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Space Panic

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Cabinet
  
Upright / cocktail

Genre
  

Initial release date
  
1980

Space Panic httpsrmprdseMAMEartworkpreviewpanicpng

Mode(s)
  
Single player, Up to 2 players, alternating turns

Sound
  
1-channel (mono), amplified

Display
  
Raster, 336 x 240 pixels, 8 colors

Developer
  
Universal Entertainment Corporation

Platforms
  
Publishers
  
Universal Entertainment Corporation, Casio, Coleco

Similar
  
Coleco games, Puzzle video games

Arcade game space panic 1980 universal


Space Panic (スぺース・パ二ック, Supesu Panikku) is a 1980 arcade game designed by Universal Entertainment Corporation, which Chris Crawford called "the granddaddy of all platform games," as it predates Nintendo's Donkey Kong (from 1981) which is often cited as the original platform game. Space Panic lacks Donkey Kong's jump mechanic and the main character instead digs holes in the platforms into which he must lure the aliens. He must then hit them to knock them out of the hole and off the screen. In later levels, two or more holes must be lined up vertically in order to dispose of the aliens. There is also a limited supply of oxygen.

Contents

Space Panic The Arcade Flyer Archive Video Game Flyers Space Panic Universal

A ColecoVision port by CBS Electronics was released in 1983.

Space panic classic arcade game


Origins and legacy

Space Panic colecospacepanic The Dot Eaters

The trap-em-up premise of the game (digging holes to trap aliens) is likely to have been inspired by the then-contemporary Heiankyo Alien (a 1979 game first released in arcades in 1980), but while that game is set in a maze viewed from above, Space Panic used platforms and ladders viewed from the side.

Space Panic Space Panic ColecoVision Score Board

The concept found success in the unauthorized home computer version, Apple Panic, and in 1983's Lode Runner which has similar look and also uses the basic premise of digging holes to trap enemies.

Space Panic Space Panic Wikipedia

Universal revisited the genre with Mr. Do's Castle (1983), which incorporated and expanded upon the play styles explored in Space Panic.

Reception

Space Panic Space Panic Arcade Universal 1980 YouTube

Space Panic was commercially unsuccessful, which Electronic Games in 1983 attributed to its concepts' novelty to the audience:"not only the first of the climbing games, it was also the first of the digging games. That's quite a load for a player on a new game. No punning intended when I say that the rungs were too high for the average gamer to scale." The magazine reported that the average play time was 30 seconds.

Reviewing the ColecoVision version for Digital Press Online, Kevin Oleniacz concluded, "Coleco had resurrected several short-lived arcade games and transformed them into home favorites, but they should have let Space Panic rest in peace."

References

Space Panic Wikipedia


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