| Agent USA | |
|---|---|
Cover Art |
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| Developer(s) | Tom Snyder Productions |
| Publisher(s) | Scholastic |
| Programmer(s) | Leonard Bertoni |
| Platform(s) | Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, PC Booter |
| Release date(s) | 1984 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure, Educational, Strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Agent USA is a 1980s educational computer game designed to teach players about Washington, D.C., New York City, other populous cities, and the state capitals of the contiguous 48 states. The game was developed by Tom Snyder Productions and published by Scholastic. The game focuses around a mutant television set, called the "Fuzzbomb" which has begun infecting citizens in United States cities. Agent USA, who can defeat the Fuzzbomb by touching it when he is carrying 100 crystals (the maximum), has to grow energy crystals, traveling the United States via train. He encounters "fuzzed cities" along the way, with mutant inhabitants who take half of Agent USA's crystals every time they touch him.
Agent USA drops crystals so they'll grow; Fuzzbodies bump into them and revert to ordinary citizens, and all the ordinary citizens want to protect themselves by grabbing crystals. Agent USA must protect crystals while they grow, rescue Fuzzbodied citizens, give crystals to citizens so they're protected, and use the nation's railroads to track down the Fuzzbomb and touch it while holding 100 crystals to defeat it. All action takes place at train stations (larger cities have more "rooms"). The player can choose a train from the schedule heading where he wants to go. The information booth at stations of state capitals can tell the player the Fuzzbomb's most recent location. If Agent USA gets turned into a Fuzzbody, he wanders around until he bumps into a crystal, which may just have been dropped by a citizen to rescue him.