Lode Runner — stories left

When Smith came to Japan for the 1985 event described elsewhere, he said in an interview: "Thanks to it I got a house with 4 bedrooms and a pool, a motorboat, and 2 Porsches."

Smith submitted a rough version to Broderbund around October 1982 and received a short rejection letter which said "Thank you for submitting your game concept.

Softline in 1983 praised Lode Runner, calling it "smooth, thoughtful, and quite addictive".

Computer Gaming World praised Lode Runners unusually easy-to-use level editor and the strategy necessary for an arcade title, describing it as "one of the few thinking men's arcade games".

Ahoy! in 1984 called it "a top-notch action game that requires both a quick mind and an agile joystick".

The Commodore 64 Home Companion said "there's lots of education hidden in" the level editor, concluding Lode Runner "is one of the first of a new breed of computer game that lets the player be a creator".

In 1986, Ahoy! described the Commodore 64 version's graphics as "sparse, but attractive" with "evocatively animated" characters.

In 1984, Lode Runner was awarded "1984 Computer Game of the Year" at the 5th annual Arkie Awards.

Judges praised its "outstanding design", and described it as "fascinating", "irresistible", and as "the thinking player's climbing conquest".

GameSpot named Lode Runner as one of the "Greatest Games of All Time".

In 2010, Time rated Lode Runner #1 in "The 10 Greatest Games for the Apple II" list.

Tetris designer Alexey Pajitnov stated in 2008 that Lode Runner was his favorite puzzle game for many years.

Bandai's first Game Boy title.

However, around the time the console launched, Nintendo approached Hudson about developing Family BASIC — one of the 1 peripherals — which led Hudson to enter the Family Computer market; in 1984/7, Nuts & Milk and Lode Runner were released as the first third-party titles.

At the University of Washington in 1981, Bratsanos took Fortran classes and, with fellow student Tracy Steinbeck, began porting Suicide to the university's computers; first to a Prime Computer 550 minicomputer limited to one building on the UW campus, then to VAX minicomputers, which had more terminals available on campus.

The published game would retain this level editor, becoming one of the first to allow players to extend the gameplay with their own content.

The Commodore 64 Home Companion said "there's lots of education hidden in" the level editor, concluding Lode Runner "is one of the first of a new breed of computer game that lets the player be a creator".

Orson Scott Card wrote in Compute! in 1989 that its editor was the first game which let him and his family express their creativity through gaming.

It went on to be Japan's ninth highest-grossing table arcade game during the first half of 1986.

Another title, Battle Lode Runner, was originally exclusive to Japan, but made available on 23 April 2007 as the first Japan-only game to appear on Nintendo's Virtual Console service.

There is also a Cubic Lode Runner, a 3-D Lode Runner variant released only in Japan for the GameCube and PlayStation 2.

The NES version, developed by Hudson Soft, marked the first appearance of Bombermen as the opposing robots.

The import price in Japan was around 11,000 yen.

Sales at that point were about 150,000 copies in the United States and about 2,000,000 copies in Japan (including the Famicom version).

Cumulative shipments in Japan were 1,100,000 copies.

The stages in the 2-player mode are made up of entries solicited from users immediately after the previous game's release.

It was Broderbund's second best-selling Commodore game as of late 1987, and sales had surpassed 300,000 copies by August 1984.

By 1985, the game had sold just as many copies in Japan. , Hudson Soft's Famicom (NES) version had sold about 1.5 million cartridges in Japan and all versions of the game had sold over 3 million units worldwide, including more than 2 million sales in Japan alone.

In 2017 Tozai Games released Lode Runner Legacy which contains several versions of the game; one which stays nearly 100% faithful to the original game in both graphics and sound, others that have newly designed levels, a more cartoonish graphic approach with modern effects and sounds, and one version having co-op gameplay.

It was Broderbund's second best-selling Commodore game as of late 1987, and sales had surpassed 300,000 copies by August 1984.

Softline in 1983 praised Lode Runner, calling it "smooth, thoughtful, and quite addictive".

Computer Gaming World praised Lode Runners unusually easy-to-use level editor and the strategy necessary for an arcade title, describing it as "one of the few thinking men's arcade games".

The magazine praised the IBM PC version's graphics, increasingly difficult level design, and the level editor.

Video magazine reported that it was the 6th best-selling recreational title in March and April of 1985.

Judges praised its "outstanding design", and described it as "fascinating", "irresistible", and as "the thinking player's climbing conquest".

The game was renamed Kong following the release of Nintendo's arcade platformer Donkey Kong that year, and evolved the concepts of Suicide while still using ASCII character graphics.

Following requests of his nephew, Smith recreated a crude, playable version of Kong in 6502 assembly language on an Apple II Plus over one weekend in 1982, and renamed the game Miner.

Lode Runner was originally released on June 23, 1983.

Lode Runner Online: The Mad Monks' Revenge, the 1995 remake which replaced all the elements of the previous games and added online play.

Another title, Battle Lode Runner, was originally exclusive to Japan, but made available on 23 April 2007 as the first Japan-only game to appear on Nintendo's Virtual Console service.

In Japan, Game Machine listed Lode Runner on their August 1, 1984 issue as being the most successful table arcade cabinet of the month.

In Japan, Game Machine listed Lode Runner: The Bungeling Strikes Back on their March 1, 1985 issue as the seventh most successful table arcade unit of the month.

In Japan, Game Machine listed it on their December 15, 1985 issue as the top-grossing table arcade unit during that month.

Broderbund released an enhanced version, Championship Lode Runner, in 1985, with 50 levels and a higher difficulty.

The magazine praised the IBM PC version's graphics, increasingly difficult level design, and the level editor.

An unreleased version of the game for the Atari Lynx was discovered in 2008 on an old Atari Corp. hard drive.

It was announced as being made in partnership between Intellivision Entertainment and Tozai Games, however after the sale of the Intellivision IP to Atari in 2024, there has been no news on whether the game has continued or cancelled development.

The manual for the Sega version of Championship Lode Runner has a character introduction page, which states that the protagonist is a member of the Galactic Patrol named Keen and that the enemy characters are guards of the Bungeling Empire. This game's manual only calls the protagonist the "player" and the enemy characters the "enemies".

The Famicom version was released by Hudson Soft in 1984 (North American NES release in 1986) and became one of the earliest third-party games made for that system.