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Super BoulderDash (Arcade)
Compatibility: 64K Apple II series
Requirements: One disk drive, joystick
Once again as the spelunking Rockford you enter the marvelous sub-surface world of precariously balanced boulders, sparklink diamonds, and explosive fireflies. Your primary objective in each of Boulderdash II's sixteen new caves is to reach the exit without being crushed, blown-up, or trapped, until finally you reach the surface.
If you are unacquainted with magic butterflies and other denizens of the depths, then you will want to start with the original game. The Electric Arts Super Boulderdash package offers both versions.
To get through a cave you tunnel through the earth, racing against time to collect diamonds which vanish when touched adding to your score. (Each 500 points gets you an extra life.) When you have the required number of diamonds, the screen flashes once to indicate the exit has opened. Leaving a cave groms points for any time remaining, resets the timer, and viola!, you're in the next cave.
Sounds easy, doesn't it? Well, there are good reasons why every quick-sticking kid on the block isn't a "Boulderdash" master. First, the earth is full of boulders strung out and stacked in various, often hair trigger, patterns. Single boulders can be pushed along a tunnel; and some clever undermining can drop whole columns; but a falling boulder or diamond squashes Rockford like a toad.
Even more troublesome are the pyrotechnic insects which seem especially attracted to tunnels. Touch any of these and you can scratch one life. They are, however, liable to ignition via dropped boulders and very handy for blowing holes in otherwise impassable walls.
Each cave offers one or more puzzles of varying complexity. Starting off these are simple and limited in scope (e.g. how to get through a wall to collect some needed diamonds). Later caves produce more involved challenges, such as what to do about a tunnel filling amoeba.
The principal attraction of Boulderdash II is its somewhat more complex, more entertaining brain teasers. Finally, you do not have forever to figure out what's going on. Running out of time, like getting mashed, forces a fresh start in a cave.
Though the continued failure to maintain an on-disk high scores record is disappointing, Boulderdash remains an excellent entertainment value with wide appeal. Time pressure is not severe so success depends as much upon a feeling for the game's physics and puzzle busting as upon arcade skills. The game is fun, however, largely because the mechanics are fun. Featuring responsive controls, good sound, and superb graphics, Boulderdash II elevates an arcade favorite to the status of a computer gaming classic.
Available from Electronic Arts: 2755 Campus Drive, San Mateo, CA 94403. (415) 571-7171. $39.95
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