The portable Lode Runner experience

These are the only officially licensed, commercially released, portable Lode Runner games I know of. To my knowledge, only Hyper Lode Runner was released in the USA. The Turbo Express games are actually for the Japanese PC Engine, which was released in the USA as the TurboGrafx-16. They can be played on an American Turbo Express unit with an adapter. For someone looking to start playing Lode Runner on the go, the cheapest and easiest option is to purchase a Gameboy Color and find a used copy of Hyper Lode Runner. More on that below.
Gameboy:

  • Lode Runner (XING Entertainment, 2000)
    For use with Gameboy Color systems ONLY. Contains useless "Story Mode" which can be bypassed by choosing the second option off the main menu. Character movement is very strange, as our hero inexplicably "trots" along. Still quite playable, though. Hard to find, since it was only released in Japan. Haven't found a US shop that stocks it yet. You can find a review of this game here, although the writer does not seem to be much of a Lode Runner fan.

  • Hyper Lode Runner (Bandai, 1989)
    For use with all Gameboy models. Released during the Gameboy's infancy, but still very fun to play. Gameplay is nearly identical to its NES cousin. As of this writing, a used copy of Hyper Lode Runner can be had for $8.99 at Funcoland.
    Turbo Express (Japanese games require a converter):

  • Battle Lode Runner (Hudson Soft, 1993)
    Very cute and cartoony, with Bomberman overtones. Puzzle Mode and Battle Mode. Battle mode supports up to 5 players.

  • Lode Runner: Lost Labyrinth (Pack-In-Video, 1990)
    A more traditional outing. I acquired a copy of this game on 9/19/2000 and will be reviewing it here soon.
    WonderSwan:

  • Lode Runner for WonderSwan (Banpresto, 2000)
    Lynx:

  • Lode Runner Duology (Kurt Olsen, 1997)
    NOT a commercial/licensed release, but included for the sake of completeness. In alt.games.lynx, Kurt recently explained how a tragic fire ruined any chance of this game's completion and/or proper release.
    Other possibilities:

  • I suppose if you were to track down a Game Axe Color, you could play the 8-bit Japanese Famicom (NES) versions of Lode Runner. Based on every review I've read of the unit, however, I'd advise against it.

  • Jason Burke has created Lode Runner v2.3 for the TI-92 calculator.

  • XING apparently also released a keychain version of Lode Runner, in Japan.
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