Game:

Boulder Dash (1984)

Category:

Review

Duration: 46:07

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INTRODUCTION (From the manual):
The objective of Boulder Dash is to search throughout each CAVE and collect as many Jewels in as short a time as possible. Once the indicated amount of Jewels have been collected, the door to the mysterious escape tunnel is revealed and you go to the next level. Strategy and planning will help you master the "physics" of Boulder Dash. Boulders drop predictably enough, but you and Rockford also have to block growing Amoebas, transform Butterflies, outmanoeuvre Fireflies, and overcome other numerous obstacles.

Each player starts with 3 chances. Bonus tries are awarded after every 500 points. The tunnels created by Rockford will "shimmer" when you are awarded a bonus try. A bonus is also earned by completing a Playable intermission.

There are 16 CAVES, each comprising of several scrolling screens, numbered A to P. Each CAVE, has 5 Difficulty Levels. To select a different CAVE, move the joystick arm left or right when you are in the menu screen. To select a different Difficulty Level, go to the menu screen and move the joystick arm up or down. The greater the difficulty the less time you have and the more Jewels you have to collect. You may choose CAVE A, E, I or M, on Difficulty Levels 1-3. On Difficulty Levels 4 and 5, you must start with CAVE A. After making a selection, press the joystick trigger to begin the game.

*A. INTRO. Pick up Jewels and exit before time is up.
B. ROOMS. Pick up Jewels, but you must move boulders to get all Jewels.
C. MAZE. Pick up Jewels. You must get every Jewel to exit.
D. BUTTERFLIES. Drop boulders on Butterflies to create Jewels.
*E. GUARDS. The Jewels are there for the grabbing, but they are guarded by the deadly Fireflies.
F. FIREFLY DENS. Each firefly is guarding a Jewel.
G. AMOEBA. Surround the Amoeba with Boulders, so it can't grow anymore. Pick up
Jewels that are created when it suffocates.
H. ENCHANTED WALL. Activate the Enchanted Wall and create as many Jewels as you can.
*l. GREED. You have to get a lot of Jewels here. Lucky there are so many.
J. TRACKS. Get the Jewels and avoid the Fireflies.
K. CROWD. You must move a lot of boulders around in some tight spaces.
L. WALLS. You must blast through walls to get at some of the Jewels. Drop a boulder on a Firefly at the right time and place to do this.
*M. APOCALYPSE. Bring the Butterflies and Amoeba together and watch the Jewels fly.
N. ZIGZAG. Magically transform the Butterflies into Jewels, but don't waste any boulders, and watch out for the Fireflies.
O. FUNNEL. There is an Enchanted Wall at the bottom of the rock funnel
P. ENCHANTED BOXES. The top of each square room is an Enchanted Wall, but you'll have to blast your way inside

(* = Selectable)

Boulder Dash was originally released by First Star Software in 1984 for the Atari 8-bit computers, and it was ported to almost all computers and consoles. Today this is a true classics, and the unofficial sequels, fan made games and clones is countless!

You play with a protagonist called Rockford and you must dig through caves and collect diamonds and reach the exit door before the time runs out. If you remove the earth under a boulder it will fall and if you remove earth besides boulders that are stacked on top of each other they will also fall, and if you are placed where a boulder is falling down you will die, which adds a lot of strategic elements to the game

Sometimes you have to make the diamonds yourself, and that can be done by hitting enemies with falling boulders, activate an Enchanted Wall, making the enemies touch an Amoeba, or surrounding an Amoeba with boulders so it can’t expand. At some levels you will also need to drop boulders on enemies near a wall for making an explosion that will blow a hole in the wall

The gameplay is quite simple: collect the amount of diamonds you need for every level (showed on top left of the screen) and go to the exit door before the time runs out! But there is 16 caves, and as you reach some of the later ones, you will have to carefully consider how to make the diamonds and avoid falling boulders and enemies

You do not have to start from the beginning at each game because from the menu you can select to play from caves A, E, I or M on difficulty levels 1 to 3, or from A only on levels 4 and 5. The difficulty sets the time limit and number of diamonds to collect

For a 1984 game this is very good, it is a vertical / horizontal scrolling game in full color, and the color scheme and resolution is very fine in this version compared to the others. The only negative is that the scrolling of the screen can be a little slow compared to the speed of Rockford, so at long straight places Rockford can actually disappear out of the screen until the scrolling catches up

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