Fan Stuff

Introduction

Welcome to the Boulderdash Fan Stuff corner. Here you'll find all those little extras for the fans of Boulder Dash, Emerald Mine and Supaplex etc., like remixes of the original Boulder Dash song. Have a look and if you have something that should be added here, please mail me about it.

Advertisements

In the table below you will find ads of Boulderdash games that appeared in magazines.

Covers

Below you can download images of the original covers of several Boulderdash games (which is not complete yet, as some covers contain copyrights of the sites they are provided on, but I will try to get them elsewhere). For the booklets that came with certain games, have a look at the Documentations section.

Decorations

Here you can find decorations to freshen up your computer!

Documentations

If you were looking for the original booklets that came with games, you are at the right place here. For front and back covers of games, please refer to the Covers section.

Graphics

Download original game graphics as well as other images here:

Music

The original theme music from old Boulderdash games can be downloaded below. Most of them have a strange file format (*.sid or *.sfx) but you can play them with DeliPlayer 2.





There is also a number of remakes/remixes of some of these original songs. Download them below. They can be played with DeliPlayer2.

Sounds

Below you can download sounds concerning Boulder Dash or its clones.

Programming

There are Boulderdash fans who are able to make Boulderdash clones or tools and utilities themselves. Owing to them my site can exist. Without their efforts, I would not have had so much Boulderdash stuff to start a site about! In this section you can find some things for programmers. If you are going to create a clone yourself, be sure to watch the things below carefully before you start it!


Once there were some Boulderdash fans (and this is not a fairy-tale!) who encountered the problem that all those many Boulderdash implementations use another file format for the levels (or 'caves', as they are called in the classic Boulder Dash). They thought it would be useful to have a common file format that would support the items and properties of the classic Boulder Dash and some well-known clones (like Supaplex) to make it easier to share levels between these different clones. (For example: the common file format would then have an apart symbol for a Boulder Dash boulder and an apart symbol for a Supaplex zonk, which differ a little bit as for the physical properties.) This was called the Boulder Dash Common File Format (BDCFF).

Nobody knows precisely what exactly the BDCFF is going to be used for in the future. BDCFF files could be used to easily convert BD games for the Commodore 64 to the format of a particular Boulderdash clone (for in fact it's just a simple text format by wich the levels are built up on the ground of some rules). Or maybe (nearly) all the Boulderdash clones in the future will use BDCFF level files and then you could create some levels with a special BDCFF level editor for all these games at once... Anyway, it will bring many clones together, which is a good thing. 

At this moment the BDCFF still only supports the classic Boulder Dash. It is still being developed by Tim Stridmann and Marek Roth. The main part has already been finished and therefore the BDCFF files can already be created. They will not be useless in the future in case the file format has changed a lot (by modifications and extensions). As the files themselves have nothing to do with programming, you can find them on the Classic Boulder Dash page (in the Levels section).           

Below you can find more information about the BDCFF and the programming code of course. Some documents come from an old Boulderdash fan site and contain several links to other pages on that website. I've removed them, because the site had disappeared from the Internet (but now it seems still to be online, but not updated anyway). But you can find all its information on this site (some things will appear within a short time). All files are Microsoft Word documents (*.doc files) and are ready to be printed if you want.

You can see that the documents about text and binary formats are separated. To know more about the consideration which of these two kinds of formats the BDCFF should be, read the Boulder Dash Common File Format (BDCFF) project (general information / considerations).

One document is missing: Leon Wenneker's BDCFF proposal. If you know more about this document or if you maybe even have it for me, then please contact me!




Besides the Boulder Dash Common File Format (see above) there are more file formats and file information documents of other Boulderdash games. They are both file data, as I've called them on this page. By 'file data' I mean everything that gives an explanation (or something that makes it more readable or simpler) of a game file (which can be a text file or a binary file). And a file format document (which is an example of 'file data') contains technical information about how a special type of file is built up. This systematic arrangement can be very useful. They can easily be loaded by a game (or a level editor for example) and it is easier for the programmer and the people who are interested in the programming code to understand.

If you are a programmer who is going to make an own Boulderdash clone, I would suggest to have a look at the Boulder Dash Common File Format (see above) and the file formats / data documents below. It can be very docile and bring you upon new ideas. A good beginning is half the work.

Below are the file formats / data documents of various Boulderdash games. Like the BDCFF documents, these files are also Microsoft Word documents (*.doc) and are ready to be printed if you want. On top of the list you will find documents about the text formats and more down the list you will find documents about the binary formats. (They are separated from each other.) On the bottom you can still find other things that have to do with file data.




Below you can find the remaining interesting programming stuff that doesn't fit in the (sub)sections above!

Magazines

Boulder Dash is so popular that there even are (or were)a few magazines about it. They make a nice coffee table magazine for all of you boulder dash fans, or keep it in your office, so you can take a break sit back in your comfy leather office chairs and do a little light reading. If you don't have any of them or have never seen them, below you can read about them!



Aktueller Software Markt was a German game magazine which reviewed games for computer and console games. For downloads of articles that appeared in this magazine, go here. Because it contained reviews of many games that did not have anything to do with Boulderdash, you cannot download them from this page.

In the April 1991 edition there appeared a 'preview-review' of the game 'Think!' (as Supaplex was called then) by Still Tension Software, a Swiss software company. ('Think' was later called 'Supaplex' for legal reasons and its developer became then Digital Integration, Inc.) See the 'Think!' (Supaplex) preview-review from the April 1991 edition!



Het Info Bulletin is a Dutch Commodore and Amiga magazine that appears bi-monthly. It is published by the HCC Commodore Gebruikersgroep, a Dutch group of people who are fond of the Commodore computers. This group also organises Commodore days, on which the members of the group can encounter each other, frequently. An important person in organising these days is Ron van Schaik, who is a well-known person in the Boulder Dash world.

Often you can find something about Boulder Dash in this magazine. Think of a Boulder Dash puzzle, the mentioning of a new Boulder Dash site or something else. Arno Weber, the author of Arno's Boulder Dash Fan Site, often writes something about Boulder Dash in this magazine.

The magazine only appears in Dutch. For the prices and the subscription, you need to go to the homepage of Het Info Bulletin. You will also find some screenshots there. To take a foretaste, download a PDF file of the June 2005 issue.

I'm proud to mention that my site appeared in Het Info Bulletin, in Volume 13 Issue 6 (December 2005). In the 'article' it says that there is a new Boulder Dash site and you can read there what my site is about the future plans for it (which may be out of date, as we are now somewhere further in the future). Have a look at the About page in the Publications section for an overview of the publications of my site!
  


Rockford FD / Rockford Magazine (Rockford-Mag) was a German disc magazine (it came on C64 discs) that was released in 1993. The maintainer was the Boulder Dash Forever Fan Club which had been founded by Alexander Langer, alias Alex Zop. It concentrated on Boulder Dash and gave new information. Sometimes a disk included Boulder Dash games or tools, but not always. Other issues came with non-Boulderdash stuff, such as a music ripper.

Here you can find a list with download of the magazine. Inside you will sometimes come across 'Rockford PD'. 'PD' means 'Public Domain'.

In order to open these files, you either need an old Commodore 64 computer or an emulator. Have a look at the emulators section on the Classic Boulder Dash page for more information.




Zzap!64 was an English Commodore 64 magazine that was launched in 1985. It originally only contained C64 game reviews, but since the latter part of 1988 you could also find reviews about Amiga games from time to time. The magazine starred Rockford, the Boulder Dash hero. He didn't have his own cartoon strip as such, but was always drawn in the margins (usually saying something sarcastic about the game review) Drawn by the very talented Oliver Frey. In issue 42 (October 1988) the Amiga became a permanent part of the magazine, which was the case until issue 74 (June 1991), when Zzap!64 returned to writing about Commodore 64 games only.

In November 1991 the publisher of Zzap!64, Newsfield, went out of business. An ex-Zzap!64 editor, a Newsfield director and the cover illustrator helped the magazine to stay alive and they brought it to the publisher Europress.

The officially last issue of Zzap!64 was issue 90 (November 1992). The reason for this was that the magazine was relaunched as 'Commodore Force' in January 1993. Now everyone could see that the magazine had changed a lot since the first issue from 1985. Something everyone liked was that Lloyd Mangram returned to the letters page. Lloyd Mangram was a fictional person, who represented several different staff members, generally whoever was Editor/Assistant Editor at the time.

At this time the C64 market shrinked and it was harder to get the magazine filled. Mostly it contained many re-reviews. But issue 10 of Commodore Force was actually Zzap!64's hundreth birthday and therefore it covered the Zzap!64 history.

In issue 16 (March 1994) the magazine didn't contain any game review. The publisher Europress had also become bankrupt. This was the end of Zzap!64 / Commodore Force...

There was also an Italian version of Zzap!64, which was launched in May 1986. But it had less reviews and most part of it was directly translated from the English version. At the end of 1992 the production of the Italian variant was stopped, but it continued as a Net magazine, for which you had to pay to get access to it via the Internet.

As the Zzap!64 magazine was a general C64 (and Amiga) magazine, I will not provide all the articles that can be found on the Internet here. The same with the front covers. If you still want to see them, then go to The Def Guide to Zzap!64. For Italian front covers, go here.

Yet I want to show you the front cover of issue 9 (January 1986), on which the Boulder Dash hero Rockford is mentioned. The character on the left side of the cover is Adam (from LCP) and on the right side you can see Thing-on-a-spring, who both joined Rockford in the comic margins.

Fan Clubs

How ridiculous is might sound, there were (or are!) even some Boulder Dash or Emerald Mine clubs! Information about them can be found below. General Commodore 64 or Amiga clubs aren't listed below, as they officially don't have anything to do with Boulder Dash or its clones.


The Boulder Dash Club Freudenberg was a club that was founded to swap Boulderdash games between Boulderdash fans. In that time Internet was not as important as it nowadays is, so a club like this one was pleasant for the Boulderdash players who had created own games or who wanted to play others' creations.

Rolf Roth, the father of Marek Roth (who are both well-known people among the Boulderdash fans) sent all his games to the Boulder Dash Club Freudenberg. Once he won an award for the best title screens in his Boulderdash games and he got a lighter.



The Boulder Dash Forever Fan Club was founded in 1992 by Alexander Langer ('Alex Zop'). This club was German and it published the Rockford FD disk magazine (see Magazines section).

The address details of the fan club were (I don't know if they are still actual):

Alexander Langer
Amselweg 1
85293 Reichartshausen
Germany

If you know more about this club, about eventual gatherings or other things, please let me know so I can put that information on this page.



The Emerald Mine Club Holland is a Dutch group of people who like to play Emerald Mine. They sell Amiga discs with tools and with games (levelsets) that have been created with the Emerald Mine level editors. However, they ask an expensive price for them, so you could better wait until the Classic Emerald Mine page on this website is released, which will offer them all (hopefully!) for free! 

The club still exists and it has an own website! Visit the Emerald Mine Club Holland homepage. They also provide history about Emerald Mine on that site, but you can also find that on the Main Page of my site.

The address details of the fan club are:

EMC Holland
PO. Box 2171
8203 AD Lelystad
The Netherlands



Posocopi Waldkirch was a well-known Boulderdash game (and tool) creating group and it also founded a club. Probably this group only consisted of one person, but this was also the case with other so-called 'groups'.

The club was mainly intended to swap Boulderdash games between fans, just like the Boulder Dash Club Freudenberg (see above). But it was also useful for the 'group' Posocopi Waldkirch, as it collected many proposals for the 1stB-Engine, even from other clubs. ('1stB-Engine' was another name for 'NewB-Engine', an engine by Prof. Knibble that was used by one or more tools to create levelsets with.) Posocopi Waldkirch also made caves (levels) for the First Boulder game series (see the Classic Boulder Dash page, that will be released shortly). He did this without a Construction Kit, as it didn't exist at that point.

So, besides its function to swap Boulderdash games, the POSOCOPI Waldkirch club was also used to have an easier opportunity for the Boulderdash fans to have contact with each other.

Interviews

There are even interviews with people who have to do with Boulder Dash available, but because of the length of this section I've created a special Interviews page for them.

Quizzes

You can test your knowledge about the Boulder Dash principle, about a particular Boulderdash clone or something else with quizzes.

Currently there are two quizzes available. The first is about the classic Boulder Dash game and can be found on the Arno Weber's homepage. Click on 'Quiz' in the main menu to go there. The other quiz is to test your knowledge about RoX. It is in German. Go there by clicking here.

Rockford

There is also some artwork about Rockford, the hero of the classic Boulder Dash, available:

This website has been created by BoulderMart (Martijn). All content is free to download. Use it at your own risk.