is a maze chase

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

produced by

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a ...

and released for arcades in 1981. Its gameplay is similar to ''

Pac-Man originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...

'', with the primary addition to the formula being gates that change the layout of the maze when used, adding an element of

strategy Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "art of troop leader; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the "art ...

to the genre. The arcade original was relatively obscure, but the game found wider recognition and success as a launch title for the

ColecoVision ColecoVision is a second-generation home video-game console developed by Coleco and launched in North America in August 1982. It was released a year later in Europe by CBS Electronics as the CBS ColecoVision. The console offered a closer expe ...

console.

Gameplay

The goal of ''Lady Bug'' is to eat all "flowers," hearts, and letters in the maze while avoiding other insects. The player is represented by a red, yellow, and green character resembling a

ladybug Coccinellidae () is a widespread family of small beetles ranging in size from . They are commonly known as ladybugs in North America and ladybirds in Great Britain. Some entomologists prefer the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles as they ...

while the enemy insects' appearance varies by level. The border of the maze acts as timer, with each circuit signaling the release of an enemy insect from the central area, up to (generally) a maximum of four. The speed of the circuit increases on stages 2 and 5. There are eight different enemy insects — a different insect is introduced on each of the first eight levels. Beginning on level 9, each level has four different enemies. Unlike ''

'', the player can alter the layout of the maze by shifting any of the twenty green gates. It is not possible to completely isolate a portion of the maze through gate-shifting. When the fourth enemy insect enters the maze, the central area will show a level-specific vegetable. Eating a vegetable gives the player bonus points and immobilizes the enemy insects for several seconds, though touching them is still lethal. The randomly placed skull icons are lethal to ladybugs and enemy insects. An enemy insect who dies returns to the central area. Once a vegetable is eaten, the central area will remain empty unless an enemy insect dies and is re-released, revealing a new vegetable. A ladybug who dies will shrink from view and be briefly replaced with icons resembling the stereotypical wings and halo of an

angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...

. The colors of the hearts and letters cycle through a short red, a middling yellow, and a longer blue. The point values are as follows: *Flower: 10 points (20, 30, or 50 points with appropriate multiplier) *Blue letter/heart: 100 points (200, 300, or 500 points with appropriate multiplier) *Yellow letter/heart: 300 points (600, 900, or 1500 points with appropriate multiplier) *Red letter/heart: 800 points (1600, 2400, or 4000 points with appropriate multiplier) *Vegetable: Starts at 1000 points, increases by 500 with each level to a maximum of 9500 points on level 18. Beyond this level, the vegetable's appearance (

horseradish Horseradish (''Armoracia rusticana'', syn. ''Cochlearia armoracia'') is a perennial plant of the family Brassicaceae (which also includes mustard, wasabi, broccoli, cabbage, and radish). It is a root vegetable, cultivated and used worldwide ...

) and point value remain fixed. If a heart is consumed while it is blue, a point multiplier will come into effect, indicated by the blue section in the upper right corner of the screen. The first blue heart doubles all point values, the second triples them and the third quintuples them. This multiplier lasts until the level is complete. Eating hearts while they are yellow or red offers no benefit beyond the points collected. At each level, the maze will contain three letters. The first will be randomly selected from the set of (which appear only in EXTRA), the second will be randomly selected from the set of (which appear only in SPECIAL), and the third will be an A or an E (which appear in both words). A secondary goal of the player is to complete the words SPECIAL (indicated in red in the top left corner) and EXTRA (in yellow at top center). If, for example, a letter S is consumed while it is red, the corresponding letter in the word SPECIAL will change from grey to red. Eating an S while it is any other color (or if the S in SPECIAL is already red) offers no benefit beyond the points collected. Completing the word SPECIAL rewards the player with a free game, while completing EXTRA gives the player an extra life. Completing either word causes all its letters to return to normal and immediately advances the player to the next level. The vegetables associated with the first 18 levels and their corresponding point values are: 1 - cucumber (1000), 2 - eggplant (1500), 3 - carrot (2000), 4 - radish (2500), 5 - parsley (3000), 6 - tomato (3500), 7 - pumpkin (4000), 8 - bamboo shoot (4500), 9 - Japanese radish (5000), 10 - mushroom (5500), 11 - potato (6000), 12 - onion (6500), 13 - Chinese cabbage (7000), 14 - turnip (7500), 15 - red peper (8000) ote that the name is misspelled in the game 16 - celery (8500), 17 - sweet potato (9000), 18 - horseradish (9500). The melody that plays when a new Lady Bug enters the maze is a snippet of a song called "Ladybug Samba".

Ports

''Lady Bug'' was adapted to the home video game systems

Intellivision The Intellivision is a home video game console released by Mattel, Mattel Electronics in 1979. The name is a portmanteau of "intelligent television". Development began in 1977, the same year as the launch of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. I ...

and

. In the ColecoVision version, completing SPECIAL puts the player into a bonus level (known in-game as a "Vegetable Harvest") where the goal is to consume as many randomly placed vegetables as possible within a fixed time. The SPECIAL register does not appear in the Intellivision version. In 1982, a catalog of Atari 2600 cartridges manufactured by

Coleco Coleco Industries, Inc. was an American company founded in 1932 by Maurice Greenberg as The Connecticut Leather Company. It was a successful toy company in the 1980s, mass-producing versions of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls and its video game console ...

said that an Atari 2600 version of Lady Bug would be released, but Coleco never released the game. ''Lady Bug'' was also released as "Fighting Bug" on the Casio

PV-1000 The is a third-generation home video game console manufactured by Casio and released in Japan in 1983. It was discontinued less than a year after release. History The PV-1000 was released in October 1983. It was only released in Japan whe ...

in Japan, one of only 13 games released for that platform.

Reception

According to ''

Electronic Games An electronic game is a game that uses electronics to create an interactive system with which a player can play. Video games are the most common form today, and for this reason the two terms are often used interchangeably. There are other common ...

''. ''Lady Bug'' did "just all right in the arcades" but became popular when it was released as a home video game cartridge. They said the ColecoVision port is "proving to be one of the most successful home videogames ever." The arcade game was recognized for its originality within the maze game genre. In January 1983, the fourth Arcade Awards gave it a Certificate of Merit as runner-up for Most Innovative Coin-Op Game, stating that the "addition of turnstiles to the labyrinth" made the game "a fascinating contest packed with strategic nuances never before equalled in this particular genre of coin-op." ''Electronic Games'' called it "the most wonderful blend of

and maze-chase thrills ever concocted." Reviewing the ColecoVision version, ''

Creative Computing ''Creative Computing'' was one of the earliest magazines covering the microcomputer revolution. Published from October 1974 until December 1985, the magazine covered the spectrum of hobbyist/home/personal computing in a more accessible format th ...

Video & Arcade Games'' said in 1983 that ''Lady Bug'' was not a ''Pac-Man'' clone, stating that the movable turnstiles "set it apart from all other maze games". The magazine reported that the ColecoVision version had become more popular than the arcade game at its office. It was reviewed in ''Video'' magazine in its "Arcade Alley" column where it was described as "a maze-chase game with all the high-speed action and thrills of ''

'' combined with strategy-oriented play and pinball-style bonus features". The game's sound and graphics were reported to "equal, if not actually surpass, the original", and the reviewers particularly emphasized the innovative use of "color sequencing and the revolving turnstiles". The most significant criticism offered was that "the movement control is stiff and somewhat jerky". This version of the game was popular, winning the Videogame of the Year award in the "16K or more

ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...

" category at the 5th annual

Arkie Awards An electronic game is a game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as pro ...

where the judges described it as an "outstanding home edition of a coin-op-palace

cult favorite A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage ...

". The game has received appreciation in later years, being praised by some as "the most challenging of the Pac-clones... It was, and still is, one of the best f the clones"

Legacy

''Doodle Bug'' is a 1982 clone for the

TRS-80 Color Computer The RadioShack TRS-80 Color Computer, later marketed as the Tandy Color Computer and sometimes nicknamed the CoCo, is a line of home computers developed and sold by Tandy Corporation. Despite sharing a name with the earlier TRS-80, the Color Co ...

. ''Bumble Bee'' replaces the main character with a

bumblebee A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related gener ...

and the enemies with

spiders Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species dive ...

; it was released in 1983 and 1984 by

Micro Power Micro Power was a British company established in the early 1980s by former accountant Bob Simpson. The company was best known as a video game publisher, originally under the name Program Power. It also sold many types of computer hardware and s ...

for the

BBC Micro The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...

Acorn Electron The Acorn Electron (nicknamed the Elk inside Acorn and beyond) was a lower-cost alternative to the BBC Micro educational/ home computer, also developed by Acorn Computers Ltd, to provide many of the features of that more expensive machine at a ...

, and

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

Notes

References

External links

*{{KLOV game, id=8374, name=Lady Bug
Classic Gaming Game of the Week article
1981 video games Arcade video games ColecoVision games Intellivision games Pac-Man clones Video games about insects Video games developed in Japan Video games featuring female protagonists Universal Entertainment games Multiplayer and single-player video games