Reviews

Interesting Boulder Dash style game that came free on Issue 16 on Spectrum Computing magazine. The game was written in BASIC and I must honestly say that I didn't expect this to be much but it's actually pretty good. Of course it's not as good as Boulder Dash and some of the other clones but it's still a nice game to try out.

1985 Spectrum Computing (UK)
by Pete Cooke

I may shock people by saying I rather play this game than the original Boulder Dash. But it's absolutely true. I love the fact that there aren't any screen scrolling bits, specially the awful ones found in the original B.D. This makes the game more arcade than ever. In fact this game seems like a miniature version of the original, because it plays and works very similar, but without the scrolling bit.

The game is only partially written in BASIC, the presentation, instructions and designing bits, the rest is in code, but graphically it's in fact very BASIC-ish. That doesn't spoil the game a bit, which is, by the way, great fun.

20 Tons of excellence ... that´s what I say ! ! !

5 / 5 .

Author Pete Cooke had a few doodles amongst his early software releases and this Boulder Dash clone coded in Basic and Machine Code is one of them. Cute UDGs and clever puzzles prop up this clone which suffers from timing issues brought about by the stuttering movement.

It lacks polish - indeed polish wasn't attempted. It's playable though, and even includes a level designer.

It's a decent BASIC game, there are far worse BASIC games on the Spectrum and there are far worse games have shamefully disgraced on magazine covertapes compared to this one, but I rather lost interest in it quickly than I hoped. It responds well and plays rather nicely, but you only have one life and unless I'm missing something, and no instructions don't help, some of the rings can become trapped between the weights and thus be unobtainable and thus you can't progress further, which becomes a pain. Shame, because it's one of the nicer BASIC games you can find.

A sort of single-screen Boulder Dash-styled game where you have to pick up rings avoiding 20 Tons weights (hence the name).

As long as Boulder Dash clones go, this is a particularly bad example. Everything is UDG-sized, there are no variations in color and graphics between screens, sound is absent save for a fart-like noise the main character emits while moving (maybe that's how he leaves an empty space behind him) and a couple of beeps. You would not believe this stuff was made by the same man behind Tau Ceti, Academy, Micronaut One, Earthlight etc. 3/10