Puzzle Panic, also known as Ken Uston's Puzzle Panic, was a computer game created by blackjack

Blackjack

Blackjack, also known as Twenty-one or Vingt-et-un , is the most widely played casino banking game in the world...

 strategist Ken Uston

Ken Uston

Ken Uston was a famous blackjack player, strategist, and author, credited with popularizing the concept of team play at blackjack...

, Bob Polin and Ron Karr and published by Epyx

Epyx

Epyx, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. The company was founded as Automated Simulations by Jim Connelley and Jon Freeman, originally using Epyx as a brand name for action-oriented games before renaming the company to match in 1983...

 in 1984 for the Atari 400/800 and Commodore 64

Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...

.

The player guides Benny, a light bulb, through a series of 11 puzzles, each with varying difficulty settings (a total of over 40 levels). At the completion of each level, there are a few available exits, each bearing an obscure symbol, which take Benny forward or back in the game (or possibly to repeat the level).

The final level, the "Metasequence", is a cryptic puzzle with a non-explicit objective. Its original purpose was part of a contest: Those who solved it correctly by the 1984 August 31 deadline could enter in a drawing to win a weekend at an Atlantic City casino

Casino

In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...

 with co-creator Ken Uston

Ken Uston

Ken Uston was a famous blackjack player, strategist, and author, credited with popularizing the concept of team play at blackjack...

, who had previously earned fame as a gambling strategist.

External links

• The Season's Software Sampler, excerpted from A.N.A.L.O.G.
  A.N.A.L.O.G.
  A.N.A.L.O.G. was an American computer magazine devoted to the Atari 8-bit home computer line. It was known for its "advanced" programs in comparison to most type-in magazines of the era, especially its main rival, ANTIC, another long-lived magazine devoted to the Atari 8-bit line...
  
  issue 25, December 1984.
• Puzzle Panic entry from Atari 8-bit Forever.
• Puzzle Panic entry from Universal Videogame List.