Back in 1985 Bounder was a fresh idea, like a bolt out of the blue to gamers… It’s an overhead ball/maze game where the maze is miles above the ground, and the idea is to make sure the ball bounces on the platforms of the maze, and not in the air.

Bouncing when you’re in the air will result in a long fall to the ground below, and a lost life. So you have to judge the timing of bounces using a combination of rhythm, and also of sight (since you can see in the ball animation where it is in the bounce).

It’s like an overhead platform game with a bouncing ball. Very weird, but also unique and extremely well presented. Bounder is a retro-gaming classic on the Commodore 64.

A sequel, called Re-Bounder, was released by publisher Gremlin in 1987.

More: Bounder on Wikipedia