Spy's Demise

Spy's Demise is an action game written by Alan Zeldin[1] for the Apple II, published by Penguin Software in 1983 . It was ported to the Atari, Commodore 64, TI-99/4A, and Vector-06c. The game contained a puzzle which could be solved for a Spy's Demise T-Shirt.[2] According to Antic magazine in June 1984, only four people had solved it.[3]

Spy's Demise was followed by a sequel, The Spy Strikes Back,[3] written by Penguin Software founder Mark Pelczarski.[1] Both games, along with Penguin's Thunderbombs, were later released together as Arcade Album #1 for the Apple II, Atari 8-bit, and Commodore 64.[4]

Gameplay

The first level of Spy's Demise consists of twelve floors. The player must cross the series of floors, one at a time, while avoiding seven elevators at varying positions. Being hit by an elevator results in loss of a life. Finishing all floors starts the next level. Floors are gradually removed from level to level making it more difficult for the player to avoid the elevators. The game's music is a looped rendition of Hungarian Dance #5 in G Minor.

The puzzle consisted of a nine-line cryptogram, one line of which was displayed after completing the corresponding level. It revealed a phone number to call, and a person's name for whom to ask. However, at least on the Apple II version, there is a tenth line which is never displayed, but which should have been necessary to truly "solve" the puzzle. That last line is a code word which is meant to be spoken to the person on the phone, but it contains a spelling mistake, making it almost unpronounceable.

Reception

In the July/August 1983 "New Products" column of Atari computer magazine ANALOG Computing, the author wrote "SPY'S DEMISE is the winner of this issue's 'Potato Chip' award. You can't stop playing it."[5]

In 1984 Softline readers named the game the eighth-worst Atari program of 1983, tied with Gwendolyn.[6]

Legacy

A type-in machine language listing for a clone of Spy's Demise was printed in ANALOG Computing as Elevator Repairman (1985).[7] Another clone is Elevator (1986) by David Bayliss for MS-DOS.

References

  1. 1 2 "The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers".
  2. ↑ "Spy's Demise". Digital Press.
  3. 1 2 Cotone, Mark (June 1984). "Product Review: The Spy Strikes Back". Antic. 3 (2).
  4. ↑ "Arcade Album #1". Atari Mania.
  5. ↑ "New Products". ANALOG Computing (12): 18. July 1984.
  6. ↑ "The Best and the Rest". St.Game. Mar–Apr 1984. p. 49. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
  7. ↑ Caprilli, Fred (September 1985). "Elevator Repairman". ANALOG Computing (34): 73–79.
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