Mark Kennedy

Kool Aid Man Game II: Revenge of the Thirsties! This time they do more than immobilize! Also, as twisted a sense of humor as I and others have, I don't recall Jonestown jokes. Not saying they weren't made, just that I have no memory of them.

The clock problem makes sense. The shingle problem I don't recall, and I'm surprised QA didn't catch it (they were very good). If it's somehow related to level 14 then it would be understandable.

Ah, there's a technical term for the "Level 15" condition: a bug! I don't recall ever testing that high, so it's not that surprising that it failed. I don't remember doing anything with the scrolling at the higher levels, but it might have been my way of ensuring that no one got past that level. I recall the arcade Burger Time reached a point where you couldn't make it to the first turn before being caught, essentially ending the game.

There was a commercial that had a brief clip of the game, KAM catching some FFFs. Doubt that it still exists anywhere.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's been fun reminiscing.

I thought I posted this, but I don't see it. The music was the original Kool Aid music, and General Foods insisted on its inclusion. The Ohh Yeah! screen seemed like the logical place to put it. This screen, and the part of the game where you capture the Thirsties and Fantom Fruit Flavors (an idea I believe that came from my ex-wife), are the part of the game I always enjoyed.

Yes, for the Atari games we bypassed the Exec and used the functionality that the console would look for code at 7000, and if it found it, would jump to it. There is a jump over the message. BTW, to get this past the Atari folk, I just disassembled it and left it in the code as nonsense instructions, stripping off the ASCII that the listing would always have along the right hand side. I figured that whoever looked at it wouldn't know it was nonsense instructions. It worked.

I had forgotten that I embedded my name in the code. Mattel was not big on Easter Eggs, nor giving programmers credit. I did put my name into both Centipede and Dig Dug. I even left a message for the Mattel reverse-engineers inside Centipede, which I had to sneak past the Atari folk who check our game before it goes out. They reviewed source code, they didn't look at the binary, so I got away with it.

Very good. The relocating them, and stopping them from moving, should be fairly straightforward.

Freezing them at a specific location in the house should be doable. I'm sure I had set locations for where they started each level, or maybe they always started at the same place, I don't recall. I know it wasn't random. Yea, the graphics for the fantom staircases have been commented on by others. I agree that they probably shouldn't have been there, as the movement was already confusing enough. And that the stool became a 1 step staircase was always a little tricky to convey. Another issue with the game is that without an explanation of what your goal and the rules are, the game is basically unplayable. I don't think we thought about that much at the time. I actually don't remember any discussion of it whatsoever. If you spend 5 minutes with Scooby Doo, even without any fore knowledge, you will get what you are supposed to do. Not so with KAMG. On another note, it's funny you listing the offsets. If you gave me the printout of the source code, I'm not sure how long it would it take me to understand it again. I don't envy you doing it from disassembly and no comments (not that I ever used many comments in my code). At least you would have variable names.

Thanks. I think rather than disabling detection, it's probably easier just to make it so the Thirsties don't move. If I recall, I calculate a delta X and delta Y. You should be able to just make that 0 all the time. That way they won't bother you as you move around the house. Also makes catching them by Kool Aid Man pretty easy. You might also be able just to jump the level number up. Frankly, I had forgotten that. Since I wrote it I don't think I ever played more than 1 level. I just play it enough to show off the wall break and Fantom Fruit Flavors. I think the other big problem with the game is that the house is just too big. I think we should have removed the blank sections. It would have sped things up. I'm wondering if I just didn't get enough sets of eyes actually playing it. The fact that I was wrapping up the game at the same time as I was making my move to Atari might also have had something to do with it. Also, and this doesn't speak too well of me, perhaps the fact that it wasn't my design made me care a little less about it. Of course, at Atari I was doing ports, and those weren't my designs. But Centipede and Dig Dug had some pretty severe technical challenges to overcome for the platform. And of course, both those game designs were excellent. My favorite part of the game was what happens when the Thirsties catch one of the kids. Since it was for young kids, and given that the characters were kids themselves, there couldn't be any actual harm. They are just "immobilized". It was the blood curdling scream that accompanies this that was my joke. I heard that General Foods wanted that changed, but since I had already left (the game went final literally on my last day) they were told it was too risky for someone to go fix it. That was, of course, nonsense. Almost anyone could have changed the sound out, but no one wanted to. And General Foods bought the excuse. Good times for a 22 year old kid.

Hi, I am the author (though not the designer) of (the Award winning) Kool-Aid Man Game - though it was not my design. The game went final the day after I left Mattel and went to work for Atari. I never reviewed the instructions, and in fact I had to drink a whole bunch of Kool-Aid just to get a copy of the game, since Mattel would not give me one. To answer your question: No, there is no end to the game. It does become progressively harder, but I don't think I made it impossible. That was almost 40 years ago, so I could be wrong. Given the problem Astrosmash had with its scoring, I added special code to handle the overflow case. That was an inside joke, since thanks to the scrolling hiding the top row of the backtab, I was able to use 64 bits for the score. Of my four Intellivision titles, this was my least favorite. The only thing I will say in its defense is that it was designed to be played by very small children, so the play was quite simple. But I completely agree that the result is boring and tedious. I am proud of the wall breaking transition, as that was quite challenging to implement. I am also proud of the stationary clock. It doesn't seem like much, and if you don't know the underlying system it appears unremarkable. But it was actually a bit of work to pull off. This should be the definitive answer. Glad to have helped. Just read the instructions. I see better where the confusion comes from. I believe that the clock stays the final color from then on. I'm also certain that code path was never exercised, since no one could stomach this game long enough to complete 13 levels of it. So, who knows? Maybe there is a bug there!

You would have to alter the logic that makes the Thirsties move. That should be pretty easy to do if you have disassembled the code. But seem my other post on the answer about the level limit.