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[quarkrobot]

The November update is now ready to download. This build offers 90+ fixes & enhancements. You can download the November build and read a full summary of the changes.

Here are some of the highlights;

• 15 tweaks to gameplay to better match the original
• monk AI enhancements
• LAN gameplay complete
• better file dialog
• support to merge puzzle sets into the one
• preliminary support for an extra two runners
• improved video player
• improved window manage (handles dialogs and all UI elements)
• original credits added

Say hello to Jane and Digmo!

Running in goo Quirk

Original end-game credits

[JobLeonard]

Oh man... I remember those credits!

Also, I didn't know about that quirk in the original :D

[quarkrobot]

I've gone through Jason Summers site to make sure all the original quirks are there (the ones that aren't clearly bugs): http://entropymine.com/jason/lr/nr/lrbugs/

[TheWing]

I'd like a menu where one could toggle individual quirks, as opposed to that one [ ]quirks -button.. Otherwise, dang solid progress, loving it !

[quarkrobot]

Thanks TheWing. Good idea - I've added it to the wish list!

[quarkrobot]

The January update is now ready to download! You can download the November build and read a full summary of the changes. The December build did have quite a few bugs that made solving the official puzzle sets impossible - all of these have been fixed.

The main work this month was fixing a whack of inconsistencies VS the original game. Bombing, rope traps and monk behaviour with gold were the main things. All of these too were picked up by testers.

I spent a couple of weeks converting the AVI cut-scenes to the original Presage format. Probably quite wasteful time-wise but I'm very happy with the result. It took about a week per video with nearly all my free time on it. You can read the process in this post.

The rest of the month was spent working on a new lobby and experimenting with scaling. Hopefully this coming month will have a new working lobby, finished networking (at least for two runners, with Jane and Digmo coming soon after).

Lobby - WIP

Choosing a different music track in the World Dialog

The long awaited in-game mneu

Bonus post-credits scene

[JobLeonard]

Probably quite wasteful time-wise but I'm very happy with the result. It took about a week per video with nearly all my free time on it.

Well since this entire project is a personal-itch-to-scratch passion project that is time well spent

[quarkrobot]

 

[quarkrobot]

It's been two months since the last build (January) and a lot has been done - mostly little fixes here and there to get the game to match the Original more accurately. You can download the March build and read a full summary of the changes.

The two main items featured in this build is the music score matching the Original much better and the ability to choose another size if you don't want full-screen or the default 640x480.

Choose your own size

Full-screen with pillar box example

Full-screen without pillar/letter boxing

New settings icon - replaces the old 'tick'

Arial on text-boxes to make it easier edit

[Shephf]

I remember playing a lot of lode runner when I was a kid. Your game looks awesome, keep it up!

[orange08]

Bonus post-credits scene

this is great, I really enjoyed the humor
Good luck with the game. Lode runner has always been inspiring to me as well.

[quarkrobot]

@Shephf and @orange08

Thanks guys!

[inikitin]

Scrolling through the devlogs, this is probably the thing that I least expected to see. I'm so glad that the game will not be lost in time, and I won't have to update Wine wrapper on my grandfather's Mac so that he can keep replaying Lode Runner for 1000th time.

I'm curious, what are your plans regarding this project? Have you tried contacting Sierra, maybe you could do a joint release on GOG? Also, for the sake of future-proofing this title, would be great if you released the source code at some point.

In any case — good luck, and thank you for all this work.

[quarkrobot]

I won't have to update Wine wrapper on my grandfather's Mac so that he can keep replaying Lode Runner for 1000th time.

I'm curious, what are your plans regarding this project? Have you tried contacting Sierra, maybe you could do a joint release on GOG?

Just work on it until it is done and keep tinkering. It would be great to see MMR released proper though. I haven't contact Sierra/Activision or Tozai.

Also, for the sake of future-proofing this title, would be great if you released the source code at some point.

No plans to release the source-code. The is the 3rd year I've been working on it so you don't have to worry about me abandoning it. I'm a bit obsessed with MMR in case you haven't noticed.

In any case — good luck, and thank you for all this work.

Cheers mate!

[quarkrobot]

Welcome to the April build of Lode Runner Online: The Mad Monks' Revenge rewrite. Head on over to the downloads page to get the Windows, OS X and Linux builds.

You can read a summary of all the updates made in April here. Out of all the add-ons this month, I'm most happy with the toolbox/editor mod. Very handy if you've got a 27" monitor.

A local scoreboard has been added. It works much the same way as the Original but with a new UI instead of the default OS dialogs. Scores are saved to a "SCORES.DAT" file instead of the Windows Registry.

If you're in full-screen mode, you can now drag the toolbox in the editor anywhere you like. Very handy when there is a lot of items on the screen. No more dragging the toolbox out of the way every minute. The Original does this on Windows when you don't run compatibility setting in 640x480 resolution but everything is tiny.

Exit phase blocks are straight out Xbox Lode Runner. The blocks can only appear or disappear the once when all gold has been collected.

[quarkrobot]

Welcome to the May build of Lode Runner Online: The Mad Monks' Revenge rewrite. Head on over to the downloads page to get the Windows, OS X and Linux builds.

You can read a summary of all the updates made in May here.

Most of my time was spent doing the new LAN lobby and discovering games to connect to. I'm happy to say that it is near complete so next month will see the return of LAN games. Quite a few new features and improvements have been added this past month.

Windows 10 PC and an OS X laptop playing nicely together.

The new lobby. In previous builds, there was no lobby at all. A person chose a puzzle set, clicked play and then waited for the 1st person to join.

Two extra boards have been added to the main menu. The 1st 2 are just for the official puzzle sets and the 2nd lot are just for playing custom puzzle sets.

The credits in the Original game have always struck me as a bit odd. The 1st thing that comes to mind is why doesn't the lift/stairwell structure reach the top and the 2nd, why doesn't Jake run to the top... I've edited the movie to fix these issues and add a few extra little bits. I greatly underestimated the amount of time it would take to do (again). I've got a complete post on the subject which you can read here.

[JobLeonard]

Nice. I love how you're basically turning this into "the game as you remember it, without the quirks you've forgotten"

[quarkrobot]

Nice. I love how you're basically turning this into "the game as you remember it, without the quirks you've forgotten"

Pretty much 

If the Loders who haven't played in a long time don't notice then I'm very chuffed with that.

[quarkrobot]

Welcome to the June build of Lode Runner Online: The Mad Monks' Revenge rewrite. Head on over to the downloads page to get the Windows, OS X and Linux builds.

You can read a summary of all the updates made in May here.

The most requested feature and asked question is "when will LAN be added?". It was in the game last year but I wasn't really happy with it so I removed it to focus on getting the whole game my finished. 99% of my time was spent on LAN and I'm happy to report than gameplay is nearly complete. There is still a lot of work to go but as it stands;

• use all the tools
• runner and monks work
• finish a puzzle
• complete an entire puzzle set
• transfer lives to each other (Jake ands Wes only)
• cheat: skip puzzle or get an extra life (host only)

For July's build at the end of the month, I hope to have LAN complete and possible have Jane and Digmo in and working 100%.

LAN lobby in action

Updates to key bindings in the Options dialog

Jane and Digmo return to the editor

[JobLeonard]

> Jake ands Wes

> Jane and Digmo

I never played the multiplayer, so I don't quite get what you are referring to here?