Nibbler (video game)
Encyclopedia
Nibbler is an arcade machine by Rock-Ola Manufacturing Corporation
. Its gameplay is a variant of Snake
: The object is to navigate a virtual snake
(or worm
) through an enclosed space, while consuming
dots along the way. The length of the snake increases with each object consumed, making the game more difficult. The player
must also avoid colliding with walls or obstacles, and must also avoid colliding with the snake's own body sections. After a certain number of objects have been eaten, the player progresses to the next level
, involving harder obstacles and/or higher game speeds.
Nibbler was the first video game that allowed the player to score a ten-digit score—one billion points. This threshold was reached by Tim McVey at the Twin Galaxies
Intergalactic Scoreboard in Ottumwa, Iowa
, (The Video Game Capital of the World) on January 17, 1984, scoring 1,000,042,270 points. News of his accomplishment was carried by the wire services and a feature story on his feat was published in the July, 1984 issue of Computer Games Magazine. McVey became the first video game player in gaming history to have a civic day set aside in his honor: "Tim McVey," January 28, 1984. Officials from Rock-Ola, the game's manufacturer, were in attendance to award Mr. McVey a free "Nibbler" arcade machine of his own, for his accomplishment. See these External News Resources:
Rock-Ola
The Rock-Ola Manufacturing Corporation was, along with Wurlitzer, a top maker of jukeboxes. The company, which originally made slot machines, scales and pinball machines, was founded in 1927 by Coin-Op pioneer David Cullen Rockola....
. Its gameplay is a variant of Snake
Snake (video game)
Snake is a video game that originated during the late 1970s in arcades and has maintained popularity since then, becoming something of a classic...
: The object is to navigate a virtual snake
Snake
Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
(or worm
Worm
The term worm refers to an obsolete taxon used by Carolus Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non-arthropod invertebrate animals, and stems from the Old English word wyrm. Currently it is used to describe many different distantly-related animals that typically have a long cylindrical...
) through an enclosed space, while consuming
Eating
Eating is the ingestion of food to provide for all organisms their nutritional needs, particularly for energy and growth. Animals and other heterotrophs must eat in order to survive: carnivores eat other animals, herbivores eat plants, omnivores consume a mixture of both plant and animal matter,...
dots along the way. The length of the snake increases with each object consumed, making the game more difficult. The player
Player (game)
A player of a game is a participant therein. The term 'player' is used with this same meaning both in game theory and in ordinary recreational games....
must also avoid colliding with walls or obstacles, and must also avoid colliding with the snake's own body sections. After a certain number of objects have been eaten, the player progresses to the next level
Level (computer and video games)
A level, map, area, or world in a video game is the total space available to the player during the course of completing a discrete objective...
, involving harder obstacles and/or higher game speeds.
In the competitive arena
Twin Galaxies
Twin Galaxies is an American organization that tracks video game world records and conducts a program of electronic-gaming promotions. It operates the Twin Galaxies website and publishes the Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records, with the Arcade Volume released on June...
Intergalactic Scoreboard in Ottumwa, Iowa
Ottumwa, Iowa
Ottumwa is a city in and the county seat of Wapello County, Iowa, United States. The population was 24,998 at the 2000 census. It is located in the southeastern part of Iowa, and the city is split into northern and southern halves by the Des Moines River....
, (The Video Game Capital of the World) on January 17, 1984, scoring 1,000,042,270 points. News of his accomplishment was carried by the wire services and a feature story on his feat was published in the July, 1984 issue of Computer Games Magazine. McVey became the first video game player in gaming history to have a civic day set aside in his honor: "Tim McVey," January 28, 1984. Officials from Rock-Ola, the game's manufacturer, were in attendance to award Mr. McVey a free "Nibbler" arcade machine of his own, for his accomplishment. See these External News Resources:
- History's First Billion-Point Video Game Performance (Jan. 16, 1984) Computer Games magazine, July 1, 1984
- History's First Official Day to Honor a Video Game Player (Jan. 28, 1984) Tim McVey Day Poster, January 28, 1984
- Twin Galaxies Scoreboard for Nibbler World Records
- Tim McVey attempted to set new Nibbler World Record (Game began April 10, 2009 at 8:33am Central Time.)
- Giuseppe Siciliani & Bruno Guarascio (from Cirò Marina KR - Italy) are the first players in Italy and Europe (over 87 hours of continuous play).
External links
- Nibbler on MAWS