A classic in every sense of the
word except 'large grazing
mammal of the lower Azures'
because that's wrong,
Boulder
Dash is one of the very few
home 'puter games to make it into the
arcades. First Star, the American company
behind the game, released at least three
sequels, but I do believe I'm right in saying
only
Boulder Dash and
Boulder Dash 4 made
it onto the Speccy. You play Rockford, a
thieving spelunker out to scour sixteen caves
of valuable diamonds. Pitted against you are
a score of mutant buttedlies, two score of
mutant fireflies, a massively hugely
enormously gargantuan wibblingly big number
of amoebae and Isaac Newton's baby.
(He
means gravity. Ed)
Okay, the graphics are basic (He means
crap. Ed) and admittedly the sound is
uninspired (Crap! Ed) but the gameplay is
magnificent. (Curses. Ed) The scrolling caves
are about sixteen
screens square (Alliteration!
Ed) and packed with incident. (Wheee! Ed)
Excuse me a moment. {Help! I've been
imprisoned in some curly brackets. Ed}
That's better. Anyway, it's a very mentally
taxing game, requiring a fine grasp of physics
to determine exactly whether you'll be able to
nip into this area, set off a controlled rockfall
and expose those diamonds without getting
caught by the patrolling firefly. Nastily, it's also
a very fast game - once those butterflies get
on your trail they'll hound you mercilessly, and
it's entirely possible to run faster than the
scrolling, and so flounder in the dark while the
screen catches up with you. And there's a time
limit. Yikes! If you don't mind dated graphics
and like your puzzle games very tough indeed,
I'd recommend this 'un wholeheartedly. It
doesn't push the Speccy in terms of
machine use, but you'll be hard-pressed to find a game with more
playability per inch. And it's
educational as well! (Sort of.)
[One of the "Ones That Got Away" reviews - NickH]
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