The world of emulators on the Mac is very diverse. I had a lot of choices available to me of which version of Lode Runner I wanted to run, on which computing platform and using which emulator. I ended up choosing the original Lode Runner game running on the Apple II, and rather than using a traditional emulator, I decided to go with one that came packaged as a Dashboard widget, that way I could quickly jump into a game of Lode Runner no matter what I was in the middle of doing, and just as quickly put it away when I’ve had my fill. Following these step by step instructions, you’ll be able to get your Lode Runner on too.

1. Download the AppleIIGo Dashboard widget from the developer’s website and then click “Install” and “Keep” when Mac OS X prompts you asking if you want to download and install the widget.
2. Download the Apple IIe ROM image from here. Extract the zip file if Mac OS X doesn’t do this for you automatically.
3. Download Lode Runner for the Apple II from here and unzip it.
4. Call up Dashboard, and click the bottom right hand corner of the AppleIIGo widget where the little “i” is.
5. On the backside of the AppleIIGo widget, click the “Disks” button, followed by the “ROMs” button. Two Finder windows will open. Click the “Done” button to flip the widget over.
6. Drag the file APPLE2E.ROM file that you unstuffed in step 2 to the Finder window named “ROMs”.
7. Drag the file named loderunner.dsk that you downloaded and unzipped in step 3 to the Finder window named “Disks”.
8. Call up Dashboard again and click on the little “i” to bring up the AppleIIGo settings again.
9. Select “loderunner.dsk” from the “Disk Drive 1:” popup menu, and then click the “Restart” button.
10. Play Lode Runner.

Here are the controls:

A more complete list of controls and commands are available here, including editing commands for creating/modifying your own levels.

Hit any key to start a game. Collect all the barrels until the exit ladder appears, then climb up the ladder to move onto the next level, all while avoiding the bad guys chasing you. Remember that bad guys will pick up barrels they walk over, which they will drop sometimes on their own or when they fall into one of the holes you’ve dug.

The only two caveats with playing Lode Runner like this is that there is no sound (the AppleIIGo emulator doesn’t support sound), and the screen can be a bit small. Those shouldn’t really get in the way of some good old school fun though, since the sound isn’t important to gameplay, and the graphics are simple enough that you shouldn’t have a problem seeing all the detail you need. Of course, you can theoretically play any Apple II game using the AppleIIGo Dashboard widget. If you successfully get any other classics running, tell our readers about it in the comments!

Have fun, and let me know what level you manage to reach. So far, I’m up to level 5.

To play or download an Apple II game at Virtual Apple, click on a letter at the top to browse their archive, then click the title of a game you want to play/download. The download links are in the right hand column.

If you get any other games working in the Apple IIGo Dashboard widget, let us know in the comments!