''Snapper'' is a clone of the

Namco was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company founded in 1955. It operated video arcades and amusement parks globally, and produced video games, films, toys, and arcade cabinets. Namco was one of the most influential c ...

arcade game ''

Pac-Man ''Pac-Man,'' originally called in Japan, is a 1980 maze video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. The pla ...

'' programmed by Jonathan Griffiths for the

BBC Micro The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a family of microcomputers developed and manufactured by Acorn Computers in the early 1980s as part of the BBC's Computer Literacy Project. Launched in December 1981, it was showcased across severa ...

and released as one of the launch titles for

Acornsoft Acornsoft was the software arm of Acorn Computers, and a major publisher of software for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron. As well as games, it also produced a large number of educational titles, extra computer languages and business and util ...

in 1982. It was also one of Acornsoft's launch titles for the

Acorn Electron The Acorn Electron (nicknamed the Elk inside Acorn and beyond) was introduced as a lower-cost alternative to the BBC Micro educational/home computer, also developed by Acorn Computers, to provide many of the features of that more expensive mach ...

in 1983. Snapper started the BBC Micro tradition of controlling arcade games using the Z, X, : and / keys for horizontal and vertical motion, since on most BBC models the arrow keys were not conveniently placed for gaming.

Gameplay

As in ''Pac-Man'', bonus items such as fruit sometimes appear in the centre of the screen. The highest-scoring bonus item is an

acorn The acorn is the nut (fruit), nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'', ''Notholithocarpus'' and ''Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains a seedling surrounded by two cotyledons (seedling leaves), en ...

, a reference to the publishers. When Snapper is killed, it shrinks and turns into small lines pointing in all directions. The main difference in gameplay between ''Pac-Man'' and ''Snapper'' is the behaviour of the ghosts (or monsters). In ''Pac-Man'', each ghost has its own personality and follows set patterns for each level. The red ghost also travels at double speed after a certain number of dots are eaten. In ''Snapper'', the monsters begin each level by patrolling their corners a set number of times before breaking from their route to chase the Snapper. The time before breaking the route is reduced for each level until on later levels, the monsters chase Snapper almost immediately. The only real difference between the monsters is the corner they patrol and how soon they break from their route (e.g. the red ghost is always the first). Also, in ''Pac-Man'', the main character slows when eating dots (so ghosts can catch up to him) but this does not happen in ''Snapper''. These changes lead to a game which is much easier in the early levels but gets progressively more difficult so games tend to last longer.

Development

In development, the game was titled ''Puc Man'' (the first Japanese title of the arcade game was ''Puck Man'') but the name was changed before release to avoid legal action. However, the initial release of the game was so close to ''Pac-Man'' (including the design of the game's characters) that this version had to be withdrawn and re-released with the characters changed. The player's character became a round yellow face with very short legs wearing a green

cowboy hat The cowboy hat is a high-crowned, wide-brimmed hat best known as the defining piece of attire for the North American cowboy. Today it is worn by many people, and is particularly associated with ranch workers in the United States, Canada, Mexico, C ...

and the ghosts became skinny humanoid monsters.

References

External links

Video clip
of BBC Micro version (running at double speed) {{Acornsoft 1982 video games Acornsoft games BBC Micro and Acorn Electron games BBC Micro and Acorn Electron-only games Single-player video games Video games developed in the United Kingdom