Lode Runner, a game many of us logged hundreds of hours upon. Lode Runner has a great deal of replay value thanks to its great map editor. The game was first published by Broderbund in 1983, but was first prototyped by Douglas Smith, an architecture student at the University of Washington.
The Lode Runner prototype was called Kong and was originally written for a Prime Computer 550 minicomputer on campus, but shortly after it was ported to the VAX minicomputer. Originally programmed in FORTRAN and utilized only ASCII character graphics (the most basic of characters).
In September of 1982 Smith was able to port it to the Apple II+ (in assembly language) and renamed it to Miner. In October of that same year he submitted a rough copy to Broderbund and he’s said to have received a one-line rejection letter, “Sorry, your game doesn’t fit into our product line; please feel free to submit future products.”
The original title had no joystick support and was developed in full black and white…not exactly exciting. So, Smith then borrowed money to purchase a color monitor and joystick and continued to improve the game. Around Christmas of 1982, he submitted the game, now renamed Lode Runner, to four publishers and quickly received offers from all four: Sierra, Sirius, Synergistic, and Brøderbund.
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Portable Xbox Device Coming?
The break points for me tend to be
40.00 or under new. I has to be on a console I own already or for PC. It has to have a rating among gamers of 8 or better. By gamers I mean people who really play the game and wrote about it on their blog or tell me about it somehow. People who got it because it interested them not people who write for Game Marketing sites and get free copies or one that is passed around the office.
I’ve been a PC gamer all my life – when I bought the Xbox, it was a $600 bundle – and the reason I bought it was twofold:
1. it had a hard drive
2. Halo
I bought the 360 because of my Live account.
Now, I first got back into console gaming with the Dreamcast, when it was being sold for $60. The funny thing is, software was still being made for it, so I was buying stuff like NBA 2K1 and NBA 2K2, and playing it even though I had an Xbox.
Hey I’m from Cooktown, australia and love listening to ur podcast, when i’m working in excel. I used to be a real PS2 fan boy and i used to always say i’ll neva go to microsoft… But then PS3 and the 360 came out and i didnt know what to do, so i kept my ps2 4 a while pretending that the epic age of ps2 wasnt over. But after getting caught onto halo at my friends and seeing such a community on xbox live … i got converted =/ (final fantasy going to 360 played a big role) but i still wanted the ps3, but when i saved enuf dough 4 the ps3 what did i do….. i got a 81cm samsung LCD. Sony disappoints me with there system i just dont think its worth the price
=[. P.S say hi to me in ya next podcast =p
Depends on what desire lvl of the game is at. if its on the “LIST” i just buy it even if its $120 but if its a game i’m interested in, but dont wanna spend $99+ on i’d say $50 (making me a sucker for 49.95 deals =p)
The market for gaming is sick! But if you compare to my generation the NES days, prices are pretty comparable if not even better for what your getting. Anyone remember the turbo graphics 16…lol