''Diamond Mine'' is a

maze video game This is a list of maze video games by type. Top-down maze games While the character in a maze would have a limited view, the player is able to see much or all of the maze. ''Maze chase games'' are a specific subset of the overhead perspective. T ...

first published by MRM Software for the

Acorn Electron The Acorn Electron (nicknamed the Elk inside Acorn and beyond) was introduced as a lower-cost alternative to the BBC Micro educational/home computer, also developed by Acorn Computers, to provide many of the features of that more expensive mach ...

and

BBC Micro The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a family of microcomputers developed and manufactured by Acorn Computers in the early 1980s as part of the BBC's Computer Literacy Project. Launched in December 1981, it was showcased across severa ...

home computer Home computers were a class of microcomputers that entered the market in 1977 and became common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a s ...

s in 1984. ''Diamond Mine'' was reissued by

Blue Ribbon Blue ribbons are typically a symbol of high quality. The association comes from The Blue Riband, a prize awarded for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by passenger liners and, prior to that from Order of the Holy Spirit#Cordon Bleu, Cord ...

in 1985 and ported to other systems in 1985 and 1986. Blue Ribbon released a sequel, ''Diamond Mine II'', at the same time. Both games are similar to the 1983 game '' Oil's Well'', which itself is a re-themed version of the 1982 ''

Anteater Anteaters are the four extant mammal species in the suborder Vermilingua (meaning "worm tongue"), commonly known for eating ants and termites. The individual species have other names in English and other languages. Together with sloths, they ar ...

arcade video game An arcade video game is an arcade game that takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. All arcade video games are coin-oper ...

Gameplay

The aim of the game is to guide a pipe through a maze-like mine to collect

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of e ...

s while avoiding hitting the walls or the patrolling monsters. The player has a set length of pipe for each level. Once the pipe has started moving, it cannot stop and if it is retracted, that section of pipe is lost. If the pipe is hit by a monster or hits a wall, twice the amount of pipe is lost. Diamonds are placed sporadically in the maze and there is no way to kill the monsters.

Legacy

In 1985, Blue Ribbon published a sequel from the same programmer, ''Diamond Mine II''. The screen layout is even closer to ''

'' than the original. The pipe can pause, can be retracted at any time without penalty and the walls cannot be hit. The monsters can be killed by touching them with the end of the pipe and they do not move while the pipe is being retracted. The maze is also populated by regular diamonds which more resemble the dots in a ''

Pac-Man ''Pac-Man,'' originally called in Japan, is a 1980 maze video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. The pla ...

'' maze.

Gameplay

Legacy

External links