Heartlight is a puzzle game that was developed by Epic Megagames (makers of Unreal among other games) and Xland in the late '80s to early '90s for MS-DOS. Epic Games, also known as Epic and formerly as Epic MegaGames, is a Video game development company based in Cary North Carolina, United MS-DOS (short for M icro' s' oft D isk O perating S ystem is an Operating system commercialized by Microsoft.
It was released in two versions: one, Heartlight, is a shareware version intended to get you to buy the game. The term shareware, popularized by Bob Wallace, refers to Copyrighted commercial Software that is Distributed without payment on a trial This version contains 20 levels. Heartlight Deluxe (the paid, full version) contains 70 levels.
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Gameplay
The game is set up on a 12x20-square grid. Some of the levels make full use of the space, others fill unused space with a moving background. The game is played as from the side (unlike some bird-eye-view puzzle games), with gravity playing an important part.
The object of the game is to help Percival, the elf character you guide with your keyboard, collect all the hearts on each level and get to the door. Different objects with unique characteristics aim to make reaching this goal more complex.
Unlike many computer games, Heartlight is neither timed nor limited to a certain number of lives. However, there is no Save feature, so under the original DOS environment you lose your place if you quit to do something else. You can restart the level by pressing Esc as many times as you wish, and in most levels you can sit and study them before beginning.
Objects in play
Basic objects you will see on almost every level 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. There are several other objects that you come across while playing the game, and the only way to learn about them is to experiment. Several kinds of walls and empty space also have unique properties that must be tested.
Sound
Heartlight plays a looping track of music along with sound effects for interactions with objects. Hearts falling make a “tink” noise, rocks clunk when they fall on hard objects, and the door creaks when it opens, for example.
Similar games
Heartlight has been compared to other popular puzzle games as Boulder Dash and Supaplex. Boulder Dash, aka Rockford, originally released in 1984 is a classic series of Computer games for the Apple II, MSX Supaplex is a Video game created by Michael Stopp and Philip Jespersen, two Swiss students and published by Digital Integration in 1991 Indeed, many puzzle games play on the basis of objects with different properties impacting your pursuit of the rewards and the exit to the next level.