Lode Runner

About Lode Runner

The player controls a human, described as a "Galactic Commando" in the game's manual, who must collect all the gold in a level while avoiding the guards. After collecting all the gold, the player must reach the top of the screen to advance to the next level. There are 150 levels in total, which progressively challenge players' problem-solving abilities or reaction times.

Levels have a multi-story, brick platform motif, with ladders and suspended hand-to-hand bars that offer multiple ways to travel. Guards can pick up gold bars by running over them, but any individual guard cannot carry more than one bar at a time. The player can dig holes into floors to temporarily trap guards and may safely walk over them. If a guard is carrying a bar of gold when he falls into a hole, he will drop it and the player can then pick it up. Holes dug by the player fill in after a short delay. A trapped guard who cannot escape a hole before it fills is consumed and immediately respawns in a random location at the top of the level. Unlike guards, the player's character may not climb out of a hole, and will be killed if it fills before he can escape. Floors may contain trapdoors, through which the player and guards will fall, and bedrock, through which the player cannot dig.

The player can dig a hole only on adjacent sides and may not dig directly beneath. In order to dig through multiple layers of bricks, the player must create a gap whose width is at least equal to the number of layers. However, exceptions to this rule arise when the player digs from the position of standing on a ladder, or hanging from a hand-to-hand bar, which makes it possible to repeatedly dig and descend one row. This kind of digging is involved in solving many of the levels.