Boulder Dash(R) Bug Reports

[+Andrew Davie]

For those who missed it, a playable demo of Boulder Dash® was released the weekend of 17 July 2011.

See http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/184812-boulder-dash-r-demo-release/ for the binary.

 

There are going to be a number of bugs and questions. I propose to collate those here, and indicate what action is proposed for each.

So, please feel free to report/comment on bugs and help make the next release that much better.

 

Cheers

A

 

 

Known Issues

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1. Why doesn't it work on my Harmony cart?

 

Harmony only supports up to 4K of RAM with the 3E bank switching format. Boulder Dash® requires 16K of RAM.

 

2. Does it work on my Krokodile cart?

It should, though there has been one report of issues related to end of life glitching and random crashing. This will be fixed, if confirmed.

A Krokodile cartridge was extensively used to test during development, so any glitches are either last-minute or a problem with a specific Krokodile cartridge.

 

3. The music on the title screen isn't the Boulder Dash® music.

True. I called for contributions for music a long time ago. If you would like to have your name as a contributor to Boulder Dash® 2600,

I could use some help getting a good version of the music going. It must use stock-standard '2600 capabilities -- no additional hardware trickery.

 

4. It runs a little too fast.

Probably because I'm a whiz player by now The game can actually do about 4x the speed you're seeing here. It's easy to limit; let's get some consensus.

As you go through the levels, the game gets faster.

 

5. Could not push boulder into gap above firefly.

This is kind of a bug. It's happening because you must push the boulder for a short time before it moves. But meanwhile the firefly is moving

and at the point where you try to push it in, the firefly is in the way. So the pushing stops and resets the push delay. I will probably fix this

for the next release.

 

6. Issues with firefly collision detection - sometimes you kill the firefly inexplicably.

This is a definite bug.

 

 

 

 

 

Intended fixes for next release:

1. Push boulder above firefly.

2. Improvement in firefly collision detection.

3. Minor reduction in game speed.

[GroovyBee]

I'm playing on my PAL 7800 using a CC2. When I use SELECT to activate the "look around" feature the background goes green and stays green if I pan right. If I start panning left the screen eventually "glitches" and the background goes back to black and the rocks and diamonds turn to grey scale. If I then pan right again the background goes back to green and the colours return to the rocks and diamonds.

[lost child]

2. Does it work on my Krokodile cart?

It should, though there has been one report of issues related to end of life glitching and random crashing. This will be fixed, if confirmed.

A Krokodile cartridge was extensively used to test during development, so any glitches are either last-minute or a problem with a specific Krokodile cartridge.

 

I might be doing something wrong. When I loaded the game onto my Krokodile Cartridge, it crashed after the title screen.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Did you select the correct bankswitching?

[lost child]

In the Krokodile Commander, I chose 3E (3F with 32K RAM) (8K-512K). Is that the correct bankswitching setting? It's the only 3E in my Krokodile Commander's list.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

That should definitely work.

[+Andrew Davie]

LOL. Found a bug. Have to recall all product!!

In level M, with the amoeba, and you look-around, sometimes the animation of amoeba and diamonds stops.

I'm not sure this is a bug, actually... I seem to recall optimisations to get this level to run fast enough.

Nobody would ever notice this if I didn't mention it... yeah, recall cancelled.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Hmmm...