A reply to your main article on Lode Runner

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Tdarcos
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A reply to your main article on Lode Runner

Post by Tdarcos »

Jonsey, you have comments turned off for your article for Lode Runner in the main section and I wanted to say a few things.

First, the version for the PC was a self-loader, which meant it had its own operating system. (This was probably part of the(woefully inadequate) copy protection system most games had back then. Which also made it useful as something other than a game: it was the perfect tester for IBM-PC compatibility. If Lode Runner would run on your company's IBM clone, anything would run on it. Many clone PCs failed the "Lode Runner" test, but the ones that passed were good machines. Lode Runner was the Gold standard for compatibility.

You complete a level by getting to the top of the screen, after all gold had been retrieved. So many levels were designed with ladders to reach the top that only showed up when the last brick was captured. The second best part of the game - other than solving the puzzles - was creating your own levels. Me and a bunch of others at Cal State University Long Beach designed a complete set - 150 levels - for the game.

Someone - I don't think it was me, I'm not that nasty - created a level 150 with some gold bricks and 3 or 4 guards following you, but the regular ladders did not reach the top. When you got the last piece of gold, in the middle of the screen, the ladders warped in, but they spelled the message "YOU LOSE" and you still couldn't reach the top, so you couldn't start over.

I also thought Lode Runner 3D was great, too.
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