''Serpentine'' is a video

maze game A maze is a path or collection of paths, typically from an entrance to a goal. The word is used to refer both to branching tour puzzles through which the solver must find a route, and to simpler non-branching ("unicursal") patterns that lea ...

written by David Snider for the

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...

and published by

Broderbund Broderbund Software, Inc. (stylized as Brøderbund) was an American maker of video games, educational software, and productivity tools. Broderbund is best known for the 8-bit video game hits ''Choplifter'', ''Lode Runner'', ''Karateka'', and '' ...

in 1982. ''Serpentine''s gameplay and visuals are similar to the Konami arcade game, ''

Jungler ''Jungler'' is an arcade maze game developed by Konami and released in 1981. Distributed by Stern in the United States beginning in 1982, the game has players controlling a multi-segmented creature attempting to destroy similar enemy creatures by ...

'', released the previous year. It was ported to the

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 ...

and

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 a

VIC-20 The VIC-20 (known as the VC-20 in Germany and the VIC-1001 in Japan) is an 8-bit home computer that was sold by Commodore Business Machines. The VIC-20 was announced in 1980, roughly three years after Commodore's first personal computer, the PE ...

version was licensed to Creative Software.

Gameplay

The player controls (rides, by game description ) a multi-segmented blue 'good' serpent in a maze with the objective of eating all computer-controlled 'evil' (red or orange or green) serpents. Eating the tail segments of serpents makes them shorter, and a red or orange serpent turns green when shorter than the player. Hitting a green serpent headfirst eliminates it, and causes the player's serpent to grow an additional segment. Hitting a red or orange serpent headfirst causes the player's serpent to die. A frog appears at random intervals and gives any serpent eating it an additional segment. Once all opponents have been eliminated, the player's serpent automatically returns to a protected area. As the game progresses, opposing serpents are faster and longer, increasing the difficulty, and each advancing level the existing players serpent gets slower. If the player's serpent dies, the replacement regains its original speed, but loses any additional segments gained by the previous incarnation. One unique aspect of the game is how extra lives are gained. The playing serpent will lay an egg (losing a segment in the process) and, if the egg is still on screen when the player re-enters the protected area at the end of a level, the egg hatches into another serpent, which hurries to the protected area. Enemy serpents will also lay eggs; if one hatches, a new two-segment opponent appears. It is possible to lose the last segment to an egg, resulting in the death of that serpent, but this can only happen to the player's serpent. If a frog happens to appear while an egg is on the map, it will head towards the egg and eat it as well. This will occur even at the end of a level when the player's serpent is operating on autopilot, making the choice of position where the last enemy serpent is killed tactically important. Most versions of the game include 20 different mazes, but the Atari cartridge version only has 5.

Reception

''Serpentine'' ranked #13 for most popular game of 1982 according to ''

Softalk ''Softalk'' () was an American magazine of the early 1980s that focused on the Apple II computer. Published from September 1980 through August 1984, it featured articles about hardware and software associated with the Apple II platform and the peo ...

'' magazine. '' Softline'' in 1982 called ''Serpentine'' "devilishly addicting, being endowed with the qualities that make arcade games worth the bother". Michael Cranford reviewed the game for ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

'', and stated that "in my opinion, ''Serpentine'' is far better than the sum of its inspirations". ''The Commodore 64 Home Companion'' in 1984 said that "it's easy to get hooked on this one". Karl Westerholm reviewed ''Serpentine'' in ''

Space Gamer Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider ...

'' No. 65. Westerholm commented that "''Serpentine'' is unquestionably a game worth owning, and if there are any weaknesses or bugs, I have yet to find them. I definitely recommend this game, as it promises to provide fun and excitement for a very long time".

References

{{Reflist 1982 video games Maze games Apple II games Atari 8-bit family games Broderbund games Commodore 64 games VIC-20 games Video game clones Video games about reptiles Video games developed in the United States Single-player video games Creative Software games