Lode Runner is a classic computer game dating back to the 1980s.

Description

The game's objective, on the surface, seems simple: the player controls a funny-looking stick figure, collect all the gold in the level, and avoid robots trying to end your player's treasure-hunting days. The levels feature a multi-story brick platform motif, with ladders and hand-to-hand bars suspended in the air offering multiple ways to travel within the level. The game's character cannot kill the robots but can dig holes into the brick floors and temporarily trap them in pits (of course, the player's can also fall into the pits, as well). If many holes are dug fast enough, and the robots continuously fall into them, the turf starts regenerating, and such an action can destroy robots if they are caught in a hole that is regenerating (they immediately respawn at a random place on the map). The player's character can fall from an unlimited height without being injured, but cannot jump upward, so it is possible for the player to become trapped in a pit and have to abort the game.

There are 150 levels in the entire game with, as typical for puzzle type games, each level requiring that the player's strategy expand in order to progress. Early on a player may have to dig to reach the gold on that level, and upon reaching it they fall through to another tier of the same level. In a subsequent level the gold may be placed so that a player will not fall through, but instead he becomes trapped unless that player has adapted his strategy. (By digging a larger hole than normal so that he has room to continue digging his way out, for example.) The game becomes more about problem-solving than reaction time, though both play critical roles.

The original prototype of what later became known as Lode Runner was a game developed by Douglas E. Smith of Renton, Washington, who at the time was a physics student at the University of Washington. The prototype game was called Kong and was playable on one of the school's VAX mainframes. The game used ASCII character graphics and was programmed in Fortran.

The second prototype of Lode Runner was known as Miner and was written in 6502 assembly language on an Apple II+ microcomputer. Smith later developed a modified version of Miner for Broderbund Software; it was that version, now named Lode Runner, that was released in the summer of 1983. The original microcomputer versions included the Apple II series, the Commodore 64, and a version licensed for the MSX computer. Other versions included those for the Atari 8-bit computer family, the NES, and the original Game Boy.

Sequels

Newer versions of Lode Runner were created in subsequent years, such as Lode Runner: The Legend Returns and . Each added several different items to the game, such as jackhammers, spraycans, and snares.

External links

• MobyGames' entry on the series
• Loderunner: Ancient History!
• The Lode Runner Museum website
• Websiteof one of the later Lode Runner's actual creators