Supaplex
| Supaplex | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Developer(s) | Think!Ware Development |
| Publisher(s) | Dream Factory (Digital Integration) |
| Designer(s) | Philip Jespersen Michael Stopp |
| Platform(s) | Amiga, MS-DOS |
| Release | 1991 |
| Genre(s) | Scrolling tile-based puzzle game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Supaplex is a video game created by Philip Jespersen and Michael Stopp, two Swiss students, and published by Digital Integration in 1991. It is an extended clone of Boulder Dash.
Designed as a version of Boulder Dash that could fit onto a floppy disk, the designers had a hard time for this approach in order to create better graphics. (The original Amiga Supaplex version had to fit on a standard 880kB floppy disk and it needed to run on a standard 512kB Amiga like the original A500 or A2000. In fact: The Amiga version could not be copied onto the hardrive due to copy protection and its custom disk format.)
The game comes with 111 levels though many unofficial level sets have been released that greatly increase that number. The game was released for Amiga and MS-DOS. (Two guys from the London region started to program a full version for the Atari ST, but it was never released, because of the limited graphical support.)
Due to hardware dependent programming, the PC version of Supaplex ran twice as fast as PCs became faster. Herman Perk disassembled the game, debugged it and re-assembled it again. The result became known as SpeedFix. Extra features have also been added without changing the game itself.
The developers of the game have declared the software as freeware.
Following the game's release, numerous clones and reimplementations for various platforms have been created, with additional features such as updated graphics and non-standard level sizes.
Although the levels must be played in order, the game allows up to three levels to be skipped at any given time. Also, it was very easy to skip additional levels by editing the file that contained the list of levels successfully completed. The game is very challenging, but unlike many Boulder Dash-related games the difficulty comes from solving the puzzles in each level rather than from semi-responsive controls. Furthermore, Supaplex does not use time limits for solving the puzzles, unlike Boulder Dash.
Most objects are identical in behaviour to those in the original Boulder Dash.Murphy replaces Rockford, who collects objects called Infotrons, which are reminiscent of schematic representations of atoms, instead of diamonds. Instead of dirt, the levels are filled with printed circuit board simply called base in the game's manual, and not lined with brick walls, but with computer chips and other hardware, and filled with Zonks instead of rocks. The enemies are moving scissors, called Snik Snaks, and electrons which resemble sparkling stars.
...
Wikipedia