''Peter Pack Rat'' is a 1985

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 ...

developed and released by

Atari Games Atari Games Corporation, known as Midway Games West Inc. after 1999, was an American producer of Arcade game, arcade Video game, games. It was formed in 1985 when the coin-operated Arcade game, arcade game division of Atari, Inc. was transfered ...

for the

Atari System 1 {{citations, date=January 2015 Atari System refers to two arcade system boards introduced in 1984 for use in various arcade games from Atari Games. Two versions of the board were released, Atari System 1 and Atari System 2. Atari System 1 The ''A ...

arcade hardware. It was programmed by Peter Thompson, with graphics by Debbie Hayes and music by Brad Fuller. The game was only produced in small quantities, either as a standalone cabinet or as an upgrade kit to existing ones (Atari part no. 136028).

Gameplay

''Peter Pack Rat'' is a

where the player controls Peter, a

pack rat A pack rat or packrat, also called a woodrat or trade rat, are any species in the North and Central American rodent genus ''Neotoma''. Pack rats have a rat-like appearance, with long tails, large ears, and large, black eyes. Pack rats are notice ...

, who must gather objects such as bottles, cans, or wrenches and take them back to the starting point to complete each level. The game features three unique stages that repeat in a fixed cycle - a junkyard, a sewer, and a large tree - with the layout, number of enemies, and number of required objects changing each time. A group of enemies known as "The Gang" serve as the main obstacles, and include Riff Rat and the Rats of Flatbush, Clawd the

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

, Scrapper the

bulldog The Bulldog is a British breed of dog of mastiff type. It may also be known as the English Bulldog or British Bulldog. It is of medium size, a muscular, hefty dog with a wrinkled face and a distinctive pushed-in nose.spider 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 ...

, Slugger the

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bi ...

, Big Al the

alligator An alligator is a large reptile in the Crocodilia order in the genus ''Alligator'' of the family Alligatoridae. The two extant species are the American alligator (''A. mississippiensis'') and the Chinese alligator (''A. sinensis''). Additiona ...

, Diamond Jim the

snake Snakes are elongated, Limbless vertebrate, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales. Ma ...

, and Nite

Owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

. Peter can pick up and throw additional items to stun enemies, also allowing him the ability to ride some of them about the stage. Points are awarded based on the amount of time remaining when all items are collected, and the number of enemies stunned. The game has four difficulty levels that can be selected before gameplay - Easy, Medium, Hard, and Good Luck - that change the starting level. Jeff Peters holds the official high score with 910,875 points achieved at the Camelot Arcade in

Anaheim, California Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most p ...

on March 20, 1986.

Development

''Peter Pack Rat'' was developed by the North American-based

, and it was designed and programmed by Peter Thompson with graphics and animations by Debbie Hayes (who previously worked as an animator on ''

Watership Down ''Watership Down'' is an adventure novel by English author Richard Adams, published by Rex Collings Ltd of London in 1972. Set in Berkshire in southern England, the story features a small group of rabbits. Although they live in their natural ...

'', ''

American Pop ''American Pop'' is a 1981 American adult animated jukebox musical drama film starring Ron Thompson and produced and directed by Ralph Bakshi. It was the fourth animated feature film to be presented in Dolby sound. The film tells the story of f ...

'' and '' Fire and Ice''). Despite there being a 1984

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

imprint in the game itself, an official copyright claim was not filed for the title until 1985, with the game's release being in July of that year. It was developed for the

upgradable arcade hardware, and it uses the same audio and coding processing

subroutine In computer programming, a function or subroutine is a sequence of program instructions that performs a specific task, packaged as a unit. This unit can then be used in programs wherever that particular task should be performed. Functions may ...

s as ''

Marble Madness ''Marble Madness'' is an arcade video game designed by Mark Cerny and published by Atari Games in 1984. It is a platform game in which the player must guide a marble through six courses, populated with obstacles and enemies, within a time limi ...

'', also released for the platform. The game was field tested at Merlin's Castle arcade in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

for bug-checking and refinements before its widespread release. Brad Fuller composed the music for the original arcade version, which used a main 6502A sound processor and secondary

YM2151 The Yamaha YM2151, also known as OPM (FM Operator Type-M) is an eight-channel, four-operator sound chip. It was Yamaha's first single-chip FM synthesis implementation, being created originally for some of the Yamaha DX series of keyboards (DX21, ...

processor for FM stereo. Music from the arcade release was included on the ''That's Atari Music -G.S.M. Atari Games 1-'' compilation album originally released in July 1991. While the first print of the album by

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affiliate ...

only included the three primary stage themes and a sound effect track, the second release in December 2003 by

Scitron is a Japanese record label that publishes video game music albums. List of video game albums released A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z ...

provided separate tracks for all of the game's individual jingles and short loops.

Ports

Home versions for the

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 ...

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 ...

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sin ...

were developed by

Software Creations Acclaim Studios Manchester (formerly Software Creations) was a British video game developer based in Manchester, England. The company was established in 1985 by Richard Kay. They were primarily known for their video games based on movie and co ...

and released in early 1989 by

Silverbird Software Telecomsoft was a British video game publisher and a Division (business), division of British Telecom. The company was founded by Ederyn Williams, Dr. Ederyn Williams in 1984 and operated three separate labels: Firebird, Rainbird, and Silverbir ...

. An additional port for the Japanese

PC Engine The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation, commonly known as the 16-bit era, though ...

was also planned, even appearing in a May 1992 issue of ''PC Engine Fan'' magazine, but was eventually cancelled. Tim Follin of Software Creations provided theme arrangements for the Commodore 64 version.

Reception

References

External links

*
''Peter Pack Rat''
at the Arcade History database {{Atari Games 1985 video games Amstrad CPC games Atari arcade games Arcade video games Cancelled TurboGrafx-16 games Commodore 64 games Platform games Video games about mice and rats Video games scored by Brad Fuller Video games scored by Tim Follin Video games developed in the United States ZX Spectrum games Software Creations games Multiplayer and single-player video games