Boulder Dash Infinity Part 3
3The final instalment of my conversion of Boulder Dash into Repton Infinity. No new characters are introduced, so I'll use this space to make some comments on the differences between Boulder Dash and Repton.
Probably the most obvious difference is that Boulder Dash levels have a single theme, whereas most Repton 3 levels use a mixture of all the game's elements. (Notice, in this video, the extreme difference in playing speed between Level 1, which has lots of rocks and diamonds, and Level 2, which has very few!) Also, even though Boulder Dash levels are longer (38x20 compared with Repton 3's 28x24), it is usually easy to get from any part of the level to any other; whereas Repton levels are often split up into compartments. Partly this is due to the presence, in Repton, of elements that go well with compartmentalised levels: keys and safes, spirits and cages, transporters. But it's also due to the fact that even the shared elements have different gameplay. In Repton, diamonds don't move, you can't move down under rocks, you can't dig squares without moving into them, and you always have to collect all diamonds on a level. All four of these differences help to make Repton a more suitable environment for logic puzzles where you have to work out how to move the rocks to reach the diamonds. Boulder Dash doesn't really have such puzzles. It has glimmerings of them, to be sure, especially on Cave K (the third level in this video). Is it a coincidence that the most Repton-like level is considered by many fans to be their favourite?
Conversely, unique to Boulder Dash are its monsters, which move like spirits in Repton but have no cages and no limit to the number on a level. (Repton 3 does actually allow there to be more spirits than cages on a level, or even no cages at all... but no published level has ever done this.) They make for some memorable (and difficult) levels like the second level shown here, where they have to be got out of the way so the diamonds can be collected in peace. Boulder Dash requires great dexterity to play, both in dealing with the monsters and in changing direction when running down under a rock.
So, that's the essence of why it's not accurate to call Repton a Boulder Dash clone :) They're both good games, though I prefer to play Boulder Dash in Georges Lobry's Macintosh version, which is slower-paced than the BBC Micro version. And one set of my Repton Extravaganza levels were originally designed in Boulder Dash... I wonder if anyone will be able to tell which set?
The music for this video is the forty-second Prelude and Fugue from J S Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.
Other Videos By SentinelProxima
| 2010-03-18 | Xor Level 9, The Challenge |
| 2010-03-13 | Xor Level 8, Enlightenment |
| 2010-03-12 | Xor Level 7, Dolly's Revenge |
| 2010-03-10 | Xor Level 6, The Dolls' House |
| 2010-03-09 | Xor Level 5, Henry's Anguish |
| 2010-03-05 | Xor Level 4, Explosive Mixture |
| 2010-03-04 | Xor Level 3, Chicken Supreme |
| 2010-03-03 | Xor Level 2, Something Fishy |
| 2010-03-03 | Xor Level 1, Dots and Waves |
| 2010-02-25 | BBC Micro game Clogger |
| 2010-02-24 | Boulder Dash Infinity Part 3 |
| 2010-02-24 | Boulder Dash Infinity Part 2 |
| 2010-02-23 | Boulder Dash Infinity Part 1 |
| 2010-02-20 | Repton Infinity Rep5B Level 4 |
| 2010-02-20 | Repton Infinity Rep5B Level 3 |
| 2010-02-19 | Repton Infinity Rep5B Level 2 |
| 2010-02-18 | Repton Infinity Rep5B Level 1 |
| 2010-02-18 | Repton Infinity Rep5A Level 4 |
| 2010-02-17 | Repton Infinity Rep5A Level 3 |
| 2010-02-17 | Repton Infinity Rep5A Levels 1 and 2 |
| 2010-02-17 | Repton Infinity RobboB Level 4 Part 2 |
Other Statistics
Boulder Dash Statistics For SentinelProxima
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