Lode Runner goodies

Welcome to my Lode Runner page. Here you will find all sorts of goodies for the computer game Lode Runner 2.

My LR2 level 'Myst I'

I have played a number of versions of Lode Runner over the years including the original Apple II version back in the ’80s. My favorite incarnation though has long been Lode Runner 2 with its isometric 3-D graphics and complex puzzles. I’ve created a variety of levels and other resources to share with Lode Runner 2 fans that I hope you will enjoy. So, feel free to download, share, and modify everything on this page, and please do let me know if you create anything for LR2 yourself!

Demo World for Lode Runner 2

Screenshot of the 2nd Demo World level: Color WheelScreenshot of a level using Demo World graphicsScreenshot of a Demo World level in the LR2 Editor
“Demo World” is a new world for Lode Runner 2 containing both a level set and some new graphics. It is a “proof of concept” for the possibility of creating new LR2 worlds and the “new” graphics are simple box outlines. Creating Demo World levels in the Editor is supported! My hope is that Demo World may inspire other people to create more artistic and engaging worlds. I welcome email from anyone interested in creating new worlds and will try to provide the necessary information and tools to do so.

NEW March 11, 2012
DemoWorldInstall.zip

I apologize that the Demo World installer is currently Windows-only. I will try to provide a Mac OS installer in the future.

Levels for Lode Runner 2

Screenshot of a computer-generated Lode Runner maze

The “human-designed” levels below include a variety of puzzles for Lode Runner 2 on which I worked off and on between 1999 and 2012. A few are unfinished but included here because I put a lot of effort into them and I think that they are interesting even in their incomplete state. The computer-generated levels were created by my LR2 Level Generators software which is described next.

Human-designed Levels
File Levels Date Released
ItemTrickLevels.zip 8 NEW March 13, 2012
DoughnutHole.zip 2 April 25, 2006
AnthonyKozarLvls.zip 2(6) May 27, 2004
LevelsforLiz.zip 4 June 13, 2003

Computer-generated Levels
File Levels Date Released
MazeSetCD.zip 100 NEW January 26, 2012
MonaMazeA.zip 200 March 21, 2006
LevelsforZachary.zip 20 December 13, 2005
MazeSetB.zip 25 May 13, 2005
MazeSetA.zip 25 May 13, 2005
GeneratedLvls.zip 7 May 13, 2005

Level generation software

LR2 Level Generators is a collection of computer programs that automatically generate new random levels for Lode Runner 2. The collection has two programs so far, including Maze Generator, which was used to create all of the random maze levels above. Version 1.3 of Maze Generator adds the ability to create levels in multiple worlds with 9 different styles.

Download the latest version right here or browse all available versions and read more about level-generating software for Lode Runner (mine and other people’s too!).

NEW January 26, 2012
Level Generators ReadMe
Level Generators 1.3 for Macintosh
Level Generators 1.3 for Windows

(The ReadMe file was left out of the Mac package, so you may want to save a copy).

Lode Runner 2 Technical Documentation

The LR2 Technical Documentation is a growing collection of documents written by Toastline and myself that reflect our current understanding of various Lode Runner 2 data formats.

In particular, Toastline decoded the XPK graphics format and I have dissected the PRX and LVL file formats enough that I feel we are very close to being able to build entire new worlds for LR2 including not just levels, but new graphics and sounds too. It is our hope that the availability of this documentation will spur renewed interest in a great game and that other people will use and build upon the knowledge here to create new and exciting resources for LR2 fans.

Current version: June 29, 2014
Download all tech docs and examples

… or browse individual docs:
00 Technical overview
10 LVL file format
11 Graphics Resource IDs
12 Comparing byte order in levels
13 More about Monks
14 More about Triggers
15 Comparison of block data
20 PRX file format
21 Levels PRX contents
22 BGrounds PRX TOC
23 BuildWG PRX TOC
24 CreditWG PRX TOC
25 Gba PRX TOC
30 Number of levels
31 Saved game format
32 Creator and File type Codes
40 RDT resource type
41 SID SSA resource types
42 XPK Graphics Format (by Toastline)
43 XMV and XUI resources types (by Toastline)

Look to Toastline’s site for the most up-to-date copies of his
XPK/XMV references

Example levels

See the links below for other resources of technical information on Lode Runner 2.

PRX Utilities software

The PRX Utilities is a growing collection of computer programs for reading and writing PRX files (Presage Format Resource files). These programs are useful for doing research into the game resources that come with some Presage games, such as Lode Runner 2. (See the section above for more information about the PRX format).

So far, the PRX Utilities includes about half a dozen command-line programs that can list, extract, or write the contents of a PRX file and that can manipulate some of the resource types you’ll find in Presage games. New programs for creating other Presage resource files may be released in the future.

The PRX Utilities programs are written in standard C++ and include source code with Mac OS X and Windows command-line executables. The code will probably compile and work on other machines with little or no modification.

UPDATED March 26, 2012
PRXUtilities-20120326.zip

I am also hosting two utilities by Toastline for extracting audio and graphics resources from Lode Runner’s PRX files. Toastline’s extractors are for Windows and they save the resources as AIFF and PNG files, respectively.

UPDATED June 29, 2014
LR2 Image Extractor (with Game Maker source)
LR2 Audio Extractor
Audio Extractor source code

Other Lode Runner sites of note

Sending Feedback

I am always happy to hear from people who are using my work or to hear about your own Lode Runner-related creations. Feel free to leave a public comment below or send other feedback via the email address on my contact page.

THANKS!! :)

Lode Runner 2 was developed by Presage and distributed by GT Interactive and MacSoft in 1998.

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