Kotaku
Hello, and welcome to Arcade Flyer Art Saturday at its new prime time! You can look forward to seeing it at this same time each week from here on out. This week's offering is the arcade version of Broderbund's PC classic, Lode Runner.
Broderbund came out with the Lode Runner arcade machine in 1984 as a direct response to the popularity of their PC version of the game. This was particularly notable since at the time, most games started as arcade games before eventually being ported to home consoles and computers. The home version of the game was also one of the first to include a level editor.
The gameplay consisted of running your little man through a series of mazes while collecting gold coins (sound familiar?). The mazes were made up of bricks and dirt and could be navigated using various ladders and ropes or by blasting holes through the walls with your blaster. As you can probably guess, your progress is impeded by a retinue of various monsters that change from level to level. Once all gold coins are recovered, an escape ladder lowers allowing the player to climb to victory and the next maze level. But don't lollygag! Each level is timed and if you don't get up that ladder before the timer runs out, it's game over.
While this flyer isn't as hilarious or mind bending as some, it does have some great points. At the time I'm sure those quotes from such hot magazines as Sky were impressive but on looking at the graphics of the game it's hard not to snicker a little. "The game of the year. Further proof that gamers' tastes are growing more sophisticated as the hobby matures." Sounds like something you could read in any game magazine or blog today. "Light years away from the simplistic arcade games of two years ago." Apparently "light years" referred to the inclusion of "shadows" underneath each level giving it that awesome 3D appearance.
I am also always amazed by the translation of a 2D 8-bit game into the "real life" drawings. So that's what that squishy little green block with a white head would look like if it was a real person! Amazing!
Flyer courtesy TAFA
Comments
Haven't had much experience with this franchise, but I had downloaded the TG-16 Battle Lode Runner for Virtual Console. It's fun, but can be a bit frustrating (later levels, at least).
Interesting poster. Wow, EGM sure has been around for quite a while...
please please someone please photoshop this to say load runner and give them brown costumes!
'growing more as the hobby matures'
that's hot.
@The BPM Scrolls IV - Knights of the Nine: "Wow, EGM sure has been around for quite a while..."
That's a different magazine. This is Electronic Games Magazine, not Electronic Gaming Monthly. Electronic Games still owes me a three year subscription I purchased just before they closed shop. Dammit! So bitter.
"...blasting holes through the walls with your blaster"
Floors, buddy, not walls.
I like the original art a lot more.
[www.mobygames.com]
Lode Runner was one of my favourite games as a kid. Good times. And the level editor was great, adding tons of replayablilty.
It's one of my personal measures of how far video games have come that the picture on the box now looks pretty close to the game inside.
GOTY indeed. I think Lode Runner is the pinnacle of gaming technology. Maybe someday in the future we'll see "3-D" video games, but not until 2010 at the earliest. Of course, by then, we'll need an entire megabyte of RAM to render even the simplest of games, so only the wealthiest will be able to play them.
@xot:
Aha, guess I didn't read too closely. :P
I think I played Lode Runner on an Apple IIE when I was in junior high.
The arcade conversion of Lode Runner was probably the worst of the ports at the time, funny that.
I played Lode Runner to death on the C-64 and Apple II... good times!
That flyer art looks similar to the first MegaMan (Rockman) box art. Wonder if it's the same artist.
Now there's an arcade game that should be revived... just think of it, usb-supported edits that you make on a PC version? Hell it worked for DDR.
I played this on the old, old, old, gameboy. I really enjoyed it but I was too young to finish most of the levels good thing you can change the levels.
[i]I am also always amazed by the translation of a 2D 8-bit game into the "real life" drawings. So that's what that squishy little green block with a white head would look like if it was a real person[/i]
My thoughts exactly, when I saw the cover art. Thanks for posting.
sorry for square brackets
Electronic Games was edited and written by a staff largely composed of those who would later become Video Games & Computer Entertainment magazine. Interestingly, I noticed a writer from the golden era, who wrote for those magazines, Howard H. Wen, is writing for The Escapist now.
I love this one for the reference to two years passing making such a quantum leap in gaming terms. I'm hoping the next GFPS (generic first person shooter, of course) promotes itself that way; "Light years away form the first person shooter you pleayed two years ago!"
I remember playing this game on the PC when I was like 12 years old. Awesome!
I remember playing this game when I was really young and getting frustrated by the difficulty. I think that was back in 1989.
Lode Runner was one of my first/favorite games for my PC in the 80s, on 5.25" floppy. It had a level editor, which for its time is pretty cool.
Lode Runner was a game that haunted me just due to how insanely hard it got later on. D:
Not to mention the countless times Ive fucking trapped myself with a poorly placed hole. D:
The arcade version of Lode Runner, as mentioned earlier, was NOT a good translation of the original Apple II game.
The graphics were changed, the control was too stiff, and the gameplay was closer to Championship Lode Runner (ie, you died a lot quicker). If memory serves, you couldn't play that long on a single quarter no matter how good you were at this game.
Broderbund also gave the arcade treatment to their Choplifter game, and it was another bad translation. Again, stiff control, updated graphics, and gameplay was made more difficult than the version upon which it was based.
On a side note, Lode Runner is resurfacing. Look for an updated version to appear on XBLA.
@Eltigro: @Starcade: I too used to love me some Lode Runner on the Aplle ][ (not II) E. Throw in some Prince of Persia, Karateka, and Spy Hunter and you have my entire childhood.
@COLDBLOODED_BMC:
Oh, man, Karateka was the absolute shit. Until that fucking eagle came in ...
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