Amiga Games

Developer: Peter Elzner	Graphics:
Publisher: N/A	Sound:
Year: 1997	Difficulty:
Genre: Boulder Dash	Lastability:
Number of players: 2 simultaneous	Rating:	7/10

The PC version was released in 1998. The yams (called eaters) lost their eyes and teeth, constituting the only aesthetic change to my knowledge.

The new features are as follows:

• The banner at the top of the screen now indicates the number of keys and sticks of dynamite accumulated.
• The levels are no longer necessarily surrounded by a wall, a characteristic that will be further exploited in the sequels.
• A button allows you to momentarily reveal invisible objects.
• Addition of invisible dirt (like an invisible wall but can be traversed by the player).
• Introduction of crystals (worth 8 emeralds, indestructible) and pearls (worth 5 emeralds, which break when falling to the ground or if hit by a boulder).
• Anti-personnel mines, easily detectable and neutralisable by staying one square away.
• Single-use white keys (accompanied, of course, by white doors).
• A new type of door activated by a switch that remains open for only a few seconds.
• The mole, a peaceful creature (but cumbersome) that consumes amoeba and “excretes” dirt in its path.

The freeware version I tested seems to contain only 30 tutorial levels and 20 advanced levels. I found this offering somewhat limited. I assume that additional level collections were provided at the time on the author’s website, but there are no traces of them today. The levels seemed less sophisticated to me than those of the previous game, despite the additional elements. The luck factor is also more present (especially in the level with the moles).

* * *

I mention it here, although it was not released on Amiga, for the sake of thoroughness, and because I don’t want to promote it in the “PC and consoles” section. This game is abandoned, and access to the thousands of levels designed by players has been removed.

It introduced many new features:

• The stick of dynamite is lit by pressing a dedicated key.
• A fifth type of diamond, the ruby, worth two emeralds.
• The superbomb, with an extended blast radius.
• Other elements besides diamonds can now be embedded in a wall (boulder, exit…).
• Hammers (single-use) to break wall segments, releasing any object embedded inside.
• Treasure chests, which open with a hammer, and contain a surprise reward (sometimes a monster).
• Introduction of a second variety of quicksand, which holds boulders longer.
• A “special” grey door that never opens, a “rainbow” door requiring multiple coloured keys, a destructible wooden door, a door that increases the quantity of diamonds required with each passage!
• A “skull” key allowing all doors to be opened without limitation.
• Pink slime. Each unit evolves like a harmless creature, moves like a yam but more slowly, absorbs objects and returns them once killed by a falling boulder.
• A remote-controlled bomb, with associated buttons to direct it and make it explode.
• Presence of mines not concealed by dirt, but with a greater blast radius.
• Pairs of teleporters with matching colours, working in both directions.
• Replicators, machines creating objects infinitely.
• Magic walls have extended functions (transform pearls into bombs and rubies into superbombs) and can be reactivated by pressing a “wall” button.
• Ventilation ducts, inaccessible to enemies, allow connecting different parts of a level safely.
• One-way passages.
• Green dirt (grassy), which reconstitutes itself and spreads.
• Light barriers projected from a wall, activatable or deactivatable by the player by operating a switch.
• Infinite screen scrolling in certain levels (when you reach the limit, you find yourself at the opposite end).

I think this inflation of additional gadgets considerably slows down the pace. If these ideas had been well exploited, through imaginative levels, it would have oriented the game more towards puzzle rather than arcade. There needs to be something for all tastes. Unfortunately, this is not the case in my opinion.

The shareware version includes 34 tutorial levels and only 16 advanced levels. The latter seemed excessively long to me (particularly level 7, which requires collecting 1234 diamonds!), uninspired (recycling classic Emerald Mine themes, such as going back and forth above a pool of acid from which drops of amoeba fall) and particularly irritating (the now unavoidable level of moles in a field of multiplying amoeba). The prize goes to level 12 which requires spending half the allotted time … waiting.

Note that the famous additional levels are still available here. The problem is that a registered version is necessary to integrate them, which I wasn’t able to do. I purchased the Steam version hoping to find these levels through the workshop. This way of confiscating old content and charging an entry fee to replay warmed-up levels infuriates me. Once again, Rocks ‘n’ Diamonds has adopted the opposite philosophy, offering hundreds and hundreds of amateur levels to the wider world since 1995, always for free, and without the greedy intention of removing access under the pretext of an “upgrade”.

Where to download it? Aminet (requires Workbench installed on Amiga hard disk) Emerald Web