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Boulder Dash

aka: Boulder Dash - Starring: Rockford, Boulder Dash Vol. 1, Champion Boulder Dash

Description official descriptions

You are Rockford, and you have to dig through monster infested caves in search of diamonds. In each level you must collect a certain number of these diamonds, in order to open a portal to the next stage. Enemies can be squashed by falling boulders, which are released when the ground below them is removed or they are pushed onto empty ground, but be careful because these can also squash you. In later levels, difficulty is increased by many puzzle elements and shorter time limits.

There are 16 levels to be completed and five different skill levels available, which affect the number of jewels which must be collected and the time limit.

Spellings

  • バルダーダッシγƒ₯ - Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (PC Booter version)

7 People (3 developers, 4 thanks)

Program design by
Original concept by
Thanks to
Documentation graphic design

Reviews

Discussion

Subject User Date
Boulder dash clones Peter Vrenken (0) 2014-01-07 11:19:41

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Boulder Dash appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Amiga

A real Amiga version of Boulder Dash was never released. But Emerald Mine, a close variant for the Amiga, became very popular.

Arcade version

Boulder Dash was so popular on the home computer that it was one of the first home computer games to be ported to the arcades, usually it is the other way around; in that a popular arcade game gets ported to the home systems. The initial Exidy version was simply an Atari 800 in an arcade cabinet, running a slightly modified Atari 8-bit version of the game giving 30 seconds of gameplay per credit. The 1985 Data East DECO version had improved graphics and slight level layout changes due to it's vertical monitor layout.
A later Data East arcade version was released in 1990 with improved graphics and new level layouts.

Atari 2600 port

In 2012 a port to the Atari 2600 was released as homebrew software with support from First Star Software. The programmers Andrew Davie and Thomas Jentzsch worked for almost a decade to port the game completely on the VCS.

Game Art Beyond

In 2018, Boulder Dash was selected as one of the biggest classics on the Commodore 64 by the creators of the C64 graphics collection Game Art Beyond. Boulder Dash was honoured with a high resolution title picture (based on the box artwork) in a special C64 graphics format called NUFLI, along with a new C64 SID interpretation of the Boulder Dash theme.

Awards

  • Commodore Format
    • January 1991 (Issue 4) - Listed in the 'A to Z of Classic Games' article (Great)
  • Retro Gamer
    • October 2004 (Issue #9) – #31 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)
  • Zzap!
    • May 1985 (Issue 1) - #1 'It's the Zzap! 64 Top 64!'
    • January 1990 (Issue 57) – 'The Best Games of the 80's Decade' (Stuart Wynne / Robin Hogg)

Information also contributed by LepricahnsGold

Related Games

Boulder Dash
Released 1990 on Arcade
Boulder Dash II: Rockford's Revenge
Released 1985 on PC Booter, Commodore 64, 2005 on Atari 5200...
Boulder Dash III
Released 1986 on Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC
Boulder Dash-XL
Released 2011 on Windows, Xbox 360, 2013 on Nintendo 3DS...
Boulder Dash: Construction Kit
Released 1987 on Atari ST, DOS, Amiga...
Diner Dash: Sizzle & Serve
Released 2007 on Nintendo DS, PSP
Santas Xmas Dash
Released 2011 on Xbox 360
Santas Xmas Dash 2
Released 2012 on Xbox 360
Monster Bash
Released 1993 on DOS, 2014 on Windows, 2015 on Linux

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 4632

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Rebound Boy.

Epoch Super Cassette Vision added by Rola. PC Booter added by Trixter. iPhone added by Dee96. Atari 2600 added by Jo ST. Intellivision added by William Moeller. Game Boy added by Sciere. FM-7, Electron, BBC Micro added by Kabushi. Wii added by gamewarrior. Arcade added by Pseudo_Intellectual. Atari 8-bit, PC-88 added by Terok Nor. ColecoVision, NES, ZX Spectrum, Apple II, Amstrad CPC added by Servo. Commodore 64 added by wanax. MSX added by koffiepad.

Additional contributors: MAT, formercontrib, Ricky Derocher, Patrick Bregger, Dee96, S Olafsson, Malte Mundt, Jo ST, FatherJack, robMSX.

Last modified February 27th, 2023.