Space Panic is a 1980 arcade game

Arcade 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...

 designed by Universal

Aruze

, is a Japanese manufacturer of pachinko, slot machines, arcade games and other gaming products, and a publisher of video games. Aruze possesses licenses to both manufacture and distribute casino machines in the American states of Nevada, Mississippi and New Jersey. The company's corporate...

, which Chris Crawford

Chris Crawford (game designer)

Christopher Crawford is a computer game designer and writer noted for creating a number of important games in the 1980s, founding The Journal of Computer Game Design, and organizing the Computer Game Developers' Conference.- Biography :...

 calls the first ever platform game

Platform game

A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...

, as it pre-dates Nintendo

Nintendo

is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

's Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong (video game)

is an arcade game released by Nintendo in 1981. It is an early example of the platform game genre, as the gameplay focuses on maneuvering the main character across a series of platforms while dodging and jumping over obstacles. In the game, Jumpman must rescue a damsel in distress, Lady, from a...

 (from 1981) which is often cited as the original platform game. Space Panic lacks Donkey Kongs jump

Jumping

Jumping or leaping is a form of locomotion or movement in which an organism or non-living mechanical system propels itself through the air along a ballistic trajectory...

 mechanic, disqualifying it as a platformer for some. The main character digs holes in the platforms that he must lure the alien

Extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...

s into. He must then hit them to knock them out of the hole and off the screen. In later levels

Level (video gaming)

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...

, two or more holes must be lined up vertically in order to dispose of the aliens. There is also a limited supply of oxygen

Oxygen

Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...

.

Origins and legacy

The premise of the game (digging holes to trap aliens) is likely to have been inspired by the then contemporary Heiankyo Alien

Heiankyo Alien

is a video game created by the University of Tokyo's Theoretical Science Group in 1979. The game was originally developed and released as a personal computer game in 1979, and was then published by Denki Onkyō Corporation as an arcade game in January 1980...

 (a 1979 game first released in arcades in 1980), but while that game is set in a maze viewed from above, Space Panic used platforms and ladders viewed from the side.

While Space Panic may have indirectly influenced all subsequent platform games, Space Panic certainly directly influenced some very similar "trap-em-up" games at the time. These included some almost identical clones such as Acornsoft

Acornsoft

Acornsoft was the software arm of Acorn Computers Ltd, and a major publisher of software for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron. As well as games, they also produced a large number of educational titles, extra computer languages and business and utility packages - these included ROM-based word...

's Monsters (for 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...

 and Acorn Electron

Acorn Electron

The Acorn Electron is a budget version of the BBC Micro educational/home computer made by Acorn Computers Ltd. It has 32 kilobytes of RAM, and its ROM includes BBC BASIC along with its operating system....

) and 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...

's Apple Panic

Apple Panic

Apple Panic is a 1981 platform game for the Apple II programmed by Ben Serki of Brøderbund Software. Apple Panic was inspired by Space Panic.-Description:...

 (1981) as well as the popular Lode Runner

Lode Runner

Lode Runner is a 1983 platform game, first published by Brøderbund. It is one of the first games to include a level editor, a feature that allows players to create their own levels for the game. This feature bolstered the game's popularity, as magazines such as Computer Gaming World held contests...

 (1983), which looked very similar and used the basic premise of digging holes to trap enemies. Universal revisited the genre again with Mr. Do's Castle

Mr. Do's Castle

Mr. Do's Castle is an arcade game created by Universal in September of 1983. The Asian title of the game is Mr. Do! versus Unicorns. Though marketed as a sequel to the original Mr. Do! released one year earlier, the game bears a far closer resemblance to Space Panic. It is the second of the Mr. Do...

 (1983) which incorporated and expanded upon many of the play styles explored in this seminal game.

Ports and clones

First Published	Name	Company	System(s)
1981	Apple Panic Apple Panic Apple Panic is a 1981 platform game for the Apple II programmed by Ben Serki of Brøderbund Software. Apple Panic was inspired by Space Panic.-Description:...	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,...	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... , Atari 8-bit, PC Booter, VIC-20
1982	Space Panic	Coleco Coleco Coleco is an American company founded in 1932 by Maurice Greenberg as "Connecticut Leather Company". It became a highly successful toy company in the 1980s, known for its mass-produced version of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls and its video game consoles, the Coleco Telstar and...	ColecoVision ColecoVision The ColecoVision is Coleco Industries' second generation home video game console which was released in August 1982. The ColecoVision offered arcade-quality graphics and gaming style, and the means to expand the system's basic hardware...
1982	Panic	Visions Software Factory	ZX Spectrum ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
1982	Monsters	Acornsoft Acornsoft Acornsoft was the software arm of Acorn Computers Ltd, and a major publisher of software for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron. As well as games, they also produced a large number of educational titles, extra computer languages and business and utility packages - these included ROM-based word...	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... , Acorn Electron Acorn Electron The Acorn Electron is a budget version of the BBC Micro educational/home computer made by Acorn Computers Ltd. It has 32 kilobytes of RAM, and its ROM includes BBC BASIC along with its operating system....
1983	Bonka Bonka (video game) Bonka is a computer game for the Dragon 32 and Commodore 64 that was released in 1983.-Summary:Bonka is a very simple platform game utilising the same hole-digging principle as Lode Runner. The game takes place on several floors connected by ladders. Monsters appear on all floors...	J. Morrison (Micros) Ltd.	Dragon 32/64 Dragon 32/64 The Dragon 32 and Dragon 64 are home computers that were built in the 1980s. The Dragons are very similar to the TRS-80 Color Computer , and were produced for the European market by Dragon Data, Ltd., in Port Talbot, Wales, and for the US market by Tano of New Orleans, Louisiana... , 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...
1983	Cuthbert Goes Digging Cuthbert Goes Digging Cuthbert Goes Digging is a 1983 computer game for the Dragon 32 home computer. Written by Steve Bak at Microdeal, the game features the hero Cuthbert, who also appears in Cuthbert Goes Walkabout and Cuthbert in the Mines...	Microdeal Microdeal Microdeal was a British software company which operated during the 1980s and early 1990s from its base at Truro Road in the town of St Austell, Cornwall...	TRS-80 Color Computer 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... , Dragon 32
1983	Panic 64	Interceptor Micros	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...
1983	Sam Spade	Silversoft Ltd	ZX Spectrum ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
1984	Panic Planet	Alligata Alligata Alligata Software Ltd. was a computer games developer and publisher based in Sheffield in the UK in the 1980s.The company was founded by Mike Mahoney and Dave Palmer around 1982. They produced games for a number of home computers including the Commodore 64, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, ZX Spectrum...	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...
1984	Monsters 64	Available as a Compunet Compunet Compunet was a United Kingdom based interactive service provider, catering primarily for the Commodore 64 but later for the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST...  download	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...
1986	Panik!	Atlantis Atlantis Software Atlantis Software was a London-based UK computer games publisher that published a number of games during the 1980s and early 1990s.The company was set up by Michael Cole and Rodger Coghill in January 1984 with the first four games released in May of that year...	Commodore 16 Commodore 16 The Commodore 16 was a home computer made by Commodore with a 6502-compatible 8501 CPU, released in 1984. It was intended to be an entry-level computer to replace the VIC-20 and it often sold for 99 USD... , 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... , Acorn Electron Acorn Electron The Acorn Electron is a budget version of the BBC Micro educational/home computer made by Acorn Computers Ltd. It has 32 kilobytes of RAM, and its ROM includes BBC BASIC along with its operating system.... , Atari 8-bit

External links

• Space Panic at KLOV
  Killer List of Videogames
  The Killer List of Videogames is a web site featuring an online encyclopedia devoted to cataloging arcade games past and present. It is the video game department of the International Arcade Museum, and has been referred to as "the IMDb for players."....
  
  
• Article on The Dot Eaters featuring Space Panic