Kangaroo[b] is a 1982 platformvideo game developed and published by Sun Electronics for arcades. It was released in Japan in May 1982 and in North America by Atari, Inc. in June 1982.[3][4] It is one of the first arcade games similar in style to Donkey Kong without being a direct clone. The player takes the role of a boxing glove-wearing mother kangaroo who is trying to rescue her joey from fruit-throwing monkeys. Jumping is integral to the game, but there is no jump button; instead, the player pushes up on the joystick—or up and diagonally—to leap. The arcade version of Kangaroo has visible glitches in the graphics, such as sprites briefly flickering.[5]
The mother kangaroo at the bottom of the first level, and her blindfolded joey at the top
There are four different levels. Three of them consist of the mother kangaroo on the bottom floor trying to reach the top floor where her joey is being held captive by some monkeys. On each of the levels monkeys throw apples and apple cores, which the mother kangaroo must either jump, duck, or punch. If she gets face to face with one of the monkeys, she can punch it with a boxing glove. There are also pieces of fruit that she can jump up and get for points; if she jumps and touches a bell, higher-value fruits will appear to replace the ones she has already collected. She must be wary of the big Ape, who will occasionally appear and try to take her gloves away from her. The level must be completed before the time runs out; otherwise, the player will lose a life.
Levels 1, 2 and 4 consist of different platforms that the mother kangaroo must jump onto or climb onto via a ladder. On the third level, the joey is in a cage held up by a troop of monkeys, and there is a horde of apples that will be unleashed if five monkeys climb up to it. On this level, the mother kangaroo must punch each monkey in the stack several times until the cage is lowered and, when the cage has been lowered enough, the mother kangaroo must climb to the next floor to get to the joey before the cage is raised again.
Jim Leiterman of Atari Research ported the Atari 5200 cartridge to the internally similar Atari 8-bit computers in one day. He used a tool he had written to disassemble the game code, then modified the source and assembled an Atari 8-bit version.[7] Leiterman submitted it to the Atari Program Exchange and requested they publish it without attribution. This was unusual, as APX was created to publish user-written software, not licensed ports or software developed internally at Atari.
Reception
Arcade Express gave the arcade version an 8 out of 10 in November 1982.
The Atari 5200 version of Kangaroo was reviewed by Video magazine in its "Arcade Alley" column where it received mixed commentary. While describing the game as "an excellent piece of work", reviewers also admitted that it had "fail[ed] to bowl [them] over" and criticized the game's "animation-quality graphics" which appeared to be used primarily to "dress up rudimentary play-action".[8]:39 It was later awarded "1984 Best Arcade-to-Home Video Game/Computer Game Translation" at the 5th annual Arkie Awards, where judges noted that "all aspects of the game look and play" as a "virtual duplicate" of the arcade version.[9]:29
Charles Ardai, reviewing the Atari 2600 version for Electronic Fun with Computers & Games, wrote that despite having "horrible" graphics and sound, the gameplay of Kangaroo is better than in the arcades.[10]
↑Akagi, Masumi (October 13, 2006). アーケードTVゲームリスト国内•海外編(1971-2005)[Arcade TV Game List: Domestic • Overseas Edition (1971-2005)] (in Japanese). Japan: Amusement News Agency. pp.31, 111. ISBN978-4990251215.
↑"Overseas Readers Column: Sun, Atari Game Pact On "Kangaroo" Video - For W.Germany Sun Licensed Löwen". Game Machine (in Japanese). No.188. Amusement Press, Inc. May 15, 1982. p.26.
↑Brundage, Darren (June 27, 2007). "Kangaroo". The Atari Times. Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved December 6, 2015.
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