Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    Definitely Upload it Please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    
    derek
    

    I am always in the market for a good game. Please do upload it.
    
    Chris

        One more vote for an upload.  Please.

        Mike

        Yes, another vote for upload

    Miguel A.

    Well, that was a fairly overwhelming vote of yes.  Ok, check the
    directory in .0 on 5/14/87.
    
    The reason I put this up to a vote is that we are chronically low
    on disk space, and I don't want to get my system manager too angry
    with me.

       I vote NO!
       
       If you upload this game, I will be forced to download it and play
       it, thus foresaking all of the other things that I should be doing
       - like paying attention to my wife and kids, paying the bills,
       working in the yard, the house repairs, work, sleep, etc., etc.
       
                  
                   o o   
          Art       L
                  \___/
       

    Well, it looks like Art Gosling is in for some more misery and a
    possible divorce.  The Archive is now in...
    
    	 JAKE::USER2:[ACCIARDI.AMIGA]BDASH.ARC
    
    Be sure to follow the instructions in the 'ReadMeNow' file.  It
    is very important that the boot disk NOT close the CLI down during
    the Startup-sequence.  (The initial CLI is used to pass some messages
    from the program to DOS).  You could just delete the 'endcli >nil:'
    line from the startup-sequence.  There is an Icon to run the program
    from Workbench, but I just put a 'RUN BDASH' command in the boot
    file.
    
    I think you'll really enjoy this.  Any problems, blah blah, e-mail
    me at JAKE::ACCIARDI or bother me directly at 237-3693. 
    
    By the way, I was really touched by the author's suggestion of a
    donation to the American Cancer Society.  I assume he has lost a
    loved one to cancer (who hasn't) and I am going to make a contribution.
                                                         

	It is a large archive, and you might want to save yourself the
down-load time if you don't have a joystick, since it's impossible to
do the third level without one.

	You can use the arrow keys to go left, right, up, and down, but
need a joystick to move diagonally.  You can do the second level with the
arrows, and usually, the first (it's a random set-up, and I once found
myself literally between a rock (two, actually) and a hard place).  Once
you get the the third level, your only options are right/down, left/down,
or straight down.  The first two can't be done without the joystick, and
the last one is immediatly fatal.

Mark

    Third Level!?!  I've been trying for two days to complete the second
    level!
    

    Hmmm .... "Fails CRC Check"
    
    BDASH! won't run (this is the archive I downloaded from JAKE).
    All of the other files deARCived okay though. Anyone else have a
    similar problem?
    
    Paul

    I've gotten through the first 6 boards, so if you need help, let
    me know.
    
    BoulderDasherBosch
    

RE:.10 -< Fails CRC Check >- 
    I'd give it another try as JAKE is where I got my copy and it works
    fine. DeARCed it with ARC16 and downloaded with KERMIT ( not in that
    order)

	Have made it to the fourth level but I run out of smiley's fast there.
    I know it's cheating, but has anyone tried renaming the files from the 
    different levels so they can start playing a higher level without having 
    to go through the previous ones?

	Dick

    Fun stuff.  Thanks aplenty to Mr. Acciardi for uploading.  I have been
    having a problem with Bdash! however.  I can cruise along through
    the first few levels or so and then, while I'm working on one of
    the levels (not always the same one), the game locks up on me. 
    Smiley goes away.  Nothing to do but Ctrl-A-A.  Makes it a little
    tough to get excited about the game.  It's only the fact that I
    *love* this sort of puzzle-arcade game, that keeps me playing it.
    Anyone else seen this?  I've noticed that my memory is dangerously
    low at the time of the bye-bye.  (A mere 512K Amiga here.)
    
    If the author is on Plink, you might want to give him a suggestion
    for a slight change that would make the game play even better.
    I would like to be able to use the keyboard for all movement.  It
    seems likely that Jimbo could use the keypad to give us all 8
    directions from the keyboard.  I've lost several smileys while trying
    to move the joystick diagonally.  I find it much easier to control
    the smiling little bugger with the keyboard.

    I hope the author doesn't hear from Electronic Arts.  I believe
    they own the rights to that name.

    
    Gary

    The authir did indeed hear from the original copyright holder. 
    They were not too upset about the program itself, but about the
    use of the name 'Boulder Dash'.  In fact, the file is now called
    'Rock Slide' or some such on Plink.  I had downloaded the original
    version called 'Boulder Dash', but took the liberty of renaming
    it BDash to avoid any hassles.
    
    As to lockups, I haven't had any problems, but I haven't progressed
    past the third screen.  Does the entire program load into memory
    on 512k systems?  You might want to try some memory conserving tricks
    like not opening the Workbench during startup, and deleting any
    'ADDBUFFER' commands.
    

    
    Yeh, I've had the same problem.  Usually on the "Simple?" screen.
    Smiley just disappears.
    
    I thought maybe I was entering keys too fast.  Unfortunately, this
    has kept me from getting through this screen.
    
    Also I agree about that using the keyboard is better.  Getting those
    diagonals with the joystick can be tedious.  It seems like the joystick
    movements don't respond as fast as the keys either.
    
    Sorry if I sound like I am complaining, it's actually a nice game.
    Thanks for uploading it!

    regards,
    
    steve mcafee
    

I had a problem with the game on one of the later levels (I think the
screen may have been the "Simple?" screen).  All of the sudden the entire
game disappeared and I was left looking at the workbench windows.

This only happened to me once.  I don't think that it was an out-of-memory
problem because I have a 2.5 meg Amiga.  Anyway, I wasn't very upset: on my
next try I was able to solve the game.

I agree about the suggestion about diagonal moves: Using the joy stick
for precise movement is a pain.  Using the numeric keypad would be much
easier.

    I have had it lock up several times .Often when it locks up I hit
    an arrow key that is pointing in a safe direction and wait a while
    and the game "comes back to me " .I think it a great game and this
    bug in not any more annoying than some I come across on games that
    I purchased . Anyways my wife suffers form cancer and I like the
    idea of sending in a contribution .Judging from the play this game
    is seeing it looks like we have a winner all around .

    Finally got it running (after a second download).
    
    The joystick is apparently necessary for diagonal moves on ocassion
    that would otherwise result in certain death for smiley if a mouse
    were used.
    
    BTW  the ESC key terminates smiley immediately.

    
    Finally finished it last night.
    
    There are two bugs here I think.  One where the smiley disappears
    and the system hangs.  The other the smiley stays on the screen
    and you simply have to wait a bit for it to respond.
    
    Does anyone know if the construction set comes with the EA version
    for other micros?  While it is a nice game, I think once you've
    solved it it doesn't make much sense to play again.  The construction
    set might make it a lot more appealing.
    
    regards,
    
    steve mcafee
    

    
    
    
    How about the Amiga's multi-tasking? Even my C-64 allows me to move
    while the boulders are falling...
    
    
    
    P.S. But other than that, great game...

    I will be purging my Amiga directory of a lot of deadwood this weekend,
    to help free up more disk space here.  So, if you haven't grabbed
    Boulder Dash yet, better get it before Friday, 6/5.
    
    Glad to see that so many enjoyed it.
    
    By the way, someone on Plink did a version of BoulderDash using
    AmigaBASIC compiled with the AC/Basic compiler.  Several comments
    from people who tried it indicated that it ran so fast as to be almost
    useless.  The author will be inserting delays just to slow things
    down.  I'm sure not many of you use Basic (I do) but it's interesting
    that compiled AmigaBASIC is so much faster than compiled True BASIC.

       There hasn't been much activity on this note for a while, but I
       thought that anyone out there who had downloaded Boulder Dash (BD)
       in the past and given up trying to play it because of system "lock
       up" may be interested in my experience over the last few days.
       
       I downloaded the .arc, de-arced it and followed the installation
       instructions provided, the most important being NOT to close down
       the CLI on startup.  I ran BD by way of the RUN command and also
       by clicking on the Icon.  In both cases, I ended up with a lost
       Smiley and a locked system at the second game level (BACK-TRACK).
       
       On return to work yesterday (Monday was a holiday up here), I
       printed and re-read this note vvveeerrryyy carefully to see if I
       could glean any information that I had missed.  I suspected that
       memory management, or lack there of, was my underlying problem.
       So last night, I fired up the disk, zapped my startup-sequence
       entirely, re-booted and ran BD.  Much to my dismay, on the same
       level as before, Smiley disappeared and I was in limbo.
       
       I then looked again at the hardcopy of this note, and unless I am
       mistaken, the people that hadn't seen this particular problem all
       had >512k systems (am I jealous!!!), and as such, probably did
       some weird and wonderful stuff, by default, during startup that us
       less fortunate individuals only dream of doing, or are limited to
       doing when running a specific application.  This brought to mind a
       past experience I had in trying to get SHAR to work.  After much
       trial and tribulations, phone conversations with, and mailing
       disks back and forth to Steve Drew in Calgary, he discovered my
       problem - I hadn't set the STACK during my startup-sequence,
       something that Steve (with the luxury of additional memory) did
       automatically and took for granted.
       
       With renewed enthusiasm, I created a new startup-sequence with the
       single command "STACK 10000".  I rebooted, ran BD from the CLI,
       and I am happy to say that I got past the Back-Track level without
       locking up.  I got half way through the Which-Side level at which
       time a minor indiscretion on my part sent a boulder down on poor
       Smiley, crushing its' poor little head!  
       
       Anyway, I am happy that I THINK I have solved this problem - I
       like this game.  
       
       Perhaps one of you MULTIMEG-AMIGA amigos could comment on the
       STACK theory - "works for me"!
       
       Art
       

	512K?  whew! dark ages.

	Go ahead, sell your kids/pet/car, get some megs on that poor machine.
	Put a stack 20000 in your startup, and let your amiga fly!

	The worst program for stack-overflows/crashes is amigados SORT.
	Even guessing about proper stack sizes as a function of lines
	of input, you're still likely to crash.  My vote for the most useless
	amigados command.  Maybe we should have a topic dedicated to
	"most useless command" opinion polls.

	I wonder how long it will be before all the people with 2-1/2 megs
	start wishing for 4-1/2 megs (like when using LaTeX, or, Common
	Lisp if anyone ever does one for the Amiga.  MACs have two,
	now THAT makes me jealous.)

    
    I finished Boulderdash and I have only a 512K machine.  I think
    the problem occurs mainly when I hit the keys too fast.  However
    this could easily be memory related.  I don't know any thing about
    this game, but if it doesn't reply to intuition messages properly
    memory could quickly become a problem.
    
    steve mcafee

       re.23
       
       Guess what?  I still crashed it...grrrrrr!  I upped the stack to
       20000 with the same results.
       
       Steve (.25) you may have the answer (too fast on the trigger
       finger) although I've had it lock up on the first move of a new
       level?
       
       I'm so frustrated I could scream!!!!
       
       re.24 I know, I know, I know! I tried to sell my wife, but
       nobody would have her :-)
       
       Art
       

    Remember to keep that initial CLI open when booting the BoulderDash
    disk.  If you shut it down with EndCLI the program will not run
    properly.
    
    Just remove the EndCLI command from the startup-sequence.
    

       re..27
       
       That's what I think I did.
       
       My startup-sequence is simply the following:
       
       STACK 10000
       
       
       Prior to this I had used the default (as per the original WB1.2
       disk) startup-sequence and edited out the "endcli > nil:" so as
       not to close down the intial CLI.  This gave me the option of
       starting BoulderDash with the "run" command or exposing the
       Workbench window and clicking on the Icon.
       
       Art