Pengo [Model CX2690]

Port

42 Years old Atari 2600 cart. Atari, Inc. [CA, USA]

Pengo © 1984 Atari, Incorporated.

You start the game with five Pengo lives. Your current lives are displayed as red boxes at the lower left. You lose a life when a Sno-Bee touches you. You have approximately two minutes to complete a round. Each round ends when you destroy all the Sno-Bees, when the last one escapes, or when time is up. The game ends when you lose your last Pengo life.

TECHNICAL

Model CX2690

TRIVIA

A 1983 prototype is know to exists. The title screen is more stylized in the prototype version, and according to programmer Mark Hahn it was dropped from the finished version due to memory constraints. There are some other small differences in this version as well, such as the placement of the ice blocks, and it appears to be fully playable.

TIPS AND TRICKS

Eliminate as many SnoBees as possible with a single ice block, for potential time bonus points.

If Sno-Bees are chasing you and you come up against an ice block, don't lose time--run around it!

Try to put a block between you and pursuing Sno-Bees. Then use that block to crush the little nasties.

For higher points, remember to crush frozen SnoBees with ice blocks rather than by running over them.

The best strategy for lining up jewel blocks is to make a wall out of the regular ice blocks, then push the jewel blocks against that wall.

Each time you begin a new round, analyze the maze. If it's easy to line up the jewel blocks, do that first. If not, destroy the Sno-Bees first.

Remember that regular ice blocks are worth 30 points each. So after aligning the jewel blocks, start crushing the regular blocks for extra points. But don't destroy them all before you kill off the Sno-Bees, or you'll have no weapons left!

STAFF

👥

Sound: Jeff Gusman, Andrew Fuchs
Programmer: Mark R. Hahn
Graphics: Courtney Granner

SOURCES

🔗

ROM dump (MAME).