''Jumping Jack'' is a

platform game A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...

and published by

Imagine Software Imagine Software was a British video games developer based in Liverpool which existed briefly in the early 1980s, initially producing software for the ZX Spectrum and VIC-20. The company rose quickly to prominence and was noted for its polished, ...

in 1983. It was available for the

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

and

Dragon 32 The Dragon 32 and Dragon 64 are home computers that were built in the 1980s. The Dragons are very similar to the TRS-80 Color Computer, and were produced for the European market by Dragon Data, Ltd., initially in Swansea, Wales before mov ...

under the name ''Leggit!''. In these versions, Jack is renamed Leaping Lenny.

Gameplay

Each level consists of a set of eight wraparound floors, across which holes scroll; when these holes reach the side of the screen, they move up or down to the next floor, depending on if they're scrolling to the left or right, respectively. The goal in each level is to reach the top, by jumping through the holes; however, each time Jack jumps, a new hole is formed on a randomly chosen floor. Falling through a hole or miscalculating a jump and hitting the ceiling temporarily stuns him and leaves him vulnerable to a hole scrolling underneath him; if he falls all the way to the bottom of the level, he loses a life. Completing a level reveals a verse from the "Ballad of Jumping Jack"; the next level features an extra hole at the start and from the second level onward, monsters appear which stun Jack in the same way as a fall or mistimed jump.

References

External links

''Jumping Jack''
at World of Spectrum

at Atari Mania 1983 video games Atari 8-bit family games Dragon 32 games Platform games Video games developed in the United Kingdom ZX Spectrum games {{platform-videogame-stub