Taxman (video game)

Taxman is a clone of Namco's Pac-Man written by Brian Fitzgerald for the Apple II and published by H.A.L. Labs, a firm he cofounded with Greg Autry, in 1981.[1]

Taxman
Manual cover art
Publisher(s)H.A.L. Labs
Programmer(s)Brian Fitzgerald [1]
Platform(s)Apple II
Release1981
Genre(s)Maze
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer (up to five players)

Featuring the same maze and yellow Pac-Man character as the arcade game, and promoted as "the definitive version of the popular game," HAL was asked to stop selling Taxman by Atari, Inc. who owned the home rights to Pac-Man. Atari published a modified version of Taxman as the official Apple II port of Pac-Man under its Atarisoft label.[2] HAL Labs then changed the mazes and some of the graphics of Taxman and rebranded it as Taxman 2 in 1982.

Fitzgerald publicly released the Taxman source code in 2015.[3]

Plot

Taxman is set in the land of Tanstaafl in which the citizens are in revolt and rioting in the streets, and the player passes through tax centers in each precinct to pacify the rebels.[4]

Reception

Karl Westerholm reviewed Taxman in The Space Gamer No. 56.[4] Westerholm commented that "I definitely recommend this game to all who waste too many quarters at arcades, as it is just as addictive as the original."[4]

gollark: Using machine learning, obviously.
gollark: Yes.
gollark: And view count and upvotes and such.
gollark: Idea: instead of actually finding the downvote count, just *infer* it from the video title and description.
gollark: Newcomb's paradox.

References
  1. Hague, James. "The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers".
  2. "Taxman". Phosphor Dot Fossils.
  3. "Source Code to TAXMAN to be Released". Call A.P.P.L.E. August 7, 2015.
  4. Westerholm, Karl (October 1982). "Capsule Reviews". The Space Gamer. Steve Jackson Games (56): 36.
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