Boulder Dash, BBC Micro

The BBC Micro conversion of Peter Liepa and Chris Gray‘s classic Boulder Dash was programmed by Andrew Bennett and published by Tynesoft in 1988. And I don’t know what it is about this port, but there is something wholly unsatisfactory about it.

Maybe it’s the overly-responsive controls, that often ruin a game? Or maybe it’s the headache-inducing, garish colours? Or the shocking lack of time given to you on most levels? Or a combination of all those things? Whatever it is that’s wrong with this conversion: the BBC port of this amazing game is somehow very frustrating to play.

I generally love playing Boulder Dash, but this made me tear my hair out. And not in a good way. It’s another example of a programmer not really understanding how to capture the essence of a great game and ballsing it up.

If you’re going to play Boulder Dash: there are so many other better versions out there. The Commodore 64 or Atari 8-bit versions are probably the best place to start. Give this failed BBC Micro effort a miss.