Boulder Dash Computer Games

Boulder Dash is an arcade-action puzzle computer game developed Peter Liepa and Chris Gray of First Star Software Inc. Originally coded for the Atari 8 bit line of microcomputers in 1984, Boulder Dash was ported to almost every PC and microcomputer of the mid-to-late 1980s.

For millions of computer-gamers Boulder Dash was the first action-based computer game that actually played well, with good controls and screen-scrolling.

Boulder Dash Objective

Move Rockford (a character-sprite) around a tile-based playing field (a cave) in tile-based increments, collecting a certain amount of diamonds within the time limit, while avoiding monsters and falling boulders and diamonds. Rockford is basically digging through dirt (mining). He needs to manipulate boulder positions in order to solve navigation puzzles.

Boulder Dash Features

4-way movement, 4-way scrolling
Tile-based playing field
Pushable and falling boulders
Animated sprites and idle anims (e.g., foot-tapping)
Falling boulders and diamonds can kill and trap
Boulders and diamonds can be dropped upon monsters
Boulders can only be pushed if they are unobstructed (not hedged in by a dirt, boulder or wall tile)
Boulders topple to the side and down if unobstructed. They will then free-fall. Avalanches of boulders and diamonds can be triggered.
There is no shooting (firing a weapon) or jackhammer

Boulder Dash IBM PC versus Commodore 64

Nice easy way to compare Commodore 64 (C64) graphics with CGA display mode on i808x CPUs.

The C64 version of Boulder Dash is far superior to the PC Booter version of 1984 (CGA / i808x).

The C64 version has smoother screen-scrolling, more colorful graphics, more detailed graphics, faster tile-refresh, more responsive controls and much better sound and music. However, the original Atari 8 bit version (see header image) features even smoother scrolling than the C64 version.

You can click the image and mouse-wheel up and down to compare.

Boulder Dash Construction Kit

Boulder Dash Construction Kit includes the levels from the original Boulder Dash. This is the Amiga version:

Boulder Dash Construction Kit Versions

Commodore 64/128
Commodore Amiga
Apple II
Atari 800
Atari ST
IBM PC / IBM PCjr.

Rockford Amiga

Rockford is an Amiga-original Boulder Dash game coded in 1988 by Icon Design Ltd. It plays really well -- fast.

Rockford was well-ported to MS-DOS from the Amiga version, but the port is not as colorful.

Boulder Dash Atari ST

The Atari ST version of Boulder Dash is a clone. It doesn't have any of the original BD levels:

The Atari ST and Amiga versions of Boulder Dash do not even begin to take advantage of ST/Amiga capabilities. However, ST and Amiga owners were glad that they could play Boulder Dash on their 16 bit micros (if, that is, they did not keep their C64).

cf.

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