How to play Boulder Dash online
- Move Rockford and dig: arrow keys
- Grab or dig next to you without moving: hold Space and press an arrow key
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
Gameplay
You play Rockford, who digs through underground caves in search of diamonds. Each cave is a grid of dirt, rock and walls. As you dig, you leave empty tunnels behind, and anything above them may fall: boulders and diamonds drop when the dirt beneath them is gone, and a falling boulder will crush Rockford. Collect the required number of diamonds before the time runs out and the exit opens. Walk through it to finish the cave.
The caves are also home to creatures. Fireflies and butterflies patrol the tunnels, and a spreading amoeba can fill whole areas. They are not only dangers but also tools: drop a boulder on a butterfly, for example, and it turns into diamonds.
According to its makers, this version includes all 16 caves and 4 bonus intermissions of the original game, each playable at five difficulty levels, which gives more than 80 different levels.
Tips
- Never stand under a loose boulder. If you dig out the dirt below one, step aside at once.
- Look for butterflies. In some caves they are the main source of diamonds, so plan where to drop a rock on them.
- Watch the clock. Every cave is timed, so plan your route before you start digging.
About this version
The original Boulder Dash was created by Peter Liepa and Chris Gray and came out for the Atari 8-bit computers in 1984. Bringing it to the 2600, with its 128 bytes of memory, meant using advanced bank switching to get around the console’s limits. Davie and Jentzsch set out to match the original’s gameplay, timing, graphics and sound as closely as the hardware allows. Both were already well known in the 2600 homebrew scene: Davie made Qb and Jentzsch made Thrust+ before this project.