''Nibbler'' is an arcade

snake Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...

maze video game This is a list of maze video games by type. Top-down maze games While the character in a maze would have a limited view, the player is able to see much or all of the maze. ''Maze chase games'' are a specific subset of the overhead perspective. T ...

released in 1982 by

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

-based developer

Rock-Ola The Rock-Ola Manufacturing Corporation is an American developer and manufacturer of juke boxes and related machinery. It was founded in 1927 by Coin-Op pioneer David Cullen Rockola to manufacture slot machines, Weighing scale, scales, and pinbal ...

. The player navigates a snake through an enclosed maze, consuming objects, and the length of the snake increases with each object consumed. The game was the first to include nine scoring digits, allowing players to surpass one billion points. The arcade game was distributed in Japan by

Taito is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, Toy, toys, arcade cabinets, and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, Vending machine, vending machines, and Juk ...

in 1983. Home versions were published in 1983 by

Datasoft Datasoft, Inc. (also written as DataSoft) was a software developer and publisher for home computers founded in 1980 by Pat Ketchum and based out of Chatsworth, Los Angeles, Chatsworth, California. Datasoft primarily published video games, includi ...

for the

Atari 8-bit computers The Atari 8-bit computers, formally launched as the Atari Home Computer System, are a series of home computers introduced by Atari, Inc., in 1979 with the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The architecture is designed around the 8-bit MOS Technology 650 ...

and

Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...

Gameplay

''Nibbler'' is a maze-and-munch game, among many others which followed ''Pac-Man'', but the game features no enemies, and a life is lost only when the snake bites itself.

Reception

In the United States, it was among the thirteen highest-grossing arcade games of 1983.

Competitive play

Nibbler World Record Attempt at MagFest 2009

''Nibbler'' is the first video game to feature a nine-digit scoring system allowing players to score one billion points. The first to achieve this feat was a seventeen-year-old named Tim McVey, who scored 1,000,042,270 points on January 17, 1984, while playing continuously for 44 hours over two days at

Walter Day Walter Aldro Day Jr. (born May 14, 1949) is an American businessman and the founder of Twin Galaxies, an organization that tracks world records for video games and conducts a program of electronic-gaming promotions. Biography Walter Aldro Day ...

Twin Galaxies Twin Galaxies is a social media platform and video game database. Twin Galaxies is the official supplier of video game records to ''Guinness World Records''. History In mid-1981, Walter Day, founder of Twin Galaxies, Inc., visited more than 1 ...

arcade in

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. A local news crew arrived to film him on location as he closed in on the record. McVey stated in a 2016 interview that he quit playing of his own accord due to exhaustion after setting the mark. For his achievement, McVey, an Ottumwa native, had the day of January 28, 1984 declared in his honor. He additionally received his own ''Nibbler'' machine as a prize, which he later gave to a rival arcade in exchange for two hundred dollars in game

token Token may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Token, a game piece or counter, used in some games * The Tokens, a vocal music group * Tolkien Black, a recurring character on the animated television series ''South Park,'' formerly known as ...

s. In September 1984, Italian player Enrico Zanetti topped McVey with a 1,001,073,840 score, but it was not officially recognized by Twin Galaxies, who ultimately stopped verifying record scores for the game altogether; however, this score was grandfathered in retroactively as a historical record due to a new ruling that permitted significant and well-documented media coverage, although the former record was only officialized after McVey took back the record from Rick Carter. In September 2008, Dwayne Richard of

Grande Prairie Grande Prairie is a city in Northern Alberta, northwestern Alberta, Canada, within the southern portion of an area known as Peace River Country. It is located at the intersection of Alberta Highway 43, Highway 43 (part of the CANAMEX Corridor) ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, gained media attention when he fell short in his attempt to become the first player since McVey to officially surpass one billion points. McVey's mark consequently stood for nearly three decades before it was surpassed twice, including once by Richard in 2009, but McVey was still recognized by ''

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, list ...

'' as the official record holder because others' scores were never submitted for verification. Rick Carter of

Glen Burnie, Maryland Glen Burnie is an unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Baltimore. The population was 72,891 at the 2020 census. History In 1812, Elias Glenn, a district attorn ...

officially claimed the new world record with a score of 1,002,222,360 on July 31, 2011. McVey regained the mark on December 25, 2011, with a score of 1,041,767,060. On May 1, 2023, Italian player Alessandro Porro, from

Triest Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the regional decentralization entity of Trieste. Trieste is located at the head ...

, totaled a score of 1,233,326,800 after 51 hours and 55 minutes. The performance is broadcast live on

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...

and the new world record comes a few days later formed by Twin Galaxies.

Legacy

''Buzzworm'' is a ''Nibbler'' clone for the

TRS-80 Color Computer The RadioShack TRS-80 Color Computer, later marketed as the Tandy Color Computer, is a series of home computers developed and sold by Tandy Corporation. Despite sharing a name with the earlier TRS-80, the Color Computer is a completely different ...

published by Novasoft in 1984. The documentary '' Man vs. Snake: The Long and Twisted Tale of Nibbler'', about the difficulties of achieving a one-billion point score on ''Nibbler'', was released in 2016. During the credits Elijah Hayter is shown with a score of 1,042,774,470 in June 2012, and Rick Carter is shown with 1,231,372,670 points after 53 hours and 8 minutes in November 2012. As of January 2020 neither of these scores have been credited as official by Twin Galaxies.

References

External links