Boulder Dash
Encyclopedia
Boulder Dash, originally released in 1984 for Atari 8-bit computers
, is a series of computer games released for the Apple II, MSX
, ZX Spectrum
, Commodore 64
, and ColecoVision
home computer
s, and later ported to the NES
, BBC Micro
and Acorn Electron
, PC
, Amstrad CPC
, Amiga
and many other platforms. It was created by Peter Liepa
and Chris Gray, and on October 28, 1983, acquired and later published by First Star Software
, which owns the rights to the game. Boulder Dash inherits numerous gameplay similarities from the earlier 1982 arcade game The Pit
, by Japanese developer Taito
.
The game's protagonist is called "Rockford". He must dig through cave
s collecting gems
and diamond
s and reach the exit within a time limit, while avoiding various types of dangerous creatures as well as obstacles like falling rocks and the constant danger of being crushed or trapped by an avalanche, or killed by an underground explosion.
The Commodore 64 version of the first game was also re-released on the Virtual Console
in Europe on September 19, 2008, and in North America on June 1, 2009.
Official Top 100 Games of All Time.
Mean Machines
gave the Game Boy port of Boulder Dash a score of 90%, praising it as "one of the finest video games ever written", describing the game as "one to buy as soon as possible" and noting its faithfulness to the original Commodore 64 version.
Atari 8-bit family
The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers manufactured from 1979 to 1992. All are based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU and were the first home computers designed with custom coprocessor chips...
, is a series of computer games released for the Apple II, MSX
MSX
MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...
, ZX Spectrum
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
, Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
, and ColecoVision
ColecoVision
The ColecoVision is Coleco Industries' second generation home video game console which was released in August 1982. The ColecoVision offered arcade-quality graphics and gaming style, and the means to expand the system's basic hardware...
home computer
Home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
s, and later ported to the NES
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
, BBC Micro
BBC Micro
The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, was a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers for the BBC Computer Literacy Project, operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation...
and Acorn Electron
Acorn Electron
The Acorn Electron is a budget version of the BBC Micro educational/home computer made by Acorn Computers Ltd. It has 32 kilobytes of RAM, and its ROM includes BBC BASIC along with its operating system....
, PC
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
, Amstrad CPC
Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...
, Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
and many other platforms. It was created by Peter Liepa
Peter Liepa
Peter Liepa is a software engineer and former video game designer. He is best known as the creator of video game classic Boulder Dash, released in 1984.-External links:* * *...
and Chris Gray, and on October 28, 1983, acquired and later published by First Star Software
First Star Software
First Star Software, Inc. is a computer game development, publishing and licensing company, founded by Richard Spitalny and Fernando Herrera in 1982. It is best known for its classic Boulder Dash franchise and Spy vs. Spy titles, originally written for 8-bit home computers like the Apple II, Atari...
, which owns the rights to the game. Boulder Dash inherits numerous gameplay similarities from the earlier 1982 arcade game The Pit
The Pit (arcade game)
is a 1982 videogame developed by Zilec and published by Centuri in the United States.- Overview :The objective of The Pit is to descend into an underground labyrinth, retrieve a gem, and escape.- Description :...
, by Japanese developer Taito
Taito Corporation
The is a Japanese publisher of video game software and arcade hardware wholly owned by publisher Square Enix. Taito has their headquarters in the Shinjuku Bunka Quint Building in Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo, sharing the facility with its parent company....
.
The game's protagonist is called "Rockford". He must dig through cave
Cave
A cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. The term applies to natural cavities some part of which is in total darkness. The word cave also includes smaller spaces like rock shelters, sea caves, and grottos.Speleology is the science of exploration and study...
s collecting gems
Gemstone
A gemstone or gem is a piece of mineral, which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments...
and diamond
Diamond
In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions...
s and reach the exit within a time limit, while avoiding various types of dangerous creatures as well as obstacles like falling rocks and the constant danger of being crushed or trapped by an avalanche, or killed by an underground explosion.
The Commodore 64 version of the first game was also re-released on the Virtual Console
Virtual console
A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...
in Europe on September 19, 2008, and in North America on June 1, 2009.
Game objects
- Rockford is the hero of the game, the character controlled by the player. His goal is to collect diamonds and avoid contact with monsters and falling rocks.
- Dirt and Space are the two basic components of the playfield. Dirt can serve for blocking and/or suspending objects, while space allows them to move freely. Rockford clears dirt as he moves, creating space.
- Walls are the delimiters of the level. Two basic types exist, destructible (which looks like brick, and can be removed with explosions) and indestructible (made of titaniumTitaniumTitanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. It has a low density and is a strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant transition metal with a silver color....
and from which the edge of the level is usually made). - The exit is the final goal Rockford must reach after collecting enough diamonds. It is disguised as an indestructible wall, and reveals itself after the required number of diamonds is collected.
- Rocks are probably the most commonly encountered elements of the game. Upon removing the dirt from beneath them, they fall until they reach solid ground again. A falling rock can not only crush enemies, but also Rockford as well. Rocks can also "roll off" of other rocks and indestructible walls if there is space beside them, and Rockford can also push single rocks sideways if there is nothing else in the way.
- Diamonds are the items Rockford must collect in order to open the exit of a level. They otherwise act like boulders.
- Fireflies are one of the common enemies in the game. When next to a wall, they follow it to their left (clockwise); otherwise they circle around a point in a 2x2 area. When a rock or diamond is dropped on them, they explode in a 3x3 square, destroying anything in that area except indestructible walls and leaving empty space behind. They also explode when Rockford touches them, killing both themselves and Rockford.
- Butterflies are similar to fireflies, with two important differences. They follow the wall to their right (anti-clockwise) and when they explode, they leave behind nine diamonds arranged in a 3x3 square (unless one of these spaces happens to contain an indestructible wall).
- AmoebaAmoebaAmoeba is a genus of Protozoa.History=The amoeba was first discovered by August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof in 1757. Early naturalists referred to Amoeba as the Proteus animalcule after the Greek god Proteus, who could change his shape...
is one of the most unpredictable elements of the game. It grows at a random rate, by expanding into adjacent space and dirt. The level settings include a duration after which the amoeba's growth rate will dramatically increase. The amoeba is not directly dangerous to Rockford, although it is capable of enclosing and trapping him, or blocking him from reaching the exit. If the amoeba grows too large, it will solidify into boulders, and if it is stopped from growing any more, it will crystallize into diamonds. - Slime looks similar to the amoeba (colored blue instead of green), but it works completely differently. Slime does not grow, and does not cause enemies to explode on contact. Its functionality is revealed when dropping a rock or a diamond on top of it; slime has a permeability rate which defines how long the item will remain sitting on top of it before falling through. This happens in quite a sudden and random manner, making the game rely on improvising even more.
- Expanding walls look and act just like destructible walls, with one difference: when possible, they expand horizontally, often trapping the player or enemies. Expanding walls are made out of themselves - blowing a hole in the middle of a row causes it to close in again almost immediately.
- Magic Walls look and act just like destructible walls except that when a boulder is dropped on a magic wall, it falls through and turns into a diamond. Conversely a diamond dropped on a magic wall turns into a boulder. If there is no empty space underneath the magic wall, a boulder or diamond dropped onto it will simply disappear. The level settings specify the amount of time that magic walls will "mill", i.e. turn rocks into diamonds and vice versa; after which they deactivate, and any more rocks or diamonds that fall onto them will simply disappear.
Boulder Dash series
The official Boulder Dash games started in 1984 with the original home computer title, and continue to be published by First Star.- Boulder Dash (1984) – The original Boulder Dash was published on multiple home computer and consoles.
- Boulder Dash (1984) – It was then released on arcade console by ExidyExidyExidy was one of the largest creators of arcade video games during the early period of video games, from 1974 until at least 1986 . The company was founded by H.R."Pete" Kauffman...
. This version was almost identical, but with coins buying 30 seconds of game time. Historically, this was the first home computer title to be converted to an arcade console. - Boulder Dash (1985 – Arcade) – In 1985 ComptiqComptiqis a Japanese computer game magazine, first published in 1983, by Kadokawa Shoten. The name "Comptiq" came from combining the words "computer" and "boutique". Originally a PC magazine, its focus shifted from computers to computer games. As of September 2003, it has been known as a "MediaMix Game...
released another arcade version on Data East's "DECO Cassette System", with improved graphics but a reduced display grid on a vertical monitor. - Boulder Dash II (1985) – The second home format was published under several different titles; Rockford's Riot on the MSX, Rockford's Revenge on the C64 (with the former used with the ZX Spectrum's marketing, but the latter used on the cassette inlay). The second release in Japan was titled Champion Boulder Dash., but it's not a port of the western game.
- Boulder Dash 3 (1986 – Apple II, C64, Spectrum, PC) – Monochrome space-themed graphics and poorly designed levels made this a critical failure.
- Boulder Dash Construction Kit (1986 – Apple II, C64, Spectrum, Atari 8-bit computers, Atari ST) – This release included a small number of levels, but was titled Boulder Dash IV – The Game for the Spectrum re-release.
- RockfordRockford (video game)Rockford is a computer game developed by Arcadia Systems in 1988 and distributed by Electronic Arts for the Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit, and IBM micros and compatible machines.-Plot:...
(1988 – Arcade, Amiga, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Arcade, Spectrum, Amstrad, C64) - Rockford was originally a licensed arcade game produced by Arcadia SystemsArcadia SystemsArcadia Systems was a subsidiary of Mastertronic which developed arcade games during the mid-late 1980s. The systems were based on Commodore Amiga technology...
, and later converted to various home computer formats - Boulder Dash Part 2 (1990 – Arcade)
- Boulder Dash (1990 - Game Boy)
- Boulder Dash (1990 - NES)
- Boulder Dash EX (2002 – Game Boy Advance) - This one has a new "EX mode" and "Classic mode" which is a direct port of the 1984 PC version.
- Boulder Dash Xmas 2002 Edition (2002 – PC)
- GemJam Gold (2003 – PC) – The game's credits claim this is based on Boulder Dash, and is licensed by First Star.
- Boulder Dash – Treasure Pleasure (2003 – PC)
- Boulder Dash: Rocks!Boulder Dash: Rocks!Boulder Dash: Rocks! is an action video game released for Nintendo DS in the PAL region. The game is a part of the Boulder Dash video game series.-Plot:...
(2007 – PSP, DS, iOS) - Boulder DAs Vol 1 (2009 – iOS)
- Boulder Dash XL (2011 - Xbox Live ArcadeXbox Live ArcadeXbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
, PC) - Boulder Dash - The Collection! (2011 – Android)
- Boulder Dash (2011 – Atari 2600) - Limited edition of 250 copies.
Reception
The ZX Spectrum version was voted number 9 in the Your SinclairYour Sinclair
Your Sinclair or YS as it was commonly abbreviated, was a British computer magazine for the Sinclair range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum.-History:...
Official Top 100 Games of All Time.
Mean Machines
Mean Machines
Mean Machines was a market-leading multi-format gaming magazine released between 1990 and 1992 in the United Kingdom. Its style was popular with gamers of the time for its irreverent humor, anarchic editorial tone and style, and its sometimes outrageously outspoken reviews.- Origins :In the late...
gave the Game Boy port of Boulder Dash a score of 90%, praising it as "one of the finest video games ever written", describing the game as "one to buy as soon as possible" and noting its faithfulness to the original Commodore 64 version.
Clones and similar games
- SupaplexSupaplexSupaplex is a video game created by Philip Jespersen and Michael Stopp, two Swiss students, and published by Digital Integration in 1991. It is an extended clone of Boulder Dash.-History:...
- Repton (video game)
- Crystal Mines IICrystal Mines IICrystal Mines II is a puzzle video game designed by Ken Beckett for Color Dreams and licensed to Atari, who published it as a cartridge for their Atari Lynx color handheld game console. The game was a sequel to Crystal Mines for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The original Lynx game features...
- The core game mechanics of Boulder Dash with more objects and Rockford replaced by a robot.
External links
- First Star Software: Boulder Dash
- Martijn's Boulder Dash Fan Site - A huge site with many downloads of Boulder Dash games
- Boulder Dashs game mechanics
- Rhod's Boulder Dash Collection — photos of game's various commercial packaging
- Arno's Boulder Dash Fansite Boulder Dash history, including an interview with Peter Liepa, and forums
- Boulder Dash at C64.COM
- Rocks'n'Diamonds free arcade style game for UnixUnixUnix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
, Mac OS XMac OS XMac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, Windows and DOSDOSDOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
in the tradition of: "Boulder DashBoulder DashBoulder Dash, originally released in 1984 for Atari 8-bit computers, is a series of computer games released for the Apple II, MSX, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and ColecoVision home computers, and later ported to the NES, BBC Micro and Acorn Electron, PC, Amstrad CPC, Amiga and many other platforms...
", "Emerald MineEmerald Mine- Emerald Mine :In Emerald Mine, the player must collect a minimum count of gems in a labyrinth and reach the then-opened gate. Gems, stones, bombs and drips are subject to a vertical gravitation. Furthermore, elements exist which guide the movement of the player like different wall types, and a...
", "SupaplexSupaplexSupaplex is a video game created by Philip Jespersen and Michael Stopp, two Swiss students, and published by Digital Integration in 1991. It is an extended clone of Boulder Dash.-History:...
", "SokobanSokobanis a type of transport puzzle, in which the player pushes boxes or crates around in a warehouse, trying to get them to storage locations. The puzzle is usually implemented as a video game....
" - Article exploring the development and success of the original Boulder Dash. (Electron Dance, July 2011)