Miner 2049er

Miner 2049er is a fixed-screen platform game in which the player controls Bounty Bob, a Mountie pursuing the outlaw Yukon Yohan through an abandoned uranium mine. Each station consists of platforms, ladders, enemies, and mechanical obstacles. To complete it, Bob must walk across every section of the framework, causing the floor beneath him to change color, before the Miner Timer reaches zero.

Bob can run, climb ladders, and jump either vertically or in the direction he is moving. Short drops are survivable, but falling too far crushes him. Contact with radioactive mutants, hazardous machinery, or pools of waste also costs a life. Some parts of a station can be entered but not escaped, so completing every section within the time limit requires planning a route rather than simply exploring at random.

Objects left behind by earlier miners are scattered across most stations. Collecting one awards points and temporarily changes the mutants into vulnerable green creatures. During this period, Bob can touch them to destroy them for additional points; if they return to their normal state first, contact remains fatal. Defeated mutants reappear after Bob loses a life, while any framework covered during that attempt must be traversed again.

The original game contains ten stations, each introducing a different layout or mechanism. These include slides that carry Bob to lower platforms, transporters connecting different levels, small moving platforms, a hydraulic lift, a pool of radioactive waste, and pulverizers that must be crossed at the correct moment. In the final station, Bob collects charges of TNT and loads them into a cannon, using different amounts to launch himself toward platforms at varying heights.

Points are awarded for covering framework, collecting mining equipment, eliminating vulnerable mutants, and completing a station with time remaining. Some versions also award points for unused TNT. Finishing the final station begins another, more difficult cycle, while the game ends when Bob’s remaining lives are exhausted. Depending on the version, one or two players can participate, with two players alternating turns.

The Atari 8-bit release is the original version and contains all ten stations. Other conversions alter the number of stations: the Atari 2600 cartridge contains three, the VIC-20 version has seven, the TI-99/4A edition has eight, and the ColecoVision conversion adds an exclusive eleventh station. The remaining Atari 2600 stages were adapted separately for Miner 2049er Volume II.