Pogo Joe

Pogo Joe

Commodore 64 screenshot
Publisher(s) Screenplay
Designer(s) William F. Denman, Jr.
Oliver Steele
Platform(s) Atari 400/800, Commodore 64
Release date(s) 1983
Genre(s) Platform game
Mode(s) Single player
Distribution Floppy disk

Pogo Joe is a computer game for the Commodore 64 and Atari 400/800, written by William F. Denman, Jr. and Oliver Steele. Michael Haire did the artwork, and Steven Baumrucker wrote the sound and music subroutines, designed and named the levels, and wrote the music. It was published by Screenplay in 1983.

Summary

Pogo Joe is a Q*Bert clone with several extra features. The player takes the role of the eponymous Pogo Joe, a boy on a pogo stick. The game takes place over 65 different levels, each consisting of a different arrangement of barrels. To complete a level, Pogo Joe must jump on every barrel.

To make Pogo Joe's job harder, several enemies inhabit the levels. They first start out as spherical "eggs" of different colours. Colliding with these "eggs" kills the enemy within them, but if left alone for a few seconds, the "eggs" hatch into different sorts of enemies, contact with which is fatal to Pogo Joe.

The tops of the barrels have different colours depending on their status or functionality:

White 
The default state.
Red 
The barrel has been jumped on.
Cyan 
The barrel has been jumped on twice (required on some levels).
Purple 
The barrel has been jumped on three times (required on some levels).
Green 
A "smart bomb" barrel. Jumping on this kills every enemy on screen, and reverts the barrel to white.
Black 
A teleport. Moves Pogo Joe instantly to another black-topped barrel.

On later levels, some enemies change red barrels back to white when jumping on them.

On some levels, the barrels appear with just their tops, without the body beneath it. Jumping off a barrel makes it disappear, becoming inaccessible for Pogo Joe. Once Pogo Joe becomes trapped and cannot jump anywhere any more, the game advances to the next level. Pogo Joe receives "Shadow Bonus" points if few enough barrels are left on the level. Also, on some levels, the barrels initially appear as invisible, and the player has to guess where the barrels are so Pogo Joe can jump on them.

This was one of the first software projects that used a "team" approach, with game designers, programmers, musicians, and artists coming together to make the software work. Today this is the norm, but in 1983 this was a novelty.

Levels

Most of the level names are clever allusions to 1970s and 1980s popular culture, including references to Frank Zappa, Maxwell Smart, Pee Wee Herman, Baumrucker's friend, Stuart Troutman, and Japanese culture. Baumrucker was in his first year of medical school and the influence is pretty obvious.

  1. Simple, Like Mike
  2. Home in Durham
  3. Troutman's Special Recipe
  4. Ode to Zippy
  5. Enzyme Stew
  6. Mutant Street
  7. Next Stop, Rollerama!
  8. Butterflies Are Brie
  9. Free Association
  10. Heart Like A Head
  11. Terror Lunch
  12. Tennis, Antibody?
  13. Pee Wee's Funhouse
  14. Drums Over Malta
  15. Dunkin Doughboys
  16. Lopsided
  17. Cheese Food
  18. Not Craw, Craw!
  19. Grits Are Weird
  20. Jump Clown Jump
  21. Grug's New Band
  22. "X" Marks Your Nose
  23. Ship Of Shrimp
  24. Figurines
  25. Dial 'P' For Pogo
  26. Lumpy Gravy
  27. Here's Another Clue For You All
  28. Mike's Dysfunction
  29. All Right Mighty Fine
  30. Scary
  31. The Wike and Waku Show
  32. Denman... Pam's Curse
  33. Is There A PhD In The House?
  34. Wimpy Was Here
  35. Fish Head
  36. Another Fine Mess
  37. Holosystolic Mumble
  38. Requiem For A Hosehead
  39. Video Buddies
  40. Porphyrin Pete
  41. Silly Old Willy
  42. Lobster Tales
  43. Let's Be Careful Out There!
  44. Smoke Gets In Your Ears
  45. Senor Tea
  46. Hearty Har Har
  47. Hello...I'm Frank Necrosis
  48. A R R G H !
  49. IF U CN RD THS, U R WRD!
  50. Regards From Wamblyville
  51. Pogo Josephine
  52. My Pal Criggles
  53. Nolo Contendre
  54. If I Only Had A Brain
  55. A I E E E !
  56. A Cute Borborygmus
  57. Beetlebrain
  58. Shortness Of Pants
  59. Behind Clothes Drawers
  60. Crumb Takes A Holiday
  61. URRP!...Excuse Me???
  62. Anata Wa Sashimi Desu
  63. Antibody Tighter
  64. The Pits
  65. Mrs. Cumibe's Salad Dressing

Reception

Ahoy! wrote of Pogo Joe "Sound like Q*Bert? You bet". It criticized the sluggish controls, but concluded that "excellent" graphics and "the multiple speed variations make it perfect for a home with lots of kids".[1]

References

  1. ↑ Moriarty, Tim (1984-05). "Pogo Joe". Ahoy!. pp. 59–60. Retrieved 27 June 2014. Check date values in: |date= (help)


External links