''Soko-Ban'' is a video game published in the United States by Spectrum HoloByte in 1988, based on the 1982 Japanese videogame

Sokoban is a puzzle video game in which the player pushes boxes around in a warehouse, trying to get them to storage locations. The game was designed in 1981 by Hiroyuki Imabayashi, and first published in December 1982. Gameplay The game is played on a ...

Development

In 1988, ''Sokoban'' was published in US by Spectrum HoloByte for 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 ...

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicatio ...

and

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 ...

as ''Soko-Ban''. A version 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 ...

called ''Robol'' was published by a third party in 1993. ''

'' was a hit in Japan, and had sold over 400,000 units in that country by the time Spectrum HoloByte imported it to the United States.

Gameplay

This version of the game includes 50 levels.

Reception

A 1988 review in ''

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 ...

'' praised the game for being "pure and simple, very playable and mentally challenging", citing its addictive qualities. It was also reviewed in 1988 in ''

Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

'' #132 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4½ out of 5 stars. Brian Wierda for ''

Compute! ''Compute!'' (), often stylized as ''COMPUTE!'', was an American home computer magazine that was published from 1979 to 1994. Its origins can be traced to 1978 in Len Lindsay's ''PET Gazette'', one of the first magazines for the Commodore PET c ...

'' said "''Soko-Ban'' may not be suited to the gung-ho action-adventure gamer, but if you're a puzzle solver, it's one of the best challenges you can find." Paul Statt for ''

InCider Wayne Sanger Green II (September 3, 1922 – September 13, 2013) was an American publisher, writer, and consultant. Green was editor of '' CQ'' magazine before he went on to found '' 73'', ''80 Micro'', ''Byte'', ''CD Review'', ''Cold Fusion'', ...

'' said "once I got the tricks down – not just strategic tricks, but tactics such as using the arrow keys instead of the joystick – Soko-Ban became, if not easy, mindless. It simulates this type of work well – unfortunately, that's pretty weak praise for a game."

Reviews

*''Happy Computer'' - Dec, 1987 *''

The Games Machine ''The Games Machine'' is a video game magazine that was published from 1987 until 1990 in the United Kingdom by Newsfield, which also published ''CRASH'', ''Zzap!64'', ''Amtix!'' and other magazines. History The magazine ran head to head with ...

'' - Apr, 1988 *''

ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment) ''ACE'' (Advanced Computer Entertainment) was a multi-format computer and video game magazine first published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing and later acquired by EMAP. History ACE launched in October 1987, roughly the same time as ...

'' - May, 1988

References

{{reflist

External links

Review
in ''

Info Info is shorthand for "information". It may also refer to: Computing * .info, a generic top-level domain * info:, a URI scheme for information assets with identifiers in public namespaces * info (Unix), a command used to view documentation produc ...

'' Apple II games BBC Micro and Acorn Electron games Commodore 64 games DOS games Spectrum HoloByte games TRS-80 Color Computer games