Boulder Dash Common File Format

Proposal written by: Tim Stridmann

Version: 0.32

Last modified: 14 February 2004

Based on: Grant Walker's text format proposal and Michal Kowalski's Boulder Rush cave format

The structure

; A comment line
[BDCFF] ; BDCFF necessary header
; Info about BDCFF version, etc.
Version=0.2

[game]
; game and default cave attributes

[mapcodes]
; extended codes for map-coded caves, may be absent.
Length=1	; The length (1 or 2 characters) of the map-codes. Default value = 1
; For example,
.=DIRT
W=STEELWALL
; ...etc. If Length = 2 then ..=DIRT, Ws=STEELWALL, etc.
[/mapcodes]

[cave]
; cave data and attributes
Size=6 5

[demo]
; demo data for this cave, all demo may be in one line, i.e. .30ur7 etc.
.30	; no movement for 30 turns
u	; move up one space
r7	; move right 7 spaces
; etc.
[/demo]

[objects]
; cave objects data, this is absent if cave is map-coded.
; For example,
Point=1 1 INBOX
Line=2 1 2 4 DIAMOND
Point=4 3 OUTBOX
[/objects]

[/cave]

[cave]
; next cave, etc.

[map]
; a map of a cave, is absent if cave is object-coded.
; For example,
WWWWWW
WXd..W
W.d..W
W.d..W
W.d.PW
WWWWWW
[/map]

[/cave]

[/game]

[/BDCFF]

The Attributes

Name

Cave (or game) title (string)

Date

Date of cave (or game) creating (string, 2002 or 2002-10 or 2002-10-31 format)

Author

Cave (or game) author (string, for cave default equals game author)

WWW

Link to author's webpage

Description

Cave (or game) description (string)

Charset

Character set, for example "space" for BD3, default = "original"

Fontset

Font set, for example "space" for BD3, default = "original"

Difficulty

Difficulty of the game (or level). For info purposes

Lives

Initial number of lives (number, default = 3). Available only in [game] section

BonusLife

Bonus life score (number, default = 500)

Levels

Default number of levels (number, default = 1). Available only in [game] section

Intermission

Is intermission (boolean, default value = false). Available only in [cave] section

CaveSize

Default cave width and height (two numbers, default values = 40 and 22). Available only in [game] section

IntermissionSize

Default intermission cave width and height (two numbers, default values = 20 and 12). Available only in [game] section

Size

Current cave width and height (two numbers, default values correspond to game info). Available only in [cave] section

DiamondValue

Number of points per diamond (two or one numbers, second value is number of bonus points per diamond)

DiamondsRequired

Number of diamonds required to successfully finish the cave for each level (five - or one - numbers). Available only in [cave] section

CaveTime

Cave total times for each level (five - or one - numbers). Available only in [cave] section

CaveDelay

Used in BoulderDash Construction Kit engine

Colors

Cave colors (string, five or less color names. May be not used)

InitialFill

Initial fill element (element name). This element is used to fill entire field. Default is DIRT

RandSeed

Random generator seed values for corresponding pseudo-randomly placed elements (five numbers)

RandomFill

Pseudo-randomly placed elements (four or less pairs of element name and it's probability). This info is used to pseudo-randomly fill entire field. Available only in [cave] section

MagicWallTime

Magic wall milling time (number)

AmoebaTime

Amoeba slow growth time (number)

AmoebaGrowthProb

Amoeba slow (and fast) growth probability (two or one number, default values = 0.03 and 0.25)

AmoebaThreshold

The percentage of the cave the amoeba is allowed to occupy before turning to boulders (number, default = 0.227)

SlimePermeability

Slime permeability (number)

HatchingDelay

Rockford's hatching delay (number)

Cave Objects

Point=x y element

Single element placed on given position

Line=x1 y1 x2 y2 element

Line of elements

Rectangle=x1 y1 x2 y2 element

Outlined rectangle of elements

FillRect=x1 y1 x2 y2 element [element2]

Filled rectangle of elements

Raster=x y numberx numbery stepx stepy element

Add=incx incy element1 element2

This was used only in BD2 as I know.

Cave Elements and Default Map Codes

History

• v. 0.32 (14 February 2004)
  • Some minor changes
• v. 0.3 (26 November 2002)
  • Some default values were added
  • New attributes: BonusLife, Charset, Fontset, CaveDelay, Levels, Difficulty
• v. 0.2 (15 May 2002)
  • Closing tags ([/cave], [/game], etc.) were added.
  • Length attribute for the [mapcodes] section.
  • The [demo] section. Every cave may contains demo info now.
• v. 0.1 (12 May 2002)
  • First release