4 R O C K S ' N ' D I A M O N D S 1 . 3 . 0
5 -----------------------------------------------
7 A game for Unix/X11 by Holger Schemel, (c) 1995-99 by Holger Schemel.
8 DOS/Windows port by Guido Schulz.
12 This is a nice little game with color graphics and sound for your
13 Unix system with color X11. You need an 8-Bit color display or better.
14 It will not work on black&white systems, and maybe not on gray scale systems.
16 If you know the game "Boulderdash" (Commodore C64) or "Emerald Mine"
17 (Amiga) or "Supaplex" (PC), you know what "ROCKS'N'DIAMONDS" is about.
22 Just 'cd' to the directory 'rocksndiamonds-*' (Unix) or 'rocks-*' (DOS)
23 and type 'rocksndiamonds' (Linux) or 'rocks' (DOS/Windows)!
24 This works only on Linux and DOS systems, because the included binary was
25 compiled for Linux (i386/glibc) (if you have the Unix package) and DOS
26 (if you have the DOS/Windows package).
27 If you have another Unix system like HPUX, NetBSD or SUN, you first have to
28 type 'make' to compile it.
29 This may be needed on Linux systems, too, depending on your kernel version,
30 your libc version, your binary format, your processor, ...
32 (The included binary was compiled on the following system:
33 AMD K6-2, kernel 2.2.1, glibc, gcc 2.7.2.3, ELF format)
38 You can see eight blue circles on the left side of the eight green menu
39 texts; these are buttons to activate the menu commands by simply clicking
40 on them with a mouse. The button will then change to red.
41 (You can control the menues over the keyboard or joystick, too. Just use
42 the arrow keys and the 'Return' or 'Enter' key or, if you use a joystick,
43 the appropriate direction and the fire button.)
45 The menu 'name' / 'team'
46 ------------------------
47 When you start the game the first time, your login name will appear in
48 the 'NAME:' field. If you want to use a different name for playing, for
49 example a funny player name or a name for cheating, you can click on the
50 button and enter a new name.
52 This menu will show the text 'team' instead of 'name' if you activated
53 the team (local multiplayer) mode in the setup menu. See below.
57 Choose any level from the current level series you want. The former
58 'handicap' limitation in choosing levels has been removed because of
61 If the level number is red, you have choosen a 'ready' level series (which
62 is read-only and cannot be modified by the level editor); if it is yellow
63 you have choosen a 'user' level series (which is writable and can be changed
64 by the builf-in level editor). See below for using the level editor.
66 To choose new level series, click on the button on the left and choose
67 the new level series. Scroll the page up and down with the blue arrow
68 buttons if there are more level series than would fit on the screen.
72 Click on this button to see a list of the best players of this level.
73 Click again to go back to the main menu.
77 This brings you to the level editor, if you have switched to a 'yellow'
78 (writable) level series.
82 This screen shows you all elements which appear in the game and presents
83 you the background music loops which you can listen to while playing the
84 levels (not available on all systems).
88 This will start the game. The game will be automatically recorded 'on tape'
89 if you have choosen this from the setup menu (see below). If you haven't
90 choosen auto-recording level, but want to record this certain game, press
91 the 'record' button on the level tape recorder to start game and recording.
95 To change some things in the game, use the setup menu.
96 You can enable/disable "Sound" (enables/disables _all_ sounds in
97 the game), "Sound loops" (only useful on Linux systems), "Game music"
98 (can always be enabled on very fast systems [exception: you don't
99 like it], on slower systems it will take some percent of CPU time
100 which will slow things down a bit) and "Toons", which will forbid/
101 permit the little animated toons.
103 Forget about the setup options "Buffered Gfx" and "Fading" -- they
104 have no effect at the moment and will probably disappear in future
105 versions of the game. (Double-buffering is now always activated, because
106 systems are fast enough now compared to 1995, when the last version of the
107 game was released. Especially soft-scrolling needs the double-buffering.
108 About fading from one screen to another with silly effects: Most players
109 will probably deactivate it after a few minutes (see also "quick doors").)
111 Enable "scroll delay" to avoid scrolling at each step, giving you an area
112 where you can walk without scrolling until you get near enough to the screen
115 Enable "soft scroll" for soft-scrolling. Looks nice, but may need a
116 relatively fast graphics card. Systems from 1998 and later should be fast
117 enough for enabling soft-scrolling.
119 Enable "quick doors" if you are unpatient when switching between the
120 several game screens where the doors have to be opened or closed. You will
121 almost surely enable this if you design your own levels and therefore
122 often switch between game and editor screens.
124 Set "auto-record" to "on" if you want to automatically record each game
125 by the built-in level tape recorder.
127 For configuration of input devices like keyboard and joysticks, choose
128 the sub-menu "input devices".
130 "Exit" quits the setup menu without saving the changes, "Save and exit"
131 will save and then return to the main menu.
134 Input Devices (sub-menu of the setup menu)
135 ------------------------------------------
137 "Player" lets you choose one of the four players.
139 "Device" lets you choose the input device you want for this player;
140 you can choose between the keyboard and one of the maximal four supported
141 joysticks. (Normally you won't have more than two joysticks, but the Linux
142 joystick driver supports more than two joysticks.)
144 "Customize" / "Calibrate" lets you calibrate a joystick or customize the
145 keyboard keys used for moving left, right, up and down, "snapping" fields
146 without moving towards them and placing bombs. Just press the key you want
147 to use for the specified action or press Return or Enter to stay with the
148 already configured values.
150 "Exit" brings you back to the setup screen.
160 When the game has started, you can see the playfield on the left side
161 and a control field on the right side. The control field contains the
164 Level indicator Tells you which level you are playing.
166 Emeralds Shows you how many emeralds you still need
167 to win the current level.
169 Dynamite Shows you how many dynamite bombs you have.
171 Keys Shows you which keys you have in your inventory.
173 Score Shows the current score. In some levels there
174 are some extra items giving extra score points.
176 Time The seconds you have still left to play the level.
178 Stop/Pause/Play Game controls to stop the game, pause it and go on
179 playing. If the tape recorder is recording your
180 game, it is stopping/pausing/playing as well.
182 Music buttons The three music buttons can be used to control the
183 background music loop, the 'looping' sounds and
184 all other sounds. The little red light shows you
185 if it is enabled or disabled.
187 About the game itself: Of course you know Boulderdash, so you will know
188 how to play the game. :)
189 If not: You can move your playing figure with the configured keys (which
190 will normally and by default be the arrow keys) or with a joystick.
191 To 'snap' a field near you without moving to it, you
192 can use the left fire button on your joystick (hold it down, move the
193 stick to 'snap' the field, release the button) or the key you have
194 configured for this action (by default one of the left modifier keys like
195 'Shift' or 'Control').
196 To place a piece of dynamite, use the right fire button on your joystick or
197 use the key you have configured for this (by default one of the right modifier
198 keys, but you can change all this to what you like).
199 After placing the dynamite, better see to move away from this field...).
201 Just try the levels from the 'tutorial' level serie to see what most
202 of the elements do or have a look at the info screen!
207 To create your own levels, it's a good idea to start with your personal
208 level series, which has been created automatically the first time you
209 started the game (together with some configuration files). These personal
210 files are stored in '~/.rocksndiamonds' on Unix systems and in 'userdata'
211 in the current playing directory (which normally is the game directory)
212 on DOS/Windows systems.
214 The levels that come with the game are normally read-only, to avoid
215 problems on multi user systems, but you can set them to 'writable' in
216 the file 'levelinfo.conf' ('lvlinfo.cnf' on DOS systems) in each level
219 To edit a level, you can use all three mouse buttons to draw in the
220 level window. Click into the elements field with one of the three buttons
221 to remap it to the new element. Use the scrollbars, arrow buttons or
222 cursor keys to scroll around in the level. Use the drawing functions by
223 selecting them from the toolbox field or pressing the corresponding key
224 (the key shortcuts for each gadget are displayed in the status line at
225 the bottom of the window when the mouse pointer is over the gadget).
227 About the drawing functions: If you know the good old "Deluxe Paint" from
228 the Amiga, you will have no problems with the drawing functions -- even
229 the key shortcuts are mostly the same. If not, just try them out and you
230 will see what happens. ;-)
232 Some notes: Most drawing functions have different behaviour when different
233 mouse buttons are pressed in the drawing area; normally, the left mouse
234 button is the 'foreground button' and the middle and right buttons are
235 some sort of 'background buttons', often with relation to the chosen
236 element mappings on this buttons.
238 The '?' button brings you to the 'Element settings' page, where you can
239 see some information about the element and how many of them are included
240 in the current level. The contents of elements with content (some amoeba
241 and the Yam Yam (also know as cruncher) can have content) can be edited
242 by 'sticking' the page with the corresponding button on their page.
243 Yam Yam's can have up to eight content areas.
245 The 'undo' button gives you the chance to undo up to 10 drawing operations.
246 The 'info' button brings you to the 'Level/Editor settings' page.
247 The 'save' button asks you to save the current level.
248 The 'clear' button clears the drawing area without asking.
249 The 'test' button lets you play your new level directly from the editor.
250 The 'exit' button asks you to exit the editor (if there are unsaved changes).
252 In the 'Editor settings' section, you can give your level a new name
253 and type in your name which will be displayed as the level's author.
254 (On Unix systems, your login name will be taken as default.)
255 Then you can modify the level playfield size there, the available time
256 (set this to zero to get unlimited time for this level), the score you
257 get for each 10 seconds time that are left when reaching the exit, and
258 last but not least you can enter the number of emeralds the player has
259 to collect before the exit door opens.
261 Another new button is the 'double speed' button that lets the player move
262 twice as fast as normally from start; the effect is the same as collecting
263 a speed pill during the game.
265 In the 'Editor settings' section, you can make some modifications to the
266 behaviour of the 'random element placement' button (the dice): Choose if
267 the number you can enter means how many percent of the whole level are
268 filled with the element chosen as the random element, or if it should mean
269 the exact number of elements to be placed in the level field.
270 With the 'restrict' button on the left side you can force the random function
271 not to overwrite level elements other than the element chosen in the content
272 field on the right side.
277 You can use the tape recorder to record games and play tapes of previously
278 played games. Just use them like a normal video recorder.
280 Recording a game on tape:
281 -------------------------
282 If you have enabled "auto-record", every game will automatically be recorded,
283 so you just have to press "start game". Pressing the 'record' button on the
284 tape recorder will start game and record it in any case.
288 To save a tape to the tape file corresponding to the level (that means
289 that you can only save one tape file for each level), just press the
290 'eject' button (the very left button). Then you will be prompted if
291 you really want to replace the old tape (if an old tape exists).
295 Just press 'play' and then either 'play' or 'pause'.
297 While recording or playing, you can press 'pause' to stop the recording
298 or the playing of the tape and continue by pressing 'pause' again.
299 You can use either the tape recorder buttons or the game control buttons
302 If you want to continue a previously recorded game, press 'pause' while
303 playing, then 'record' to switch from 'paused playing' to 'paused recording'
304 and then continue the game by pressing 'record' or 'pause'. If you want
305 to fast-forward the tape to get faster to the point where you want to
306 continue playing, press 'play' again while already playing, therefore
307 activating 'fast forward' playing mode. Press again the 'play' button
308 to enter a special playing mode: 'pause before end' will stop a few seconds
309 before the end of the tape (which will in most cases stop a few seconds
310 before you get killed in the previous playing recorded on that tape) --
311 after the automatic stop (which enters the 'pause' mode) you can continue
312 the game as described above.
317 Have fun playing the game, building new levels and breaking all high
320 If you have designed new levels, mail them to me to include them in the
321 next version (which will be released much earlier than again after three
322 years like this version... ;-)
324 If you have any comments, problems, suggestions, donations, flames,
327 aeglos@valinor.owl.de