Lode Runner

Lode Runner
File:Loderunner.gif
Developer(s)	Douglas E. Smith
Publisher(s)	Brøderbund & Ariolasoft
Designer(s)	Douglas E. Smith
Platform(s)	Apple II, VIC-20, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Atari XL/XE
Release	1983
Genre(s)	Platform, Puzzle
Mode(s)	Single player

Lode Runner is a 1983 platform game, first published by Brøderbund. It is one of the first games to include a level editor, a feature that allows players to create their own levels for the game. This feature bolstered the game's popularity, as magazines such as Computer Gaming World held contests to see who could build the best level.

History

The prototype of what later became Lode Runner was a game developed by Douglas E. Smith of Renton, Washington, who at the time was an architecture student at the University of Washington. This prototype, called Kong, was written for a Prime Computer 550 minicomputer limited to one building on the UW campus. Shortly thereafter, Kong was ported to VAX minicomputers, as there were more terminals available on campus. The game was programmed in Fortran and used ASCII character graphics. When Kong was ported to the VAX, some Pascal sections were mixed into the original Fortran code.

In a weekend (circa September 1982), Smith was able to build a crude, playable version in 6502 assembly language on an Apple II+ and renamed the game Miner. Through the end of the year, Smith refined that version, which was black-and-white with no joystick support. He submitted a rough version to Brøderbund around October 1982 and received a one-line rejection letter in response to the effect of "Sorry, your game doesn't fit into our product line; please feel free to submit future products."

Smith then borrowed money to purchase a color monitor and joystick and continued to improve the game. Around Christmas of 1982, he submitted the game, now renamed Lode Runner, to four publishers and quickly received offers from all four: Sierra, Sirius, Synergistic, and Brøderbund. He took the deal with Brøderbund.

The game was released in mid-1983. The original microcomputer versions included the Apple II series, the Commodore 64, the Sinclair Spectrum 48K/128K, and a version licensed for the MSX computer. Later versions include those for the Atari computer, NES, Windows 3.1, Macintosh, and the original Game Boy.

Gameplay

The player controls a stick figure who must collect all the gold in a level while avoiding robots who try to catch the player. After collecting all the gold, the player must travel to the top of the screen to reach the next level. There are 150 levels in the game which progressively challenge players' problem-solving abilities or reaction times.

Levels feature a multi-story, brick platform motif, with ladders and suspended hand-to-hand bars that offer multiple ways to travel throughout. The player can dig holes into floors to temporarily trap robots and may safely walk atop trapped robots. Over time, floors dug into will regenerate, filling in these holes. A trapped robot who cannot escape a hole before it fills is consumed, immediately respawning in a random location at the top of the level. Floors may also contain trapdoors, through which the player and robots will fall, and bedrock, through which the player cannot dig.

The player starts with five lives; each level completion awards an extra life. Should a robot catch the player, one life is lost and the current level restarts. The player's character can fall from arbitrary heights without injury but cannot jump, and players can trap themselves in pits from which the only escape is to abort the level, costing a life, and begin again.

Reception

A review in Computer Gaming World praised the game's particularly easy-to-use level editor and the strategy involved for an arcade title, describing it as "one of the few thinking men's arcade games". Tetris designer Alexey Pajitnov claimed it to be his favorite puzzle game for many years.

GameSpot named Lode Runner as one of the "Greatest Games of All Time".

Ports

MSX, Atari ST, PC-8001, PC-8801, PC-6001, PC-6601,X1, FM-7, SG-1000, Atari 400/800, PC-9801,MS-DOS, IBM PC, Mac OS, NES, Game Boy, BBC Micro, Nintendo DS, Virtual Console, Xbox 360 (XBLA)

Legacy

Brøderbund followed Lode Runner with Championship Lode Runner and Lode Runner's Rescue. In Lode Runner's Rescue (Atari XL/Commodore 64), the game takes place in an isometric environment and the user plays as Lode Runner's daughter, Alexandra. Alexandra eats "magic mushrooms" to run faster and jump higher.

Other versions of Lode Runner were created in subsequent years, such as Battle Lode Runner, Lode Runner: The Legend Returns, Lode Runner 2, and Lode Runner Online: Mad Monks' Revenge. Each adds several items to the game, such as jackhammers, bombs, and snares, along with differing backgrounds and sound.

The arcade version had numerous sequels, including:

• Lode Runner - The Bungeling Strikes Back
• Lode Runner - Majin No Fukkatsu
• Lode Runner - Teikoku Karano Dasshutsu
• Lode Runner: The Dig Fight

In 1999, a 3D version for the Nintendo 64, Lode Runner 3D, was also released.

Several versions of Lode Runner were not released in the U.S., such as Lode Runner Twin and Power Lode Runner, which vary gameplay, mostly by adding different characters and scenarios. Another title, Battle Lode Runner, was originally exclusive to Japan, but made available in April 2007 on Nintendo's Wii Virtual Console service. The original Lode Runner followed in June 2007. There is also an Cubic Lode Runner, a 3-D Lode Runner variant released only in Japan for the Gamecube and PlayStation 2.

Hudson Soft also announced a version of Lode Runner for the Nintendo DS.

A Lode Runner board game was designed by Donal Carlston and published by Tsukuda in 1986.

Xbox Live Arcade

Xbox Live Arcade version.

On January 7, 2008, an enhanced version of Lode Runner, developed by Tozai and Southend Interactive, was announced at CES '08. The game will feature revamped, HD graphics and multiplayer support, as well as Live leaderboards and a timeline of the game's history. There was no mention of a level editor at that time—however, a "Download Content" option was visible on the menu screenshot.

Trivia

• Computer Gaming World reported that the animated characters in Lode Runner were "borrowed" from Choplifter, an earlier Brøderbund title. Smith claims the characters were so not borrowed, but because the characters are only 7x10 pixels, there are inevitable cosmetic similarities.

• Brøderbund referred to the game's opponents as members of the Bungeling Empire, enemies common to Choplifter, the Lode Runner series, and Raid on Bungeling Bay.

• The NES version, developed by Hudson Soft, marked the first appearance of Bombermen as the opposing robots. The end screen to Bomberman for the NES notes that the original White Bomberman has turned human and hints at his appearance in another game, with the Lode Runner behind him. In the Japanese version, the reference is more direct: "Congratulations - Bomber Man becomes Runner - See you again in Lode Runner."

• In Japan, the Famicom version of Lode Runner allows editing and creating levels to share with friends using a Famicom Data Recorder.

External links

• Template:StrategyWiki
• Lode Runner series at MobyGames
• Jason Summer's Lode Runner Archive
• Lode Runner: Ancient History!
• The Lode Runner Museum website
• Website of one of the later Lode Runner's actual creators
• Lode Runner at SpectrumComputing.co.uk
• Lode Runner at the Killer List of Videogames