Diamond Caves
| Developer: Peter Elzner | Graphics: |
 | |
| Publisher: N/A | Sound: |
 | |
| Year: 1995 | Difficulty: |
| |
| Genre: Boulder Dash | Lastability: |
 | |
| Number of players: 2 simultaneous | Rating: |
7/10 | |
Diamond Caves is an Emerald Mine clone, visually quite similar, but enriched with new elements. It presented itself as shareware, a game that could be freely distributed in its trial version, limited to about fifty levels. You could order the complete version by sending a cheque to the author, but the details of the additional content are not (no longer) specified.
The shareware model was very widespread in the 1990s (you may have heard of Doom, if not Hydrocis or Weapon Masters…). Its disadvantage today is that it makes the preservation of these games more difficult, when only the trial versions circulate on the Internet. Moreover, Diamond Caves became freeware in 1999, which means that the “complete” version is theoretically distributable, but I presume that the interest of this title (and its sequels) lay in the collections of additional caves, inaccessible today.
As for how the game works, I was initially disconcerted by the reversed placement of information (score in the top left, remaining time in the top right), then I noticed a slight difference in the physics (the diamonds seem to take a fraction of a second longer before hitting the ground, so I would get killed trying to collect them too quickly). However, I benefited from a quirk in my favour when I emerged unscathed from an explosion, by pushing a bomb whilst it was falling (normally an impossible action). The boulders and diamonds also tend to bounce in an unnatural way.
Here are the other differences I noticed compared to Emerald Mine:
- The levels have names, and are no longer constrained to a large “horizontal rectangle” (although they most often retain these standard dimensions).
- Diamonds can be caught in mid-air.
- The amoeba seems to grow faster and faster as it expands, and it now absorbs “quicksand” that doesn’t contain a boulder.
- Presence of extendable walls, as in Boulder Dash 2.
- Diamonds are sometimes embedded in walls. An explosion is necessary to free them.
- Introduction of tokens offering extra time (marked with a T), or conferring temporary invincibility (marked with an S).
- Addition of bidirectional conveyor belts, which can be operated remotely by small levers.
- Addition of futuristic doors (Star Trek airlocks), which open or close alternately when a switch is activated.
- The game also boasts a “high resolution” mode and a “replay” recording function.
While they’ve taken liberties with the model, I deeply regret that they haven’t better adjusted the boulder pushing delay. Ideally, this should be fixed at about half a second (as provided for in Forgotten Mine and Supaplex). If they wanted to stay true to Emerald Mine on this point, a variable time span of half to two seconds would have been suitable. Here, the interval can be reduced to zero, which frequently leads me to push a boulder twice consecutively without meaning to. This imprecision becomes extremely frustrating in advanced levels that demand accuracy. I’m all the more annoyed that they never solved this problem in the sequels (it’s particularly troublesome in the Steam version, for completing time-limited mini-challenges).
Another unpleasant aspect of the interface, besides its response with several seconds of latency (installing on a hard drive solves this problem), is the systematic display of the high scores window after each attempt (even when I don’t score any points!). This forces me to let go of the controller, grab the mouse and close this window before starting again. Said high score table is empty as well, what use is that? Furthermore, the programme has this annoying habit of transforming the mouse cursor into a clock, giving the impression that loading is in progress, when one still needs to click on a button for something to happen. Frankly, if they’re going to imitate the graphics and game engine of Emerald Mine, why not adopt its direct interface, manipulable exclusively with the joystick?
Nevertheless, I found the levels well designed, varied, with progressive difficulty (25 tutorial levels, 10 easy levels, 25 advanced levels). Alas, the disk version (2.2) stops working from cave 24 onwards (“Error: Could not load level!”). It’s difficult to know whether this is a technical problem or simply the end of the trial version. Being quite obsessive, I searched for and installed the freeware version, and started all over again. The same error occurred at cave 26…
Numerous “sequels” followed, offering new elements, but with no notable effort to improve the game engine (the bizarre physics and double boulder pushing persist):
I find it regrettable that previous versions are no longer supported, and that their sets of levels created by players are no longer accessible on the official site. I bought the Steam version (without a number). The game is good but I don’t recommend it, simply because Rocks ‘n’ Diamonds exists, a lifetime wouldn’t be enough to complete the thousands of levels it contains, it’s free and its author shows no intention of restricting access to it in the future.
Conversely, I believe that a paid game should make the effort to provide a minimally polished interface. It’s no coincidence that they didn’t dare show this ghastly interface in the video or promotional images on Steam. There are buttons that don’t match the graphic style of the game, overlapping texts, icons plastered without explanation (not to mention those bloody “achievements”, and other “little stars” that mark the completion of a level). Would you believe that I had to consult the Steam discussion forum to find out how to put this game in full screen! The mouse cursor that remains visible during gameplay is further evidence of the blatant lack of finish.
Where to download it?
 Aminet (Workbench required, installed on an Amiga hard disk)
Emerald Web
|
|
|
