Boulder Dash, Amstrad CPC

The Amstrad CPC conversion of Peter Liepa and Chris Gray‘s Boulder Dash is an almost perfect conversion of the classic Atari 8-bit game. The game was published by Mirrorsoft 1985, and converted by Dalali Software Ltd.

Graphically, the game is very similar to the Atari 8-bit original, but with more vivid colours. The scrolling is smooth and the control system is excellent. Pushing boulders seems a little sluggish at times, although I don’t know what the mechanism for moving them is (sometimes boulders move instantly when pushed, at other times it can take up to two seconds before they move, so maybe there’s a random element to push timings).

I would put this Amstrad conversion second only to the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit versions – at least in terms of home computer versions – which is high praise indeed.