Jack the Giantkiller

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Jack the Giantkiller
Jack the Giantkiller cover.jpg
Developer(s)
Publisher(s)
Platform(s) Arcade
Release 1982
Genre(s) Platform
Mode(s)1–2 players, alternating

Jack the Giantkiller is a 1982 arcade game developed and published by Cinematronics. It is based on the 19th-century English fairy tale "Jack and the Beanstalk". In Japan, the game was released as Treasure Hunt. [1] There were no home console ports.

Contents

The player controls Jack, who must climb the beanstalk to reach the castle, steal a series of treasures from the giant, and escape. The game used hardware licensed from Hara Industries of Japan, with raster graphics instead of the vector displays Cinematronics was known for. [2]

Nicknamed "Jack the Company Killer", the game was a commercial failure and financial disaster. [3] Cinematronics filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1982.

Gameplay

The player uses an eight-way joystick to move Jack. Two buttons are available to allow Jack to jump or throw beans at enemies.

The cycle of screens includes:

The treasures to be stolen include a musical harp, a golden goose, a bag of gold coins and the princess. The player's objective is to retrieve these items on successive trips up the beanstalk, with the princess stage being the last in the four-stage level. A brief animated intermission featuring that specific treasure will play after the player successfully reaches the ground to end each stage. After taking the princess, the giant will awaken, and it is up to the player to descend the beanstalk and chop it down before the giant reaches the ground.

Completing a level results in a bonus and the player getting to repeat the cycle at increased difficulty.

Development

Cinematronics president Fred Fukumoto purchased 5,000 game boards from Hara Industries, for 2 million US dollars, to be used for Jack the Giantkiller. [2] [3] The hardware came without documentation and had to be reverse engineered. [2]

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References

  1. ↑ "Jack the Giantkiller". Gaming History.
  2. 1 2 3 Paul, Bill (1996). "The History of Cinematronics Inc". zonn.com.
  3. 1 2 "The Ultimate (So Far) History of Cinematronics/Vectorbeam". The Golden Age Arcade Historian. January 2, 2013.
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