Preppie! II

Preppie! II is a video game written by Russ Wetmore for the Atari 8-bit family and published by Adventure International in 1983. Subtitled "The continuing saga of Wadsworth Overcash,"[2] it is a sequel to 1982's Frogger-inspired Preppie!. It loosely follows the preppy theme, primarily through a story in the manual, but replaces the country club setting with an abstract, overhead view maze. Some obstacles from the first game appear in the second.

Preppie! II
Developer(s)Star Systems Software
Publisher(s)Adventure International
Designer(s)Russ Wetmore[1]
SeriesPreppie! 
Platform(s)Atari 8-bit
Release1983
Genre(s)Maze

In 2016, Wetmore made the source code for Preppie! II publicly available.[3]

Gameplay

Preppie! II is a maze game. Walking changes the floor to a different color, and the goal is to paint the entire maze.[4] Revolving doors rotate when pushed, changing the shape of the maze. Radioactive frogs, golf carts, and reel mowers from the first game are deadly to the touch. The joystick button activates a time-limited cloaking effect which allows the character to walk through enemies and also the revolving doors without activating them.[4]

There are three mazes with different layouts and obstacles. When all three have been completed, they repeat with higher difficulty.[4]

Development

The last page of the manual lists the tools that Wetmore used to create the game. These include the Atari Macro Assembler, Atari Assembler Editor, BUG/65, Atari Program Text Editor, and Micropainter.[4]

Reception

New Zealand magazine Bits & Bytes called Preppie! II "a surprisingly difficult maze program."[5] Reviewer Michael Fletcher complimented the graphics and music and wrote that "The game play is exciting and often amusing, especially when you are stomped on by a frog."[5] Computer Games called it "fresher than the original," giving an overall rating of "B".[6]

Steve Harding wrote for Hi-Res, "Mark Murley's documentation is almost worth the program's suggested retail price of $34.95. It is well written and humorous."[7] He concluded with, "Adventure International and Wetmore are to be commended for a job well done."[7]

gollark: No.
gollark: Thanks. I probably should have checked which way round it goes.
gollark: <@237328509234708481> What's going on with this?
gollark: `string.find("^[\n\t\32-\127]*$", "\n")` seems fine, though. I don't know why.
gollark: `string.find("^[\0-\255]*$", "b")` and `string.find("[\0-\255]*", "bcdefgadg")` also return nil.

See also
  • Make Trax (1981) game with the goal of painting the maze
  • Lady Bug (1981) maze game with revolving doors

References
  1. Hague, James. "The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers".
  2. "Preppie! II". Atari Mania.
  3. "Preppie! II source code". archive.org.
  4. Murley, Mark S. (1983). Preppie! II manual. Longwood, FL: Adventure International.
  5. Fletcher, Michael (July 1984). "Up and running". Bits & Bytes. 2 (10): 60.
  6. "200 Games". Computer Games. 3 (5): 51. February 1985.
  7. Harding, Steve (March 1984). "Reviews: Preppie! II". Hi-Res. 1 (3): 7.
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