''Rocky's Boots'' is an educational logic puzzle game by

Warren Robinett Joseph Warren Robinett Jr. (born December 25, 1951) In the A. Merrill interview, Robinett says he was 26 in November 1977. is an American video game designer. He is most notable as the developer of the Atari 2600's ''Adventure'' and as a founder ...

and Leslie Grimm, published by

The Learning Company The Learning Company (TLC) was an American educational software company founded in 1980 in Palo Alto, California and headquartered in Fremont, California. The company produced a grade-based line of learning software, edutainment games, and ...

in 1982. It was released for the

Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...

, TRS-80 Color Computer, Commodore 64, IBM PC, and the IBM PCjr. It won Software of the Year awards from Learning Magazine (1983), ''Parent's Choice'' magazine (1983), and ''

InfoWorld ''InfoWorld'' (''IW'') is an American information technology media business. Founded in 1978, it began as a monthly magazine. In 2007, it transitioned to a Web-only publication. Its parent company is International Data Group, and its sister pu ...

'' (1982, runner-up), and received the Gold Award (for selling 100,000 copies) from the Software Publishers Association. It was one of the first educational software products for personal computers to successfully use an interactive graphical simulation as a learning environment. A more difficult

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music, or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

was released in 1984: '' Robot Odyssey''.

Gameplay

The object of the beginning part of ''Rocky's Boots'' is to use a mechanical boot to kick a series of objects (purple or green squares, diamonds, circles, or crosses) off a conveyor belt; each object will score some number of points, possibly negative. To ensure that the boot only kicks the positive objects, the player must connect a series of

logic gate A logic gate is a device that performs a Boolean function, a logical operation performed on one or more binary inputs that produces a single binary output. Depending on the context, the term may refer to an ideal logic gate, one that has, for ...

s to the boot. The player is represented by an orange square, and picks up devices (the boot, logic gates, clackers, etc.) by moving their square over them and hitting the joystick button. When the boot has kicked all of the positive objects and none of the negative objects (obtaining a score of 24 points), Rocky (a raccoon) will appear and do a beeping dance. Later, the player finds that they can use all of the game's objects, including

AND gate The AND gate is a basic digital logic gate that implements the logical conjunction (∧) from mathematical logic AND gates behave according to their truth table. A HIGH output (1) results only if all the inputs to the AND gate are HIGH (1). If a ...

OR gate The OR gate is a digital logic gate that implements logical disjunction. The OR gate outputs "true" if any of its inputs is "true"; otherwise it outputs "false". The input and output states are normally represented by different voltage levels. ...

NOT gate Not or NOT may also refer to: Language * Not, the general declarative form of "no", indicating a negation of a related statement that usually precedes * ... Not!, a grammatical construction used as a contradiction, popularized in the early 1990 ...

s, and flip-flops, in an open-ended area to design one's own logic circuits and "games". The colors of orange and white are used to show the binary logic states of 1 and 0. As the circuits operate, the signals can be seen slowly propagating through the circuits, as if the electricity was liquid orange fire flowing through transparent pipes.

Development

''Rocky's Boots'' was designed by

and Leslie Grimm. The style of the game was modeled after Robinett's 1980

Atari Video Computer System The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS), it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridg ...

cartridge ''

Adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

''; ''Rocky's Boots'' was originally going to be a sequel. Robinett experienced constraints due to

being a start-up, forcing ''Rocky's Boots'' to be less ambitious than he would have liked.

Reception

''II Computing'' listed ''Rocky's Boots'' ninth on the magazine's list of top Apple II education software as of late 1985, based on sales and market-share data. ''

Commodore Microcomputers ''Commodore Power/Play'' was one of a pair of computer magazines published by Commodore Business Machines in the United States in support of their 8-bit home computer lines of the 1980s. The other was called ''Commodore Interface'', changed to ju ...

'' stated that it "is intuitive and easy for kids of all ages to understand". The magazine approved of the game's lack of "nerve-wracking time limits or invading aliens" and encouragement of "exploratory learning" while teaching "nothing less than the fundamentals of digital computer logic from the ground up". ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was 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 199 ...

'' called ''Rocky's Boots'' "outstanding". The review complimented the game's appeal to both children and adults, and its ability to teach Boolean functions in a non-threatening way. ''

'' commented positively on the game combining play with educational value and conveying circuit design and Boolean logic to children. ''InfoWorld's Essential Guide to Atari Computers'' recommended the game among educational software for the Atari 8-bit.

Legacy

The engine for the game was used in several other games by The Learning Company, including the sequel '' Robot Odyssey'', and a later game called '' Gertrude's Secrets''.

References

{{Reflist

External links

''Rocky's Boots'' page by co-author
* Play ''Rocky's Boots'' on th
Internet Archive
1982 video games Apple II games Commodore 64 games DOS games The Learning Company games Programming games Single-player video games TRS-80 Color Computer games Video games about raccoons Video games developed in the United States