Supaplex is a video game created by Philip Jespersen and Michael Stopp, two Swiss students, and published by Digital Integration in 1991. It is an extended clone of Boulder Dash.
The game comes with 111 levels though many unofficial level sets have been released that greatly increase that number. Although the levels must be played in order, the game allows up to three levels to be skipped at any given time. Also, it was very easy to skip additional levels by editing the file that contained the list of levels successfully completed. The game is very challenging, but unlike many Boulder Dash-related games the difficulty comes from solving the puzzles in each level rather than from semi-responsive controls. Furthermore, Supaplex does not use time limits for solving the puzzles, unlike Boulder Dash.
Most objects are identical in behaviour to those in the original Boulder Dash, simply redrawn with a computer hardware theme.[4] Murphy replaces Rockford, who collects objects called Infotrons, which are reminiscent of schematic representations of atoms, instead of diamonds. Instead of dirt, the levels are filled with printed circuit board simply called base in the game’s manual, and not lined with brick walls, but with computer chips and other hardware, and filled with Zonks instead of rocks. The enemies are moving scissors, called Snik Snaks, and electrons which resemble sparkling stars.
Supaplex is the first Boulder Dash-like game that is not fully grid-based: while the playing field is an obvious grid, the objects do not “snap” from one grid position to another, but can be halfway or “in between” grid positions while moving or falling. This behavior has led to a number of well-known bugs that can be turned to the player’s advantage, many of which need to be exploited to complete fan-made levels. For instance, by turning around quickly, the player can cause an enemy or rock to “bounce” off Murphy.
Me and Supaplex
Supaplex was the 1st game I ever played, shortly after my dad bought our first computer in 1995 (I was 6 years old), game had 6 levels opened and after multiple attempts I managed to reach level 10 (skipping 3 levels). My dad managed to find a savegame from a friend that reached level 30+. I was playing same levels again and again, especially level 4 trying to arrange Zonks in a nicer way and collect as many is possible of the 79 Infotrons (even if the scope of game was to collect just 60 Infotrons and find the Exit).
In 1997 HDD crashed and lost everything, including my dad important projects, some not-so-important works made by me, and 20+ games. None of our friends had the game anymore to give us. Once I connected to internet in 2005 I found a Windows version, Megaplex, and few years later I found original Supaplex again on DOS Games Archive.
In 2020 I made Supaplex level list in Excel (I did NOT played every level myself, I compiled using Supaplex page on Fandom Wiki + watching a 7h 37min video by
World of Longplays).
While there is NO time limit, in certain levels you need to move quickly, otherwise a required Infotron is destroyed by disks exploding in chain reaction. A piece of Base eaten or a Zonk pushed 1 square more than it should can block your way so you need to start level over again. In conclusion: Supaplex game is very challenging and can be finished only by people with high IQ via trial-and-error.
Experts from World of Longplays took over 7 hours to finish each level (which probably been made by watching a previous-made video on another computer) made me questioning how many hours would need to play an average man to figure out how each level should be solved.
