Emerald Mine
| Developer: N/A | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Kingsoft | Sound: |
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| Year: 1987 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Heavenly Jerusalem | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 2 simultaneous | Rating: |
92 4    ++ | |
Emerald Mine! My precious! The greatest game of all time in the universe!
It’s primarily one of my very first games, one of those that shaped my early years and made me passionate about gaming. However, one day, the floppy disk gave up the ghost, and suddenly, it was all over. I no longer heard the melodious voice of the yams nor the sweet sound of emeralds clinking together…
Exalted childhood memories and prolonged deprivation—imagine my state when I had the joy of finding “my dear boulder” again, years later, thanks to emulators…
Since then, I’ve more than made up for my five years of frustration by tackling dozens of clones found on the Internet. My only regret: never having met a boulder dasher skilled enough to complete them in teamwork.
I refer you to the Boulderdash C64 page for a general presentation of this style of games. Emerald Mine is the quintessence of the genre, the ultimate! Its difficulty level is progressive and relatively approachable (with the exception of the last ten levels, which will make you weep tears of blood). Variety is abundant: monster hunting, mazes, logic or speed trials… It’s the ideal title to discover the world of “cave games”, although I don’t condone the invisible walls towards the end!
Numerous improvements have been made compared to Boulder Dash, this list is not exhaustive:
- Addition of a simultaneous two-player mode (21 levels, alongside the 81 single-player levels).
- Introduction of sapphires (blue), worth three emeralds (green), keys and doors.
- Addition of “nuts”, appearing as brown rocks that turn into emeralds if a (grey) rock falls on them.
- Two new monsters: aliens (sometimes called “robots”), green bipedal creatures with blue antennae that move slowly towards the player, and the emblematic “yams” (or “yam yams”), orange balls (red in some versions) with large teeth, which always move in straight lines, stopping for a few moments in front of an obstacle while making the sound from which they get their name, before heading off in a random direction. They have the special feature of offering a surprise reward when you throw a rock at them, sometimes diamonds, keys, walls, or other monsters! I particularly recommend visiting level 78, my favourite of all!
- “Wheels” (sometimes represented as square drums) serve as decoys, temporarily attracting aliens after activation.
- The amoeba (this sort of green moss or sponge, or blue in other versions) is still present but has lost its ability to turn into diamonds or stones when surrounded by objects. This might seem like a regression, but it also brings an entertaining new mechanic: the creation of sorts of “bombs” when the player accidentally releases an amoeba surrounded by rocks, which then develops extremely quickly and invades the entire screen.
- Speaking of bombs: these red balls (toothless) behave like rocks, except they explode when they hit the ground or are struck by a rock. If close to each other, they produce chain explosions.
- Dynamite sticks allow the player to trigger an explosion at their position (to break walls or kill monsters) by holding down the joystick button. Be careful, you only have a second or two to move away from the explosion zone.
- The magical walls, blue and luminous—I think you have a good idea of what I’m talking about… They transform rocks that pass through them into emeralds, emeralds into sapphires, and sapphires into rocks, for a limited time.
- Acid pools—anything that falls in disappears. It’s very funny to lure aliens into them; I never tire of it, even after nearly 40 years!
- The invisible walls… Well, I could have done without those. They are the reason, I think, that this game is almost impossible to complete. One or two levels in particular force you to draw plans on graph paper!
By the way, I have a confession to make. I’ve just finished Emerald Mine for the first time … in 2025! The reason primarily stems from the program’s instability. I’m not sure if it’s due to a poorly cracked copy protection, emulation issues, mischief-makers tampering with the levels, or poor floppy disk preservation, but all my previous attempts were thwarted by irreparable technical problems.
First, the version found on Emerald Web seems to crash at level 39 (though I can’t rule out my own incompetence). I found another version where level 51 has no exit! I finally uncovered a version that works relatively well, apart from graphical bugs and sporadic crashes around the middle.
I must emphasise the nearly insurmountable difficulty towards the end, particularly level 79. Not only did I have to resort to save states on the emulator (much to my shame!), but as that wasn’t enough, I also had to slow down the animation speed to enter this room, where an alien was blocking the door (the image doesn’t show those wretched invisible walls).
Now for some controversy! My childhood game was simply called Boulder Dash, but the levels were definitely those of Emerald Mine (all except the first one, oddly enough). Upon verification, it was indeed published by Kingsoft, the score display wasn’t at the bottom of the screen but in the upper left corner, and the dynamite stick was represented by a sort of grey cross… I suppose it was the same game but in an early version. Perhaps First Star, the publisher of the original Boulder Dash on Commodore 64, requested this name change? Or was it a provisional title? I’d love to know for certain if anyone has information on this absolutely crucial matter…
If you’re interested, this version is available here (note that level 51 has no exit).
I notice on the Internet (I noticed it in 2000 anyway…) that I’m not the only die-hard fanatic of this kind of games. That’s good! Where I disagree is that most players seem to find Emerald Mine ugly! Oh, that’s not even true! My baby… No, honestly, with its grey walls and brown earth (dirt? sand?), I find it more visually harmonious than all the clones that came after it, with their garish colours. Look at Supaplex and compare. Okay? Right!
For your perfect information, the very serious and distinguished (and visionary) magazine AmigaWorld voted Emerald Mine the “number one Amiga game of all time” … in 1988. And I forbid you to check out their Top 20 for the following year.
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