lost: Not fixed. Not a bug, but really bad design for which people hate this software.
Misaligned space item cursor: not fixed. But this is merely a cosmetic bug anyways.
Start drawing a line after using "P" and "F": fixed.
Correct cursor position after "P": not fixed and can still crash.
Draw very long lines: not fixed and can still crash.
F1-key during game does the same as RUN/STOP. (It just reset the timers and rebuilt the screen in the First Star releases.)
Loading an intermission after using "F" in a cave: not fixed.
The keyboard/joystick-input seems to be rewritten. This might prevent those nasty random placements without hitting "D" etc.
Anyone wants to do a long time test to be sure, ie. building an entire game with it? While I'm sure curious, I don't care that much, as I have my CLCK.
Also if those saving failures are gone will only be revealed in a long time test, I guess.
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Post by LogicDeLuxe »

I did a look at those BD1 versions. Apparently, the Statesoft release is branched from the original FSS version, the difference is merely some cleanup. Some tables were defined twice in the FSS version and were removed thus saving some bytes. Also the joystick poll was optimized. The FSS version had more polls and even a code block which is never executed. The cleaned Statesoft version at first checks if the joystick was moved at all and if not, it skips the entire rest of the routine altogether.

The Microfun release is branched from the Statesoft release and is even less, but more obvious changed: They removed the First Star-logo, changed the BD-logo layout a bit and added the yellow text.

The Superboulderdash version is branched from the FSS release and not from the optimized Statesoft version for some reason.

The in game graphics, physics and caves are exactly the same in all versions. And I doubt that anyone noticed a speed difference as the joystick poll really is not the part which occupies most of the CPU time. No bugs were fixed in any release of BD1 either, but they are not a big problem with the original caves anyways.
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Post by LogicDeLuxe »

You are not meant to select caves "e", "i" and "m" on levels 4 and 5, as you probably know. While the cave resets to "a" when going from level 4 to 5, you can select "e", "i" and "m" nevertheless in the original FSS release and in the Super Boulder Dash release. This bug was fixed in the Statesoft and Microfun releases. Finally, I found a bug in BD1 which was officially fixed. :)
Of course, also this bug is not present in the Atari version.
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Post by RTADash »

LogicDeLuxe wrote:original FSS release
Was FSS really the original publisher? I read this at Martijn's bd-fans.com:
Boulder Dash was licensed for the first time to Micro Fun, which published the game on the Commodore 64, Apple II and Colecovision and Boulder Dash II on the Amiga. MicroFun first published Boulderdash but did not pay its payments, so the game fell into the hands of First Star Software, that published the Apple II version and took over the licence for the Commodore version.
:?
Boulders are round.
Fireflies are square.
I need to find
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Post by LogicDeLuxe »

RTADash wrote:Was FSS really the original publisher? I read this at Martijn's bd-fans.com:
Boulder Dash was licensed for the first time to Micro Fun, which published the game on the Commodore 64, Apple II and Colecovision and Boulder Dash II on the Amiga. MicroFun first published Boulderdash but did not pay its payments, so the game fell into the hands of First Star Software, that published the Apple II version and took over the licence for the Commodore version.
:?
Might be as well. If that's the case, although there are some strange facts:
- The First Star logo is not there in the Microfun version, eventhough it is present in the Atari version.
- The FSS version beeing later would imply introducing the cave selection bug. Well, they changed the cave selection in BD2 too, and it could be that it was the same intention in BD1 and they merely overlooked the "reset to cave A"-behavior.
- Boulder Dash 3 is based on the Microfun engine, thus I assumed it came later. Though if this was in fact the first C64 version, they actually choosed the oldest possible engine to base their game on. At least it fits the overall quality of their game.

This all could well be the way it was. But this one, I find strange:
- In the Microfun version, the credits say: "Licensed from First Star Software C 1984". Why is that when First Star actually "took over" later when it "fell into their hands"?
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Post by RTADash »

LogicDeLuxe wrote: This all could well be the way it was. But this one, I find strange:
- In the Microfun version, the credits say: "Licensed from First Star Software C 1984". Why is that when First Star actually "took over" later when it "fell into their hands"?
Oh, that's a tough one to explain :(
Maybe FSS only licensed the Atari version and Micro Fun ported it (unlikely, but it could be possible) - and then FSS took over the rest of the licenses when Micro Fun failed to pay. just a guess... :)
Boulders are round.
Fireflies are square.
I need to find
a'way out of here.
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