''Snake Byte'' is video game written by Chuck Sommerville for the

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...

and published by Sirius Software in 1982. The game is a single-player variant of the snake concept. That same year, ''Snake Byte'' was released for the

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

and on cartridge for the VIC-20. A

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

version followed in 1983.

Gameplay

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 level. The goal is to eat 10 apples in each of the 28 levels. If an apple is not eaten during the given deadline, three extra apples are to be eaten. The snake becomes longer and moves more quickly with each apple eaten. The snake loses a life when crashing into a fence, the wall or itself. After the last apple in each round is eaten the snake must exit the area through a gate which appears. Higher levels have more complicated fences, making the area trickier to navigate. Levels are increasingly difficult and the last ones allow almost no mistakes at all. Level 29 wraps back to level 1, but the counter does not reset. After completing enough levels the display will go from 99 to 00. The game can be played in two modes: two-key (left/right) or four-key (left/right/up/down), with 0, 1 or 2 bouncing plums. Plums bounce around within the area and kill the snake when they hit its head.

Reception

'' Ahoy!'' gave ''Snake Byte'' grades of B− for graphics and A for gameplay. It stated that the game "is one of the most engaging and challenging programs you can buy... you can't hope to do better in terms of entertainment."

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web , title=Snake Byte , url=http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-snake-byte_4752.html , website=Atari Mania {{cite web , title=Snake Byte , url=http://gb64.com/game.php?id=6955&d=18&h=0 , website=Gamebase 64 1982 video games Apple II games Atari 8-bit family games Commodore 64 games VIC-20 games Sirius Software games Snake video games Video games about reptiles Video games developed in the United States Single-player video games