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.
(more…)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
@Harmonix Sues Viacom, Goes Solo
Thing is, the only distribution channels that would fit indies (developers not backed up by a publisher) are the digital distribution ones: Steam, Desura, GOG. Those, however, are for the PC …
It’ll be tough for Harmonix.
@ “Price Fixing” Suit Vs. EA
… who plays NFL? [strike that, Jonah mentioned students in their dorms] And wasn’t the controlling of prices the whole idea of “exclusive license”?
Why isn’t there a similar suit against NFL? I mean they issued the exclusive license, right?
@Super Meat Boy Canceled for WiiWare
Ha! Don would have the guts to tell the right words there … Still, Derrick slipping them out once in a while is still funny.
Anyway, Team Meat did the right choice. There are different constraints from PC/XBox to Wii.
@PSN Still Not Turning a Profit:
This is not news, why did you have this in the news section … ?
Derrick, Jonah, Steam accounts are also free. And the features for it are … well, something any digital distributor would drool over.
@Question of the week:
I expect the rise of the indies. I mean currently the big news is coming from big developers/publishers. I’m hoping this will change in 2011 and we’ll see more news related to indies. Minecraft, Super Meat Boy, stuff like that.
@Harmonix Sues Viacom, Goes Solo
Thing is, the only distribution channels that would fit indies (developers not backed up by a publisher) are the digital distribution ones: Steam, Desura, GOG. Those, however, are for the PC …
It’ll be tough for Harmonix.
@ “Price Fixing” Suit Vs. EA
… who plays NFL? [strike that, Jonah mentioned students in their dorms] And wasn’t the controlling of prices the whole idea of “exclusive license”?
Why isn’t there a similar suit against NFL? I mean they issued the exclusive license, right?
@Super Meat Boy Canceled for WiiWare
Ha! Don would have the guts to tell the right words there … Still, Derrick slipping them out once in a while is still funny.
Anyway, Team Meat did the right choice. There are different constraints from PC/XBox to Wii.
@PSN Still Not Turning a Profit:
This is not news, why did you have this in the news section … ?
Derrick, Jonah, Steam accounts are also free. And the features for it are … well, something any digital distributor would drool over.
@Question of the week:
I expect the rise of the indies. I mean currently the big news is coming from big developers/publishers. I’m hoping this will change in 2011 and we’ll see more news related to indies. Minecraft, Super Meat Boy, stuff like that.
Long-time listener, first time writer. I can’t wait for The Sims Medieval. It’s like The Sims, but in the Middle Ages. Can’t wait, can’t wait, can’t wait.
Long-time listener, first time writer. I can’t wait for The Sims Medieval. It’s like The Sims, but in the Middle Ages. Can’t wait, can’t wait, can’t wait.
Shame, I was looking forward to playing Super Meat Boy on the Wii.
Shame, I was looking forward to playing Super Meat Boy on the Wii.