Rockbot

Rockbot Engine

Rockbot is an open-source 2D action-platformer engine in the spirit of the classic NES Mega Man games (1-6 and 9-10). It is written in C++11 on top of SDL (1.2, 2 or 3), runs on PCs, phones and a long list of old consoles and handhelds, and comes with a Qt-based editor to create your own stages, enemies, weapons, cutscenes and graphics, so anyone can distribute their own game for the engine.

Two games are included:

Game	Folder
Rockbot 1	build/games/RockDroid1
Rockbot 2	build/games/RockDroid2

See the manual or the manual_famicom.

Features

• Classic run, jump, slide and charged-shot gameplay, eight stages, boss weapons, E/W/S tanks, armor pieces.
• Playable robots with their own weapons and colors; difficulty levels.
• Scripted cutscenes, intro and ending, stage select in the "classic" or the modern style.
• Full data-driven content: everything (stages, maps, enemies, AI, objects, projectiles, scenes) is stored in data files made by the editor.
• Keyboard, joystick/gamepad and touch (Android) input; per-platform default button layouts.
• Three performance modes (low / normal / high) that the game lowers by itself on slow hardware.
• Languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian.

Supported platforms

Platform	Output	Notes
Linux x64	tar.gz, .deb, AppImage
Windows x64 / i686	.zip	cross-built from Linux (llvm-mingw)
macOS		build-osx.sh (not part of the release script)
Android	.apk
Raspberry Pi (armhf / arm64)	.tar.gz
Dingux / OpenDingux (Dingoo A320)	.dge	SDL 1.2, tested on a real Dingoo A320
PocketGo		SDL 1.2
OpenPandora	.pnd	SDL 1.2; builds, not tested on hardware
PlayStation 2	.elf
PlayStation Portable	EBOOT.PBP
PlayStation 3	.pkg / folder
PlayStation Vita	.vpk	tested on Vita3K
Nintendo Wii	Homebrew Channel app	tested on Dolphin
Nintendo GameCube	.dol	builds, not tested
Nintendo Switch	.nro	tested on Ryujinx

Every build writes rockbot_<platform>.<ext> (for example rockbot_linux, rockbot_playstation2.elf, rockbot_dingux.dge); see docs/Releasing.md for the exceptions where a loader needs a fixed name.

Requirements

• A C++11 compiler and CMake
• SDL 1.2, SDL2 or SDL3, with the image, mixer, ttf and gfx libraries
• Qt 5 (only for the editor)

Build (Linux)

Install the dependencies and build the game and the editor (Ubuntu):

./build-ubuntu.sh sdl2          # or sdl1 / sdl3

Or build only the game, with the development packages already installed:

./build-linux.sh                # SDL2 (default); ./build-linux.sh sdl3 for SDL3

The binary is written to build/rockbot_linux.

Run

• Game

(cd build && ./rockbot_linux)

• Editor

(cd build && GTK_PATH= ./editor)

Default keyboard controls

Action	Key
Move	Arrow keys
Jump	X
Shoot	A
Dash / slide	C
Shield	Z
Previous / next weapon	Q / W
Start / pause	Enter
Quit	Esc

Keys and gamepad buttons can be changed in the options menu.

Command line options

Option	Effect
--fullscreen	start in full screen
--gamename <name>	select the game folder (for example RockDroid2)
--quickload	skip the intro and load the game directly (debug)
--stage <n>	start at stage n
--player1 ... --player4	pick the player
--invencible	the player is not hurt by enemies
--allweapons	all weapons available
--infinitejump	jump again in the air

Building for other platforms

Each console or handheld has a build-<platform>.sh script in the repository root and a packaging script in build/packages (PS2.sh, Vita.sh, Dingux.sh, ...). The SDKs are not part of the repository.

The whole build environment can also run in Docker, so it does not depend on the packages installed on your machine and can be backed up and restored:

build/docker/build_images.sh                      # build the SDK images once
build/docker/run.sh psp ports/psp/build.sh        # build one platform inside its image
build/packages/release_all.sh --bump minor --game both --docker   # every platform, both games

• docs/Docker.md: the images, where the SDKs come from, backup and restore.
• docs/Releasing.md: the release script, packages, adding a new port.
• ports/: platform-specific code and notes (psp, ps3, vita, switch, pandora, windows, ...).

Project layout

Folder	Contents
*.cpp, *.h (root)	game flow, graphics, input, sound, stage and map code
character/, objects/	player, enemies (AI), items and stage objects
scenes/, graphic/	menus, cutscenes, HUD and drawing helpers
file/	data file formats and reading/writing
editor/	the Qt editor
ports/	platform code and build scripts for each target
cmake/	toolchain files
build/games, build/shared, build/fonts	game data shared by all builds
build/packages	packaging and release scripts
build/docker	Docker helper scripts
docs/	manuals, changelog, notes and build documentation
scripts/	helper tools (for example audit_colorkey.py)
mega_drive/	a separate Mega Drive port of the game

Tools

• scripts/audit_colorkey.py: finds images whose transparent color is not exactly the color key (RGB 75,125,125). See docs/ColorKeyAudit.txt.

License

• Source code: GPL v2 (docs/LICENSE_SOURCECODE.txt).
• Art and sound files: Creative Commons Share-Alike (CC BY-SA 4.0). Music by Jmd is under the same license.
• Old music (music/old) belongs to its creators (modarchive.net); please check each license before redistributing it.
• Rockbot, Betabot, Kittybot, Candybod, Dr. Kanotus, Dr. Destrin and all bosses are copyright Iuri Fiedoruk and Arismeire Kümmer Silva Fiedoruk and respective collaborators, all rights reserved.

Details: docs/LICENSE.TXT. Credits for Rockbot 2: Rockbot2_Credits.txt.