Serpentine is a 1982

1982 in video gaming

-Events:* December 27 - Starcade, a video game television game show, debuts on TBS in the United States.-Notable releases:*October 13 - Mystique releases the Custer's Revenge adult video game for the Atari 2600 home console....

 action

Action game

Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...

 computer game developed by David Snider and published by Brøderbund

Brøderbund

Brøderbund Software, Inc. was an American maker of computer games, educational software and The Print Shop productivity tools. It was best known as the original creator and publisher of the popular Carmen Sandiego games. The company was founded in Eugene, Oregon, but moved to San Rafael,...

.

Description

The player controls (rides, by game description ) a multi-segmented blue 'good' serpent in a maze with the objective of eating all computer-controlled 'evil' (red or orange) serpents. Eating the tail segments of serpents makes them shorter; hitting a serpent headfirst eliminates it, and causes the player's serpent to grow an additional segment if the enemy serpent was shorter. A frog appears at random intervals and gives any serpent eating it an additional segment. As the game progresses, opposing serpents are faster and longer, increasing the difficulty.

One unique aspect of the game is how extra lives are gained. The playing serpent will lay an egg (losing a segment in the process) and, if given enough time, the egg hatches and hurries to the protected area. Enemy serpents will also lay eggs; if one hatches, a new two-segment opponent appears. It is possible to lose the last segment to an egg, resulting in the death of that serpent.

Serpentine ranked #13 for most popular game of 1982 according to Softalk

Softalk

Softalk was a magazine of the early 1980s that focused on the Apple II computer. Published from 1979 through 1984, it featured articles about hardware and software associated with the Apple II platform and the people and companies who made them...

magazine.

Ports

This game was originally written for the Apple II  and ported

Porting

In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...

 to the Vic 20, 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 Atari 400/800

Atari 8-bit family

The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers manufactured from 1979 to 1992. All are based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU and were the first home computers designed with custom coprocessor chips...

. Most versions included 20 different mazes, but the Atari version only had 5.