This article originally appeared in Pyramid #11

Pyramid Pick

LODE RUNNER:
THE LEGEND RETURNS

Published by Sierra On-Line
Designed by Presage Software
Retail Price: $44.95

Return with us now to the thrilling days of yesteryear, back to the days of IBM PCs that ran at 4.77 MHz, had 256K of memory, and the flashiest graphics available boasted a resolution of 320x200 and could handle four colors at once. It was on such a machine that I first experienced the original Lode Runner, a classic game which was almost instantly addictive. The original game on the PC consisted of level after level of bright magenta bricks and white ladders with little white figures scampering around on them, accented by the little clicks and beeps coming from the PC speaker. Part arcade game and part puzzle game, the object was to pick up all of the chests of gold from each level and then get to the exit, without getting caught by the bad guys. That damn game kept me up all night way too many times back in the mid-80's.

The basic premise has not changed: your mission is still to go and swipe all of the goodies from each level without getting torn limb from limb by the Mad Monks (which happens in a delightfully graphic manner in the new version, by the way). You have a powerful digging laser which you can use to dig pits in the ground, which you can either drop through or use to trap Mad Monks. As you collect the last pile of gold an exit portal appears and you have to get to it and dive through, which takes you to the next level. You can use keyboard, joystick, . . .

This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.




Article publication date: January 1, 1995


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