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Welcome to BolEdit - The Bolo Level Editor !
About BolEdit
Screenshot of a custom Bolo level made with BolEditBolEdit is the first level editor for the game Bolo (© 1987-95 Dongleware) - a truly unique Arkanoid/Breakout clone (see screenshot of a custom level on the left).

Although somewhat abandoned by it's originators, and therefore not on the technological level of today, the game i
s still much fun to play.

Bolo differs from all the many other Arkanoid clones because of it's unique game play and imaginative level design by the makers of Oxyd. Bolo includes many elements fans of that series will be familiar with, including an accurate physics model that underly many objects in the game (e.g. rubber bands, springs, magnets, and gravity) and sharp SVGA cartoon background graphics.

With BolEdit you can modify existing levels of the game or create your own custom levels from scratch, with all the special objects known from the original!

BolEdit is copyright © 2003 by zero42 <boledit at gmx dot net> (replace "at" with "@" and "dot" with ".")
The program comes with ABOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
It is free software, and your are welcome to redistribute it under the terms of the GNU General Public License

 

A short guide for beginning

BolEdit can open and decode the encrypted level files of Bolo. The level files basically consist of a level description language that can be viewed and edited in plain text format. When saving the level, it will be re-encoded into the format that Bolo understands.

Just open one of the original levels from the folder Bolo\Levels to see how it looks like or open one of my own custom levels from the subfolder levels_z42 in the BolEdit program folder. Then "Save Copy As" and overwrite one of the original level files (level 1 might be the best choice) in the Bolo\Levels folder and start Bolo to play that level.

BolEdit can make this task of copying your level and starting Bolo a lot easier when you setup your Bolo folder and Bolo program in the Tools --> Options dialog. You can then use the "Run in bolo" button to save your custom level temporary into the Bolo\Levels folder as Level 1 and run Bolo. When exiting Bolo, the original Bolo Level 1 will be restored.
You can choose one of the 50 background images of the original Bolo for testing your level, when you include the following comment line in the level file:
(* background = n *)
where n must be a number between 1 and 50. When exiting Bolo, the original background of Level 1 will be restored.

New in version 0.33: Use your own custom background for testing your level with the "Run in bolo" function - use the following comment line:
(* backgroundfile = <name of backgroundfile> *)
Where <name of backgroundfile> must be the path to your custom background file (PIB-format), relative to the folder containing the level file. For example:
(* backgroundfile = mybackgrounds\backg1.pib *)
Assuming your level is in the folder "c:\bolo\mylevels", the "Run in Bolo" function would load your background from "c:\bolo\mylevels\mybackgrounds\backg1.pib".
You can use the "PIB image file converter" tool to create custom background files. You will find it at the same URL from where you got BolEdit.

Note that selecting a background only works when you start Bolo via the "Run in bolo" button. Bolo itself ignores the background statement and will always use a background image depending on the level number.

Now I wish you much fun and hopefully we can share some cool custom Bolo levels sometime!

zero42

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