Preppie! (video game)

Preppie!
Developer(s) Star Systems Software
Publisher(s) Adventure International
Designer(s) Russ Wetmore[1]
Platform(s) Atari 8-bit family
Release date(s)
Genre(s) Overhead view action

Preppie! is an action video game for the Atari 8-bit family. The game was created by Russ Wetmore as a clone of Frogger and published by Adventure International in 1982.

Preppie! was followed by Preppie! II, created also by Wetmore, in 1983. The sequel is a maze game.[2] In January 2016 Russ Wetmore released the source code of Preppie!, Preppie II and Sea Dragon to the public on the Internet Archive.[3]

Gameplay

Preppie!'s gameplay follows the design established by Frogger: crossing lanes of traffic, then maneuvering across water by jumping on floating objects. The frog is recast as a preppy, and the setting moved to a country club where traffic consists of golf carts and reel mower-pushing groundskeepers, and canoes occupy the water (in addition to alligators and logs).

Instead of simply crossing from one side to the other, as in Frogger, the goal is to retrieve a golf ball from the top of the screen, then return it to the bottom of the screen. When all golf balls have been collected, the level is over. There are ten levels in all.[4]

Reception

Bill Kunkel, in a 1983 review for Electronic Games, wrote "Sure it sounds familiar, but what elevates Preppie! from the score of Frogger-clones on the software market is the enchanting four-part harmony sound effects and the stunning graphics."[5]

A 1983 Compute! review also lauded the graphics and stated, "this program easily ranks among the best games to appear for the Atari computer to date."[4]

In the April 1983 issue of Antic, Preppie! was one of ten games chosen to be "among the most popular, interesting, and valuable programs yet written for your amusement."[6]

Preppie! 3

Wetmore mentioned a possible third game in the series when interviewed by Electronic Games. He was asked about this in 2005, and his response was posted to the Atari Age forums:

Some conceptual work was done on Preppie 3, but nothing ever came of it. When I was interviewed for Electronic Games (the only place I ever mentioned P3) I was in New York for an awards ceremony and had just come from a brainstorming session to come up with some talking points for the press. The interview was more to generate buzz than to promote future products, and when the bottom fell out of the games market in the coming months, I gave up game writing to focus on other types of software, notably Homepak.[7]

See also

Pacific Coast Highway - another Atari 8-bit Frogger clone from 1982

References

  1. ↑ "The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers".
  2. ↑ Mozejko, Michael. "Preppie! II". Retro Gamer.
  3. ↑ Three Atari 8-bit games source code have been released on commodore.ninja by Paulo Garcia (on Jan 5, 2016)
  4. 1 2 Kinnamon, Mike (January 1983). "Preppie! For Atari". COMPUTE! (32): 140.
  5. ↑ Kunkel, Bill (January 1983). "Computing Gaming: Preppie!". Electronic Games.
  6. ↑ Burns, Deborah (April 1983). "Antic Pix Ten". Antic. 2 (1): 57.
  7. ↑ "Preppie Three? - Atari 8-Bit Computer Forums". Atari Age. February 20, 2005.

Bibliography

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