Earth Shaker

This is an unofficial DOS conversion of Earth Shaker, a freeware Boulder Dash-like game that was originally released for ZX Spectrum in 1990-1991. It can be played with the original Spectrum graphics or with enhanced 256-colour tiles. The game includes all 32 levels from the Spectrum version. Any level can be accessed from the main menu by typing its title, which doubles as the level password.

The core gameplay is similar to Boulder Dash: the player character is located underground and needs to dig passages through the earth in order to collect a certain amount of diamonds and reach the level exit before the time runs out. There are boulders in the earth that may fall down and crush the player, but Earth Shaker also adds various new hazards and items, such as flames and bubbles that can put them out; a powerup that temporarily reverses gravity and causes objects to fall up instead of down; and 4D teleports that will move the player to the first available teleport from the top left corner of the screen.

Earth Shaker was written in QBasic and released as freeware. The author, David Pegg, was in correspondence with Michael Batty who wrote the original ZX Spectrum version, implying a degree of "official" endorsement of this port.