At first glimpse, O’Riley’s Mine could look like a rip-off of Namco‘s popular 1982 arcade digger, Dig Dug as the digging concept quickly became exhausted by contemporary programmers all trying their luck with the concept. While the inspiration is obvious, programmer Mark Riley, which lent his name to the small digging hero and the game’s title put his own interesting twist on it, added with a bit of Boulderdash flair.

O’Riley’s Mine was published by Pat Ketchum’s Datasoft for the Atari 8-bit line of home computers in 1983. The same year the game was ported to the Apple II by Larry Lewis and to the Commodore 64 by Al Rubin.

O’Riley’s Mine was published for the Atari 8-bit line of computers in 1983 by Datasoft. The release included both floppy and cassette
It was ported to the Apple II and Commodore 64 the same year

O’Riley must travel through his mine to capture all the buried treasure and return safely home again at the top of the mine shaft. Onrushing water will drown you and river monsters eat you alive. Dynamite charges can be used to block monsters but will be cleared again by the incoming water. Explosions can be timed so that a monster is blown away to gain extra points. With moonrise, the monsters move.
The oncoming water rises to the highest level the player digs to making it possible for it to block the player from returning home with the loot