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To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rock Raiders. The humour is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of overcaffeinated developer tendencies most of the jokes will go over a typical player's head. There’s also Chief's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from LEGO Mania Magazine, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realise that they’re not just funny- they say something deep about LEGOS. As a consequence people who dislike Rock Raiders truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn’t appreciate, for instance, the humour in Chief’s existential catchphrase “A landslide has occurred,” which itself is a cryptic reference to Bricks 'n Pieces' epic Captain Indigo. I’m smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Stewart Green’s genius wit unfolds itself on their CRT monitors. What fools.. how I pity them. ? And yes, by the way, i DO have a Rock Raiders tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It’s for the guy’s eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they’re within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid ? Edit: FFS fellas, this now has more likes than rrcoder's post...

It's almost certainly just a software bug. I feel like this isn't the right place to be going on thread-unrelated political tangents.

Back in 2011 I wrote up this topic on another forum based on what we knew at the time. Wes replied but didn't really give any details on what changed, just generally why. I'd just like to bring this back up for discussion - I won't bother reposting everything already said there, but there's a few notes/corrections I'd like to add: IIRC, I said "lasers" because in the physical manual I had, there was a beta screenshot that showed what I thought were lasers in this minigame, and/or perhaps red/green powerup bricks like Desert Speedster. However, upon looking at a clearer (but still low res) digital manual, it just looks like random LEGO clutter... And the text specifies that you would have had Brickster-Bots flying at you (like in Parachute onto Ogel): But, there's also two versions of the manual (at least that I've found, digitally)... And they have different screenshots from each other, though sometimes both from beta. Manual 1 Manual 2 (from this topic) When I get home in maybe a few weeks, I'll try to dig out my old physical manual and compare it with these, and maybe get a better idea of what made me think there were lasers specifically. Here's the Asteroid Belt screenshot from the other manual, for comparison: Removed? Yeah. Removed last minute? That's not how these things work, 2011 me... Now, about the GBC version. In the topic I pointed out the cave specifically, but there's far more differences and areas that weren't in the PC/PS1/GBA versions. It was also developed by Crawfish Interactive - all the other versions were by Silicon Dreams. We don't know why the GBC version is so different in story and locations from the others, but one theory is that Crawfish Interactive was working off of an earlier outline of the game, which continued to evolve as Silicon Dreams worked on the main versions. If that's true, then the cave/rock monster fight, imperial jail, castle maze, dungeon, dark forest, etc may have been part of the PC/PS1 (and GBA) design at one point. The cave at least is supported by the Rock Monsters and Slimy Slugs in the final game - perhaps they were modeled earlier, then recycled into their final roles after the cave was cut? It's speculation, but possible. Who knows, maybe those ideas go back even earlier to LI2's days as a tie-in for a canceled TV show? We know Krisalis had done work on "buildings, vehicles and environments" back when they were developing the game (see the last post in that topic), but we don't know much Silicon Dreams kept, if any. We DO know the game was turned into a LEGO Island sequel while still at Krisalis, not at the same time it was given to Silicon Dreams: There's also this topic discussing a PS1 beta that was found, though it's from pretty late in development so it doesn't answer many questions... And there's this beta video of the PC version, but it also appears to be from pretty late in development... I think our best bet for figuring out this game's weird history, what plans were, when they changed, etc would be to get in contact with more of the original developers... If they'd still remember all the odd details clearly 16-17 years later, haha. Edit - One thing I just remembered; there's a "Ferry.msh" file in the data for LEGO Island in the PC version. IIRC, it's just a placeholder, only a few flat planes... But, in the GBA version, you use a ferry to go to Castle Island. It's not the only unused/beta mesh or anything, but it's an especially interesting one IMO as it ties into something that was used in a handheld version.

Surprise! It's an Irish folk song. Except it's got guns! This is probably my new favorite track of mine, even with all the repetitions (which by the way are very intentional). This track is like 80% stuff I've never used or tried before, so it's got a very fresh sound. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do!

ProfessorBrickkeeper - Today at 2:40 PM ...looking at more images from the film, I think I’d be fine with a large version of the Ninjago City Dicks. Terrev - Today at 2:40 PM The.......what ProfessorBrickkeeper - Today at 2:41 PM DOCKS Docks docks

This is great, I just want to add that a small but significant amount of stuff in the GBA version crops up again in IXS on PC/console, which seems like an indication that that stuff might've been originally conceived for LI2, then rolled over to the sequel when there wasn't time to fit it in. Stuff like the sheep, missions to deliver pizza/groceries that are given to you by different people on the island, a lot of little lines of dialogue ("talk to people, they might have something to say!"), and in general the less linear progression that has you explore the island to find different quests. If the GBC version was really based on an earlier draft of the script for the full game, I wonder what that would mean for the weird Bologna Roni cameo...

Oh yeah, that's another thing, in LI2 GBA you had to get a driving license... And apparently you were gonna have to get a boat license, too. Even more ideas that got used in IXS PC/PS2, wow.

I've never really followed the whole "New Years Resolution" thing before, but in getting older and running out the body clock, I've realised it might be good to start making some changes. One thing I really want to achieve next year is one of my biggest failings from this year. I'm a software developer by day, and a gamer by night. Being drained through the day with professional-level coding has made me bitter and cynical towards my own projects, to the point I've stopped doing them. While I still write game design documents as a hobby, I've completely put off physically working on any of the projects I would have once committed to. My New Year's Resolution is to produce one large-scale mod. It's something I used to do, or at least make serious attempts at, and I totally have the capability to do so now. While just making a new project from scratch gives me a lot of freedom, doing it as a mod means I get to excite an existing audience and utilise any existing content/implementations (i.e. I don't have to make my own guns or gun code, which is important as I have no visual ability whatsoever, and core stuff like weapon physics are a real pain in the knackers to do). A big problem of making a game from scratch is that any serious investment will cost me (purchasing asset packs or artists to make the game not look s***, paying for my own time and materials, paying for promotional stuff etc) and I'll want to seek return, which means a lot of legal and certification woes to deal with. I just want to build something big but relatively light that people can enjoy. My trouble is selecting a game for the specific mod I want to create. In an ideal world, my ultimate mod project would be a kind of Destiny-styled Raid, set in a breaking-down theme park. That is to say, a networked game-mode where a group of players are teleported between several small scenarios, in which they must complete a puzzle with barely any hints, while a horde of enemies attempts to gun them down. The story and aesthetics will be based on the likes of Westworld and Jurassic Park, which I've become very obsessed with recently. Ideally, players can collect audio logs, and collecting enough will change the final boss fight (or add a second one). Of course, that kind of project would be intense to produce, especially with many mod kits, so the idea is modular and flexible. Maybe it will only be solo. Maybe combat will be reduced. Maybe there will be less variety of individual puzzle mechanics and instead more reuse in creative ways of the same puzzle mechanics. The core, player surviving a collapsing attraction park, will remain the same. I'm looking for suggestions of games that have the capability to do anything along these lines. I've thought about using Blockland, but I've heard some negative things regarding the capability of the bots and having many different behaviours going at once (ideally, many people can connect to the server, group up in "fireteams" and run different parts of the course at the same time, like how a theme park ride has people in different rooms). If people can prove Blockland is capable of this kind of stuff, sure, but otherwise I'd like to know anything else I could use as a base. Another variant I've thought about (and one more relevant to RRU) is to make an overhaul for LEGO Rock Raiders that switches it up to become a time trial to find certain missing people and objects in the various tunnels underneath the park that staff used to get between attractions to perform maintenance. Any suggestions will help. A part of this is I want to make something people will actually play, as opposed to just producing crap for myself.

Just imagine... ... Imagine a computer game. More specifically, a real-time-strategy game. But not with medieval knights. Not with spacemen. No, something far better - with both. Both sides made out of Lego bricks. Imagine starting with the classic AOE three minifigures... Imagine harvesting Yellow bricks to build more minifigures.... Imagine harvesting Grey bricks to build weapons for those minifigures... ... and harvesting all sorts of bricks to start building small vehicles.... Imagine using those vehicles to harvest more bricks to build more vehicles.... ... to build war machines of destruction... ... And then imagine the other player doing exactly the same thing. Picture the carnage. Robin Hood's arrows bringing down giant alien spaceships, which are in turn bombing Aquanauts submarines trying to mine silver crystals to add a giant death beam to the Neptune Discovery Lab. Mars Mission tanks grabbing with Police Cars, and aliens walking away handcuffed. Pirate ships boarding submarines. Chrome Crushers drilling the front off those inferior Power Miners vehicles. Spamming Galaxy Squad speeders to fight off an unexpected invasion of tribesmen lead by Achu. Training "super units", like the MX-81 Hypersonic Operations Aircraft, only to find that your enemy has build the Mobile Devastator before you and has just wiped out half of your Aquanaut allies... ... and of course, destroying anything yields precious bricks back, so imagine sending a fleet of Small Transport Trucks to pick up the wreckage of the defeated Agent Bikes so you can upgrade your Chrome Crushers to have a second laser on them to defeat the second wave of inevitable Agent Bikes... ... and using those bricks to repair your frontline Exo-Force mechs with Mechanics while they pelt away at the Fire Station... ... then imagine starting LDD or variants thereof, and creating your own units... your own faction to bash the Ice Planet / Insectiods alliance with crossbows mounted on cars... expanding on tech trees of short-lived themes.... bringing new units to complement a strategic weakness... ... of course, the keyword here is "imagine," as I can't code for peanuts. But still. It's a nice idea to think about.

[1:28 PM] Ayliffe Innit: wonder if they'll annouce any worlds stuff at E3 [1:28 PM] Ayliffe Innit: DLC and the like [1:28 PM] ProfessorBrickkeeper: Lots more to look forward to than just some agents DLC. [1:28 PM] ProfessorBrickkeeper: There's a lot of fan-requested stuff in the woodwork. [1:30 PM] Ayliffe Innit: by "fan-requested" do you mean "yelled repeatedly on the steam forums"

Cirevam-Today at 3:38 PM Do you think LEGO purists would care if I used Tyco stud gender swappers (dunno what else to call them) in my builds? I want to put a low-profile laser drill on a boat but I also don't want to get mugged in a dark alley Xzibit A: That's a 2x2 female to female plate sadland resident-Today at 3:42 PM do it let the darkness flow through you Cirevam-Today at 3:43 PM Have you heard the tragedy of Darth Brickster the Wise? sadland resident-Today at 3:44 PM I thought not. It's not a story the infomaniac would tell you. Teridazz, innit-Today at 3:44 PM He could save others from being discontinued...but not himself