Spelunker - for NES

Spelunker is a 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System platformer developed by Irem and published by Brøderbund Software, following a cave explorer through miles of uncharted caves in search of a legendary underground pyramid and its vast treasures. Spelunker stands out for its setting and for its sheer fragility. This is a careful, methodical descent rather than a run and jump romp, and the explorer at the centre of it is famously delicate: a drop of barely more than his own height is enough to end the trip, which gives every single ledge real weight.

You make progress by reading the cave and moving precisely. Ropes and ladders carry you between levels, elevators and mining carts move you across gaps, and rafts float you along underground water, while unstable terrain and ravines wait for anyone who rushes. Along the way you collect keys to open the route ahead, bombs to clear blocked passages, flares to deal with the cave's hostile wildlife, and jewels, sacks of gold coins and other valuable items to build your score. Your air supply drains the whole time, so you top it up where you can and keep moving through this single player descent.

Spelunker is still loved precisely because it is demanding. Learning a cave until you can move through it cleanly is a very old kind of satisfaction, and the game's reputation for punishing the smallest misstep has kept NES players talking about it for decades. It is also an early landmark in the cave exploration platformer, a line other games followed for years afterwards. For collectors, Spelunker is an easy recommendation: an Irem game from the first wave of NES releases, simple to hand to a friend, and genuinely hard to put down once you have decided you will reach that pyramid.

• Genre: Platformer
• Players: 1
• Region: NTSC
• Release Year: 1985
• Developer: Irem

Cartridge Only: No Box or Manual
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Condition & Authenticity
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