The ColecoVision port of Bill Hogue‘s pioneering and influential Atari 8-Bit platform game, Miner 2049er, was programmed by Mike Livesay and published by Micro Fun in 1983. It is an excellent game, but it is arguably way too difficult for its own good.

The biggest issue players will have with it is the time limit, which is so tight that you can’t hang around, looking to plan your route. Even if you do have a plan, and execute it well, you’ll do well to complete any of the levels bar the first one. And there are ten screens in total. Unless you know the game inside-out, you’ll be lucky if you see more than the first two screens…

Even with pause (to hold the timer and study a level), and quicksaves, Miner 2049er is incredibly difficult. It would’ve benefited from having multiple difficulty settings, giving you a bit more time on lower difficulties, but there’s only one setting and that is set to ‘damn hard‘.

And – as if the timer issue wasn’t enough – it’s also fairly easy to end up in a situation where you can’t complete a level because you walked onto the wrong platform. If you fall too far you’ll also lose a life. Miner 2049er truly is a beast of a game and the three lives you get are barely adequate to make a dent in it.

To be good at Miner 2049er you need to know exactly which route to take; which items to collect first, and which slides to avoid using until a set point in the level. And you need to move fast, and make no mistakes. It’s all a bit overwhelming to be honest and holds back what is essentially a classic game.

More: Miner 2049er on Wikipedia