Infiltrator

Once I had learned C programming on a PC, I needed a fairly large project to hone my skills on. Since I had been wishing for a PC version of my favorite computer game, Lode Runner by Br0derbund, I decided to write one myself. I had to make it different enough not to infringe upon the original game - which I hope I've done. I've seen other games like this that are even more similar to Lode Runner, so I guess I'm OK.

This game requires an MS-DOS system with somewhere around 384K of free DOS memory, a '286, 386 or 486 processor, and a 100% VGA-compatible graphics card. That's because the game uses direct video writes in Mode 13h, which for the non-programmers among you is the 320x200x256 mode. There is a scrolling title screen which I know doesn't scroll on at least one kind of VGA-compatible card, and I don't know why it fails on that one.

Game controls are joystick or keyboard, and are configurable. Sound effects are PC-speaker only - when I wrote this I didn't have a sound card.

Note that Infiltrator is a 16-bit game written for older PCs. At the time I wrote it, I didn't know how to limit the frame rate automatically. As a result I used the cheesy delay counter method. Unfortunately the counter is too small to slow the game down enough for modern PCs. Unless you know how to slow down your machine to the level of a 33MHz '386 class machine, you probably won't be able to play the game at all.

I've been toying with the idea of reimplementing this game to work on more modern platforms, including sound support and even better graphics, but I tend to have too many other projects on the go.

Infiltrator screen shots

The file below contains the shareware version with 50 levels. Registration would have got you a level editor and some more levels, but instead of updating this game I am abandoning it as-is so that I can push ahead on other projects. This version is now freeware. You can download the level editor and extra levels here. (86K)

And here's the main program: INFILT20.ZIP (245K)

I will not be releasing the source code for Infiltrator because it would be embarrassing. I've learned so much about good coding practice, style and system design since writing Infiltrator that I don't want its source code taken as an example of my skill.