My Pico-8 version of the 1983 Taito arcade game.
How to Play
Run around the edges of the zoo filling in the brick walls to stop the animals escaping.
Jump over the animals for bonus points.
Collect the net to return the animals to their cage.
Controls
[X] - Jump
Thanks To
Finn for testing
Shane R. Monroe for testing and advice (and suggesting a remake this game in the first place!)
Version History
- 0.80 - 26-May-2022 - Released
What a great game - I've never heard of it before.
And it has bonus stages! I love games which mix it up with bonus stages.
I'm not very good at it though. "Can you win a bonus keeper?" nope. "Can you hold the lion? " Definitely not.
This is great. Well done. Challenging but not crazy hard, can feel chaotic but not out of hand. And just enough weird "tricks" you can do to squeeze out score. The latest addition to my Favorites list.
Thanks for all the great feedback.
In the "Bonus Keeper" levels, take advantage of the very loose collision detection with the animals!
Great game!
I shouldn't have to change the key I'm pressing to keep moving in the same direction. That confused a bit, having to change the direction key I'm using when I wanted to keep moving in the same direction.
@profpatonildo, I know what you mean. You want left/right to take you the whole way around clockwise/ anti-clockwise. I tried this but settled on the same mechanism as the arcade version which you do get used to pretty quickly.
I understand. Perhaps give the player an option to set a preferred way for this to work?
Great game! I wonder... How many levels are there before it loop (if it loop)... Also you should, maybe, put the option to continue. It would be nice, and more tries on the bonus level. Anyway! Good Job!
Thanks. No set number of levels. Just keeps going. The lion is the final animal.
Interesting. Certainly runs smooth. Curious decision to have the bonus round "fail" rather than force the player to complete it like the arcade original, though I suppose many would prefer it this way.
@Zotmeister: "Curious decision to have the bonus round "fail" rather than force the player to complete it like the arcade original"
Oops, didn't pick that up. Not a conscious decision, just a good old-fashioned mistake.
Great work Paul. Love (most) of your programs and I have many of them on my Arcade Cabinets.
What are you working on? If you want someone to test, I can help.
Future Game Suggestions:
Jumping Jack (Spectrum)
Endless Forms Most Beautiful (PC)
Keep up the good work.
Just awesome. Loved this game in the old skating rink. This is a perfect conversion! Really love it. Is it even possible to contain the lion? Seems really hard, but maybe I'm just not good enough (yet). Nicely done!
Thanks @paloblancogames, no, I don't think you'd have any luck containing the lion since it can smash through anything! Best to just run away!
Heyo! I was very pleasantly surprised by this game. I thought it was an original title at first and really dug it, and I was even more surprised to find that it's a 1983 Taito game. Very tight design, seems way ahead of its time. I think you did a fantastic port down to the bonus levels, and it entertained me for quite a bit! I found a quick optimal path to the girl in the bonus level that involves jumping from the right side to the left edge and avoiding the thrown coconut, seems to work every time. I see you're doing many of these, so I'm going to check out more! Thanks for your work, this is a fun way to educate myself on both arcade history and how PICO works. If you ever plan to remake my boy Flicky... I have a port of its music laying around that I think turned out nicely, gotta upload that.
LOVE classic ports of arcade games like this- super solid gameplay with very simple controls. I feel like I get a little bit better at it every time I play.
A couple of things I noticed-
-The High Score indicator seems to break once you clear 6 digits.
-I have never played the original, but I found an exploit where on the climbing stages you can rack up 2500 points over and over again by reaching the top but not interacting with the girl, then jumping down to the lower level. I'm not sure if this was intended, and honestly I have fun seeing how many times I can do this before the screen gets so full of coconuts I can't move any more.
Excellent work!
[Please log in to post a comment]
