Just to share my personal experience - I had Lode Runner on my Atari 800XL back in the day and used to play it constantly. I beat all 150 levels. Every time you beat a level you get an extra life, which helps. The fade in/fade out animation reminded me that there was a function key to skip it - there were a bunch of other function keys defined in the manual and even cheat keys just defined in the manual (not like today).
Later I also had the game for my Commodore. I liked the Atari version better just because I was more used to it - the visuals in all versions are pretty much the same (except what the treasures look like), but the sound effects are very different, and to me, the true sounds will always be the Atari sounds.
Sadly, I was never that creative of a guy to make more than 1 or 2 levels with the level editor. But my brother really enjoyed making them. He made about 20-30 really good levels, and I would try to beat them. It was like a little competition between the two of us : )
Just to share my personal experience - I had Lode Runner on my Atari 800XL back in the day and used to play it constantly. I beat all 150 levels. Every time you beat a level you get an extra life, which helps. The fade in/fade out animation reminded me that there was a function key to skip it - there were a bunch of other function keys defined in the manual and even cheat keys just defined in the manual (not like today).
Later I also had the game for my Commodore. I liked the Atari version better just because I was more used to it - the visuals in all versions are pretty much the same (except what the treasures look like), but the sound effects are very different, and to me, the true sounds will always be the Atari sounds.
Sadly, I was never that creative of a guy to make more than 1 or 2 levels with the level editor. But my brother really enjoyed making them. He made about 20-30 really good levels, and I would try to beat them. It was like a little competition between the two of us : )
Keep the Matt Chats coming!