.gif)
Snake (video game)
Encyclopedia
 |
 |
Snake is a video game that originated during the late 1970s in arcades
Video arcade
An amusement arcade or video arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers , or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables...
and has maintained popularity since then, becoming something of a classic. After it became the standard pre-loaded game on Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
phones in 1998, Snake found a massive audience.
The player controls a long, thin creature, resembling a 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...
, which roams around on a bordered plane
Plane (mathematics)
In mathematics, a plane is a flat, two-dimensional surface. A plane is the two dimensional analogue of a point , a line and a space...
, picking up food (or some other item), trying to avoid hitting its own tail or the "walls" that surround the playing area. Each time the snake eats a piece of food, its tail grows longer, making the game increasingly difficult. The user controls the direction of the snake's head (up, down, left, or right), and the snake's body follows. The player cannot stop the snake from moving while the game is in progress, and cannot make the snake go in reverse. However, Snake has had many variations since its release, depending on the game's platform. These variations involve the modification of certain rules e.g. the lethality of contact with walls.
History
The Snake variety of games dates back to the arcade gameArcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
Blockade
Blockade (arcade game)
Blockade is an arcade maze game developed and published by Gremlin in 1976. Using four directional buttons, each player moves their character around leaving a solid line behind them, turning at 90 degree angles. To win, a player must last longer than the opponent before hitting something, with the...
, developed and published by Gremlin
Gremlin Industries
Gremlin Industries was arcade game manufacturer active from the 1970s to early 1980s, and based San Diego, California, USA .Gremlin was founded in 1973 as a manufacturer of coin-operated wall games. Gremlin's first wall game, Play Ball, was fairly successful.- History :Gremlin joined the video game...
in 1976
1976 in video gaming
-Events:* In October, Warner Communications acquires Atari from Nolan Bushnell for $28 million USD. Bushnell stays on as chairman.-Notable releases:* Atari releases F-1 and Night Driver...
. In 1977, Atari, Inc. released, as an unofficial port, the first home console version of the Blockade concept, titled Surround
Surround (video game)
Surround is an early video game programmed by Alan Miller and published by Atari, Inc. for the Atari 2600, then known as the VCS . It was one of the nine Atari 2600 launch titles released in October 1977.- History :...
. Surround was one of the nine Atari 2600 (VCS) launch titles, and was also sold by Sears under the name Chase.
- 1998 Nokia Phone Snake released.
- 2011 Entrainia uses Snake as its first arcade game.
The first known personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
version of Snake, titled Worm, was programmed in 1978 by Peter Trefonas of the US on the TRS-80
TRS-80
TRS-80 was Tandy Corporation's desktop microcomputer model line, sold through Tandy's Radio Shack stores in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The first units, ordered unseen, were delivered in November 1977, and rolled out to the stores the third week of December. The line won popularity with...
computer, and published by CLOAD magazine in the same year. This was followed shortly afterwards with versions from the same author for the Commodore PET
Commodore PET
The Commodore PET was a home/personal computer produced from 1977 by Commodore International...
and 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...
computers. A microcomputer port of Hustle was first written by Peter Trefonas in 1979 and published by CLOAD magazine. This was later released by Milton Bradley
Milton Bradley Company
The Milton Bradley Company is an American game company established by Milton Bradley in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1860. In 1920, it absorbed the game production of McLoughlin Brothers, formerly the largest game manufacturer in the United States, and in 1987, it purchased Selchow and Righter,...
for the TI-99/4A
Texas Instruments TI-99/4A
The Texas Instruments TI-99/4A was an early home computer, released in June 1981, originally at a price of USD $525. It was an enhanced version of the less-successful—and quite rare—TI-99/4 model, which was released in late 1979 at a price of $1,150...
in 1980.
Some better-known versions include the Neopets
Neopets
Neopets is a virtual pet website that was launched by Adam Powell and Donna Williams on November 15, 1999. Two years after the web site was launched, Adam Powell and Donna Williams sold a majority share to a consortium of investors led by Doug Dohring. On June 20, 2005, Viacom bought Neopets, Inc...
example, which is known as "Meerca Chase". Its revised version is known as "Meerca Chase II". A variant called Nibbles
Nibbles (computer game)
Nibbles is a simple video game and variant of Snake. It was inspired by an early 1980's game called Hustle from the Radio Shack TRS-80 micro-computer....
was included with MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
for a period of time as a QBasic
QBasic
QBasic is an IDE and interpreter for a variant of the BASIC programming language which is based on QuickBASIC. Code entered into the IDE is compiled to an intermediate form, and this intermediate form is immediately interpreted on demand within the IDE. It can run under nearly all versions of DOS...
sample program.
An analog joystick-controlled variant of Snake, called Anaconda
Anaconda
An anaconda is a large, non-venomous snake found in tropical South America. Although the name actually applies to a group of snakes, it is often used to refer only to one species in particular, the common or green anaconda, Eunectes murinus, which is one of the largest snakes in the world.Anaconda...
, was included as a hidden minigame
Minigame
A minigame is a short video game often contained within another video game. A minigame is always smaller or more simplistic than the game in which it is contained. Minigames are sometimes also offered separately for free to promote the main game...
in TimeSplitters 2
TimeSplitters 2
TimeSplitters 2 is a first-person shooter video game available for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Nintendo GameCube game consoles. The game was published by Eidos and developed by Free Radical Design. The game was first released in October 2002 in North America and Europe, and later in Japan...
.
The version included on the Nokia N70
Nokia N70
The Nokia N70 is a multimedia 3G smartphone made by Nokia and launched in Q3 2005. This phone is one of the first phones released for Nokia's line of Multimedia computers, the Nokia Nseries. Nokia N70 is released alongside with Nokia N90 and Nokia N91....
and other later model Nokia phones is a 3D
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
version, with level goals. The Nokia version has a snake in it as well.
Snake on the BBC Micro
BBC Micro
The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, was a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers for the BBC Computer Literacy Project, operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation...
. Snake by John Cox from Computer Concepts
Xara
Xara is a UK-based software company founded in 1981. It has developed software for a variety of computer platforms, in chronological order: The Acorn Atom, BBC Micro, Z88, Atari ST, Acorn Archimedes, Microsoft Windows and Linux. It was originally called Computer Concepts, Ltd.; the company name...
was different in that the snake was controlled using the left and right arrow keys relative to the direction it was heading in. The snake increases in speed as it gets longer, and there are no 'lives', making achieving a high score or reaching higher levels relatively difficult as one mistake means starting from the beginning.
Snake on Nokia phones
Nokia is well known for putting Snake on the majority of their phones. Versions include:- Snake - The original, for monochromeMonochromeMonochrome describes paintings, drawings, design, or photographs in one color or shades of one color. A monochromatic object or image has colors in shades of limited colors or hues. Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale or black-and-white...
phones. Graphics consisted of black squareSquare (geometry)In geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral. This means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles...
s, and it had 4 directions. An example of a phone with it installed is the Nokia 6110Nokia 6110The Nokia 6110 was a mobile phone made by Nokia from 1997 to 2001 for the GSM network. It is not to be confused with the Nokia 6110 Navigator....
or the Nokia 8810Nokia 8810The Nokia 8810 is a slider style mobile phone handset manufactured by Nokia. It is most notable as being the first mobile phone to have an internal antenna. It was introduced in December 1998 and is very similar to the Nokia 8850. The nokia 8810 has since been discontinued.-Memory:The phonebook...
. It was programmed in 1997 by Taneli Armanto, a design engineer in Nokia.
- Snake II - Included on monochrome phones. Snake improved to a snake pattern, introduction of bonus bugs, a 'cyclical' play area (where crossing through one boundary would have you appear on the opposite side) and mazes (obstacle walls placed within the play area). An example of a phone with it installed is the Nokia 3310Nokia 3310The Nokia 3310 is a dual band GSM900/1800 mobile phone. Released in the fourth quarter of 2000, it replaced the popular Nokia 3210. This phone sold extremely well, being one of the most successful phones with 126 million units sold...
. - Snake Xenzia - Included on present-day monochrome phones (and some cheaper color phones, such as the Nokia 1600Nokia 1600The Nokia 1600 is a part of Nokia's Ultrabasic series of mobile phones released in 2006. The 1600 is designed for prepaid mobile phone services and is related to the Nokia 1100...
). An example of a phone with it installed is the Nokia 1112Nokia 1112The Nokia 1112 is a low-end GSM mobile phone sold by Nokia. The 1112 was released in 2006.With graphical icons and large font sizes the Nokia 1112 is an easy to use mobile phone that aims at first-time mobile phone users.... - Snake EX - Included on color phones. Graphics improved to SNESSuper Nintendo Entertainment SystemThe Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
quality. It supports multiplayer through BluetoothBluetoothBluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...
and Infra-Red. An example of a phone with it installed is the Nokia 6260. - Snake EX2 - This is included in several Series40 handsets by Nokia.
- SnakesSnakes (N-Gage game)Snakes is an update to the classic Snake game from Nokia. It is freely downloadable from the , and can be copied to another N-Gage handset via Bluetooth....
- A 3D version. This game was designed for the N-GageN-GageThe N-Gage is a mobile telephone and handheld game system by Nokia, based on the Nokia Series 60 platform, released in October 2003. It began sales on October 7, 2003. The N-Gage QD replaced the original N-Gage in 2004....
, developed by IOMOIOMOIOMO was a pioneering European mobile game developer and publisher based in Hampshire, England. IOMO was founded by John Chasey and Glenn Broadway in 2000. Initially a developer, the company was very successful in the early stages of the mobile game industry and worked with the majority of mobile...
(published by NokiaNokiaNokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
). It featured multiplayer through BluetoothBluetoothBluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...
. Graphics improved to basic PlayStationPlayStationThe is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
quality. Introduction of hex levels, etc. Later Nokia started giving this game pre-installed(without multiplayer feature) in its Nseries phones like N70Nokia N70The Nokia N70 is a multimedia 3G smartphone made by Nokia and launched in Q3 2005. This phone is one of the first phones released for Nokia's line of Multimedia computers, the Nokia Nseries. Nokia N70 is released alongside with Nokia N90 and Nokia N91....
, N73Nokia N73The Nokia N73 is a smartphone by Nokia officially described as a "multimedia computer". In common with other Nokia 'Nseries' and 'Eseries' phones of its time , the N73 comes loaded with many software applications, including contacts, messaging, picture and video galleries, a music player, a Visual...
, N80Nokia N80The Nokia N80 is a multimedia 3G smartphone made by Nokia with support for high-speed UMTS/WCDMA connections. Features include a 3.1 megapixel camera with built-in flash , another camera for videoconferencing, Wi-Fi , Universal Plug and Play , FM radio, Bluetooth 1.2, digital music player...
, etc. Snakes can be downloaded from the Nokia support page's Games section and played on any S60 device. - Snake III - A 3D version, different from Snakes in the fact that Snake III takes a more living snake approach, rather than the abstract feel of Snakes. An example of a phone with it installed is the Nokia 3250Nokia 3250The Nokia 3250 is a cellular phone which features a unique 'twist' design that transforms the traditional phone keypad into a camera and dedicated music control keys . It can store up to 2 gigabytes of music and other data thanks to a microSD memory card slot, and features a two-megapixel camera...
. It is also available on the Nokia 5310Nokia 5310The Nokia 5310 is an XpressMusic mobile phone, released in the fourth quarter of 2007. It is less than a centimeter thick and is available with blue, red, purple, pink, orange, silver or black trim, the main body also being available in grey, black or white. It is currently available in the U.S...
, Nokia 5610Nokia 5610The Nokia 5610 is a phone in Nokia's XpressMusic series. Launched in Q4 of 2008 it runs on the Series 40 platform. The phone is available in red, blue, white and pink side colors and can be mistaken for the Nokia N96 in the music video for the song "Hot n Cold" by Katy Perry.-LCD Screen Issues:This...
, Nokia 2730 classicNokia 2730 classicThe Nokia 2730 classic is a Nokia Quad-band GSM/UMTS 3G cell phone that includes a camera, FM radio, Bluetooth, music and video player, as well as several internet-based applications .-Key features:...
and the Nokia 6300Nokia 6300The Nokia 6300 is a mobile telephone handset produced by Nokia.The Nokia 6300 was assembled in several factories, but is currently assembled in Cluj Plant, Romania, and has been on sale since January 2007....
. It also supports multiplayer modes via BluetoothBluetoothBluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...
. - Snakes Subsonic - Sequel to SnakesSnakes (N-Gage game)Snakes is an update to the classic Snake game from Nokia. It is freely downloadable from the , and can be copied to another N-Gage handset via Bluetooth....
, released on May 22, 2008 for the second generation N-Gage platform.
Winning a game of Snake
There are many of the variations of snake that do not include walls, it is theoretically possible to fill the whole screen with snake therefore winning the game completely.Snake on YouTube
Snake can be played on YouTubeYouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
videos that use the 2010 version of the player. When a video is selected, the user can press the 'left' key for two seconds before pressing the 'up' key. The game will appear and can be played in the videoscreen.
Snake on Gmail
A version called 'Old Snakey' can be played inside GmailGmail
Gmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google. Users may access Gmail as secure webmail, as well via POP3 or IMAP protocols. Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though...
. This requires accessing The Labs, turning on hotkeys, and then activating the app. Once available, it is played by pressing ampersand (&) anywhere inside the main Gmail window.
Notable variants
- Light Cycle - TronTron-Film:*Tron , a franchise that began in 1982 with the Walt Disney Pictures film Tron** Tron , a 1982 science fiction film by Disney, starring Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, Cindy Morgan, Dan Shor and David Warner...
(fictional game) and its arcade implementation TronTron (arcade game)Tron is a coin-operated arcade video game manufactured and distributed by Bally Midway in 1982. It is based on the Walt Disney Productions motion picture Tron released in the same year. The game consists of four subgames inspired by the events of the science fiction film. It features some... - NibblerNibbler (video game)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 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...
- arcade version - NibblesNibbles (computer game)Nibbles is a simple video game and variant of Snake. It was inspired by an early 1980's game called Hustle from the Radio Shack TRS-80 micro-computer....
- MS-DOSMS-DOSMS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
(QBasicQBasicQBasic is an IDE and interpreter for a variant of the BASIC programming language which is based on QuickBASIC. Code entered into the IDE is compiled to an intermediate form, and this intermediate form is immediately interpreted on demand within the IDE. It can run under nearly all versions of DOS...
) some versions of suse linux - Pizza WormPizza Wormright|thumb|160px|Pizza Worm ScreenshotPizza Worm is a 1994 game by Sami "Zorlim" Lehtinen. This game is about controlling a worm and eating pizza. The game is a reminiscent of Nibbles...
- MS-DOSMS-DOSMS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating... - Rattler RaceRattler RaceRattler Race is a puzzle video game, created in 1991 by Christopher Lee Fraley, based largely on the 1970s game simply called Snake. It was distributed with the Microsoft Entertainment Pack, which was included with early Microsoft Windows systems. The player takes on the role of a hungry snake, who...
- Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... - SnakeballSnakeballSnakeball is a downloadable PSN game on the PlayStation Store released 20 December 2007. It is a 3D remake of classic video game Snake....
- PlayStation 3PlayStation 3The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles... - Snake ByteSnake ByteSnake Byte is a 1982 computer game published by Sirius Software Inc. for the Apple II, Atari 8-bit computers and Commodore 64.-Summary:The player controls a snake, crawling into a rectangular area. At the start of the game the snake has three lives and gains a life when it successfully exits a...
- Apple IIApple IIThe 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... - Omega Snake - Texas Instruments PC
- SpaceBallSpaceBall (game)SpaceBall was a miniature video game appearing on several models of LG brand mobile phones. The game was similar in concept to Snake, a title that was packaged with many Nokia brand cellular phones....
- LG brandLG GroupLG Corp. is the second-largest South Korean conglomerate company following Samsung, and it is headquartered in the LG Twin Towers in Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. LG produces electronics, chemicals, and telecommunications products and operates subsidiaries like LG Electronics, LG Display,...
mobile phoneMobile phoneA mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
s