Rocks n Diamonds Vita

Rocks'n'Diamonds
General
Author	rsn8887
Type	Puzzle
Version	1.12
License	GPL-2.0
Last Updated	2019/01/22
Links
1.12 + More levels Download
Website
Source

This is a port of Rocks'n'Diamonds, a scrolling tile-based computer puzzle game that can be described as a combined Boulder Dash, Supaplex, Emerald Mine, and Sokoban clone.

It is a free software game under the GPLv2 license created by Artsoft Entertainment and designed by Holger Schemel.

Features

• Game controller mapping including analog joystick mouse controls.
• Front touch controls with left/right mouse click and drag and drop gestures.
• The game runs smooth at the same speed as the desktop versions.
• Additional level package with thousands of levels as separate download (see More Levels).
• Easily switch player focus in multiplayer games using R+Triangle and R+Square.
• 60 fps mode for smooth scrolling and motion in levels where the system can achieve stable 60 frames per second..
• Text entry with Vita touch keyboard, no physical keyboard or mouse required.
• Support for bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

Installation

Install the VPK on your homebrew enabled PS Vita or PS TV.

Extract contents of rocksndiamonds_data.zip and copy them to your Vita's ux0:/data folder.

You should have folders ux0:/data/rocksndiamonds on your Vita with the files in them.

You can install new level sets for Rocks'n'Diamonds by copying them into ux0:/data/rocksndiamonds/levels.

User guide

The official manual for Rocks'n'Diamonds is here.

Additional levels

More than 50,000 additional Rocks'n'Diamonds levels can be downloaded here.

The author has prepared a single easy-to-install zip (~90 MB). It contains selected additional levels from the above site.

Just download, unzip, and transfer to your Vita, so that you have a subfolder ux0:/data/rocksndiamonds/levels/More_Levels.

FTP transfer of levelsets has to be done using binary transfer mode, not Auto or ASCII. Otherwise some levels will be treated as ASCII with mangled line endings and won't work. This was verified with the Emerald_Mine_Club_original_1 levels and FileZilla FTP.

Notes

To load new level sets, go to the level number selection in the menu, and press X. A new screen should open that shows a few levels. Go to the parent dir and into the folder Classic Games. There are many more levels already included in that folder.

Sometimes when loading a levelset after loading other level sets one after the other, the game runs out of memory and quits. This is fixed by simply restarting the game and loading the levelset again.

To answer the OK/Cancel dialogs in the game, press select to cancel (this is escape), or X for OK.

If you mess up some options and want to reset to default, you can delete the folder ux0:/data/rocksndiamonds/userdata.

For multiplayer team mode in Rocks'n'Diamonds, enable it via Setup > Game & Menu > Team-Mode (Multiplayer) > on. You also have to find make a level that has multiple players. R+Square and R+Triangle can be used in-game to change focus between players, see Game Controls. All controllers have to be paired before launching the app, otherwise they will not be recognized by the game.

Controls

Gamepad:

D-Pad/Left Analog - Move player and navigate menus

Right Analog - Move mouse pointer

Cross - Primary button (+ direction for snap action or turning mirrors, also ok in menu)

Circle - Secondary button (drop dynamite)

Square/L - Left mouse button

Triangle/R - Right mouse button

Select - Quit (escape key, also cancels requesters)

Start - Pause (space key)

R+Triangle - Set focus to next player (ALL>1>2>3>4)

R+Square - Set player focus to previous player (ALL<1<2<3<4)

Touch:

For multi-touch gestures, the fingers have to be far enough apart from each other, so that the Vita will not erroneously recognize them as a single finger. Otherwise the pointer will jump around.

Single short tap - Left mouse click

Single short tap while holding a second finger down - Right mouse click

Single finger drag - Move the mouse pointer

Dual finger drag - Drag'n'drop (left mouse button is held down)

Three finger drag - Drag'n'drop (right mouse button is held down)

Screenshots

rocksndiamondsvita3.jpg rocksndiamondsvita4.jpg

rocksndiamondsvita5.jpg rocksndiamondsvita6.jpg

Changelog

v1.12

• Fix crash when loading levelsets that change screenmode, such as Supaplex (Original).

v1.9

• Add '60 fps' game speed setting for perfectly smooth motion in some levels on the Vita. It works well with the bundled Emerald Mine levelsets. This mode is 20% faster than the default setting 'normal'.
• Removed slow-down when playing levelsets that use the Emerald Mine engine with default graphics.

v1.8

• Map set player focus to r+triangle and r+square for multiplayer games on VitaTV (up to 4 players).

v1.7

• Enabled mp3 music support, used by some custom levelsets.

v1.6

• Support editing multiline textfields in level editor.

v1.5

• Optimized rendering for large speed improvement (1.5x), noticable mostly on the very fast game speed setting (thanks @frangarcj for the help).
• Fixed sticky touch inputs and other issues with touch controls.

v1.4

• Fixed screen centering
• Fixed screen scaling so it works for all sizes

v1.3

• Mirrormagic as separate app. It uses the same codebase as Rocks'n'Diamonds.
• Smoother mouse pointer motion.

v1.2

• Significant speedup by drawing directly to texture pixels. Setting game speed to 'very fast' actually makes it faster now.

v1.1

• Implemented mouse pointer controls via right analog stick and front touch. The level editor is fully usable now.
• Improved picture quality for sharper graphics.

v1.0

• Fixed name entry using touch keyboard. It works without any return or backspace keypresses now.
• Fixed graphics corruption of some cartoons on menu screen (updated data.zip).

v0.9

• Initial Vita release.

Credits

• Thanks to my supporters on Patreon: Andyways, Count Duckula, Jesse Harlin, Thomas Luten, Matthew Machnee, Mored4u, Ibrahim Fazel Poor, RadicalR.
• Thanks @frangarcj for help with optimizing the rendering.
• Thanks to Holger Schemel for making a great and portable game.
• Thanks to the many devs of VitaSDK for a great development environment.
• Thanks to all the devs of DevKitPro for Switch for a great development suite.

External links

• GitHub - https://github.com/rsn8887/rocksndiamonds
• VitaDB - https://vitadb.rinnegatamante.it/#/info/386