Lode Runner’s 30th anniversary sees the gaming classic reborn for iOS and Android


Lode Runner Classic

Lode Runner Classic, a remastered version of the original 1983 video game, releases for iOS and Android smartphone devices today. With the original 150 levels of the game intact, along with a few nods to modernity, it looks set to offer 8-bit gaming kicks to a modern audience.

Lode Runner is rightly regarded as a gaming classic, recently making Time magazine’s all-time 100 video games list . ” I can’t imagine any other game with such inventive and unusual design,” Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov told Edge magazine back in 2007.

Lode Runner’s wonderfully simple but highly addictive gameplay initially found success on the Apple II home computer. Since then, it has hit nearly every major computer and console system over the past 30 years, in a variety of guises.

The original game was one of the first to include a level editor, helping start a trend that continues to this day.

“When the first Lode Runner came out on the Apple II, the last thing I expected was that the game would be alive and kicking on a platform as advanced as today’s smartphones,” said original creator Douglas E. Smith, via press release. “It’s really gratifying to me that so many people are still interested in the game.”

In addition to the original gameplay elements, Lode Runner Classic features two new modes: Expedition and Time Attack. Both Android and iOS players will compete on unified worldwide leaderboards and can post scores to Facebook.