bilbo@pnet02.cts.com (Bill Daggett) (07/07/88)
blgardne@esunix.UUCP (Blaine Gardner) writes: >If you like puzzle-action games like Loderunner, get this one! Oh nooo! Not LodeRunner... And I was cured when I dumped Apple for the Amiga. Argh! Tell me... Emerald Mine isn't quite as good as LodeRunner was... is it? Bill UUCP: {ihnp4!scgvaxd!cadovax rutgers!marque}!gryphon!pnet02!bilbo INET: bilbo@pnet02.cts.com * Sometimes The Dragon Wins! * Still looking for the best Amiga BBS software to resurrect Bilbo's Hideaway on - but not holding breath!
disd@hubcap.UUCP (Gary Heffelfinger) (07/07/88)
From article <4762@gryphon.CTS.COM>, by bilbo@pnet02.cts.com (Bill Daggett): > blgardne@esunix.UUCP (Blaine Gardner) writes: >>If you like puzzle-action games like Loderunner, get this one! > > Oh nooo! Not LodeRunner... And I was cured when I dumped Apple for the > Amiga. Argh! > > Tell me... Emerald Mine isn't quite as good as LodeRunner was... is it? Emerald Mine is supposedly more like "BoulderDash" (tm.) Owners of this game correct me as necessary. If you really want "LodeRunner" (also probably tm) try a clone called "PopMan". I have only seen a demo of it but it looks every bit as good as "LodeRunner" and the graphics are a tad better. Note that I have no affiliation with its author other than that I was impressed by the demo. "PopMan" is being marketed by the author. Last I saw it was $20 a pop (so to speak) and the demo distribution includes an address to which you may send your money. No, I don't have that address handy. > > Bill Another former LodeRunner addict who just hasn't gotten around to mailing in that $20, Gary -- Gary Heffelfinger --- Employed by, but not the mouthpiece of Clemson University. ---=== Amiga. The computer for the best of us. ===---
blgardne@esunix.UUCP (Blaine Gardner) (07/09/88)
From article <4762@gryphon.CTS.COM>, by bilbo@pnet02.cts.com (Bill Daggett): > blgardne@esunix.UUCP (Blaine Gardner) writes: >>If you like puzzle-action games like Loderunner, get this one! > > Oh nooo! Not LodeRunner... And I was cured when I dumped Apple for the > Amiga. Argh! > > Tell me... Emerald Mine isn't quite as good as LodeRunner was... is it? Ok, Emerald Mine is no good, a lousy game. Not worth playing until 1 am trying to beat "just one more" level. Don't believe me? Ok, then it's your fault if you buy it and don't get any sleep! :-) It is a different game from Loderunner, but it shares the stragety/reflexes combination. If you ever saw Boulderdash on the Apple, you've got a fair idea what Emerald Mine is about, but EM has several advantages. Most importantly you don't have to start at level 0 every time, the game tracks several different players, and the default starting level is the last one you failed to complete. You can replay any level you've beaten, but there is no way to peek at higher levels. Just like Loderunner, there are several levels that you will SWEAR are impossible to beat, but there has always been a way (so far :-). One humbling stat that the game keeps track of is the number of games played. When that exceeds the number of games won by a factor of ten or more, it's a bit embarrasing! I think the game is more like Championship Loderunner in the difficulty of some of the levels. It's been about 2 months since I've played it, since the last session got me mad enough at the game to consider throwing the Amiga out the window (and there aren't even any windows in the room :-). This is a game you'll love to hate! One thing missing is a level editor. I've heard there is a PD editor out there somewhere, but I haven't seen it. If you liked Loderunner, get Emerald Mines. It's a German import, so it may be hard to find, but a local dealer ordered it in for me. Best of all it was under $20! Oh, it does employ grind-the-drive protection that Marauder II won't copy. :-( -- Blaine Gardner @ Evans & Sutherland 540 Arapeen Drive, SLC, Utah 84108 UUCP Addresses: {ihnp4,ucbvax,allegra,decvax}!decwrl!esunix!blgardne ihnp4!utah-cs!esunix!blgardne usna!esunix!blgardne "Nobody will ever need more than 64K." "Nobody needs multitasking on a PC."
peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (07/10/88)
I looked at Emerald Mine in the store, but decided not to buy it. It has one totally unacceptable feature: not only is it heavily copy protected, but it continually *writes* to your irreplacable copy-protected master disk. If you want to play Boulder Dash on the Amiga, the best bet currently is "Rockford". It's done by the same people who did the original Boulder Dash, but apparently they had to change the style somewhat (I guess they didn't copyright the name, or the publisher kept the rights to it). It's pretty good, though way harder than the original. I have yet to get through the second level in any of the "worlds". Maybe I'll have to write my own... -- -- `-_-' Peter (have you hugged your wolf today?) da Silva. -- U Mail to ...!uunet!sugar!peter, flames to /dev/null. -- "Running DOS on a '386 is like driving an Indy car to the Stop-N-Go"
farren@gethen.UUCP (Michael J. Farren) (07/14/88)
In article <2287@sugar.UUCP> peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes: >If you want to play Boulder Dash on the Amiga, the best bet currently is >"Rockford". It's done by the same people who did the original Boulder Dash, >but apparently they had to change the style somewhat (I guess they didn't >copyright the name, or the publisher kept the rights to it). Rockford was done by First Star, the same people that did BoulderDash originally. The package even says "Features "Rockford" the famous character from the great game Boulder Dash". My bitch is that that is ALL the packaging says. No address, no phone number, no way to get a replacement if your disk is faulty... -- Michael J. Farren | "INVESTIGATE your point of view, don't just {ucbvax, uunet, hoptoad}! | dogmatize it! Reflect on it and re-evaluate unisoft!gethen!farren | it. You may want to change your mind someday." gethen!farren@lll-winken.llnl.gov ----- Tom Reingold, from alt.flame
zzb@pedro.UUCP (Zzb) (07/20/88)
In article <2287@sugar.UUCP>, peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes: > I looked at Emerald Mine in the store, but decided not to buy it. It has one > totally unacceptable feature: not only is it heavily copy protected, but it > continually *writes* to your irreplacable copy-protected master disk. > > If you want to play Boulder Dash on the Amiga, the best bet currently is > "Rockford". It's done by the same people who did the original Boulder Dash, > but apparently they had to change the style somewhat (I guess they didn't > copyright the name, or the publisher kept the rights to it). It's pretty > good, though way harder than the original. I have yet to get through the > second level in any of the "worlds". > > Maybe I'll have to write my own... > -- > -- `-_-' Peter (have you hugged your wolf today?) da Silva. > -- U Mail to ...!uunet!sugar!peter, flames to /dev/null. > -- "Running DOS on a '386 is like driving an Indy car to the Stop-N-Go" I can completely sympathize with you on the copy-protect subject. I must say, however, that Emerald Mine is one of the absolutely BEST games written for the Amiga so far, and is one everyone should have. I bought it myself, but put off playing it because I could not back it up. Eventually the (dreaded, evil, unspeakable...) pirates came out with a broken version of it, and I feel no guilt from having it. In fact I hope that the people responsible for the blatently asinine idea of releasing it like they have do read this. If it weren't for pirates I'd be unable to play my favorite game without the risk of a childish (but dangerous) virus or power irregularity taking it into oblivion. There are many other ways to protect it, EA's "key disk" that lets you USE your backup while maintaining the security of an un-copyable original for the copy-protect tracks, Storing the high scores on a separate data disk so you can keep your valuable originals write-protected, and non disk-based protection such as EA's "new" trend of codeword protection or the dreaded Dongle protection. I won't knock copy protection because I'm not sure this is the right board for it, but I do have to say that forcing write-enable on originals is definately not something an intelligent person should consider. As far as Rockford goes, ~r I only wish it was playable. The graphics are spectacular and even far better than the ones that blew me away in Emerald Mines. The controlling, however, is like what I used to find in the old BASIC games on the Commodore 64. You push the joystick in a given direction, and it pauses for a bit then "jumps" you in that direction. This is so when holding the joystick in that direction, the little guy on the screen won't go too fast across the playfield. He has to pause between his moves. Great way to render a great game useless. When you want to move just one space, you have to hold the joystick that way for a bit, and then let go when you see the guy move. The pause is so short that it is difficult to keep from going 2 moves instead. Emerald Mines uses smooth scrolling, so the instant you press the joystick, your guy starts to walk in that direction, taking 4 or 5 steps to complete his move. Thus a single square is a quick tap away, and long walks are smooth scrolling trips that are very easy to end exactly where you like. So, makers of Emerald Mines, does guilt cross your conscience when you get confronted with the FACT that people are buying Rockford simply because of the copy-protection? Regardless of how much better a game Emerald Mines is??? -- /\/\/\/ Zig-Zag Bandit \/\/\/\ uunet!iconsys!caeco!pedro!zzb /\/\/\/\ The Zig-Zag Bandit \/\/ uunet!caeco!pedro!zzb /\/\/\/\
sam@csri.toronto.edu (Sam Weber) (10/29/88)
I just bought a copy of Emerald Mine, and discovered that it wouldn't
boot on my Amiga 1000 (nor on a friend's, so it isn't a hardware problem).
My dealer found that it does boot on a 2000, and so is being rather
nasty about my returning it (he will only give me a refund if I bring
him my computer and demonstrate to him that the game doesn't work,
which is difficult for me since I lack a car).
So, does anyone out there know a way to persuade this blasted game
to boot on a 1000?
Thanks
--
--Sam Weber This posting has been brought to you today
sam@csri.toronto.edu by the letters A, Q, and by the number 7.cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (10/31/88)
In article (Sam Weber) writes: >I just bought a copy of Emerald Mine, and discovered that it wouldn't >boot on my Amiga 1000 (nor on a friend's, so it isn't a hardware problem). >My dealer found that it does boot on a 2000, > --Sam Weber This posting has been brought to you today Just out of curiosity what version of Kickstart are you running? At least one program so far "Crazy Cars by Titus" doesn't work with 1.3 Kickstart. --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.
tj@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Todd R. Johnson) (10/31/88)
In article <8810290627.AA17577@ellesmere.csri.toronto.edu> sam@csri.toronto.edu (Sam Weber) writes: >I just bought a copy of Emerald Mine, and discovered that it wouldn't >boot on my Amiga 1000 (nor on a friend's, so it isn't a hardware problem). >So, does anyone out there know a way to persuade this blasted game >to boot on a 1000? > --Sam Weber This posting has been brought to you today >sam@csri.toronto.edu by the letters A, Q, and by the number 7. I just bought a copy of this and it does boot and run on my 1.5M 1000. However, the protection is really annoying. If you do not turn the machine off and start from scratch, the program will not work. When I tried to run it by rebooting after doing other work, it would either give me a corrupt disk requester or else fail the copy protection disk check after the main title is displayed. When it fails, the drive will grind 5 or 6 times as if it is trying to mutilate the disk. After it fails the disk check it appears to be normal except that you can only go up to level four and eating a diamond will cause you to explode. So far I have not been successful at copying this disk. Since the program writes to the disk, I'm afraid that it will go bad or be accidently destroyed. If I figure out how to copy it, I'll let you know. If anyone else already knows, please tell me. This type of protection has got to be stopped. Only the low price of Emerald Mine (and the game's quality) keeps me from flaming the company. ---Todd Johnson tj@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu -- ---Todd tj@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
prm@usl.usl.edu (Patrick R. Michaud) (10/31/88)
In article <8810290627.AA17577@ellesmere.csri.toronto.edu> sam@csri.toronto.edu (Sam Weber) writes: >I just bought a copy of Emerald Mine, and discovered that it wouldn't >boot on my Amiga 1000 (nor on a friend's, so it isn't a hardware problem). >My dealer found that it does boot on a 2000, and so is being rather >nasty about my returning it (he will only give me a refund if I bring >him my computer and demonstrate to him that the game doesn't work, >which is difficult for me since I lack a car). > >So, does anyone out there know a way to persuade this blasted game >to boot on a 1000? No, but this incident might persuade you to boot your blasted dealer instead?!? 1/2 :-) It's really sad that a lot of dealers aren't more willing to make their customers happy. Patrick R. Michaud USL/NASA Project prm@usl.usl.edu #include <std/disclaimer>
David_Michael_Alves@cup.portal.com (11/01/88)
Another game that loads under 1.3 but guru's as soon as you run a race is Ferrari Formula One from Electronic Arts. -Dave
soo@broke.dec.com (Chong-Liang Soo (DTN 381-0416)) (11/04/88)
>In article (Sam Weber) writes: >>I just bought a copy of Emerald Mine, and discovered that it wouldn't >>boot on my Amiga 1000 (nor on a friend's, so it isn't a hardware problem). >>My dealer found that it does boot on a 2000, >> --Sam Weber This posting has been brought to you today > >Just out of curiosity what version of Kickstart are you running? At least >one program so far "Crazy Cars by Titus" doesn't work with 1.3 Kickstart. > >--Chuck McManis >uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com >These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you. No, it works perfectly fine with 1.3, I just tested that. I have an 1000 and I have been having great fun with Emerald Mine for two weeks now. I had problem loading it up when I first got it. I brought it back to the dealer, and the dealer said he heard that the external drive has to be disconnected (for 1000) for it to load. I did that, and it got loaded right up (made my drive bang its heads against the casing in the process), so, try that. Apparently this is necessary for machines with only 512K--df1: takes up some memory. Thanks to the copy protection, I may have to change my drive as soon as I got to level 2001 (Watch this space for my game statistics in three years). I therefore suggest that you boot it up and not switch off your computer until you get to level 2001 (in three years, that is, if your hands and feet are only as quick as mine). On the other hand, the game when crazy on me about six times over the past two weeks and I had to reboot to get going again. Tips: if, when you got to a new level after playing for a while, you find that it is absolutely impossible to get through the new level due to the very low number of emeralds and diamonds you can possibly get (by blowing up the Eaters, Bugs, your computer, etc.), try a reboot (both your computer and you), you may find that the game behaves differently now! Chong, turning the wheel at level 34 :-{ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chong Soo. Disclaimer: I do not speak for anybody other than myself. (UUCP) {decvax, ucbvax, allegra}!decwrl!credit.dec.com!soo (ARPA) soo@credit.dec.com soo%credit.dec.com@decwrl.dec.com
chris@AUSTIN.LOCKHEED.COM (Chris Wood) (11/11/88)
In article <508@usl.usl.edu>, prm@usl.usl.edu (Patrick R. Michaud) writes: > In article <8810290627.AA17577@ellesmere.csri.toronto.edu> sam@csri.toronto.edu (Sam Weber) writes: > >So, does anyone out there know a way to persuade this blasted game > >to boot on a 1000? Emerald Mine only runs on my Amiga 1000 when I have my SOTS 1-Meg board attached. It works fine on my father's 500 with 1 Meg, and on my 1000 with 1.5 meg. But won't boot on my 1000 with 512k. I think your dealer is cutting his own throat by screwing around with customer satisfaction. Especially since Emerald Mine just made #1 on the list of Best Amiga Games in Amigaworld and he could easily resell it, and its not like we're talking big bucks here ;-). I recommend that you bite the bullet and get a memory board. You will see more and more stuff on the Amiga that requires at least a Meg, and sooner or later you will want it. Emerald Mine is, IMHO, THE BEST GAME on the Amiga. It can't be beat for variety and challenge. And it's less than $20. Amazing! Chris Wood