Emerald Mine

Emerald Mine is essentially a simple game; it involves moving a little man through a series of increasingly dangerous levels, avoiding monsters, deadly slime, and cascading rocks, and gathering emeralds and diamonds before moving through a gate to complete each level. The levels are built from a fairly small set of basic elements and the graphics are primitive. Nonetheless, Emerald Mine is endlessly absorbing. Because of the very simplicity of the laws that govern the game world (rocks fall, and monsters move, according to set rules), the game provides a challenge to one’s intellect as well as to one’s reflexes.

Increasingly as one progresses through the levels it becomes necessary to think out the consequences of a chain of actions before it is undertaken, and even experienced players may find themselves crushed under or trapped by rocks as a result of mistakes in such calculations. Frustration is inevitable, and some levels may have to be played hundreds of times before success is finally attained. This is the sort of game that one can play for years without ever managing to finish. The fact that it remains absorbing after such trials is a testament to its designers’ skill. Each level poses unique challenges, and more variations are wrung out of the basic theme of emeralds and monsters than one would have thought possible.
Emerald Mine is suitable for all ages; even a preschooler could work his way through the earliest levels, but before too long even adults will find themselves challenged. I remember being surprised at how relentlessly the levels managed to keep getting harder without ever becoming quite impossible. I think there are 100 levels in all, and everything after 20 is at least moderately difficult.
There is an interesting cooperative two-player mode in which you work your way through the levels in tandem. Some of the levels are approximately the same as in the one-player version, but others are totally different. The game keeps track of high scores for each level, based on number of emeralds and diamonds collected and time required for completion, but the real object is unquestionably to play through all the levels; there is little fun to be had in playing for scores.
I should note that I’m basing this review on the Amiga version of Emerald mine. There might be some differences in the Commodore 64 variety; judging by the screen shot, the graphics at least are a little different.