Lode Runner

Lode Runner
VIC-20 version cover art
Developer(s)	Doug Smith Hudson Soft (NES)
Publisher(s)	Brøderbund (US) Ariolasoft
Platform(s)	original versions: Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64, VIC-20, PC booter Later ports: Sega SG-1000, Правец 82/8М, ZX Spectrum, MSX, Atari ST, PC Engine, XBLA, Windows, iPod, Macintosh, Virtual Console, PlayStation Network, BBC Micro, PlayStation, NES, SNES, Amstrad CPC, Game Boy
Release date(s)	1983 Famicom JP: July 31, 1984 NA: September 1987 Virtual Console (NES) JP: March 6, 2007 (Wii) NA: June 11, 2007 (Wii) PAL: March 12, 2010 (Wii) JP: September 17, 2014 (Wii U) NA: December 4, 2014 (Wii U) PAL: January 8, 2014 (Wii U) Xbox Live Arcade April 22, 2009
Genre(s)	Platform, puzzle
Mode(s)	Single-player

Doug Smith

original versions:
Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64, VIC-20, PC booter

Lode Runner is a platform video game first published by Brøderbund in 1983. Unlike later platformers which rely on precision jumping and movement, levels in Lode Runner are puzzle-oriented. It is one of the first games to include a level editor, a feature that allows players to create their own levels for the game. This feature bolstered the game's popularity, as magazines such as Computer Gaming World held contests to see who could build the best level. Tozai, Inc. currently holds the intellectual property and trademark rights of Lode Runner.

The prototype of what later became Lode Runner was a game developed by Douglas E. Smith of Renton, Washington, who at the time was an architecture student at the University of Washington. This prototype, called Kong, was written for a Prime Computer 550 minicomputer limited to one building on the UW campus. Shortly thereafter, Kong was ported to VAX minicomputers, as there were more terminals available on campus. The game was programmed in Fortran and used ASCII character graphics. When Kong was ported to the VAX, some Pascal sections were mixed into the original Fortran code.