Lode Runner (1998 video game)

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Behold one of the simplest and yet one of the most addicting games in history. My fondest memories of Lode Runner stem from my childhood NES days, where I would incessantly attempt to collect all the gold before pursuing cannibals eat my flesh. Controlling a pixelated white figure across the ruins of El Dorados across the world was brilliant and at times frustrating, full of deadly traps and overhanging shimmy pipes. Fast forward to 1998, and multiple improvements to the original Lode Runner were packaged into a CD for the Playstation known as Lode Runner: The Legend Returns, developed by Presage Software and published by Natsume. Special thanks to Chip in Alabama for sending this nostalgia inducing title, along with many other treasures. Originally run on DOS in 1994, Lode Runner The Legend Returns is actually two games in one on the PlayStation, with Lode Runner Extra as the second game on the disc. Each game will put you in control of Jake Peril, the bold adventurer in search of fame and fortune. If you haven't played Lode Runner before, the game is simple: Collect all the gold and escape in one piece. Easier said than done, however. The first few levels should be easy enough, but things start getting hairy when the Mad Monks appear in their blood-red colors, eager to eat your flesh. They will follow your movements to a point, but will lose track of you if you hide in one of the holes in the wall, and can have their movements reset if you punch a hole through the ground or better yet, blow them to smithereens with a bomb. Still, enemy AI is governed by a similar algorithm used in the original Lode Runner, one that does not necessarily move each enemy in the shortest path to your character a la Pac Man, but a rather confusing set of movements that are necessary to understand as you move deeper into the game. Advancing through each level takes both patience and a quick mind. You'll often have to think on your feet and make some pretty awkward escapes sometimes, and you'll often thank the developers for being generous enough to grant you an extra life each time you advance to the next level. If you think you'd be up to it, there is also a level designer, but with over 150 levels of puzzle game greatness, I'm not so sure I'd use it until I was done with what creator Doug Smith throws at me. A rebirth of a classic game similar to what Pitfall went through from its Atari days, and a classic example of video game programming, Lode Runner's exotic environments and classic puzzle gameplay will challenge your mind just as much as it did on the NES or any kind of personal computer in those days.