Puzzle Panic

Puzzle Panic, also known as Ken Uston's Puzzle Panic, is a video game created by blackjack strategist Ken Uston, Bob Polin (designer of Blue Max), and Ron Karr. It was published by Epyx in 1984 for the Atari 8-bit family and Commodore 64.[1]

A pre-release version of the game was called PuzzleMania.[2]

Gameplay

The player guides Benny, a light bulb, through a series of 11 puzzles, each with varying difficulty settings (a total of over 40 levels). At the completion of each level, there are a few available exits, each bearing an obscure symbol, which take Benny forward or back in the game (or possibly to repeat the level). The final level, the "Metasequence," is a cryptic puzzle with a non-explicit objective. Its original purpose was part of a contest: those who solved it correctly by the August 13, 1984 deadline[3] could enter in a drawing to win a weekend at an Atlantic City casino with co-creator Ken Uston.

Reception

Steve Panak wrote in ANALOG Computing, "Puzzle Panic is so radically different, so unlike anything else you've ever set your cathode-raybloodshot eyes on, that there's no readily memorable program to compare it with," and called the game "addictive." He disliked the brief window for winning the contest; it had already expired by the time he played.[3]

References

  1. Puzzle Panic at Lemon 64
  2. "PuzzleMania". Atari Mania.
  3. Panak, Steve (December 1984). "The Season's Software Sampler". ANALOG Computing (25).
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.