Alas, it is with much regret that I write that we've lost everything that has happened since September. Since discussion started up again only recently, with Dlakii's instructions on how-to-play-Rock-Raiders-on-Windows-Vista, this is a semi-major blow to the topic (a major blow would be to remove all the posts from 2005-2006, AKA Onuki's time in this topic!). I will do my part in reconstructing the lost portion of the topic by posting the Rock Raiders Vista Logs that have been lost, and the screenshots that have gone along with them.
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Day 01: 11/09/08
All previous attempts to run the game “LEGO Rock Raiders” on my new Windows Vista laptop have failed. I only get the message that it cannot locate the file “d3drm.dll”, and thus cannot play.
After digging through the files of the older computer, we have located the file “d3drm.dll”. Transferring it to this laptop using the USB chained to the French Chef Minifig, we try the LEGO Rock Raiders PC game once more. Unlike before, it actually begins to play.
However, the introduction movie does not play. Instead, the game skips the cutscene and goes straight to the loading scene. After loading, the main menu appears. Unsure whether or not I can transfer my old save file, I start a new game, and begin with the Training Missions. Instantly, I am hit by a wave of nostalgia… I had not heard Chief’s voice in-game for years now, and as I watched the Rock Raiders run about, drill through walls, and pick up Energy Crystals and Ore, I cannot help but think to myself how happy I am. This may be a LEGO game… but it’s enough to keep even teenagers happy.
However, I soon find a problem. I complete Training Mission #1: Moving Rock Raiders, Training Mission #2: Rock Types and Drilling, and Training Mission #3: Building Rock Raider HQ, but upon playing Training Mission #4: Moving Rock Raider Vehicles, I am stuck. The mission played out as normal, with one Rock Raider training to be a Driver, then heading to the Small Transport Truck. Then, another Rock Raider trained to be a Sailor. But when I selected the Rapid Rider and pressed the “Get Driver” icon, not only did the already-trained Sailor hop into the vehicle, but the third Rock Raider headed for the Docks and trained to be a Sailor. Then, when Chief instructed me to select that Rock Raider to train him as a Pilot, he was off-screen. Being a Training Mission, players are unable to manually move the screen, so I was stuck. I hit the Esc key to access a menu to restart, but to my shock the Esc key did not work. Neither did any of the other keys that had a role in gameplay. I couldn’t continue the mission, but I couldn’t exit or restart the mission either! I had no choice but to use Ctrl+Alt+Del to exit out of the program.
After turning the program back on, I notice that, again, the intro cutscene doesn’t play. I then decide to skip the remaining Training Missions. Selecting the first level, Driller Night, I play my first real Rock Raiders level in years. I notice that the cutscene that plays before Driller Night does not play either. After Chief gives me the mission objective, I experiment by clicking on one of the Rock Raiders and selecting “Eye View”. I can see from the Rock Raider’s eyes, but I am unable to move him with my arrow keys. Switching back to “Above View”, I determine that I am unable to name the Rock Raiders (doing so requires the Enter key), view the Rock Raider’s health and hunger stats (requires the Spacebar), or pause the game with Esc.
This makes two oddities that I am experiencing with Vista.
Ah, well, I can live with it. I can use ####### for the cutscenes, and I can live without the controls… unless, of course, I run into another incident like Moving Rock Raider Vehicles…
To prolong the end of Driller Night, and to collect as much Ore as possible, I turn off the Energy Crystals Priority. Upon finding the Tool Store, I teleport down the maximum number of Rock Raiders and drill every piece of rock in the cavern. Then, I collect every piece of Ore. But when progress was moving too slowly for my tastes, I gave the Rock Raiders the task of building Power Paths all over the cavern, so they could move faster. Then, after every piece of Ore was collected, I turned the Energy Crystals Priority back on and let the Rock Raiders collect the five required Energy Crystals. Interestingly, my Mission Complete stats stated that I did not drill all the rock, or collect all the Ore (this may have been altered by the fact that I used a good percentage of the Ore to build Power Paths). Chief’s score, interestingly, was lower than the time when, on the older computer, I barely collected any Ore or drilled any rock, but just got the Energy Crystals as quickly as possible. There might be more land across the lake from where the Rock Raiders start… I might want to check this out.
After completing Driller Night, I went on to play the second level, The Path to Power. I began the level by upgrading all my Rock Raiders, and equipping each of them with a Drill, a Shovel, and a Hammer. However, I turned off the Clear Rubble Priority, as to avoid any idiotic Rock Raiders who would be shoveling away and have a landslide come down upon them. So, I instantly reinforced every wall in the cavern. Then, I began my mission by drilling away at the rock. If my memory serves me correct, I upgraded my Tool Store to Level 2 and trained a few Rock Raiders as Explosive Experts to blow up some of the Hard Rock. Other than that, it was easy going constructing the Teleport Pad and then the Power Station.
Then came Rubble Trouble. Like The Path to Power, I turned off the Clear Rubble Priority and reinforced all walls in the cavern. Then, I turned the priority back on, and got rid of all the rubble. Then, I just drilled away until I found five Energy Crystals.
Then comes the first challenging level of the game: A Breath of Fresh Air! This level requires your Rock Raiders to build a Support Station before their oxygen runs out. The hard part about this level that makes it different from later levels like Breathless is that the resources are spread out among the area, so it takes longer to collect the needed Ore and Energy Crystals. Nonetheless, I kept my head (unlike the first time I played this mission) and using only three Rock Raiders, I managed to get a Support Station built just shortly after my oxygen level went past the halfway point.
The next mission was It’s a Hold Up! Apparently, this is just Rubble Trouble with a different layout and name, but it’s the same concept: unstable cavern, reinforce all the walls, clear away rubble, find five Energy Crystals. So I’m not going to go into specifics.
A really fun level followed: Explosive Action. This level’s mission is to use dynamite to blow up Hard Rock and clear a path to a lost Small Digger, then bring the drilling vehicle back to base. However, in the meantime, there’s a lot of things you can experiment with. First, pretty much any Rock Raider that wasn’t already an Explosive Expert was trained to be one. With this team, I had nearly blown up every piece of Hard Rock in the cavern. I also experimented with three vehicles, after training two Rock Raiders as Drivers. First, I teleported down another Small Digger to make short work of any remaining Dirt or Loose Rock. However, because of the time it takes to drill Hard Rock, I eventually teleported it back to the LMS Explorer. Then, I teleported down a Small Mobile Laser Cutter, which I never used before. I hoped its laser would work well against Hard Rock, but all it turned out to do was waste Energy Crystals. It drained nearly half my Energy Crystal supply, and due to the lack of Recharge Seams, I couldn’t repower the crystals. So I teleported that up, too. Then, I saw I had all this Ore lying about thanks to the Explosive Experts, so I teleported down a Small Transport Truck, another vehicle I had never really used before outside the Training Missions. However, unlike the two before it, I did not regret the Small Transport Truck, for it just sped around the cavern, picking up Ore lying everywhere, and bringing it back to base. By the time the Small Digger was done and all rock drilled or blown up, I had collected a total of 325 Ore! In addition, I had 4 Energy Crystals, plus who-knows-how-many crystals that needed to be recharged thanks to the Small Mobile Laser Cutter.
My friend, who was working in the room adjacent to mine, had finished his work and came over to watch me as I began the next mission, Search ‘N’ Rescue. I drilled all the rock I could on the first island, then move on to a second island using my Tunnel Scout. Every time I drill the rock there, however, my pilot Rock Raider would pick up the Ore, then find himself unable to do anything with this. My first response, having not played the game in a while, was to build a Docks and teleport down a Rapid Rider. A Rock Raider that was trained as a Sailor hopped in the vehicle and drove to the island where the Tunnel Scout now was. I told this Rock Raider to pick up Ore and load into the Rapid Rider, but upon learning that the Rapid Rider only could hold one item in its cargo, I decided this method would be too slow, so I built a Power Path and a Tool Store to store any items found in that area. After a bit of drilling, I found a new cavern with a Hover Scout left alone on one of the islands. Trying to prolong the level’s end, I decide to go to another island and begin to collect Ore there (as it turns out, there weren’t any Energy Crystals there to be collected). However, in the middle of my mining operations, I suddenly remembered one thing that happened a couple times to me on the older computer:
The game crashed to the desktop.
Day 02: 11/11/08
Two days later, I pick up where I left off. I played Search ‘N’ Rescue, but this time I did not spend time collecting resources on the islands, mainly because my Rock Raiders began to act stupid and just wandered the islands aimlessly. Also, this time, my keyboard controls – Esc, Enter, Arrow Keys, Spacebar – they all are working again! I take advantage of this by naming my Pilot after one of the official characters, Jet, as well as manually controlling the Tunnel Scout using the arrow keys. While drilling out the island with the Hover Scout, I drilled a little too far east and discovered the lost Rock Raider, ending the level before my work was finished.
I faced a similar problem in the following level, Breathless! In that level, I was able to build and power a Support Station in no time at all. I teleported down a few more Rock Raider to make the total number five or six Rock Raiders. My past experience taught me that the Support Station did not last forever in terms of air supply. However, this was because I teleported down the maximum number of Rock Raiders after building a Support Station: around twenty Rock Raiders. This level was to test my theory that although a Support Station can up the maximum number of Rock Raiders to twenty, it can only indefinitely provide air for ten Rock Raiders. As of yet, I have not proven this theory, but because I spent a large amount of time in Frozen Frenzy with two Support Station and about ten Rock Raiders without getting a “Your air supply is out” message, I am thinking that it most likely true.
In addition, I build an Upgrade Station, so I upgraded my Small Transport Truck’s cargo capacity to six resources per trip. I kept expanding and expanding my drilling work – blowing up some Hard Rock over there, drilling some Dirt over there, reinforcing some Loose Rock over there… in fact, I don’t even know when I found the missing Rock Raiders! I was trying to upgrade my Small Transport Truck’s scanner when Chief informed me that the lost Rock Raiders were found. I assume it was because I blew up some rock north of my base, but as of yet I am unsure.
Then, came a challenging level, the first level to involve Planet U inhabitants other than Small Spiders… a level known only as Frozen Frenzy.
Before playing the level, I decided to quickly play Training Mission #7: Drilling with Vehicles. This was simply for nostalgic purposes, because I wanted so badly to see an in-game Granite Grinder again. Then, after completing the training mission, I summoned up my courage and played a level that I had once feared, nearly four years ago.
I teleported three Rock Raiders down. All three were Explosive Experts, and I upgraded each of them to be able to hold four tools each. I set to work, reinforcing some unstable rock to prevent both landslides… and Ice Monsters.
From prior experience with Ice Monsters, I learned that they did not tend to emerge until your Rock Raiders discover some Energy Crystals. Therefore, it was completely unexpected when, before I had even drilled any rock, an Ice Monster burst out of one of the not-yet-reinforced walls! My Rock Raiders panicked and fled, which turned out to be a good thing, because they were fleeing towards the Tool Store. I armed each of them with a Laser Beam, and turned on Action Stations Alert, just as the Ice Monster gathered some rock to throw at my base. Luckily, one of the laser shots hit the Ice Monster, and it crumbled to pieces.
I began mining operations, to attempt to gather enough resources to build and power a Support Station. While doing so, I had accidentally drilled too far northwest, and opened up a new cavern. Immediately, nightmarish thoughts crept into my mind. The last time I opened this cavern was the first time I had played this level. My Rock Raiders spent so much time in that cavern, thanks to the constant landslides leaving rubble all over the place, that they were unable to bring their resources to base in time, and thus my oxygen ran out, and all my Rock Raiders had to be teleported out.
Therefore, the very first thing I did was reinforce every wall in that cavern. An Ice Monster did appear, but it was dealt with rather quickly. After drilling around and blowing up some Hard Rock, I gathered enough resources to build and power a Support Station, which meant now I had to move on to the next step: building a Super Teleport Pad. I teleported down a Small Transport Truck to make things a bit easier. I also teleported some of my hurt Rock Raiders up, and teleported a few more Rock Raiders down. I was careful to not let the number of Rock Raiders go over ten – to be safe, I had no more than seven Rock Raiders at that time.
I opened up another cavern; this one filled with landslides, so I immediately got to work making sure every rock wall in that cavern was reinforced. However, this meant not clearing away the rubble until that was accomplished, so there was rubble all over the ground when an Ice Monster burst out of one of the walls and made its way towards the base! Luckily, I think one of my Rock Raiders was coming back from base at that time, or else one of the Rock Raiders was close enough to the Ice Monster, but either way the Ice Monster was defeated long before it reached my base.
I eventually assembled a Super Teleport Pad, and teleported down a Chrome Crusher. I trained a Rock Raider as a Driver, got him inside the vehicle, and started to drill every piece of rock in sight! Of course, I did not drill east of my base, because that would result in the end of the level, but instead I drilled the unknown area to the north. Progress was going so well with the Chrome Crusher that I teleported down a second Small Transport Truck and a Loader Dozer – a vehicle I had never used before. The Small Transport Truck was to assist the Rock Raiders in bringing resources back to base, while the Loader Dozer helped the Rock Raiders on foot out by clearing away the rubble left behind by the Chrome Crusher. I even built a second Support Station to teleport down more Rock Raiders to assist the mining, and eventually teleported down two more Small Transport Trucks. Any Ice Monsters that appeared did so in close proximity of the Chrome Crusher. Because of the presence of Recharge Seams, I was not afraid to use the Chrome Crusher’s laser, so I blasted the Ice Monsters to oblivion. After a while, there was no rock in the caverns north, west, or south of my base for Ice Monsters to burst out of, and the rock to the east was reinforced!
I then decided to build an Upgrade Station. In the middle of construction, I had to pause the game to eat dinner. When I resumed the game, the Upgrade Station was nearly finished…
… and the game crashed to the desktop. Just as I had 257 Ore and 131 Energy Crystals! Why? WHY?
I have learned my lesson: I must not play more than one or two levels a session.
The accompanying screenshots:
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Explosive Action Rock Raiders HQ -
Frozen Frenzy Rock Raiders HQAnd, a preview of what's to come as soon as I'm done posting these Vista Log entries. I was planning on doing this as soon as BZPower was back online, but... as you can tell, things happened.
Official Rock Raiders Topic, The sets and the game
Mar 6 2006, 07:51 PM
