In this VIC-20 game from 1983, busy store detective Barney Bootlace must appease the shop manager by running around the shop floor dealing with various problems, from dealing with lost property and children, to apprehending shoplifters and even dealing with planted bombs!
For Help! you control a guy who swings a mean stick that will knock out snakes that come up from the ground and climb up the vines you can maneuver on. However the blue striped snakes cannot be killed and are quite fast and if they touch our hero he will lose a life and have to listen to some agonizing music and any yellow snakes will advance to the top of the tree. You can also get a game over if enough of the yellow snakes reach the top of the tree and eventually will reach the large apple above your girlfriends head. They’ll then cruelly drop it down on top of her head crushing her! Eventually if you club enough snakes you’ll move on to the next level but the amount of snakes that reached the top stay. The controls of the game are a bit difficult and make it tricky to maneuver the hero. If he’s holding on to two vines he cannot move up or down so you have to be careful.
In Hiyoko Fighter you control a little chick who must collect eggs dropped by chickens while being chased by snakes. It takes a couple of cues from Pac-Man as it has tunnels you can walk into to warp to another part of the screen when you’re feeling trapped. There are 3 eggs laid by the chickens, a white one that gives you points, a red one enables temporary invincibility and the ability to kill the green snakes, and a yellow egg will advance you to the next level.
You are in charge of keeping a mischievous old man from cutting the power lines that connect to the Hudson Soft development room. Power comes from a battery on the upper left of the screen and is represented by white characters with bolts on their heads called “Electric-Kun”. They will slowly make their way to the development room and once they reach it a programmer will churn out a program and Hudson will make some money and you’ll get points! However if they run into an area without a line they’ll disappear.
Dig Dug is a 1-2 player arcade game in which you have to use your shovel to dig your way through the earth. Stopping you from doing this are two monsters, called Pooka and Fygar, who will continually chase you around. The only weapon that you carry is an air pump, which you can use to inflate the monsters to the point where they explode. (if you start to inflate them but stop doing so, the monsters will get turned back to their normal selves). Furthermore, rocks are scattered throughout the earth, and you can use these rocks to squash them. If the monsters do not find you for several seconds, they will eventually get turned into ghosts, which can walk through the earth. They are invincible and cannot be killed. From time to time, vegetables will appear in the center, and you can get these for points.
Dig Dug is a 1-2 player arcade game in which you have to use your shovel to dig your way through the earth. Stopping you from doing this are two monsters, called Pooka and Fygar, who will continually chase you around. The only weapon that you carry is an air pump, which you can use to inflate the monsters to the point where they explode (if you start to inflate them but stop doing so, the monsters will get turned back to their normal selves).
Dig Dug is a 1-2 player arcade game in which you have to use your shovel to dig your way through the earth. Stopping you from doing this are two monsters, called Pooka and Fygar, who will continually chase you around. The only weapon that you carry is an air pump, which you can use to inflate the monsters to the point where they explode. (if you start to inflate them but stop doing so, the monsters will get turned back to their normal selves). Furthermore, rocks are scattered throughout the earth, and you can use these rocks to squash them. If the monsters do not find you for several seconds, they will eventually get turned into ghosts, which can walk through the earth. They are invincible and cannot be killed. From time to time, vegetables will appear in the center, and you can get these for points.
Your task in this arcade game is to guide a frog across a treacherous road and river, and to safety at the top of the screen. Both these sections are fraught with a variety of hazards, each of which will kill the frog and cost you a life if contact is made.