2022-01-17
This is the first in a series of planned re-releases of level sets for
Rocks’n’Diamonds, to make those level sets easier to install and play,
and to add features and other stuff that may have been missing in the
original releases by their authors.
We will start with the level sets of Andreas Buschbeck, which were
released on his web site for the first time in 2003. Andreas Buschbeck has
created five classic style level sets with custom artwork and sound. As a
hobby musician and trance DJ, he also added excerpts of his music to his
level sets, which fit well to his level sets and which are grouped into
three custom music sets (which can, as with all custom artwork sets in
Rocks’n’Diamonds, also be used with other level sets).
However, not only is his web site down for many years now (and the broken
link to it on the “Levels & Artwork”
page has been replaced with a link to the
last snapshot of his web site on archive.org),
but also his level sets with custom graphics, sounds and music were scattered
over many different packages, which made it a bit complicated to install and
play them in Rocks’n’Diamonds.
For a more convenient user experience, all level sets, graphics, sounds and
music sets have been put together into one single package, which can easily
be installed and played. As an extra bonus to the already released four
level sets, an additional, previously unreleased fifth level set
(“AB Levelset 0”, which is more of a prequel level set to the other four sets)
with 80 levels and different graphics, created in 2002, has been added to this
collection, which also contains solution tapes for all included levels.
You can download Andreas Buschbeck’s level sets
here
or from the “Levels & Artwork” section!
2022-01-08
Please download and use this patch release as soon as possible, as it fixes
a major problem with generating unique player IDs for the high score server.
The resulting problems with assigning scores and player names on the high
score server caused by this bug have already been fixed on the server itself,
but to be able to rename your player in R’n’D and still have all your scores
associated with your changed player name, you have to upgrade to this new
R’n’D version which fixes the problem also on the client side.
Now available from the download page!
2021-12-02
This patch release fixes problems with receiving (slightly) larger responses
from the high score server, causing high score lists with many entries to be
cut off after a few dozen entries. For example, you should see all 100 score
entries for the tutorial level set “Niko Böhm’s Tutorial” (which is the
default level set shown when Rocks’n’Diamonds is started for the first time),
while you will only see less than half of that in most cases with previous
versions. This new release fixes this problem, and shows all score entries.
Now available from the download page!
2021-11-11
This is a patch release which improves robustness of tape uploads to the
new high score server, which is especially useful if you have a huge
amount of tapes and experience problems when uploading them, which resulted
in trying to upload every tape again (even those that were already uploaded
successfully). This version keeps track of already uploaded tapes and only
uploads the remaining tapes after an interruption.
In addition, any tapes that are not uploaded later after solving a level
(for example, if you are playing offline in a plane, or if you have
temporarily disabled use of the high score server) are marked for upload now,
and you are asked to upload these missing tapes later. In such cases, you
can also upload missing tapes from the setup menu whenever you like.
By the way: Since the release of version 4.3.0.0 and the high score server
last week, there are already over 60’000 score entries for over 700 level
sets available on the server now!
Get the new version from the download page!
2021-11-03
A new major release of Rocks’n’Diamonds is available, which finally comes
with support for the new high score server, to save your high scores
to a central server, and to also view other player’s high scores of the
level you are just playing!
When starting the new version for the first time, you are offered to upload
all your existing tapes to the high score server, so you don’t have to play
and solve all those levels again to see them in the Hall of Fame! When done,
the high score server will validate your scores and tapes (which takes some
time, but usually not more than five to ten minutes, depending on the number
of uploaded tapes in the queue), and then you and others can see them!
After successfully solving a level, your score and tape will also be sent to
the high score server (you will be asked for permission the first time), so
all your high scores for newly played and solved games will also be available
on the high score server!
(If you don’t like the idea of your scores being sent to a server, you can
just disable using the high score server in the setup menu, or just say “no”
to uploading your scores and tapes when asked. The game won’t upload anything
if you don’t want it, and you can still easily use R’n’D without ever using
any remote server just like before.)
You can have a look at your and other player’s high scores at the
Rocks’n’Diamonds high score server web site!
It does not only list all available high scores, but also all level sets and
levels for which scores were uploaded, and the players who played them.
There are already thousands of high scores preloaded to the server,
so you can already see entries in the Hall of Fame for many level sets!
If you want to check it out from the R’n’D perspective before installing the
new version, just take a look at the
browser version of Rocks’n’Diamonds!
The new version is available on the download page!
