Boulder Dash II, MSX

The MSX version of Boulder Dash II is subtitled “Rockford’s Riot“, which is different to the Commodore 64 version (which is subtitled “Rockford’s Revenge“). It was ported by Orpheus and published by Databyte in 1985.

And, like the excellent MSX Boulder Dash conversion, it is a fantastic port with responsive controls and authentic levels and gameplay. Since both versions were converted by the same company that should come as no surprise.

While the graphics aren’t as good as in the Atari 8-bit original (or the more famous C64 version) Boulder Dash II runs a close second in terms of gameplay and is arguably better than other 8-bit ports. I prefer it to the ZX Spectrum version, for example.

In my mind Boulder Dash II is a great sequel, with sixteen new caves to beat, and rock-solid gameplay (pun intended), and MSX owners should see this as a must-have game in their collection. While Boulder Dash was a cartridge release, this sequel came on disk.