The Acorn Archimedes version of Repton 3 is an excellent port of the 8-bit BBC Micro original, with enhanced graphics, responsive controls and a raft of extra levels not seen in the original. From what I can tell it was the only part of the Repton series that was ported to the Archimedes, which is fine because it’s probably the best game in the series.

Repton 3 is a Boulder Dash variant where you dig through soil-filled puzzle mazes collecting diamonds, while avoiding being squashed by falling boulders. Like in Boulder Dash, failure means having to try over and over again until you manage to crack a level and move on to the next.

The Archimedes version of Repton 3 has eighteen different data files to play – each with eight levels (making 144 levels in total); plus, there’s a supplied level editor for making your own levels and data files and distributing/playing them among friends.

What makes Repton 3 playable is the ability to save the game in RAM at any point and therefore quickly re-load when you get stuck or otherwise mess up. Which will happen a lot.

Repton 3 was jointly published by Superior Software and Acornsoft in 1988 and is arguably the premier boulder/digging game on the Archimedes, because I don’t think any of the actual official Boulder Dash games ever made it to the system. So it maybe wins the genre by default.

More: Repton 3 on Wikipedia