''Floyd of the Jungle'' is a 1982 platform game 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 part of the initial batch of games from

MicroProse MicroProse is an American video game publisher and video game developer, developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the ''Civilization (series), Civilizatio ...

. Designed and programmed by company co-founder

Sid Meier Sidney K. Meier ( ; born February 24, 1954) is a Canadian-American programmer, designer, and producer of several strategy video games and simulation video games, including the ''Civilization'' series. Meier co-founded MicroProse in 1982 with B ...

, it is one of the few 2D action games he created and the only platform game. It allows up to four players at once. The 1982 release is written in Atari BASIC. A second version, published in 1983, is programmed in

assembly language In computer programming, assembly language (or assembler language, or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as Assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence be ...

for improved performance, and the computer controls any unused players. Version 2 was available for both the Atari 8-bit family 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 ...

Gameplay

The player can make Floyd run left and right with the

joystick A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal cont ...

, leap by pressing the joystick button, and punch by keeping the button held after landing from a leap. Vines can be climbed up and down to move between platforms. Some actions give points: collecting a

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

(1 point), punching a pygmy (2 points), and reaching "Janice" at the top of the screen (4 points). In a multiplayer game, the first player to reach a predetermined point value wins. Single-player games have a time limit instead. Other hazards, such as alligators, can hurt Floyd, sending him to the bottom of the screen.

Development

When asked in 1983 where the ''Floyd of the Jungle'' concept came from, Meier responded:

Reception

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 ...

'' wrote: In a 1984 review of the game's second release, ''

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 ...

'' concluded: "If you are really into the '' Donkey Kong'' type of games, and want every variation for your library, then you will want ''Floyd of the Jungle''. But we think that there are others on the market that offer better playability and more fun." '' Antic'' liked the animation and 4 player capability, but found the penalty for running into obstacles to be harsh for new players. Reviewing the C64 version for '' Electronic Games'', Ted Salamone wrote, "it doesn't have any great moments. It doesn't even have any good ones!" He called out the visuals as "so substandard that they are an insult, display an incredible lack of detail and imagination," and also that "poorly executed collision detection routines result in many an untimely death."

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web , title=The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers, url=https://dadgum.com/giantlist/ , last1=Hague , first=James {{cite web , title=Atari 400 800 XL XE Floyd of the Jungle , url=http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-floyd-of-the-jungle_22318.html , website=Atari Mania {{cite web , title=Floyd of the Jungle Manual , url=https://archive.org/details/FloydOfTheJungle , website=archive.org , publisher=MicroProse , date=1982 {{cite magazine, last1=Ellison , first1=Peter , title=Interview: Sid Meier , magazine=ROM , date=December 1983 , issue=3 , page=12 , url=https://www.atarimagazines.com/rom/issue3/interview.php 1982 video games Atari 8-bit family games Commodore 64 games Platformers Sid Meier games Video games developed in the United States