Rocky's Boots
Encyclopedia
Rocky's Boots is an educational logic puzzle game by Warren Robinett
and Leslie Grimm, published by The Learning Company
in 1982. It was released for the Apple II
, the CoCo
, the Commodore 64
and the IBM PC
. It was followed by a more difficult sequel
, Robot Odyssey
. It won Software of the Year awards from Learning Magazine (1983), Parent's Choice magazine (1983), and Infoworld magazine (1982, runner-up), and received the Gold Award (for selling 100,000 copies) from the Software Publishers Association. It was one of the first educational software products for personal computers to successfully use an interactive graphical simulation as a learning environment.
s to the boot.
The player is represented by an orange square, and picks up devices (the boot, logic gates, clackers, etc.) by moving their square over them and hitting the joystick button. When the boot has kicked all of the positive objects and none of the negative objects (obtaining a score of 24 points), Rocky (a raccoon) will appear and do a beeping dance.
Later, the player finds that you can use all of the game's objects, which components included AND gates, OR gates, NOT gates, and flip-flops, in an open-ended area to design your own logic circuits and 'games'. This is why many do not actually consider this as a game, but more of a visual design engine. The colors of orange and white were used to show the binary logic states of 1 and 0. As the circuits operated, the signals could be seen slowly propagating through the circuits, as if the electricity was liquid orange fire flowing through transparent pipes.
, and a still later game called Gertrude's Secrets
. The distinctive style of the game was modeled after Robinett's earlier Atari 2600
game Adventure
, to which Rocky's Boots was originally going to be a sequel.
Warren Robinett
Joseph Warren Robinett, Jr. is a designer of interactive computer graphics software, notable as the developer of the Atari 2600's Adventure — the first graphical adventure video game — and as a founder of The Learning Company, where he designed Rocky's Boots and Robot Odyssey...
and Leslie Grimm, published by The Learning Company
The Learning Company
The Learning Company is an American educational software company, founded in 1980. It produced a grade-based system similar to Knowledge Adventure's JumpStart series. The products for preschoolers through second graders feature Reader Rabbit, and software for more advanced students features The...
in 1982. It was released for the Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
, the CoCo
TRS-80 Color Computer
The Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer was a home computer launched in 1980. It was one of the earliest of the first generation of computers marketed for home use in English-speaking markets...
, the 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...
and the IBM PC
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
. It was followed by a more difficult sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
, Robot Odyssey
Robot Odyssey
Robot Odyssey is an adventure game, published by The Learning Company in 1984. It was released for the Apple II, TRS-80 Color Computer, and DOS.-Story:...
. It won Software of the Year awards from Learning Magazine (1983), Parent's Choice magazine (1983), and Infoworld magazine (1982, runner-up), and received the Gold Award (for selling 100,000 copies) from the Software Publishers Association. It was one of the first educational software products for personal computers to successfully use an interactive graphical simulation as a learning environment.
Gameplay
The object of the beginning part of Rocky's Boots is to use a mechanical boot to kick a series of objects (purple or green squares, diamonds, circles, or crosses) off a conveyor belt; each object will score some number of points, possibly negative. To ensure that the boot only kicks the positive objects, the player must connect a series of logic gateLogic gate
A logic gate is an idealized or physical device implementing a Boolean function, that is, it performs a logical operation on one or more logic inputs and produces a single logic output. Depending on the context, the term may refer to an ideal logic gate, one that has for instance zero rise time and...
s to the boot.
The player is represented by an orange square, and picks up devices (the boot, logic gates, clackers, etc.) by moving their square over them and hitting the joystick button. When the boot has kicked all of the positive objects and none of the negative objects (obtaining a score of 24 points), Rocky (a raccoon) will appear and do a beeping dance.
Later, the player finds that you can use all of the game's objects, which components included AND gates, OR gates, NOT gates, and flip-flops, in an open-ended area to design your own logic circuits and 'games'. This is why many do not actually consider this as a game, but more of a visual design engine. The colors of orange and white were used to show the binary logic states of 1 and 0. As the circuits operated, the signals could be seen slowly propagating through the circuits, as if the electricity was liquid orange fire flowing through transparent pipes.
Similar games
The engine for the game was used in several other games by The Learning Company, including the sequel Robot OdysseyRobot Odyssey
Robot Odyssey is an adventure game, published by The Learning Company in 1984. It was released for the Apple II, TRS-80 Color Computer, and DOS.-Story:...
, and a still later game called Gertrude's Secrets
Gertrude's secrets
Gertrude's Secrets is a 1984 children's computer game by The Learning Company. The goal of the game is to solve puzzles and find secrets....
. The distinctive style of the game was modeled after Robinett's earlier Atari 2600
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
game Adventure
Adventure (Atari 2600)
Adventure is a video game for the Atari 2600 video game console and is considered the first action-adventure game. Its creator, Warren Robinett, also introduced the first widely-known Easter egg to the gaming world.-History and design:...
, to which Rocky's Boots was originally going to be a sequel.