Rockford - First Cowboy Level

Matt Vinyl · Post by **Matt Vinyl** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 5:12 pm

Afternoon all! Great site, dedicated to a great game!

I played (Mastertronic) Rockford a lot on the Atari 800Xl back in the 80's, but I recall that the first level of the cowboy areas was impossible to complete, as there were not enough coins to collect.

There was, however, an invisible item in the left hand corner of the level where all the enemies were, but I couldn't do the level however I tried. Was this a well reported issue, and I'd love to see the later levels!

YouTube · Post by **Arno** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 7:05 pm

Hi Matt!

I remember the same question was asked to me a while ago by some BD fan (of was this the same Matt

)

By then, I played Rockford on the C64 and managed to complete the first Cowboy-level. Although I don't recall how I did it, nor if some trick was required to use.

Nevertheless, the Atari may differ from the C64, and I've never played the Atari version of Rockford. Any Atari freaks out there ?

YouTube · Post by **Arno** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 7:26 pm

Just a note. It looks like RTA Dash 6, cave M is a C64 remake of this level, although it doesn't contain the invisible item. Quite funny!

RTADash · Post by **RTADash** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 12:05 am

That cave was from Level 11-1 in Boulder Dash for the NES, by Data East inc. I just added more boulders and f-flies; I didn't know about Rockford for the Atari800XL at the time.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/nes/file/587153/14893

YouTube · Post by **Arno** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 8:22 pm

RTADash wrote:That cave was from Level 11-1 in Boulder Dash for the NES, by Data East inc. I just added more boulders and f-flies; I didn't know about Rockford for the Atari800XL at the time.

Well, that's quite remarkable. If you play the C64 version of Rockford, you'll notice that level 1 of world 3 (the cowboy area) is quite similar to this NES level. There are just a few differences (also the cave dimensions are different).

So apparently some of the NES levels were inspired by Rockford.

@Matt: have you ever played the C64 version? Did you encounter the same problem there?

RTADash · Post by **RTADash** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 9:20 pm

Arno wrote:So apparently some of the NES levels were inspired by Rockford.

It's a small world, after all.

(BTW, I wish my image would stay up - maybe it's just the browser...)

YouTube · Post by **Arno** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 8:29 pm

RTADash wrote:(BTW, I wish my image would stay up - maybe it's just the browser...)

I fixed it.

simon15 · Post by **simon15** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 3:33 pm

Hey all, i to had problems with the first level on the cowboy world on the atari. i recall the invisible block on the bottom corner of the gems and there not being enough of those to complete the level.
Unfortunately i never figured out how to complete it.

Matt Vinyl · Post by **Matt Vinyl** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:17 pm

Hiya, thanks for your responses.

Funnily, I think I did post this elsewhere, but I erm, forgot where, and couldn't locate it to see the answer!

Simon15 - yes, that is indeed it, the invisible item was in the bottom right-hand corner of the coins. It could be destroyed by an explosion, but it didn't hurt Rockford if he touched it. The reason you could see that an item was there, was because other items would 'float' on it, and Rockford couldn't move through it. Would love to find out what it was, as it troubled me for years! I think it may have been a bug with the Atari version, perhaps?

YouTube · Post by **Arno** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 8:25 pm

This problem occurs in the C64 version too!

If you play the version from here you'll need 60 gems while only 54 are available. (Other cracks decrease the required number to 50 so that an easy level remains.)

Also on the C64 there is that strange unvisible item, which you probably have to use someway for the last 6 gems... anyway I didn't find out how...

Anyone who can help?

Matt Vinyl · Post by **Matt Vinyl** » Mon May 12, 2008 4:11 pm

Ah, am glad I'm not the only one who was going mad!

Would be interesting if someone knew what this was, how to finish this level. It does get destroyed if you drop a rock on one of those 'bird things' when it is in range. But you cannot collect it / move it (as it's in a corner).

V-12/Tropyx · Post by **V-12/Tropyx** » Mon Oct 22, 2018 11:27 am

I can confirm the problem with 1st level of cowboy world.

I bought original Rockford C64 tape and played yesterday. And I really don't know how to beat this cave. There is an invisible item like on picture up posted by Arno. I guess that it should be a snake who would produce missing few diamonds.

But there is another problem - time is running too fast and it will be still hard to finish this cave.

Also I've found another issues:

I'm not able to collect clock item. He is standing like a wall.

I'm not able to finish first cave of 5th world (fire and water) because I'm running out of time.

Anyone can confirm that? It looks like C64 port has bugs and maybe it would be cool to try to fix them?

In the past I made a re-crack of one cracked version of Rockford and added unlimited time option to beat the level with water and fire. I don't remember yet but seems that this crack has "fixed" cave 1 in cowboy world but still there is not possible to collect the clock item.

https://csdb.dk/release/?id=12701