Lode Runner

Lode Runner is a single-screen puzzle-platform game in which a Galactic Commando infiltrates 150 treasury rooms belonging to the Bungeling Empire and recovers their stolen gold. Each stage consists of brick platforms, ladders, hand-over-hand bars, false floors, and solid surfaces. After collecting every chest, the player must climb a newly revealed ladder and escape through the top of the screen while avoiding pursuing guards.

The commando can run, climb, hang from bars, and survive falls of any distance, but cannot jump or attack the guards directly. Instead, a laser drill creates temporary holes in diggable brick immediately to the left or right. Guards that fall into a hole are briefly trapped and can be crossed safely; they may also drop any gold they are carrying. A guard buried when the brick reforms is destroyed and reappears near the top of the stage, while the player loses a life if caught by a guard or sealed inside a hole. Because guards can move the gold, some floors conceal trapdoors, and only certain bricks can be removed, later stages require careful planning and precise timing.

The original Apple II version contains 150 stages, after which the sequence repeats with progressively faster guards. A built-in Game Generator allows players to design, test, rearrange, and save their own stages without programming. Most early home-computer conversions retain the fixed-screen layouts, original rules, and editor, although the number of stages and ability to save custom designs vary by version.

The arcade adaptation condenses selected stages into 24 smaller boards, redraws the presentation, modifies guard behavior, and omits the editor. The NES version uses larger scrolling stages, redrawn characters, music, bonus fruit, and separate buttons for digging left or right. It also includes an editor, although custom stages can be permanently saved only by the Japanese version with compatible recording hardware. The Wii and Wii U releases reproduce the NES version through emulation. Lode Runner Classic for Android, iPhone, and Windows Phone instead recreates all 150 Apple II stages with touchscreen controls, adjustable speed and colors, magnification, and additional Expedition and Time Attack modes.