MacDLSA's video: Atari 2600 - Pursuit of the Pink Panther - REVIEW

*** clip from "Atari Mania" and description from "Atari Protos" *** "Pursuit of the Pink Panther" is based off the cartoon series, which was inspired by the famous series of films starring Peter Sellers. This game was actually thought by U.S. Games as a "tie-in" of "Trail of the Pink Panther", but when they went out of business they sold the rights to NAP who decided to release their own version through their Probe 2000 division. ***Description*** The game is divided into three different screens. Each screen has drastically different gameplay which is somewhat unique for the time. There are also four difficulty levels which change how fast the timer counts down and how fast the various gameplay elements move: Clouseau and his bricks, water levels, platforms, etc. *The City* The first screen has our pink hero walking down a sidewalk with a busy cityscape and brick wall behind him. Standing on top of the brick wall is the bumbling Inspector Clouseau, who has taken it upon himself to stop the PP from reaching the fabulous "Pink Panther" diamond, seen in the movie. Clouseau randomly drops bricks, which make holes in the floor where they hit. These holes must all be filled in before you can proceed to the next screen. To fill the holes in, simply catch the bricks before the hit the ground. *The Elevators* The second screen consists of three levels of elevators, which the PP must successfully traverse. If you chose correctly PP will be moved up to the next level. However if you choose the wrong elevator a enemy, which could be a bulldog, a cream pie or dynamite, will come out and chase you. To escape from these enemies PP must quickly choose another elevator door. Once you've chosen all three correct doors you'll move onto the next screen. *The Heist* The "Pink Panther" diamond is in sight, now all you have to do is to grab it ! To successfully pull off the jewel heist, you'll need to jump onto the moving platform without falling into the water and carefully make your way to the center of the screen. When PP is close enough, he must then jump onto the swinging rope and then attempt to grab the diamond while hanging upside down. However things aren't quite so easy as the water level is constantly rising and falling and Inspector Clouseau is busy trying to saw through your rope. *The Happy Ending* If you successfully snag the diamond, you're rewarded with a cute intermission showing the Pink Panther kissing the diamond while "We're In The Money" plays in the background. However your joy is short lived as Inspector Clouseau drops down from a rope from the ceiling and snatches your diamond! Now the PP must go back to the first screen and attempt to grab the diamond all over again. ***Why did Pink Panther never get released ?*** It turns out that the special RAM/ROM chip that NAP used to squeeze all those amazing graphics and gameplay elements into the game couldn't be reliably manufactured. When the first batch of chips came back defective rom the manufacturer NAP decided to cancel the game rather than try and find a new source for the chips. The crumbling game market at the time was also a big factor in choosing not to go forward. This is a real shame as Pink Panther is a brilliant three screen action game !