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Boulder Dash, released in1984, isinnoway balderdash. Please donot take the wedonot like pun high horse here asinterms ofthis article ithas todowith the history ofinvention.

Here iscouple ofquick facts about the Boulder Dash story:

• Peter Liepa, who iscredited asthe game creator, studied Physics just like Douglas Smith.
• Unlike Lode Runner's creator, Peter did not become quick- and super-rich.

So,here isthe story

• Game Inventors: Peter Liepa, Chris Gray
• Occupation atthe time ofinvention: Peter Liepa unemployed; Chris Gray unknown
• Location atthe time ofinvention: Canada.

The game concept and its realization seem tobesimple (atleast interms ofmodern technologies). However Boulder Dash's cookbook iscomposed ofone man's versatile interests and another man's idea.

Fascination with animation

Born in1953inOttawa, asakid Peter aspired tobeananimator orspecial effects designer onthe one side, and aparticle physicist onthe other. Hehad todrop the latter ashefound ittoo practical and fuzzy and thought there was vague future for particle Physics. The incentive for animation, onthe other hand, lived with Peter until there was the right time tolet itout.

Fascination with computers

When inhigh school, Peter was sent tothe National Research Council ofCanada for aweek aspart ofaninternship program. Hehad towork inaphysics lab, Peter's supervisor had ashiny new Wang Calculator and itarrested the young intern's attention. Inthe same week all interns were taken onatour ofthe Council's computer center. Amazed bywhat hesaw, Peter asked tospend the rest ofhis internship time there. Atthe computer center there was aninteractive terminal, which inthose days was something similar toTeletype orIBM Selectric hooked uptoacentral mainframe. Peter quickly learned toprogram it,but after the end ofweek's internship there was noopportunity tostudy computers for along time. Inthose days, the concept ofpersonal computers was unimaginable.

Peter started off inPhysics inuniversity, but soon switched tomath. His summer jobs were incomputer programming, and hespent alot oftime playing early things like ConwaysGame ofLife, which printed results onpaper and had not digital screen whatsoever.

Fascination with human nature

After graduating inmath, Peter drifted around studying subjects like human memory and perception. Hereceived amaster's degree inControl Theory. Both Control Theory and knowledge ofhuman nature are another key points inwhat was later tobecome the cult game.

Another man's idea

When Peter was inhis late twenties, hevisited afriend ofhis, who was deeply into electronic toys and had alarge screen TVand anAtari 400. Peter spent several evenings playing games, and then had aIcan dothis flash. Hewent out and bought anAtari 800tostart writing games. But rather than just starting towrite agame, Peter thought itwould beprudent tocontact alocal game publisher tosee what sort ofgame might beindemand.

The publisher put Peter intouch with Chris Gray, who had submitted agame inBasic, but did not have the skills toconvert itinto machine language. The game was similar toanarcade game called The Pit, but after examining itmore, Peter found that the game had very few game play variations too much ofitwas predetermined.

The development

Not satisfied with Chris' game algorithm, Peter started playing with basic elements ofdirt, rocks and jewels and within acouple ofdays had built the basic physics engine ofwhat was tobecome Boulder Dash. Herealized that using arandom number generator one could generate random caves, and that bycontrolling the density ofrocks and jewels one could get some interesting game play. The game play fascinated not only from apuzzle standpoint, but italso appealed tovarious emotional drives the obvious psychotic ones like greed (collecting jewels), destructiveness (dislodging rocks and killing fireflies) and the neurotic ones like cleaning all the dirt out ofacave.

Chris and Peter lived quite far apart, sothat their meetings were infrequent and involved along drive. Itturned out quite quickly that their design goals and methods were fairly incompatible. Peter was developing agame quite different from Chris' original, and did sojust about completely onhis own. Peter designed all ofthe elements, physics, caves, the game play, the graphics, the music, and the title. Chris helped out with afew odds and ends hesuggested, for example, how tomake the graphics for the game title bycomposing big letters out ofthe Atari character graphics. Inthe end, there was alot ofdebate astohow exactly Chris should becredited and what his share ofroyalties should be.

The working title ofthe game for along time was Cavern Raider, and several other variants like Cavern Crystals. Eventually Peter came upwith the name Boulder Dash, which isatakeoff onthe word balderdash. Coincidentally, aboard game named Balderdash was also published in1986.

The game's main character Rockford.

Originally, inthe early physics engine stage, Rockford was just astatic shape similar toacross. When one moved the shape, itdug through the earth and absorbed jewels. Infact, the graphics were very simple, and elements were all single characters ina2440character display. There was noscrolling inthe early versions ofthe game. Itwas Chris who suggested that the digging shape should beaman, and together they came upwith asimple human shape. When Peter showed anearly version ofthe game toapotential publisher, they pointed out the the man was way too small and needed tobeamore recognizable character. But itwas not possible tomake the man more prominent without making everything larger aswell. Sothis was where the hard work began ofconverting the game from one that ran ona2440character display toone that scrolled over amuch larger region.

Now that the game elements were bigger, Peter was able toadd much more detail, including making the man more recognizable. Hebuilt acharacter editor towork out the pixels and the animation. Itwas atthis point that the Rockford character took shape. Rockford was not supposed tobeany particular kind ofhuman oranimal, hejust evolved inthe pixel editor. Since Peter used tobeinterested inanimation, heworked out the character tomake Rockford blink his eyes and tap his feet. This was aninnovation that added alot ofdepth tothe character.

The result

Overall, ittook Peter about 6months tofinish the first version ofBoulder Dash with nomore than 2hours ofactual work per day.

Even though Boulder Dash was finished inhalf ayear, ittook another six months tofind apublisher and work out apublication agreement. Bythis time Peter was already full time employed atacompany that developed word processing software.

And so,the rest ishistory Boulder Dash was eventually published byFirst Star in1984and was aninstant bestseller.

Having survived for over two decades onthe market, the game isstill here tofascinate us.You are always welcome play our remake ofBoulder Dash, which isasclose tothe original aspossible and needs noemulators torun.

Where isChris Gray now?

Wehave noidea.

Where isPeter Liepa now?

Peter works insoftware development atacompany named Alias, which produces 3Dsoftware for design and entertainment.

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