Space Panic

Predating Nintendo's Donkey Kong, and lacking a jump mechanic, Space Panic was the first game involving climbing ladders between walkable platforms. The genre was initially labeled "climbing games" and "ladder games", but by the late 1980s became known as platform games. The original arcade game was commercially successful in Japan, but an obscure release in North America. A 1981 clone, Apple Panic, available before any official home versions, became a top-seller on the Apple II and was ported to other home computers. There were over a dozen Space Panic clones for home systems, often with "panic" in the title. Lode Runner (1983) later put its own spin on climbing and digging, a lineage which eventually took on the name puzzle-platform games.

• Title — Space Panic • Developer — Universal CBS Electronics (CV) • Publisher — Universal Coleco (CV) Casio (PV-1000) • Released — November 1980: Arcade 1983: PV-1000, ColecoVision • Platforms — Arcade, ColecoVision, PV-1000 • Genre — Platform • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer

• Illustration — The player hits a trapped alien with a shovel. Two aliens roam free. The main character can move along platforms and climb the ladders between them. The goal is to dig holes in the platforms and lure aliens into them. Hitting a trapped alien with the shovel knocks them out of the hole and off the screen. In later levels, two or more holes must be lined up vertically in order to dispose of stronger aliens. There is a limited supply of oxygen, which acts as a timer.

The game's development team included Kazutoshi Ueda, who later designed Lady Bug (1981) and Mr. Do! (1982) at Universal and then Bomb Jack (1984) and Tehkan World Cup (1985) at Tehkan (later known as Tecmo). The game's concept was inspired by Heiankyo Alien (1979), also known as Digger, a top-down maze game with digging and trapping mechanics. Space Panic changed it to a side-view gameplay format, while adding platforms and ladders.

• Games #41 • Games #44

• First Published — Name — Company — System(s) • 1981 — Apple Panic — Broderbund — Apple II, Atari 8-bit, IBM PC, TRS-80, VIC-20 • 1982 — Alien Panic — Nufekop — VIC-20 • 1982 — Monsters — Acornsoft — Acorn Electron, BBC Micro • 1982 — Panic — Visions Software Factory — ZX Spectrum • 1982 — VIC Panic — Bug Byte — VIC-20 • 1983 — Monsters in Hell — Softek Software — ZX Spectrum • 1983 — Bonka — J. Morrison (Micros) Ltd. — Dragon 32/64, C64 • 1983 — Color Panic — Spectral Associates — TRS-80 Color Computer • 1983 — Cuthbert Goes Digging — Microdeal — TRS-80 Color Computer, Dragon 32 • 1983 — Panic 64 — Interceptor Micros — C64 • 1983 — Sam Spade — Silversoft Ltd — ZX Spectrum • 1984 — Panic Planet — Alligata — C64 • 1984 — Hektik — Mastertronic — C64, VIC-20, Commodore 16, Plus/4 • 1984 — Roland Goes Digging — Amsoft/Gem Software — Amstrad CPC • 1984 — Psychiatric — Sprites Software — Oric 1, Oric Atmos • 1986 — Panik! — Atlantis — Commodore 16, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, Atari 8-bit

In Japan, Space Panic was commercially successful. It was tied with Scramble and Jump Bug as the 14th highest-grossing arcade video game of 1981. In North America, Space Panic was commercially unsuccessful, which Electronic Games in 1983 attributed to its concepts' novelty to the audience: "not only the first of the climbing games, it was also the first of the digging games. That's quite a load for a player on a new game. No punning intended when I say that the rungs were too high for the average gamer to scale." The magazine reported that the average play time was 30 seconds. In a retrospective review of the ColecoVision version for Digital Press Online, Kevin Oleniacz concluded, "Coleco had resurrected several short-lived arcade games and transformed them into home favorites, but they should have let Space Panic rest in peace."

While the original arcade game was unsuccessful in North America, the concept found popularity in the unauthorized home computer version, Apple Panic (1981), which was more successful than the original game in North America. It also inspired Lode Runner (1983), which has a similar look and also uses the basic premise of digging holes to trap enemies. Universal revisited the genre with Mr. Do's Castle (1983), which expanded upon the play styles explored in Space Panic. Video game historian Michael Thomasson, writing for Old School Gamer Magazine, considers Space Panic to be the "foundation of all platformers" despite being "a rather obscure" cult classic, stating that it "revolutionized game design by introducing novel game mechanics and birthed a new genre." It was also one of the earliest "digging" type games (after Heiankyo Alien), which are variously called "trap 'em up" or "digging games". The creator of Chuckie Egg, Nigel Alderton cites Space Panic as a particular inspiration, noting the similarity in graphics including colour scheme. Horace and the Spiders (1983) includes a Space Panic inspired level.