Boulder Dash (A8)

Boulder Dash

Platform: Atari 8-bit Year: 1984 Developer: Peter Liepa

Boulder Dash on Atari 8-bit is the very first game in its own genre.

In 1982 or 1983, Chris Gray (then around 14 years old) wrote a game based on The Pit (ARC) in BASIC. He showed it Inhome Software, who liked it, but needed someone to translate it into 6502 machine code. Just then, professional programmer Peter Liepa wanted to get into games, asked Inhome what is in demand, and they connected him with Gray. However, Liepa found Gray's game stiff and short-lived, and Gray himself to have an opposing taste.

Liepa started writing a new game inspired by boulders and earth. After days, he finished the now-famous fake physics. The following six months, he thought about polishing, and did polish two hours a day. Since Inhome wanted a recognizable protagonist, Liepa doubled all tiles to 16×16 pixels and worked hard to scroll smoothly (instead of making caves smaller, as clones would do). Next, he created the protagonist directly in an editor. He never thought about his species ("I suppose in my mind he was kind of a furry smurf"); he much rather wanted him to blink his eyes and tap his foot. Every 500 points, you get a bonus life, and the background shimmers for two seconds.

Inhome had meanwhile vanished, so Liepa searched Byte magazine for American publishers, specifically the close east coast. He sent a disk to First Star Software, whose president was so hooked that he came late for an appointment. First Star collaborated on the difficulty curve, asked for different colors per cave, and conceived intermissions: Every four caves, you get a bonus life and play an optional mini-cave. Gray could only get minor ideas (like the huge title font) through; eventually, lawyers discussed credits and royalties. On October 28, 1983, First Star bought all rights.

Screenshots

Underlined main menu. A star is born. North Americans remember cave B with these colors. Europeans like this. They also saw Rockford come out too late. Everyone's favorite.

Music

Developer Peter Liepa had backgrounds in music and synthesizers, so he was interested and succeeded in designing a full soundtrack and even implementing attack and decay, all suited to the hardware and game experience.

Over the title screen and main menu, an original song loops. In-game, atmospheric sound effects spread over the POKEY chip as follows:

Channel 1	Channel 2	Channel 3	Channel 4
The higher in the cave the sound comes from, the likelier it gets through: Time warning (also twice at the end of time bonus). Boulder drops or impacts. Jewel drops or impacts (at a random pitch). Rockford collects a jewel. Rockford appears, or collects the last jewel so the door opens (with a yellow or white flash).	Rockford walks through earth (loudly) or through air (softly). Uniquely to Boulder Dash (A8), whenever the amoeba grows through earth, it echoes Rockford's last step.	Loops: Cave appears or disappears. According to a fan review, "it sounds like hundreds of birds are singing." Amoeba. Vibrating enchanted wall.	Time bonus. Explosion.

Recording

To record two loops plus 10 seconds, the game was started in Altirra 3.90 with:

1. NTSC.
2. PAL.

#	Title	Composer	Length	Listen	Download
101	Theme	Peter Liepa	0:44		Download

#	Title	Composer	Length	Listen	Download
201	Theme	Peter Liepa	0:51		Download

Credits

• Ripper: ASMA
• Recorder: Professor Chaos
• Game Credits:
  • Not Credited Composer: Peter Liepa
  • Not Credited Arranger: Peter Liepa
  • Not Credited Foley Artist: Peter Liepa
  • Not Credited Programmer: Peter Liepa

(Source: Liepa in interviews. Game lacks audio credits.)

Game Rip

Format	Download
	Download (Info)

Audio Devices

This game uses the computer's built-in POKEY chip. On PAL, all audio is 17% slower.

Releases

USA Title: Boulder Dash Platform: Atari Home Computer 32K Released: 1984-0?-?? Publisher: First Star Software, Inc.     USA Title: Boulder Dash Platform: Atari Home Computers with 32k Released: 198?-??-?? Publisher: First Star Software, Inc.     UK Title: Boulder Dash Platform: Atari32K+ Released: 1985-0?-?? Publisher: Mirrorsoft Ltd.     USA Title: Super BoulderDash Platform: Atari Home Computers; 48K or 64K Released: 1986-0?-?? Publisher: Electronic Arts     Unknown Title: Boulder Dash Platform: Atari 400/800 Released: 19??-??-?? Publisher: Prism Leisure Corporation P.L.C.

Links

• mobygames.com/game/atari-8-bit/boulder-dash - MobyGames.
• mobygames.com/game/atari-8-bit/super-boulder-dash - MobyGames.
• gamefaqs.gamespot.com/atari8bit/996905-boulder-dash - GameFAQs.
• gamefaqs.gamespot.com/atari8bit/278349-super-boulder-dash - GameFAQs.

View Boulder Dash
Boulder Dash	•  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •
Boulder Dash II	•  •  •  •  •
Rockford	•  •  •  •  •  •
Notable Songs	Theme
Notable Personnel	Peter Liepa
Notable Companies	First Star Software