Boulderdash C64
| Developer: No One Inc. | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: N/A | Sound: |
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| Year: 1989 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Boulder Dash | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
6/10 | |
Inspired by the arcade game The Pit (1982, lower the volume before clicking!), Boulder Dash pioneered a new genre of video games, consisting of collecting diamonds in mines filled with rocks and monsters. You can dig tunnels, push boulders and drop them on creatures to make them explode, sometimes releasing additional diamonds. The concept is straightforward but devilishly effective, so much so that hundreds of more or less distant clones followed…
I distinguish four generations of Boulder Dash (the criteria are neither exhaustive nor absolute, only indicative):
- Those I call the classics, which appeared on Atari 800 and Commodore 64 in 1983, led by the iconic Boulder Dash, followed by countless amateur iterations (created with the level editor, Boulder Dash Construction Kit from 1986). I would add variants such as Royal Boulderdash and Rockford, among others:
– A limited number of lives.
– Each game typically contains 16 levels (marked from A to P) and 4 “intermissions” (smaller bonus levels where you are allowed only one attempt). This set of levels is repeated five times with increasing difficulty (animation speed increases).
– Only one type of diamond.
– Only two different enemy types (butterflies that follow walls to the right and give diamonds when killed, fireflies or tanks, that follow to the left and give nothing).
– A substance (green on Amiga) called “amoeba”, which multiplies, blocks spaces and kills enemies that touch it. If you manage to contain it with walls and rocks, it transforms into diamonds; otherwise, once it reaches a certain size (200 spaces), it turns into rocks.
– An inert amoeba (or slime), which does not multiply. In some versions (Boulder Dash 2), rocks and diamonds pass through.
– Walls that extend if you dig earth at the end of a section (preventing you from going back).
– You can catch diamonds in flight, or drop them on monsters to kill them.
- The second generation, which would be the glory days of the Amiga, represented by Emerald Mine (1987) and its numerous variations (for example, Bond Mine):
– 81 levels (numbered from 00 to 80), plus 21 levels dedicated to two-player cooperative mode.
– Larger caves (64 x 32 “squares” counting the exterior wall, instead of 39 x 21).
– More colours, better animations, unlimited lives.
– Ability to save and return to previous levels.
– Two types of diamonds (green/yellow emeralds and blue sapphires, which are worth three emeralds but break if a rock falls on them).
– Two new enemies (small green men who pursue the player and the famous “yams”, orange balls that eat sapphires).
– The green amoeba no longer transforms, no more extending walls, diamonds can no longer be caught mid-air.
– Additional elements such as bombs, dynamite sticks, wheels, doors, keys, invisible walls appear.
- The third generation, emerging in the 1990s, marked by the famous Supaplex, then titles like Forgotten Mine or Diamond Caves on Amiga, DX-Boulderdash and Rocks ‘n’ Diamonds on PC:
– Return of extending walls!
– New elaborate elements such as remote-controlled balloons, rock or enemy generators, bi-coloured doors and keys, areas where only enemies can dig, traps to shove at enemies, and an optional bumper to send it back in your face, etc.
– For Supaplex and Forgotten Mine: the short delay when pushing a boulder is now fixed. This small change significantly improves handling and makes things less reliant on luck.
– For Diamond Caves and Rocks ‘n’ Diamonds: new types of precious stones (rubies, crystals, pearls…) of different values, which can be embedded in walls (releasable by an explosion).
- The last generation, in the 2000s with Boulder Dash ME on mobile and Boulder Dash EX on Game Boy Advance, amongst others. You may add the steam version of Diamond Caves for its achievements and little stars…
:
– Tiny levels.
– Ability to rotate the screen 90 degrees.
– Awful, anime-style graphics.
– Cheesy music.
– A glut of new modes, a rubbish story, slot machine visual effects, infantilising “reward badges”…
– Let’s stop there, it’s going off the rails!
Why is this game so addictive? I came across an interview with Peter Liepa, its creator, on Arno’s page. He explains that playing Boulder Dash satisfies different psychological impulses such as greed (collecting masses of diamonds), destruction (triggering rock avalanches and killing butterflies) and even the neurosis of cleaning, when you start wanting to dig everywhere to remove all the earth from a cellar. It cracked me up!
Back to the game that interests us. Boulderdash 64, as the name suggests, is the adaptation of the Commodore 64 version for Amiga. It’s naturally prettier than the original, and while the level design remains brilliant, the game engine feels like a watered-down “second generation” version, stripped of intermissions and limited lives. What’s more, the amoeba’s lack of transformation (among other changes) significantly alters how some levels are solved.
I’d recommend instead Boulder Dash Collection 2, which bundles the first three Boulder Dash titles in their original glory!
Still with me? Hello? Anyone there?
Update:
Boulder Dash has, of course, received its own “laundry detergent” remake. I’m still unsure whether to laugh or cry. Judge for yourself.
Sniff, sniff.
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