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?
Hi!
Im gonna jump in for Jaap and further it a bit. 😀 The trick is:
1. You point the gun of your tank right onto the line of the wall of your base, meaning you begin at the entrance of your base pointing the gun for example to the left, with your tank’s gun directly touching the wall of the base. Like this
———————– ———————–
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
———————– <-[x] ———————-
with "<-[x]" being your tank and "—————————–" the wall 😀
2. You keep the shooting button pressed, as well as the left key, as if you wanted to move into the wall of your base. Obviously, the tank is not moving, nor the base wall is getting destroyed.
3. Then you press a third key – side move, in this case (horizontal wall), it means up or down key. Your tank "jumps"/"slides" to the side (leaves the line of the wall of the base), but as it moves, in most cases, it "claws away" 1 or 2pieces of the wall. Works about 3 times out of 4.
4. You repeat the process unit your the horizontal wall is destroyed, then you can destroy the vertical or the other horizontal wall.
5. As a result, your base loses defensive walls, so it can be shot through. You can still heal while at the base location, though. If the ground around it is destroyed, it may become difficult to find the location, though.
So, it can have some tactical impact. Or, it can be a funny way of provoking the opponent – "I am at your base destroying it".
6. Surprise: it works for the "rocks" or "water", too. You can destroy anything on the map that has a thin sharp edge (so your tank can "claw" into it.
Another trick I remember is that if you press number buttons such as 1, 2, 3 etc., small white objects start moving at the top of the screen. Most likely unintended.
Just as previous commenter describe, during my childhood, we put a paper barrier to divide the screen so that we dont see each others view. Played with friends or my grandma. She saw computer for the first time, but she jumped right onto it and we both played the game very passionately. Sadly, it is some 25 years ago now, a quarted of a century. These were magical times and such a great fun. Thanks for the game, Geoffrey! Adam from Czechia
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.