I recently received a copy of Spoonbill Software's remake of the Apple ][ version of Lode Runner. This version, however, is for Microsoft's Windows platforms and was coded by Ian R. Humphreys using Borland Delphi. By the way, I have not tried to install this under WINE on my Linux box yet, but I will post the results when I do.
Now I admit it, I played the heck out of Lode Runner in my day, albeit on the Commodore 64 rather than Apple ][, and this version stacks up quite nicely to the original. Controls are completely keyboard based- using the arrow keys to move and the [Z] and [X] keys to dissolve blocks to the left and right of your character respectively. It would be nice to have a gamepad option but that's not currently a part of the base package. You could probably use a program such as Joy2Key, but I have not tried that yet.
The game plays faithfully to the original. You play a character running through the levels trying to collect all of the gold without being caught by one of the baddies. You can dissolve the floor to the left or the right of your character, which can be used to temporarily trap one of the baddies, allowing you to walk over him.. or you can dissolve the floor and drop through to a lower level of the map. Once all of the gold in a level is collected, a ladder appears at the top of the screen which will allow you to climb up to the next level.
The game also includes a level editor which is much easier to use than the one supplied with the original game by Brøderbund Software. In addition to the game and map editor, you also receive the complete Original and Championship maps from the Apple version, all C64 maps and a bunch of fan made maps by the author and others... in total you get 5,750 levels as of update v1.0h.
The game is completely free... but Ian doesn't like to post download links for his products.. instead, he asks that you send him an email request for the game and he will then email it to you as an attachment. You can find out more about this at his site.
This game comes _highly_ recommended to anyone who played this game in their youth, or to those that want to see what all of the hubbub is about.
Great job Ian! Thanks for bringing back the memories.
-Chip
