Lode Runner Found and Released!

[Shawn Jefferson]

A long time ago I took the file version of Lode Runner that Kurt had programmed and added a loader to it so that it could be put on a cartridge, but some of the programmers in the lynx community had said that Kurt didn't want it released in that form, so I didn't distribute it to anyone. I should dig it up I guess and post it now. I was also told that Kurt did have a version with sound, and that some people had it.

[Level42]

It's not a port as in a rewrite. It's a port in the sense he took the actual A8 game binary, and modified it to work on the Lynx. Both use the 65c02 processor, so this was a relatively easy (but still quite impressive) task if you were familiar with both A8 hardware and Lynx hardware.

 

That's also why some of the user interface is klunky... he didn't spend time mapping the buttons in the most intuitive way, he just tied A8 keys to Lynx keys so it would work. Patching binaries is a lot of work, I can attest to that firsthand.

 

 

He did port the Champ levels as well, but as I recall it was a separate binary, since he did this all as a RAM load and he couldn't fit both sets of levels in 64KB.

 

Awesome. IMHO many, many more A8 games would deserve this kind of "treatment". Jumpman, Alley Cat, Donkey Kong, Miner2049er, Bounty Bob Strikes Back....to new just a few BRILLIANT games...

 

I don't really understand the 64k limit though....the Lynx can handle unto 512k on cartridge right ?

[Songbird]

Yes, the Lynx can support 512KB cartridge ROM sizes, but of course A8 games are unaware of how the Lynx loads files from the ROM. So I would assume it's easier to port/hack an A8 game which fits entirely within 64KB of RAM, since that is similar to A8 RAM limits and would not require special coding to convert to the Lynx ROM file loading format.

[Level42]

Yeah makes sense

[Level42]

Digging up a very old thread, I know.

 

But since I received the SD card I have of course discovered a lot of "new" games for the Lynx. Of all of them, the one I keep getting back to is Lode Runner.

 

This is a bit amazing for me since I had the game for the A8 BITD and wasn't really a fan of it because I couldn't get the hang of digging on the right side of the player's stick figure.

 

HOWEVER, of course the Lynx has TWO buttons and following this makes it very easy to dig on the correct side (something very essential when timing).

 

Now I got interested in how this game came to be for the Lynx and found this (and some other) threads about it here.

 

What I find really interesting is that the OP of this thread claims the file was found on one of Atari Corp's hard drives but then there is Songbird who says Kurt Olsen made this early 1996. Atari Corp. in 1996 was something like one guy who picked up the phone but not much more until the JTS "merger"......so how did this end up on one of Atari Corp's HD's I wonder. Not saying it was impossible, but it's not very likely either. I mean, Atari had stopped all Lynx development around 1992 AFAIK....so it's not very likely Kurt Olsen sent it in to them to have it released by Atari.....

 

Something else I noticed: The title screen as pictured by the OP has only the name of the game and Doug Smith copyright, but the version I have downloaded "somewhere" has the full Broderbund logo. Feels like something was deleted for the Video61 release to prevent some problems....

 

In fact, I'm very sure video61 simply doesn't have any rights to sell this game. The copyrights of Lode Runner is with Tozai Games at the moment (http://www.loderunnerclassic.com ).

Edited September 17, 2016 by Level42

[Shawn Jefferson]

I doubt they have the rights to this game as well.