Lode Runner - 250 Levels
Platform: Commodore 64
Gametype: Undefined
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Description

Lode Runner ist an outstanding platform game, where gold treasures need to be collected in 150 levels in two difficulty stages. Up to 5 enemies try to make it hard for you. You can run, use the ladders, climb along the bars and collect treasures. As soon as you have collected all the boxes, a melody rings and up until now invisible ladders can appear. If you have reached the most upper line of the screen, you will get into the next level. You cannot jump, but you carry a weapon with you, with which you can dissolve the bricks for a certain time. No matter how far you will fall, you cannot get hurt. There is no time limit but the guards which reappear after their death keep you busy.

The game engine is astonishingly fluent, so you can e.g. press the joystick right and up and your man will walk to the right until it reaches a ladder and will then head up without any additional joystick movement. Another feature is the game editor, with which you can format an empty disk with the the Lode Runner format and save up to 150 self-made levels. You can copy or move whole levels, and the professional version even allows you to create levels with automatic gamesets.

Design

The game shows a typical side platform view on one screen. Every screen consists of a black background, red (or blue) stones and walls, white ladders and poles and mint coloured guards. Your man and the guards are the only animated parts in every screen, so the atmosphere is calm. There is no background music, which adds to the calm atmosphere. Selective sound effects can be heard when collecting treasures, creating traps in the walls, while falling, when all treasures have been collected and the level can be exited and when you lose a life.

Hints

The game can be controlled by the joystick in port 2. The man is moved by pressing the joystick in the corresponding direction. By pressing left/right + fire the field left or right of the man is dissolved and a hole appears.

Special keyboard operations

(CONTROL is on the C64 emulators VICE and CCS64 the TAB key on the PC keyboard)
CONTROL+A	kill the character (when you're stuck...)
CONTROL+D	switch bomb shot (in front or behind you)
CONTROL+R	reset (end game)
CONTROL+J	joystick - operation on
CONTROL+K	keyboard - operation on:

I	up
K	down
J	left
L	right
U	dig left
O	dig right
CONTROL-R	end game - start demo
CONTROL-Z	switches the level scrolling on and off (eye on and off)
Minus "-"	lowers game speed
Plus "+"	accelerates game speed
RETURN (during the demo)	shows highscore list
Run/Stop (TAB in C64S)	pause

Points

Level complete	1.500 points
Collect box of gold	250 points
Guard falls into trap	75 points
Guard dies in trap	75 points

Cheats

(Hint: After using the cheat the player cannot enter the highscore)
CONTROL+F	each 1 extra life
CONTROL+U	level jump

Versions

Lode Runner was released in 6 different versions for the C64:

Lode Runner (disk version) 150 levels, 2 grades of difficulty, game editor
Lode Runner (datasette version) an excerpt of 16 levels from the disk version. The execution speed is a bit slower. With the game editor sets of 16 levels can be saved. The different title screen and different keys for the functios need to be mentioned.
Lode Runner II (disk version) As in Lode Runner 1 there are 150 levels in 2 grades of difficulty and a game editor. The colours of the bricks is fully kept in blue instead of red.
Championship Lode Runner a very difficult set of 50 levels, which need more than to be able to play through the 300 levels (150 per grade of difficulty) of one of the previous versions on one evening.
Professional Lode Runner is a special version of the Lode Runner 1 disk version, with which you can create an own executable game set.
Lode Runner Rescue is a 3D version of Lode Runner
Lode Runner has been preserved in almost all versions for the C64 - unfortunately, for Lode Runner 2 the most levels have been lost.

Edit mode

Start by pressing CONTROL-E in the demo mode
General
CONTROL-S	saves the level
CONTROL-Q	exits the editor
C	delete level
E	edit level
I	create data disk
M	move level
P	play level
S	delete highscore
Moving
I	up
M	down
J	left
K	right
I	line up
M	line down

Objects
0	empty
1	brick
2	solid wall
3	ladder
4	pole
5	trap door
6	ladder at the end of the level
7	box of gold
8	guard
9	player
Limits: only one player and 1 to 5 guards


http://www.c64-wiki.com/index.php/Lode_Runner
