''Heartlight'' is a

puzzle video game Puzzle video games make up a broad genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of puzzles can test problem-solving skills, including logic, pattern recognition, sequence solving, spatial recognition, and word completion. H ...

originally developed by Janusz Pelc for the

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

in 1990. In 1994, an

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

port (''Heartlight PC'') was published by

Epic MegaGames Epic Games, Inc. is an American video game and software developer and publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents' house in Potomac, Ma ...

along with two other games by Janusz Pelc in the ''Epic Puzzle Pack''. The

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer ...

version has 20 levels and the full version (''Heartlight Deluxe'') has 70 levels. In 2006, Maciej Miąsik, co-author of the MS-DOS version, released it under the

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

CC BY-SA 2.5 A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyrics ...

license A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

freeware Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the f ...

. The

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...

became available too. In 2020, a web browser remake was released with updated graphics.

Gameplay

The game is set on a 12×20 square grid, with similar game mechanics to ''

Boulder Dash ''Boulder Dash'' is a 2D maze-puzzle video game released in 1984 by First Star Software for Atari 8-bit computers. It was created by Canadian developers Peter Liepa and Chris Gray. The player controls Rockford, who collects treasures while ...

'' and ''

Supaplex ''Supaplex'' is a video game created by Philip Jespersen and Michael Stopp, two Swiss students, and published by Digital Integration in 1991. It is an extended clone of ''Boulder Dash''. History Aiming to develop a version of ''Boulder Dash'' ...

''. The object of the game is to help the elf Percival collect all the hearts on each level and get to the exit door. Different objects with unique characteristics aim to make reaching this goal more complex. The game is neither timed nor limited to a certain number of lives. However, there is no Save feature. Objects in the levels include bombs, rocks, and hearts. While hearts are one of the goals, they can also fall on and kill Percival. Bombs blow up when squashed or dropped on a hard surface. Rocks squash Percival and can blow up bombs.

Reception

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

''s Chuck Miller in June 1994 praised ''Heartlight'' as "a delightful logic-based game offering a good mix of arcade action and conundrums". "Game play is so addictive", he said, that the "just average" graphics and sound were not noticeable. Miller concluded that "This is one diversion that will keep you coming back for more". The game was later released as part of the ''Epic Puzzle Pack'' (with '' Robbo'' and '' Electro'') which was reviewed in 1994 in ''

Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

'' #206 by

Sandy Petersen Carl Sanford Joslyn "Sandy" Petersen (born September 16, 1955) is an American game designer. He worked at Chaosium, contributing to the development of ''RuneQuest'' and later creating the acclaimed and influential horror role-playing game ''Call ...

in the "Eye of the Monitor" column. Petersen gave the compilation 3 out of 5 stars.

Reviews

*''PC Joker'' (Oct, 1993)

References

External links

* 1990 video games 1994 video games Amiga games Android (operating system) games Atari 8-bit family games DOS games IOS games Puzzle video games Video games developed in Poland Creative Commons-licensed video games Freeware games Commercial video games with freely available source code {{puzzle-videogame-stub