Tunneler is a top-down perspective game written in the early 1990s for DOS on IBM-PC compatible computers. Two tanks explore an underground realm, venturing from their protective bases to dig tunnels and find their opponent for battle.
This game was novel in that it allowed two players to battle simultaneously on the same computer, with two windows and a shared keyboard. The game also used the “undocumented” CGA 160 x 200 pixel 16-color graphics mode.
Here are some screenshots. Here is the initial state, with both tanks in their bases. To independently scrolling windows show each player’s view:
Battle! Blue finds Green:
Score! Green destroys Blue:
The bottom of the screen includes a dashboard with energy level (“E”) and shield status (“S”). Return to either base to recharge. Run out of either, and you’re dead. The view window is distorted by static interference when low on energy:
After either player is destroyed three times, the game is over. An overview map is shown:
A simple statistics page shows shots fired, shots hit, tunnel length, and distance traveled:
Hi, my friend and I used to play this on my Tandy 386 until dawn. We loved it.
However, we did this mod where we’d take the lid of a pizza box and duct tape it to the vga monitor right where the battlefields are divided so we couldn’t see each other’s moves. It added another layer of tension to the whole experience since you could sneak up on each other, goof off in each other’s bases, or stumble across each other unexpectedly and have to shoot it out. We’d tunnel words/messages in the dirt and create false tunnels and mazes that led to nowhere in an attempt to throw each other off the hunt. Give it a try.
Haha, we did the same thing 🙂
Amazing game. Thanks for so many happy hours when I was young.
Such a geat game! Played this a lot with my brother. Don’t know if it was on purpose, but you could destroy your own base by moving and shooting at the right time.
No, I didn’t know that! It was certainly not on purpose. What is the trick?
Dá sa niekde táto hra stiahnuť do mobilu ?
CZ answer: Existovala verze této hry i pro mobil, ale bohužel již není na google play.
EN answer: a mobile version exists, but it is not available anymore.