Homebrew EarthShakerDS (DS Entry)

[ant512]

Those of you who've been around a while, and who live in the UK, might remember Earth Shaker. It was a Spectrum game given away one month on the Your Sinclair covertape. It's essentially a version of Boulderdash, with extras like jumping jelly beans, teleporters and barriers.

I decided to have a go at creating a DS port, mainly to test out my 2D graphics library (WoopsiGfx). There are a few features missing - sound effects and 24 of the levels - but it is perfectly playable in its current state. The game was written specifically for this competition, and I hope to get the majority of the levels finished before the bounty deadline.

Download the game here:

• EarthShakerDS

Full sourcecode is available here:

• Sourcecode

The source is released under the MIT licence (also known as the X11 licence), which is similar to the 2-clause BSD licence. Note that the game's assets - graphics, level design, sound effects (when I get around to it) cannot be redistributed as they remain in the copyright of the original game's author, who has kindly allowed me to include them in this remake.

Regarding the sound, if anyone can help with getting the makefile to produce a soundbank for use with maxmod, please get in touch!

Here are a few screenshots:

 

[Mbmax]

Hey Ant ! nice to see you here.

I will give a try to this, thanks !

 

[Cyan]

I didn't know that spectrum game, but I liked the original boulder Dash.
Thank you for making this port, I'll try it when I'll have time.


I think it's great when original developers agree and help homebrew developers to use their own data to make an official homebrew port.
Some other developers allowed that too, like Eric Chahi for Another World GBA, and author of little big adventure for .Takam's Twinsen project.
Thank you to them too.

 

[Rydian]

Front-paged before I saw your edit, I'll edit the news to include info on the source and that the resources aren't redistributable.

 

[chyyran]

Wait, so do we have to get the files like OpenTyrianDS or DoomDS, or will it work strait out?

 

[Another World]

runs pretty good so far, this will turn into a great homebrew project after the sound and levels are added. you should give thought to including a level editor to push this project over the top.

keep up the good work!~

-another world

 

[Mbmax]

A level editor using woopsi GUI of course.
That's a good idea indeed.

 

[ant512]

Wait, so do we have to get the files like OpenTyrianDS or DoomDS, or will it work strait out?

You just need the NDS ROM file I linked to. Everything is already in there.

 

[ant512]

I've uploaded a new version of EarthShakerDS:

EarthShakerDS 20110514

This contains a number of bugfixes and new features. The most notable improvement is the addition of sound. The other changes are listed below:

- Letters scrolling into view on title screen scroller draw correctly.
- Increased duration of each block's appearance in the title screen slideshow.
- Select button cycles through levels in level select.
- Up/down buttons wrap around when cycling through levels in level select.
- Start button can be used to select levels on title screen.
- Start button pauses the game.
- Added the majority of sound effects.
- Added music to title screen.
- Score and life counters get reset when a new game is started.
- Fixed bitmap recolouring when starting a new level.
- Remaining time scoring at end of level is more accurate.
- Player death graphic shown when player runs out of time.
- Barriers take away more time when pushed.
- Fixed gravity direction indicator.
- Blocks land correctly when they hit the bottom of the level.
- Finished level 8.

 

[ShadowtearX]

Just wanted to say it looked like boulder dash.
didnt know it was on ds either... yay another game to play (adds to his games to play list)

 

[ant512]

Here's the latest version of Earth Shaker DS:

EarthShakerDS 20110519

This version is feature-complete and, unless there are any bugs, is the final version for the competition. Finished! Hurrah! Changes since the last release include:

- All levels complete;
- Added main menu on title screen;
- Added sound test menu;
- Added all sound effects;
- Added map screen;
- Miscellaneous bugfixes and tweaks.

Regarding bugs, if you spot any please let me know. If you report any before the competition deadline and I manage to fix them I'll give you a credit in the scroller on the title screen.

 

[ant512]

Remember when I said that I was releasing the final version? Apparently I lied! Here's a newer build:

EarthShakerDS 20110522

This version has a few tweaks and bugfixes:

- Tweaked control system.
- Added extra life sound to sound test.
- Sounds stop when switching screens/game sections/etc.
- Added animation when collecting beans.
- Added pause when collecting teleports.

The most important change is the tweaked control system, which makes it far less error-prone when trying to nip around corners and avoid falling boulders.

 

[BionicC]

Note that the game's assets - graphics, level design, sound effects (when I get around to it) cannot be redistributed as they remain in the copyright of the original game's author, who has kindly allowed me to include them in this remake.

That is pretty damn awesome of him, considering he ported it to the 360 and is selling it via XBLIG.

For what it's worth, I haven't played your port yet but I LOVED the original game -- it's genuinely one of the best Boulderdash-style games I ever played on the Spectrum. I guess it had the advantage of coming along late in the Spectrum's life but even so, some of the imaginative touches -- like reversing the gravity of the level -- definitely lifted it above the usual knock-offs.

 

[ant512]

Note that the game's assets - graphics, level design, sound effects (when I get around to it) cannot be redistributed as they remain in the copyright of the original game's author, who has kindly allowed me to include them in this remake.

That is pretty damn awesome of him, considering he ported it to the 360 and is selling it via XBLIG.

For what it's worth, I haven't played your port yet but I LOVED the original game -- it's genuinely one of the best Boulderdash-style games I ever played on the Spectrum. I guess it had the advantage of coming along late in the Spectrum's life but even so, some of the imaginative touches -- like reversing the gravity of the level -- definitely lifted it above the usual knock-offs.

The 360 port is by a different chap, not the original author, but he did help out with some level redesigns to fix some easy solutions to a few of the later levels. I'm considering getting in touch with the 360 guy and asking if I can include his updates as a set of bonus levels in my DS version.

Yeah, Earth Shaker is a great game - one of my favourite Spectrum games and easily the best Boulderdash-esque game I've played. I usually loathe them, but Earth Shaker is just so much *fun*. Let me know what you think of the port!

 

[Another World]

i'm addicted to this ds port now. i'm so addcited that when i die i get pissed off. lol. any updates you can add like more levels would be a welcomed edition.

-another world

 

[chyyran]

Downloaded it yesterday, played it while going shit. It is so addicting. Good luck!

 

[ant512]

Another update:

EarthShakerDS 20110525

This one adds in a feature from the original game that I completely missed - the ability to touch blocks adjacent to the player without moving into that space. The original game required you to press fire and a direction but, as the DS has more buttons, I've used the X, Y, A and B buttons instead. For example, start a new game at the first level and press X. The soil block above the player is removed but the player sprite does not move. The same happens with the soil block below if you press B.

This functionality is essential to get through the game (try level 9 - "Internal Reactor Inc" without using the new buttons), so I can't believe I forgot to put it in. The button to bring up the map is now Select.

The full changelog follows:

- Added poke functionality to touch blocks without moving;
- Added animation when collecting beans;
- Added delay when teleporting;
- Various refactoring.

The level editor is in progress, but I still don't think it's going to be ready by the deadline.

 

[ant512]

Yet another update:

EarthShakerDS 20110527

This one features a few bugfixes and a preview of the level editor. Everything is more or less functional except for the load and save buttons.

 

[Mbmax]

Thanks ant512. The level editor looks great.

Do you plan to add the swap screen feature of woopsi gui ?
could be great to be able to swap screen once we selected a block to use.
The touch screen is so great to design a level instead of the dpad.

 

[ant512]

I'm not using Woopsi here - Woopsi would add 300K at least to the ROM size. As the ROM is already 3MB due to the uncompressed WAV music I'd run out of RAM to actually run the game pretty quickly. The UI for the editor is entirely new code cobbled together extremely quickly.

The main editor display re-uses a chunk of the game engine. If I wanted to support stylus input I'd have to re-write it all, so we're stuck with the d-pad I'm afraid.