Boulder Dash was a popular computer game in the 80's. Originally written by Peter Liepa for the Atari 400 and 800 computers, it featured an miner in a cave who had to collect diamonds, in a strict time limit.

While the object of each short level was to collect diamonds while avoiding being smashed by huge boulders, the game came up with a, IMHO, great combination of puzzle and action, thanks to extra elements in the game.

The game have been ported for every computer platform and their cousins, sometimes officially, keeping its name and levels as in the original game, sometimes unofficially, giving raise to similar games, with different levels.

Actually, you can still play it out of an emulator. Major linux distributions include a game called Rocks'n'Diamonds by artsoft entertainment which provides all the original Boulder Dash, with due credit, while extending the game elements and levels.

I had seen other clones/copies running on X11 but for the moment I can only recall xbd, an Open Source project of which I got hold of a binary copy for windows 3.1 in the early 90's.

I first knew Boulder Dash in a ZX Spectrum clone, were it featured great music (though opening music only), and the diamonds were crafted in a sparkingly shiny way. Actually, they seemed like they had millions of colors thanks to a clever hack of the guy who ported it to the otherwise 8 color computer ZX Spectrum.

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