Rocks’n'Diamonds es un simpatico juego que salio en mitad de los 90 y en el que se combinan varios juegos, Emerald Mine, Boulder Dash, Supaplex y Sokoban. El resultado de esta combinacion de juegos clasicos con una “chispa enorme” es una entretenida partida llena de diamantes, personajes extraños, caminos dificiles de pasar, puntuaciones inalcanzables, y en la que debemos conseguir el mayor puntaje posible para seguir hacia las demas etapas. Rocks’n'Diamonds es tremendamente enganchadizo y cu
Vroeger toen ik nog een klein en onschuldig meisje was, speelde ik vaak een spel genaamd Boulder Dash. Dit is een simpel maar o zo verslavend spelletje. De bedoeling is dat je een level doorloopt en onderweg diamantjes verzameld en beestjes en stenen ontwijkt. Een paar maanden geleden heb ik Rocks and Diamonds ontdekt. Raphaël kon maar niet begrijpen dat ik daar uren achter elkaar zoet mee kon zijn. Tot 3 dagen geleden. Toen vroeg hij zelf of ik het spel ook op zijn laptop wou zetten zodat
Rocks ‘n’ Diamonds ist ein Klon des 1984 erstmal erschienenen Kultspiels Boulder Dash, dessen Spielprinzip auch Heute noch zu begeistern vermag. Man steuert seine Spielfigur grabenderweise durch die Levels und sammelt so viele Edelsteine wie möglich auf, um schließlich den Ausgang zu finden. Fallende Felsbrocken und auch sonstige Gegner erschweren dabei den Alltag als Edelsteinsammler. Trotz des einfachen Spielprinzips erfordert das Spiel komplexe Lösungsstrategien und gutes Timing, und genau
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Supaplex
Developer(s)
Dream Factory
Designer(s)
Michael Stopp and Philip Jespersen
Platform(s)
Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS
Release date
1991
Genre(s)
Scrolling tile-based puzzle game
Mode(s)
Single player
Media
Floppy disk (1)
Input methods
Keyboard, Joystick
Supaplex is a video game created by Michael Stopp and Philip Jespersen of Dream Factory. It is an extended clone of Boulder Dash.
History
Though originally designed as a version of Boulder Dash that could fit onto a floppy disk, the designers abandoned this approach in order to create better graphics. The game comes with 111 levels though many unofficial level sets have been released that greatly increase that number. The game was released for Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS.
Due to hardware dependant programming, the PC version of Supaplex ran twice as fast as PCs became faster. Herman Perk disassembled the game, debugged it and re-assembled it again. The result became known as SpeedFix. Extra features have also been added without changing the game itself.
The developers of the game have declared the software freeware.
The Game
Although the levels must be played in order, the game allows up to three levels to be skipped at any given time. The game is very challenging, but unlike many Boulder Dash-related games the difficulty comes from solving the puzzles in each level rather than from semi-responsive controls. Furthermore, Supaplex does not use time limits for solving the puzzles, unlike Boulder Dash.
Most objects are identical in behaviour to those in the original Boulder Dash. Murphy substitutes Rockford, who collects objects called Infotrons, which are reminiscent of schematic representations of atoms, instead of diamonds. Instead of dirt, the levels are filled with printed circuit board simply called base in the game's manual, and not lined with brick walls, but with computer chips and other hardware, and filled with Zonks instead of rocks. The enemies are moving scissors, called Snik Snaks, and electrons which resemble sparkling stars.
Supaplex introduces a number of new elements that were not present in Boulder Dash, including bugs, pieces of base that randomly cause a life threatening electrostatic discharges, Ports, which limit Murphy's movement to specific directions, and terminals, which set off yellow Utility Disks. Utility Disks are explosive floppy disks and come in three different colors: Orange Disks work like Zonks, but explode when hit or when falling. Yellow Disks do not fall yet may be pushed in any direction, and explode when the Terminal is used. Red Disks can be carried and dropped when convenient, exploding seconds after.
Supaplex is the first Boulder Dash-like game that is not fully grid-based: while the playing field is an obvious grid, the objects do not "snap" from one grid position to another, but can be halfway or "in between" grid positions. This behavior has led to a number of well-known bugs that can be turned to the player's advantage, many of which need to be exploited to complete fan-made levels. For instance, by turning around quickly, the player can cause an enemy or rock to "bounce" off Murphy.
The authors
Michael W. Stopp's story
The graphics artist of Supaplex, Michael W. Stopp, commented on the development of Supaplex (read it at his homepage as well):
“
In the age of the Commodore 64 there was a game called Boulder Dash. Me and my schoolfriend Philip Jespersen adored it. We also adored the capabilities of Commodore's Amiga. But unfortunately we couldn't play Boulder Dash anymore. In summer 1988 we stopped the mourning and decided to make our own Amiga-version, at that time called "Think!". We added a number of new elements and gravitation. And we decided that there should be a lot of levels: 111 (but it still had to fit on a floppy disk!). Since Philip did the programming somebody had to construct the levels...guess who! The first 50 levels or so weren't too difficult, but there was still a long way to go; so this kept me on my toe for the next months.
But what was even worse, was the fact that you had to play all those levels, to see if they were possible. Every little change of code meant that you had to play them all over again. And there were constant changes... With 100 or more levels this meant playing to the point where it became difficult to distinguish between game and reality (you'd always feel as if there was a pair of scissors chasing you...). Eventually the game was finished and we had the silly idea that we might try to earn money with it. Surprisingly, the guys of Digital Integration thought the same and so they bought it from us. Due to a trademark conflict, it had to be renamed. That's how it became Supaplex.
And now, many years later and thanks to the internet, we found out that there was still a dedicated community of Supaplexers around. If you want to know more about Supaplex check out "Elmer Maarten's Supaplex-Homepage". He provides the most comprehensive and complete information about the game on the Internet. Find solutions to levels as well as new levels and additional software on his page.
”
Philip E. Jespersen's story
The programmer of Supaplex, Philip E. Jespersen, commented back in 1996 on the development of Supaplex:
“
... The Amiga Fever extended into my first "serious" project, which turned to be a computer game called "Think!" which was a BoulderDash inspired game. "Think!" which was eventually released Europe-wide by Digital Integration as "Supaplex" and was written 100% in Assembler and featured many nice programming tricks and high speed graphics. Digital Integration (Robin Heydon) also ported the game to MS-DOS, but I still prefer the Amiga Version, as its controls are better. As a requirement set by Digital Integration "Supaplex" had to run on any 512KB RAM Amiga machine, which turned out to be a serious problem, which only could be solved by writing own direct floppy disk read/write code (MFM coding was quite difficult as there was hardly any documentation available at all). I also had to setup my own stack management, because as the boot code of the floppy got loaded, no "official" stack was created by the operating system, which in any case got completely wiped out anyway by "Supaplex". Hence no Harddisk Version was ever released, although nowadays in would be no problem at all, as everybody today seems to have gigabytes of RAM (well, maybe a bit or two less)...
”
Supaplex clones
Megaplex
Megaplex is a clone of the original Supaplex which runs under Windows. As well as the original 111 levels, the player is able to create and share his own levels with a level editor. Megaplex is based on the exact improved Supaplex machine language code, which makes it 100% compatible with all original Supaplex levels and recorded demos, but it does not include any scoring information.
Other clones
Other Supaplex-like games include such titles as WinPlex, SubTerra, Igor(originally intended to be named "Supaplex-2"), Diamond Dash, and Rocks'n'Diamonds, New Supaplex. There is also a version for Macintosh, called Infotron.
See also
Boulder Dash
Rocks'n'Diamonds
External links
Supaplex homepage
Supaplex Download and Install
MegaPlex HomePage
The Supaplex FAQ
New Supaplex Homepage
Supaplex page A comprehensive and complete Supaplex page
