Lode Runner - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Lode Runner is a 1983

1983 in video gaming

-Events:* A major shakeout of the video game industry begins. By 1986, total video games sales will decrease from US$3.2 billion to US$0.1 billion.* MCA Universal files suit against Nintendo, claiming that the latter company's video arcade hit Donkey Kong violated Universal's copyright on King Kong...

platform game

Platform game

A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...

, first published by Brøderbund

Brøderbund

Brøderbund Software, Inc. was an American maker of computer games, educational software and The Print Shop productivity tools. It was best known as the original creator and publisher of the popular Carmen Sandiego games. The company was founded in Eugene, Oregon, but moved to San Rafael,...

. It is one of the first games to include a level editor

Level editor

A level editor is a software tool used to design levels, maps, campaigns, etc and virtual worlds for a video game. In some cases the creator of a video game releases an official level editor for a game, but other times the community of fans step in to fill the void...

, a feature that allows players to create their own level

Level (video gaming)

A level, map, area, or world in a video game is the total space available to the player during the course of completing a discrete objective...

s for the game. This feature bolstered the game's popularity, as magazines such as Computer Gaming World

Computer Gaming World

Computer Gaming World was a computer game magazine founded in 1981 by Russell Sipe as a bimonthly publication. Early issues were typically 40-50 pages in length, written in a newsletter style, including submissions by game designers such as Joel Billings , Dan Bunten , and Chris Crawford...

held contests to see who could build the best level.
Tozai, Inc. is now currently holds the IP and Trademark rights of Lode Runner.

History

The prototype of what later became Lode Runner was a game developed by Douglas E. Smith of Renton, Washington

Renton, Washington

Renton is an Eastside edge city in King County, Washington, United States. Situated 11 miles southeast of Seattle, Washington, Renton straddles the southeast shore of Lake Washington. Founded in the 1860s, Renton became a supply town for the Newcastle coal fields...

, who at the time was an architecture

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

student at the University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

. This prototype, called Kong, was written for a Prime Computer 550

Prime Computer

Prime Computer, Inc. was a Natick, Massachusetts-based producer of minicomputers from 1972 until 1992. The alternative spellings "PR1ME" and "PR1ME Computer" were used as brand names or logos by the company.-Founders:...

minicomputer

Minicomputer

A minicomputer is a class of multi-user computers that lies in the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems and the smallest single-user systems...

limited to one building on the UW campus. Shortly thereafter, Kong was ported

Porting

In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...

to VAX

VAX

VAX was an instruction set architecture developed by Digital Equipment Corporation in the mid-1970s. A 32-bit complex instruction set computer ISA, it was designed to extend or replace DEC's various Programmed Data Processor ISAs...

minicomputers, as there were more terminals available on campus. The game was programmed in Fortran

Fortran

Fortran is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing...

and used ASCII character graphics

ASCII art

ASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable characters defined by the ASCII Standard from 1963 and ASCII compliant character sets with proprietary extended characters...

. When Kong was ported to the VAX, some Pascal

Pascal (programming language)

Pascal is an influential imperative and procedural programming language, designed in 1968/9 and published in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth as a small and efficient language intended to encourage good programming practices using structured programming and data structuring.A derivative known as Object 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

MOS Technology 6502

The MOS Technology 6502 is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by Chuck Peddle and Bill Mensch for MOS Technology in 1975. When it was introduced, it was the least expensive full-featured microprocessor on the market by a considerable margin, costing less than one-sixth the price of...

assembly language

Assembly language

An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...

on an Apple II+

Apple II series

The Apple II series is a set of 8-bit home computers, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977 with the original 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

Joystick

A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Joysticks, also known as 'control columns', are the principal control in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft, either as a center stick or...

support. He submitted a rough version to Brøderbund

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

Video game publisher

A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer....

and quickly received offers from all four: Sierra, Sirius

Sirius Software

Sirius Software was a video game publisher of Apple II, Commodore 64 and Atari computer games in the early 1980s.- Founding and early history :The company was founded in the early 1980s by Jerry Jewell and Nasir Gebelli...

, Synergistic, and Brøderbund. He took the deal with Brøderbund.

One issue with Miner is that, like its text-based Kong predecessors, it lacks inter-square animation. Although it uses high-resolution graphics, the players move around the board in whole-square increments.
Brøderbund wanted a game with sophisticated pixel-level animation. According to this article, Smith was given a $10,000 advance by Brøderbund to develop the inter-square animation, and to provide 150 levels of play.

The game was released in mid-1983. The original microcomputer

Microcomputer

A microcomputer is a computer with a microprocessor as its central processing unit. They are physically small compared to mainframe and minicomputers...

versions included the Apple II series

Apple II series

, the Atari 8-bit family

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...

, the 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 a Konami

Konami

is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...

version licensed for the 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...

computer named "King's Valley

King's Valley

King’s Valley is a platform/maze game from Konami, released for the MSX computer and MS-DOS in 1985. The game plays is like Lode Runner except it takes place in pyramids instead of egyptian ruins. As an intrepid adventurer, the player's goal is to collect various gems, while evading angry mummies...

". Later versions include those for the Atari ST

Atari ST

The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...

, Sinclair Spectrum 48K/128K

ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...

, 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...

, Windows 3.1

Windows 3.1x

Windows 3.1x is a series of 16-bit operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers. The series began with Windows 3.1, which was first sold during March 1992 as a successor to Windows 3.0...

, Macintosh

Macintosh

The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...

, and the original Game Boy

Game Boy

The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...

Basics

The player controls a stick figure

Stick figure

A stick figure is a very simple type of drawing made of lines and dots, often of the human form or other animals. In a stick figure, the head is represented by a circle, sometimes embellished with details such as eyes, mouth or crudely scratched-out hair. The arms, legs and torso are all...

who must collect all the gold in a level while avoiding guards 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

Level (video gaming)

A level, map, area, or world in a video game is the total space available to the player during the course of completing a discrete objective...

. There are 150 levels in the game which progressively challenge players' problem-solving abilities or reaction times.

Levels feature a multi-storey, brick platform motif, with ladder

Ladder

A ladder is a vertical or inclined set of rungs or steps. There are two types: rigid ladders that can be leaned against a vertical surface such as a wall, and rope ladders that are hung from the top. The vertical members of a rigid ladder are called stringers or stiles . Rigid ladders are usually...

s and suspended hand-to-hand bars that offer multiple ways to travel throughout. The player can dig holes into floors to temporarily trap guards and may safely walk atop trapped guards. Should a guard be carrying a bar of gold when he falls into a hole it will be left behind, and can be retrieved by the player. Over time, floors dug into will regenerate, filling in these holes. A trapped guard who cannot escape a hole before it fills is consumed, immediately respawning in a random location at the top of the level. Unlike guards, the player's character may not climb up out of a hole, and will be killed if it fills before he can escape by other means. Floors may also contain trapdoor

Trapdoor

A trapdoor is a door set into a floor or ceiling .Originally, trapdoors were sack traps in mills, and allowed the sacks to pass up through the mill while naturally falling back to a closed position....

s, through which the player and guards will fall, and bedrock

Bedrock

In stratigraphy, bedrock is the native consolidated rock underlying the surface of a terrestrial planet, usually the Earth. Above the bedrock is usually an area of broken and weathered unconsolidated rock in the basal subsoil...

, through which the player cannot dig.

Notably, the player can only dig a hole to the sides, and not directly underneath himself. This introduces an important strategy: when digging a hole X blocks high, the player must first dig a gap at least X wide to be able to dig through it, as the number of spaces will shrink with each layer, and the player needs at least one free adjacent space to be able to dig. However, exceptions to this rule arise when the player digs from the position of standing on a ladder, or hanging from a hand-to-hand bar, which allows the player to repeatedly dig and descend one row. This kind of digging is involved in solving many of the levels.

The player starts with five lives; each level completion awards an extra life. Should a guard 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

Jumping

Jumping or leaping is a form of locomotion or movement in which an organism or non-living mechanical system propels itself through the air along a ballistic trajectory...

, and players can trap themselves in pits from which the only escape is to abort the level, costing a life, and begin again.

Enemy A.I.

The guards do not simply home in on the player by always taking the shortest path, but also move in seemingly counter-intuitive ways according to a strange algorithm. This is a key factor in game logic, especially in the advanced levels, where exploiting the behavior of the guards is essential toward attaining the solution. Sometimes when the player and a guard are on the same ladder, for instance, the guard will move away from the player. In general, depending on the exact positioning relative to Lode Runner, the guards sometimes appear to be repelled. The behavior is far from random, however. A big part of mastering the game involves developing the intuition to predict the movement of the guards.

Permitted contact

The player may come into contact with a guard directly from above, with the stick figure's feet touching the guard's head. This is what enables the player to walk over guards who are temporarily stuck in a hole that has been dug. It is also possible to make this contact while both the guard and the player are in free fall, since the player not only runs faster than the guards, but also falls faster; moreover, it is possible to survive the feet-to-head contact while a guard is standing on a platform and begins to move. Both forms of contact are necessary to solve some levels. Sometimes it is necessary to liberate a trapped guard by digging while standing on his head, but then moving rapidly in the opposite direction when the guard begins marching to freedom. In a few levels, it is necessary to use a falling guard as a bridge to reach an otherwise unreachable area. One subtlety is that if a down movement is initiated while standing on a guard's head, or briefly touching the guard's head during free fall, the consequences are fatal.

Trapping and using guards

In some levels, guards can be deliberately trapped in various ways. For instance, they can be lured into entering a part of the level from which there is no escape. In some situations, the player can liberate trapped guards by digging them out. In some levels, to collect some of the gold pieces, the player must exploit the guards into collecting gold pieces, because they are positioned such that whichever figure collects them will become trapped. When the guard collects the piece and becomes trapped, the player can release the guard and then later steal the gold when the guard drops it or falls into a hole.

In some levels, there are gold pieces which can only be collected by killing guards by trapping them in dug holes which close up. Deceased guards come back to life from locations near the top of the screen, which may allow them to reach parts of the level that cannot be reached by the player.

Traversal orders

Some levels require careful ordering of traversal, because they are divided into zones connected by passages which are impossible to traverse in the reverse direction. If a gold piece remains in an unreachable zone, the player may have to abort the level to start again, losing a life, unless there is a way to coax a guard into bringing the gold.

Timing

Some of the game's puzzles in the advanced levels are time-sensitive. The player must dig in order to penetrate the interior of some cavern to collect gold, and quickly return the same way before the digging repairs itself, enclosing Lode Runner in that cavern with no means of escape.

Some of the puzzles require deliberate timing among the digging actions because Lode Runner must run over previously dug-out tiles that have just repaired themselves, while having enough time to pass through ones which have not yet repaired.

Inference and guessing

In some levels, when they are encountered for the first time, the player must deduce the solution by identifying a hypothesis which must be true if the level is to be solvable at all, but without direct evidence that the hypothesis is true. For instance, a given gold piece is positioned in such a way that when the player reaches it, he will become trapped, and there is positively no way to fool a guard into collecting that gold. The only conclusion is that this gold piece must be collected last, which will cause a ladder to appear, allowing the player to escape. In some levels, hidden traps are key to the solution. Their presence and location must be deduced or found by trial and error. To allow time for reasoning about each solution, Lode Runner begins each level in an indefinitely paused state. Nothing moves until a key is pressed or a joystick control is activated.

Behavior from axioms

The complexity of Lode Runner gameplay is the consequence of the interaction of the simple rules which govern the movement and behavior of material within the game's two-dimensional field. None of the puzzles involve special objects or rules with dedicated programming. That is to say, in Lode Runner, the more difficult levels are that way strictly due to their initial arrangement of game pieces. All of the cleverness of a given level can be replicated in a user-defined level simply by arranging an identical
board. Furthermore, all of the objects and rules in Lode Runner are introduced very early the first two or three levels, which stands in contrast to some other kinds of games in which higher levels bring in new kinds of objects with new behaviors.

However, there is one important behavioral change in Lode Runner. Each time the player completes all the available levels on a disk, the levels are reused for another round of play, so for instance if there are the standard 150 levels, level 151 uses the same layout as level 1. The difference is that the guards, who are much slower than the player in the first round of levels, become slightly faster with each round. A sufficient speed increase on the part of the guards will eventually make any level impossible to solve. This is readily demonstrated by designing a game disk with just one level and playing that level over and over again.

Keyboard controls

The original Apple II Lode Runner game can be controlled by keyboard or joystick. Keyboard mode has the important and useful behavior that the next move can be requested before Lode Runner finishes moving into a given square of the board. For instance, if Lode Runner is running toward a ladder, the command to go up the ladder can be given slightly in advance of completely entering that ladder's square. The tolerance is generous enough that with practice it is possible to keep Lode Runner moving through convoluted paths which frequently change direction, yet without pausing for so much as a single frame of animation. And, of course, the game contains some advanced timing problems which require just that.

Bugs

In the original Apple II version of the game, when Lode Runner consumes the last piece of gold in a level, and some escape ladders appear, if at the same time a Bungeling guard who just died is being regenerated in the same square where an escape ladder is appearing, the regeneration fails to complete. The ladder is shown as superimposed over a partially generated guard, which stays that way indefinitely. Lode Runner must not come into contact with this partially generated guard, or else lose a life.

Related games

The game is an excellent example of the trap-em-up genre, which also includes games like Heiankyo Alien

Heiankyo Alien

is a video game created by the University of Tokyo's Theoretical Science Group in 1979. The game was originally developed and released as a personal computer game in 1979, and was then published by Denki Onkyō Corporation as an arcade game in January 1980...

, Boomer's Adventure in Asmik World

Boomer's Adventure in ASMIK World

Boomer's Adventure in ASMIK World, known in Japan as is a Game Boy video game from Asmik copyrighted in 1989; Asmik of America Corp. copyrighted its version in 1990....

, and Space Panic

Space Panic

Space Panic is a 1980 arcade game designed by Universal, which Chris Crawford calls the first ever platform game, as it pre-dates Nintendo's Donkey Kong which is often cited as the original platform game. Space Panic lacks Donkey Kongs jump mechanic, disqualifying it as a platformer for some...

.

Brøderbund referred to the game's guards as members of the Bungeling Empire

Bungeling Empire

The Bungeling Empire was a villainous organization that the players were said to be pitted against in several different games created by Brøderbund.-Summary:...

, enemies common to Choplifter

Choplifter

Choplifter is a 1982 Apple II game developed by Dan Gorlin and published by Brøderbund. It was ported to other home computers and, in 1985, Sega released a coin-operated arcade game remake, which in turn received several home ports of its own...

, the Lode Runner series, and Raid on Bungeling Bay

Raid on Bungeling Bay

Raid on Bungeling Bay was the first video game designed by Will Wright. It was published by Brøderbund for the Commodore 64 in 1984 and the NES and MSX computers in 1985...

Reception

A review in Computer Gaming World

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

Tetris

Tetris is a puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union. It was released on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic...

designer Alexey Pajitnov claimed it to be his favorite puzzle game for many years.

Computer Gaming World also noted that the animated characters in Lode Runner were "borrowed" from Choplifter

Choplifter

, an earlier Brøderbund

Brøderbund

title. Smith claims the characters were not borrowed, but because the characters are only 7x10 pixel

Pixel

In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled....

s, there are inevitable cosmetic similarities.

GameSpot

GameSpot

GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...

named Lode Runner as one of the "Greatest Games of All Time". http://web.archive.org/web/20110525052230/http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/all/greatestgames/index.html

Ports

Over the years, Lode Runner was ported to numerous systems, including Commodore 64

Commodore 64

, 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...

, Atari ST

Atari ST

, PC-8001

PC-8000 Series

The PC-8000 series was a line of personal computers developed for the Japanese market by NEC.The PC-8001 model was also sold in the United States and in the UK as the PC-8001A.- PC-8001 :...

, PC-8801

NEC PC-8801

The NEC PC-8801 was an early Zilog Z80-based computer exclusively released in Japan, where it became very popular, by NEC Corporation in 1981. It was informally called the "PC-88"....

, PC-6001

NEC PC-6001

The NEC PC-6001 was the first of the NEC Corporation personal computer line. There were several versions of the PC-6001, including the PC-6001 MK2, the PC-6001 MK2 SR, and the PC-6801. There was also an American version, called the NEC TREK, or NEC PC-6001A...

, PC-6601

NEC PC-6601

The NEC PC-6601 was a personal computer created by the NEC Corporation in 1985. It was essentially a PC-6001 MK2 with a built-in 3.5" floppy disk drive.- References :*...

, X1

Sharp X1

The X1 is a series of home computer released by Sharp Corporation from 1982 to 1988. It was based on a Z80 CPU.Despite the fact that the Computer Division of Sharp Corporation had released the MZ series, suddenly the Television Division released a new computer series called the X1...

, FM-7

FM-7

FM-7 is a home computer released in 1982 in Japan.The Fujitsu FM-7 was Fujitsu's first entry into the Japanese home computer market, and for their debut computer, they chose to come out with a 6809-based personal computer very similar to Radio Shack's Color Computer.-Hardware:*Two MC 68B09 CPUs @...

, SG-1000, Atari 400/800

Atari 8-bit family

, PC-9801, MS-DOS

MS-DOS

MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...

, IBM PC

PC booter

A PC booter, or booter, is a type of software for home computer era personal computers that was loaded and executed in the bootup of the computer, from a bootable floppy disk, rather than as a regular program; a booter thus bypassed any operating system that might be installed on the hard disk of...

, Mac OS

Mac OS

Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...

, 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,...

, 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...

, Game Boy

Game Boy

The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...

, 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...

, Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS

The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...

, PlayStation

PlayStation

The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...

, 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...

, Xbox 360

Xbox 360

The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...

(XBLA

Xbox Live Arcade

Xbox 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...

) and iPod

IPod

iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...

Series

Lode Runner (1983), the original game published by Brøderbund, developed for Apple II, contained 150 levels and level editor.
Championship Lode Runner (1984), a direct sequel with 50 levels edited by fans and intended for expert play. This game is also scheduled to be released in Japan on October 27, 2009 on the Virtual Console.
Lode Runner's Rescue (~1985) 3-D sequel at least available for the Atari 8-bit computers
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...

and the Commodore 64, including dozens of 3-D perspective levels and screen design editor.
Hyper Lode Runner
Hyper Lode Runner
Hyper Lode Runner is a video game for the Nintendo Game Boy.-Release:Bandai released Hyper Lode Runner for Game Boy in September 1989...

(1989) for the original Game Boy
Game Boy
The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...

.

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

Arcade

In 1984, Irem developed an arcade conversion of Lode Runner which contained 24 selected levels from the 150 original levels.

Irem brought many of their arcade inspired levels to the Famicom Disk System under the names Super Lode Runner and Super Lode Runner II.

The arcade version had numerous sequels, including:

Lode Runner: The Bungeling Strikes Back (1984), an advanced remake of the original game developed for the arcade. The gameplay is almost exactly the same (save the addition of a two player mode) and the only heavy modification was the graphics and advancement to a 512 color palette.

Lode Runner: Majin No Fukkatsu (1985)
Lode Runner: Teikoku Karano Dasshutsu (1986)
Lode Runner: The Dig Fight (2000)

1990s

Lode Runner: The Legend Returns
Lode Runner: The Legend Returns
Lode Runner: The Legend Returns is a 1994 sequel of the classic Lode Runner video game. It's available for Windows, Mac, and PlayStation.-Gameplay:...

, a 1994 Sierra remake of the original game with enhanced graphics and tools.
Lode Runner Online: Mad Monks' Revenge
Lode Runner Online: Mad Monks' Revenge
Lode Runner Online: Mad Monks' Revenge is an enhanced version of the 1994 computer game Lode Runner: The Legend Returns. As the title suggests, the game features online functionality so that players can battle or work together from remote locations in network games.-History:In 1993, Presage...

, the 1995 sequel which replaced all the elements of the previous plus new online play.
Lode Runner 2
Lode Runner 2
Lode Runner 2 was a computer game released in 1998 for Mac OS and Windows. It was the first installation of the Lode Runner series to have 3D graphics , groundbreaking for the series.In the game, players could play as a woman or a man, named Jake and Jane Peril according to the manual, but the...

(1998), Isometric 3D gameplay
Lode Runner 3-D
Lode Runner 3-D
Lode Runner 3-D is a Nintendo 64 game based on the Lode Runner franchise. The game was developed by Big Bang and was released in 1999 in Japan by Banpresto and North America by Infogrames.-Gameplay:...

(1999) for the Nintendo 64
Nintendo 64
The , often referred to as N64, was Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil...

.

Several versions of Lode Runner were not released in the U.S., such as Lode Runner Twin and Power Lode Runner (1999, SFC), which vary gameplay, mostly by adding different characters and scenarios. Another title, Battle Lode Runner

Battle Lode Runner

Battle Lode Runner is a video game based on the Lode Runner series of games, originally released for the NEC PC Engine by Hudson Soft in 1993. It was released in Japan on May 29, 2007 and also released in the North American and European regions for the first time in April 2007 for the Wii Virtual...

, was originally exclusive to Japan, but made available in April 2007 on Nintendo

Nintendo

is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

's Virtual Console

Virtual console

service. The original Lode Runner followed in June 2007. There is also a Cubic Lode Runner, a 3-D Lode Runner variant released only in Japan for the Nintendo GameCube

Nintendo GameCube

The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...

and PlayStation 2

PlayStation 2

The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...

.

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...

version, developed by Hudson Soft

Hudson Soft

, formally known as , is a majority-owned subsidiary of Konami Corporation is a Japanese electronic entertainment publisher headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with an additional office in the Hudson Building in Sapporo. It was founded on May 18, 1973...

, marked the first appearance of Bombermen

Bomberman

Bomberman is a strategic, maze-based computer and video game franchise originally developed by Hudson Soft. The original game was published in 1983 and new games in the series are still being published to this day. Today, the commercially successful Bomberman is featured in over 70 different games...

as the opposing robots. The end screen to Bomberman

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

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...

version of Lode Runner allows editing and creating levels to share with friends using a Famicom Data Recorder

Famicom Data Recorder

Famicom Data Recorder HVC-008 is a compact cassette data interface for the Family Computer.-History:Manufactured by Matsushita/Panasonic for Nintendo, the Drive was released in 1984 only in Japan as an addition to the Family BASIC Keyboard to save data from BASIC programs created by users...

.

Hudson Soft

Hudson Soft

also announced a version of Lode Runner for the Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS

and released in 2006.

Xbox Live Arcade

On January 7, 2008, a remake of Lode Runner, developed by Tozai and SouthEnd Interactive

SouthEnd Interactive

SouthEnd Interactive is a game development studio based in Malmö,Sweden. SouthEnd works on game productions from various genres that run from various clients, such as Ubisoft and Sierra Online...

, was announced at CES '08, and was released on April 22, 2009.
The game features revamped 3D graphics, additional game modes, cooperative and competitive multiplayer support, six new block types and a level editor, as well as Live leaderboards and a timeline of the game's history.

iPod

Lode Runner was made available for the click-wheel version of Apple's iPod in mid-December 2008 with enhanced, scrolling graphics. It was released by HudsonSoft. It contains 130 levels and several tutorial videos.

External links

Jason Summer's Lode Runner Archive
Lode Runner: Ancient History!
The Lode Runner Museum website
Website of one of the later Lode Runners actual creators
Lode Runner on Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox 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...

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