I can’t believe I’m about to say this but…break out your mobiles…
Tough call this one. I have another title I kinda wanted to select, but we are in a rare glut of superb game releases and I don’t want to distract myself, let alone anybody else, with something too heavy or long that would consume too much time.
So instead, how about something bite sized, something you can consume in small chunks, something you can play anywhere when you have a few spare moments? Wait, something you can play anywhere? I’ll get to that…
Now in fairness, this title has been in the back of my mind for some time as well, and deservedly so, as it is close to my heart from the glory days growing up with my C64. As such, I definitely feel it’s selection is warranted.
Yep, Lode Runner:
Glorious, isn’t it? Look at all those colours! Released 1983 by Broderbund (Choplifter, Prince of Persia, Raid on Bungeling Bay, Myst), to critical acclaim:
In 1984 Lode Runner was awarded “1984 Computer Game of the Year”. Judges praised its “outstanding design”, and described it as “fascinating”, “irresistible”, and as "the thinking player’s climbing conquest". “a top-notch action game that requires both a quick mind and an agile joystick”. "Lode Runner is one of the best games available for the C-64. Unconditionally and wholeheartedly recommended".
But I was too young to be in the know about that sort of stuff. All I rememeber is my C64 in the mid-late 80’s with boxes and boxes and boxes of dual sided 5-1/4" floppies filled with thousands upon thousands of games, but Lode Runner and a handful of others sitting proudly at the top as staples. My family and I spent countless hours with Lode Runner - some of these levels will bring back instant memories the moment I see them.
But we didn’t just play the game. One of Lode Runner’s features was pretty much a first for the industry, something we take for granted today - modding. Ok, ok, maybe not full blown modding as we know it now, but Lode Runner shipped with a level editor and was one of the first to do so. And the thing is, we used it. A lot. One of my Dad’s friends was big into the C64 ‘scene’ and had contacts all over the world. We would regularly create and share levels with him that he would compile into sets and distribute all over the world. Sadly, our C64 collection went by the wayside a long time ago, so some part of me likes to think that someone somewhere still has a 5-1/4 disk sitting around with Lode Runner levels I built, way back before I hit puberty.
So what is it? Well, it’s a pretty simple single screen platformer. Run around, avoid the enemies, collect all the gold, escape to the next level. Rinse, repeat. But the beauty lies in its escalating level complexity and mechanics of traversal, gold collecting and avoiding enemies or exploiting their simple AI. Enemies can pick up gold, but you can drill into the ground to trap them, which then forces them to drop their gold. Levels often require complex patterns of drilling to extract the loot or get to another area of the screen. All put together it is a rather addicting package.
So how to we play it? On your mobile platform of choice! /he say’s through gritted teeth
No, really, hear me out. I looked into DOSbox or a C64 emulator or even playing it in a browser, but the first two are a right pain in the ass and the last just does not seem right.
So I bit the bullet and downloaded the Android version released a few years back from Tozai Games and it’s quite good. It has a couple of control schemes to choose from, gamepad support if you want it, all 150 original levels, new game modes, customisable colour palette, online leaderboards and best of all, is cheap as chips and just works. It also suits my idea of a filler classic we can play anytime while Stellaris et al occupies our core gaming time! We will miss out on level editing, unfortunately. It would have been spectacular for QT3 to build and share some levels during this, but the editor functionality seems reserved for emulation diehards.
It will be interesting to see what conversation comes out of this one, given it is not a particularly complex game. But it sure as heck has it’s charms!
Anyway, get it here:
Now if anyone can work out how to get this joystick working on a Samsung Galaxy Note 3, you will have my eternal gratitude!
