2020-08-17
A new major release of Rocks’n’Diamonds is finally available!
The most important change is the long-awaited update of the Emerald Mine
game engine, which was based on an old version of David Tritscher’s
“Emerald Mine for X11” from 2000/2001. The new game engine uses a more
recent code base from 2009, which contains new features and bug fixes
and improves the compatibility of the game engine with many levels from
the Emerald Mine Club level collection (while preserving compatibility
of already recorded tapes).
The most important Emerald Mine game engine related changes are:
- support for wrap-around levels (like level 80 from level set “Ruppelmine 2”)
- improved handling of chain-explosions of the “bug” game element
- improved handling of the “fake acid” game element
- improved handling of various other game elements (like burning dynamite)
As another important improvement, the whole build system was updated for all
platforms to support today’s development tools and to support the most
recent versions of the SDL libraries, which removes several problems when
building the game on current systems. This also includes native 64-bit
support for the Windows version.
Here’s an overview of the most important build system changes:
- added support for cross-compiling to Windows 64-bit platform
- added CPU architecture (32/64 bit) to version info screen
- added build support for older versions of Mac OS X
- changed build system for Android from Ant to Gradle
- updated SDL libraries to the latest versions for all platforms
The following features and bug fixes were added to custom elements:
- added being able to use CE condition “CE value/score gets 0”
- added mouse click events to CE change events (experimental)
- added new change action “move player new” to CE change actions
- added support for tapes with both keyboard/joystick and mouse actions
- fixed bug with reanimating killed player by CE condition
The following additions and fixes are related to global animations:
- added option to generally set global animations to block clicks
- added missing handling of animation mode “random” for global animations
- fixed drawing global animations when switching screens without fading
Additionally, there are the following new features and bug fixes:
- added workaround for a bug in SDL 2.0.12 which prevents transparency
- fixed potential crash bug if personal user level set cannot be found
- changed move speed for some elements for older game engine versions
- fixed element property that caused levels/tapes to be unsolvable
- moved game engine settings to separate setup menu screen
- fixed bug with scrollbar still active on virtual buttons config screen
- replaced ILBM graphics source files in repository with converted PNG files
- fixed text event handling for newer SDL versions on Android
- fixed screen rotation for newer SDL versions on Android
- fixed screen size for newer SDL versions on Android
- updated custom game controller mappings for newer SDL versions on Android
- added disabling overlay touch buttons when using joystick
Now available on the download page!
2020-07-30
An update for the “R’n’D jue II” special edition is available to address
stability issues with the previous version when running on Windows. Due to
heavy use of custom artwork in “R’n’D jue II” (graphics and animations
in HD resolution plus a lot of sounds and music), it was possible to run
out of memory (especially when also using game engine snapshots, which also
use quiet some memory). This could happen even with lots of RAM installed,
as the Windows version of the game used a 32-bit executable so far, which
can only use a limited amount of the possibly very large amount of overall
memory.
This problem has now been solved by compiling a 64-bit executable for the
Windows platform, therefore making better use of the available memory.
In addition, this update also includes some minor corrections and bug fixes.
The updated Windows version of “R’n’D jue II” can now be downloaded from
Jürgen Bonhagen’s web site in English and in German!
2020-01-16
This bugfix release mainly fixes a nasty packaging bug of the Windows
installer version that breaks the start menu entry and the desktop icon.
Besides this, the following bug was fixed:
- fixed bug in editor with group elements using graphic of other element
Now available on the download page!
2020-01-03
Happy new year! The new year brings a new feature release which is mainly
useful for players of the Android version, as it adds support for Android 10
and new overlay touch buttons for the most frequently used game buttons. The
new version also adds a few other new features and bug fixes.
Android version:
- added support for Android 9 and 10
- fixed potential crash bug in Android version when rotating device
- added overlay touch buttons for door request dialog
- added overlay touch buttons for in-game “stop” and “pause” buttons
- added overlay touch buttons for virtual buttons configuration
- added showing overlay touch buttons only if touch screen is really used
- added Android project files to build Android version
Global animations:
- added using new screen fading option “.auto_delay_unit” to use video frames
- fixed handling global animation click events
Level editor:
- added support for undo/redo using Ctrl-z/Ctrl-Shift-z in level editor
Bug fixes:
- fixed crash bug when loading graphics sets with bad animation definitions
- fixed bug in editor with custom elements using graphic of other element
- fixed sporadic problems when playing MP3 files on Windows
Now available on the download page!
2019-06-16
Twelve years after the initial release of the “R’n’D jue” special edition
(and nine years after the last update), Jürgen Bonhagen proudly
presents “R’n’D jue II”, which has been completely rebuild and redesigned,
with lots of stunning new features!
The new HD screen resolution, together with completely redesigned graphics
(including double-sized game graphics), is probably the most striking new
feature.
The menu screens of R’n’D jue II have been filled with lots of new content
and animations, an integrated help system, interactive switches for various
new functionality and much more!
The integrated level editor has been completely redesigned, and lots of new
levels with puzzle challenges are waiting to be solved.
R’n’D jue II and Rocks’n’Diamonds can be installed side by side, which
makes it easy to play different kind of level sets in a different graphical
environment!
R’n’D jue II for Windows, Mac and Linux is now available for download
from Jürgen Bonhagen’s web site in English and in German! You can also find more screenshots and game videos there!
