Miner 2049er features a Mountie named Bounty Bob who has been chasing a wanted criminal into a series of uranium mines.

[3][4] To complete a stage, Bob must survey the mine by moving left and right across every part of the floor of each level.

[4][14] The player loses them by interacting with a mutant enemies, falling from certain heights off a platform, and running out of time in a level.

[3][15] Points are awarded for collecting prospecting gear, eliminating enemies and the remaining time at the end of a level.

These clones often copied the gameplay and had similar names to their original influences, with titles like Munch Man (1982) or Snapper (1982) which were derivative of Namco's Pac-Man (1980).

[25] His team chose to develop for the line, as they felt it was the best combination of graphics and sound and that their cartridge games could not as easily be pirated.

[26][27] The graphics and audio in the game are credited to Curtis A. Mikolyski, Jeff Konyu, Kelly Bakst, and Hogue.

Hogue recalled that the team really liked the climbing-aspects of Donkey Kong (1981) and believed they could improve on the gameplay formula.

[24] Hogue wanted to blend together the elements he found fun from different arcade games; specifically, the climbing from Donkey Kong and both traversing the entire screen and enemies who can be made vulnerable from Pac-Man (1980).

[33] Other traversal methods such as the cannons and transporters were made as an iterative process, and that none of those gameplay mechanics were thought of ahead of time.

[32] No less than 15 companies were scheduled to produce versions of Miner 2049er for various video game consoles, computers, and handheld machines.

Livesay eventually got Micro Fun to agree to develop the ColecoVision version of the game, allowing him time to make more levels for it.

Ross recalled that "there was no big discussion about what Bob looked like, and I'd no idea I'd draw the guy so many times in the future.

"[1] This mass-licensing and large advertising campaign by ICG, was described by William Cassidy of GameSpy as being new for the video game industry.

[11][13] It was released for systems like the Super Cassette Vision and some of the major Japanese 8-bit computers of the 1980s, including the PC-8800 series, Fujitsuo FM-7, and the Sharp X1.

[48] Hogue recalled that the Game Boy version was "a really poor sales performer" and that "The developers weren't integrating with me on a daily basis; there was more of a 'We've done it, here it is,' approach.

"[31][49] In 2001,[a] Hogue released the game and its sequel, Bounty Bob Strikes Back!, for free online with an embedded Atari 8-bit computer emulator.

[4][30][59][18] Tom Hudson of Analog Computing praised them as not simply being "just one-color graphics, but detailed multicolor objects" and that the gameplay was not abandoned in favor of them.

[18] Writing for SoftSide, David Plotkin also complimented the attention to detail, noting the animated moving feet on Bob and how his facial expression changes as he jumps.

[4] Boaz also discussed the color in the randomly generated palettes that were applied to levels, which he felt broke up monotony in the game.

The floating platforms here give the game all the grace and tension of a trapeze act in the Big Top.

"[30] A reviewer credited as "MTY" in the magazine Softline found that despite being similar to Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, and Apple Panic (1981), the game was original and that "unlike many arcade games, [Miner2049er] doesn't require you to get faster as the pace picks up in order to attain the next level.

"[38] Harvey Kong Tin of Page 6 said that as jumping has become part of computer games with The Pharaoh's Curse (1983), Shamus: Case II (1983) and Jumpman (1983), Miner2049er ranked as the best of them.

[74] Other ports were praised, such as Arnie Katz writing that "No previous Apple II game can match the fluidity of Miner's control scheme."

He said that unlike those in Donkey Kong, pathways were not immediately obvious, and this made the game fun and more challenging.

[79] This included Matthew Smith's Manic Miner (1983), one of the first major British hit computer games.

[85] The game was going to have vertical scrolling and a plot involving Bounty Bob becoming a fire fighter, running into buildings to save people.

Hogue said the game production was halted as his team felt the design would not be superior to Miner 2049er.

The game was announced for released for the Apple II, Commodore 64, ColecoVision, and IBM PC.

[85][90] Hogue stated that following the video game crash of 1983 and the release of Bounty Bob Strikes Back!, Big Five Software started scaling back their company operations until it was run out of Hogue's home; he eventually closed the company and left the video game industry.