Penguin Pete

Penguin Pete

Release type: Demo game
Release date: 1991
Levels: 10
Author: Recreational Software Designs
Related games: Tutor, Pipemare, Sample, Terrain, Nebula

This game is wholly credited to Joan Stone, mother to Gregory and Oliver, Jr. She was also responsible for many of the monsters in RSD's demo games.

Whereas Nebula is the strongest game of the demo bundle, Penguin Pete is the most ambitious. It’s a large game, consisting of several maze levels linked from a complex and dangerous overworld. The protagonist has more moves than the game effectively accounts for, suggesting an even more ambitious design that was slightly cut down.

In effect the game is a scavenger hunt. The player explores several large, interlinked levels, searching for fragments of a wrecked submarine. The main view is of a large ice field; ice islands are connected by a maze of shifting, submerging bridges. Walruses, bears, wolves hassle our penguin; each requires a certain kind of attack to defeat. None is clearly signaled, meaning a bit of fumbling trial and error.

There is the occasional hole in the snow; hop in, and search for a new submarine chunk. Some of the mazes are overhead-view; some are simple platformers; one is an underwater level. Most of them are mazes, which although often clever, can quickly become tedious and can take an age to finish -- successfully or unsuccessfully.

Discovering a cave in Penguin Pete

The game is harder than it needs to be, and a little too complex for its premise. One of the great things about Nebula is its simplicity. There’s practically nothing extraneous to it. By contrast, some of Pete’s moves don’t even work all that well. Good on Joan for trying a Mario-style hop attack, but it should have been cut — as should have the jumping moves in overhead-view levels.

Still, hey, there are a ton of neat ideas in here. The level progression is pretty advanced, and the mazes that involve blindly burrowing into the snow are a bit of genius. They’re simple, and that’s why they work so well. The game is also attractive and, as with the other sample games, endearing.

Story

Scouring the Sea Floor in Penguin Pete

A nuclear weapons submarine has been ripped apart after being trapped in artic ice flows. Sections of the submarine are strewn on the arctic ocean floor and others are lodged within gigantic icebergs.

The Navy Seals have recruited Penguin Pete for the dangerous job of finding and recovering the eight sections of the submarine from the waters. After Penguin Pete gets the eight submarine sections, he will be able to board the ship and reach the final scenes of the game.

Instructions

Arrow keys or joystick move Penguin Pete, but we recommend the numeric keypad (set NumLock to on). 4, 6, 8, and 2 move left, right, up, and down. 7 jumps left, 9 jumps right. The 'j' key jumps straight up.

The space bar throws the harpoon. The 'm' key throws snowballs and the 'b' key drops bombs, if you have any. The 'n' key jumps up and back down, killing some monsters. Power level of weapons is:

Harpoon (lowest)

Killing Jump

Snowball

Bomb (highest)

The 'p' picks up objects. The 'd' key drops objects.

Touch a bomb and you acquire it. Food (such as algae, fish, some starfish, some crabs) increase hit points.

Items such as mines and pebbles increase score. Gold increases money. Hearts add a life.

Credits

PENGUIN PETE was created by Joan Stone

You are free to enhance Penguin Pete and you may borrow any of its Gameware for use in your GAME-MAKER games

Resources

• Several of the monsters are shared amongst all of RSD's games.

Links

An ice maze in Penguin Pete

• Samples and Demos (DIYGamer)

Downloads

• Penguin Pete (291.5 kB)
• Ice floes Map (? kB)
• Maze 1 Map (? kB) Maze 2 Map (? kB) Maze 3 Map (? kB)
• Maze 4 Map (? kB) Maze 5 Map (? kB) Maze 6 (and ending) Map (? kB)
• Underwater Map (? kB)