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Click for the Rockz home page,
the Rockz gallery or the Rockz editor
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Controls
- Up: Numpad_8 Up_arrow ' ; l k f
- Down: Numpad_2 Down_arrow / . , m c
- Left: Numpad_4 Left_arrow z
- Right: Numpad_6 Right_arrow x
- Escape commits suicide;
- F1 resets the level;
- F2 starts a new game;
- F4 toggle visibility of the editor panel;
- F5 toggle visibility of the first statistics panel;
- F6 toggle visibility of the second statistics panel;
- F7 toggles the visibility options panel;
- F8 toggles the visibility status panel;
Joystick or mouse control of movement are not currently supported.
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Rockz is designed to execute out of the browser's cache. If
you have run it once, you should be able to play it again offline simply by
revisiting its web page in your cache.
If you are online, revisiting the Rockz page will reload it instantly (unless
a new version has been made available - in which case it will download it).
If your cache doesn't handle jar files for some reason - you can download
the jar file and execute it.
To execute it, either make sure you have [a JRE]
and double-click on the jar file - or run it from the command line,
using something like: java -jar rockz.jar or
jview /cp rockz.jar Rockz
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The aim of the game will be to escape from the caves with as much in the way of
riches as is possible.
The game is not yet finished and escape is currently impossible.
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Rockz is under development - and there are many plans for it.
Two of the most obvious are:
- Network Rockz
- Network Rockz would be a multi-player version of Rockz played over a
network. Other players would appear as active entities in the game. Levels
could be devised which required co-operation to complete - or a Rockz
deathmatch could be built, where you have to squash your companions.
- 3D Rockz
- 3D Rockz is a version of Rockz built to exploit 3D graphics hardware. While
I don't think it makes much sense to do a fully 3D version of the game, the game
could usefully be rendered using 3D graphics hardware with 3D models of all the objects.
Some 3D elements could be added to the gameplay.
These are both complex, long-term developments. Short term work will focus on
the existing applet.
At the moment, download time is a factor which negatively influences both the
graphics and the number of supplied levels. A split into a "light" applet
version and a "heavy" application version is planned.
I intend to combine Rockz with my
ATOMS technology, to create
articulated, life-like opponents.
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Sponsorship would help facilitate further development of Rockz.
Sponsors can expect to receive advertising space on this site and/or
customised versions of the game.
Contact me for more details.
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Source code is available by mailing the author.
If you want to join in development, I'm sure that would be great.
I hope to move the project's code to SorceForge shortly.
Mail me for more details.
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Rockz requires Java 1.1 support to execute [it uses Jar files,
and the 1.1 event model].
Rockz has been designed to be scalable. The display resolution is configurable,
which should allow good performance to be attained across a very
wide range of devices.
If running it on an underpowered machine, you can make the graphics and the
display window smaller, to speed things up.
Mainly because Rockz bundles its sounds into the Jar file (and due to Netscape
not fully implementing the Java 1.1 specification) sound is currently disabled
on Netscape versions before Netscape 6.
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- Are you running one of the browser JVMs listed below?
- If so, see the relevant advice there.
- You may find Rockz does not display properly - and gives the error
"Security Exception: Too many images." in the Java console.
- I don't see any game - just get a blank grey page
- Rockz doesn't display anything special while it's loading. A progress
indicator should normally be supplied by the browser when loading Jar
files - but that's all that will normally be seen while loading the applet.
Rockz is a large applet - so some patience is required while loading.
Technical issues mean that displaying a progress indicator when running
under browser JVMs would slow down loading dramatically. I believe
most users would rather have a more rapid loading time.
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Netscape 4.xx requires its own build of Rockz.
You can find a version of Rockz that has been tested to work on Netscape Communicator 4.74
here
(500K approx)
Note that you won't get any sound under Netscape 4.xx.
It cannot be guaranteed that this build of Rockz will remain in step with the most
current version.
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Mozilla users currently require a special JAR file to get Rockz to run at all -
apparently due to bugs in the Mozilla JVM.
Mozilla users may follow the instructions for Netscape 4.xx - however...
Mozilla's Java support seems to be very buggy - so even when Rockz runs on it,
it doesn't run very well. I currently recommend trying with a different JVM.
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Opera users require special HTML - due to bugs
in the browser (which I have reported to the manufacturer).
Without the special HTML, the display
is rather flickery.
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Rocks has been tested under AOL 6.0 - where it seems to work fine.
Users of earlier versions may sometimes have problems with
running Java applets in the supplied browser. Here is some advice about things to try.
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Rockz has been tested with IE 4, IE 5, IE 5.5 and IE 6.0 on Windows 98, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
There are some minor display problems under IE4 - but it seems to work acceptably there.
Later versions of IE function correctly.
I have heard that some users of IE 5 on Windows 9x have problems with their
operating system crashing after a short period of playing Rockz. Despite
testing with IE 5 on Windows 98, I haven't managed to reproduce this yet.
In the interim any users who use a version of IE who observe this
are advised to use another JVM - e.g. via Netscape, Java Web Start
or the Sun Java plugin.
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We have some sample links, complete with suitable icons
which are intended for use by sites who want to link to us.
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The game currently has a liberal license.
