| #43 | Supaplex |
|---|---|
| guessed by | coolbeans |
| platform | DOS |
| release year | 1991 |
| developer/publisher | Think!Ware Development/Dream Factory/Digital Integration |
| genre | puzzle |
| links | Wikipedia |
| play for free in browser (archive.org) | |
| download the game for free from the devs | |
| past years | 2021: #40, 2020: #29, 2019: #26, 2018: #23 |
I played Supaplex a lot back in the day. Solving one more level or retry after failing was a very addictive loop. This game in it's core is a Boulderdash-clone, but added some things and had such neat artstyle and sound-design.
As in Boulderdash you go through the level, collecting (in this case) Infotrons and avoid being hit by a stones. The game includes exploding floppy disks, enemies (the scissors you see above), gravity for some levels and some other stuff to keep it fresh. If you collected the set number of infotrons for the level, you can go to the exit (if you didn't block it with your earlier actions). Overall it contains 111 levels, but if one level is too difficult, you can skip it, but the number of skips is limited. As usual with puzzlers, the solution often needs some good thinking.
One thing that I liked about the game, that sound-design and the background melody are seriously addicting. The graphical design with the computer hardware theme (sorta) is also quite cool.
The game released originally for Amiga and DOS. But it got many clones and rereleases like Megaplex for Windows (with level editor), Infotron for MacOS, Igor The Time Machine (an extended game from the same devs), WinPlex, New Supaplex, Supaplex 3000 and an adapation for the Apple Appstore. If you want to play it, you have certainly a lot of options. For the original feeling, download it from the developers and play it in DosBox. Also an open source reimplementation exists, to bring the game to modern platforms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYzIGnw3KHw&ab_channel=RXQ79
