Boulderland

Boulderland is a Boulder Dash clone. It supports keyboard and joystick controls. There is an in-built editor, and a "replay" feature. Twenty standard levels are included, but there is support for up to 999.

The main gameplay involves collecting a certain number of giant red gems and then, when the right number has been collected, heading to the exit to complete the level and move on to the next one, all within the time limit. You use the cursor keys or the joystick to move, but if you move while holding down the left shift key (or the joystick button), you can affect the tile in that direction actually moving into that position. The main complication is boulders: when each level starts the boulders are supported by the ground underneath them, but as you dig through the level to get to the gems, eventually you will need to dig directly underneath a boulder, leaving an empty space underneath it. Since it is no longer supported by anything, it will start to fall. If a falling boulder lands on you, you lose a life. You can push a boulder left or right, but only if there is an empty space on the other side, and only if it is not currently falling.

Then there are other game mechanics familiar to those who have played other versions and variants of Boulder Dash: monsters that move around inside empty space, and explode if you touch them, or a boulder falls on them; a self-replicating amoeba that expands until it is completely trapped, then transforms into gems; a type of magical wall that transforms falling boulders into gems, if there is empty space underneath it; a wall with a gap that closes up as you dig through it; and so on.

Boulderland also adds some new mechanics of its own, such as bubbles that you can burst (using numeric keys 4/8/6/2 for left/up/right/down) and bombs that you can collect then deploy (also using the numeric keys).