Download Boulder Dash

Back in 1984, the Olympic year when first all the greatest winter athletes met in Sarajevo and later all the greatest summer athletes met in Los Angeles, is also the year that brought us one of the most enjoyable classics. There are still many clones of this game out there today.

Boulder Dash is a game that combines quick reflexes with problem solving skills. It’s also a great timewaster and many people will not be able (or just simply won’t permit themselves to do so) to tell you just how many days have been thrown away playing this gem!

The premise is very simple. You’re a little critter who seems to be underground eating away chunks of the soil in order to collect the natural treasures that are to be found. But woe is me; there are huge boulders in the ground which can fall on your head if you undermine their stability. Lucky for you, you can easily see them and if you dig straight under them they won’t fall just yet (only when there’s enough space between you and them). You can also (if you’ve cleared away enough land) push these boulders sideways, otherwise it would be too easy to get stuck between (dare I say it) a rock and a boulder (I dared). There are also other things you need to watch out for and you always need to get to a certain blinking square that will take you to the next level (needless to say, every new level is harder).

The game uses only the 4 colors of the CGA palette and even in Tandy mode you can’t get it to appear any better, but the sound in the Tandy mode does sound somewhat more pleasurable (unfortunately there’s a noise that will ruin the game for you, if you play under the Tandy mode). The controls are simple and effective (shift is the trigger and you move and change the menu options with the directional keys) and the speed of the game is just right even if you don’t slow down the DOSBox cycles.

So there you go, now dash of to Boulder Dash!

Part of The 16 Bit Pocket Power Collection