Boulder Dash® is a classic video game starring Rockford™, famous for his blinking eyes and foot tapping. Once you are hooked, you keep coming back to this game for more, it’s so much fun, easy to learn; but, difficult to master! In 2011 Boulder Dash became part of the Smithsonian’s Exhibit: “The Art of Videogames”!
Created by Peter Liepa with Chris Gray, two Canadians, Boulder Dash® was initially published by New York publisher, First Star Software, Inc. The unfinished game was submitted to First Star Software, Inc. as well as all of the other major publishers of that era. It just so happened that the submission disk was opened by Richard M. Spitalny, a co-founder and the president of First Star Software, Inc. He was the first one at the company to play the game and, though unfinished, he was immediately struck by the game’s deceptive simplicity. He was hooked almost immediately!
Though the graphics were a bit blocky, the caves were easy to navigate due to the excellent joystick controls and they ramped up in difficulty at just the right pace. He quickly felt that even though he might fail at clearing a given cave it was due to his mistakes rather than things speeding up which was a common way to increase difficulty back in 1983. He quickly struck a deal with Peter Liepa; and, on October 28, 1983, First Star Software, Inc. purchased all rights to the Boulder Dash® intellectual property in return for an advance against on-going royalty participation by Peter and Chris.
The gamer was enabled with the ability to grab, push, or dig from a stationary position in order to more easily collect diamonds while avoiding enemies or falling boulders, a feature that really added to the excitement of the game. Additionally, when positioning boulders so that they fell through magic walls, the boulders would turn into diamonds. When boulders fell on Fireflies, the Fireflies exploded barriers. If Butterflies were likewise killed by falling boulders, they too exploded, each turning into as many as 9 diamonds! The ever growing Amoeba, another in-game enemy, if not completely surrounded in time, turned entirely into boulders. But, if fully surrounded in time, an Amoeba turned entirely into diamonds!
