Space Panic

Space Panic is a 1980 arcade game designed by Universal. Chris Crawford calls it the first ever platform game, as it pre-dates Nintendo's Donkey Kong (from 1981) which is often cited as the original platform game. Space Panic lacks Donkey Kong's jump mechanic, disqualifying it as a platformer in some eyes. The main character digs holes in the platforms that he must lure the aliens into. He must then hit them to knock them out of the hole and off the screen. In later levels, two holes must be lined up vertically in order to dispose of the aliens. There is also a limited supply of oxygen.

While it may have indirectly influenced all subsequent platform games, it certainly directly influenced some very similar games at the time. These included some almost identical clones such as Acornsoft's Monsters (for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron) and the Apple II's Apple Panic as well as the popular Lode Runner, which looked very similar and used the basic premise of digging holes to trap enemies. Universal revisited the genre again in 1983 with the release of Mr. Do's Castle which incorporated and expanded upon many of the play styles explored in this seminal game.

Ports and clones

First Published	Name	Company	System(s)
1981	Apple Panic	Brøderbund	Apple II, Atari 8-bit, PC Booter, VIC-20
1982	Space Panic	Universal	ColecoVision, Arcade
1982	Sheer Panic	Visions Software Factory	ZX Spectrum
1982	Monsters	Acornsoft	BBC Micro, Acorn Electron
1983	Bonka	J. Morrison (Micros) Ltd.	Dragon 32/64
1983	Cuthbert Goes Digging	Microdeal	TRS-80 Color Computer, Dragon 32
1983	Lode Runner	Brøderbund	Arcade, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX, Atari 400/800, MS-DOS (booter), Macintosh, NES, Game Boy, BBC Micro
1986	Panik!	Atlantis	Commodore 16, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron

External links

• Space Panic at MobyGames
• Article on The Dot Eaters featuring Space Panic