Spelunker
1983 · Platform · Atari 8-bit / Multiple
Overview
Spelunker (1983) is Tim Martin's cave-exploring platform game, whose famously fragile hero gave Japanese baseball a word for injury-prone players.
Deep Dive
The explorer sets off from the cave entrance to reach the treasure at the bottom, collecting dynamite, flares and keys on the way. His air supply runs down and must be refilled at points in the cave, bats drop deadly guano, and a ghost can carry him off to the shadow world unless he blasts it with air, which leaves him unable to move for a few seconds. Each cave has six levels, and the game repeats the layout across six caves of rising difficulty.
Developer Story
Tim Martin of MicroGraphicImage developed it for the Atari 8-bit computers in 1983, and Broderbund re-released the Commodore 64 version in 1984. Arcade and Famicom versions followed in Japan in 1985, and the NES version reached North America in 1987.
Did You Know?
- In Japan, "Speranker" is used for baseball players who are often injured, after the game's fragile hero.
- The arcade version was the fourth most successful table arcade unit in Game Machine's February 1986 chart.
Sources & further reading
- Spelunker (video game) — Wikipedia
