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After successfully completing a maze, a reward screen appears. A dog dish drops from the chuckwagon, and the player must use the joystick to orient
Chuckie left or right to face the dish, and press the fire button at the right moment to stop it horizontal to Chuckie, allowing him to move to the dish
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There are two obstacles in each maze: the dog catcher moves through the maze, and, if he touches
Chuckie, the player loses one life; the bouncing object (bone, etc.) travels back and forth across the maze unhindered by the maze walls, and, if it touches Chuckie, he will be frozen momentarily
160:. The object of each maze screen is to move Chuckie, the dog, through mazes of four different designs and escape through the opening directly below the chuckwagon. The player has limited time (60 or 30 seconds depending on the difficulty setting) per maze to accomplish this.
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from bags of dog food in exchange for the game, an example of a new marketing technique that emerged during the popularity of video games in the early 1980s. In practice, the promotion was relatively unsuccessful. The unshipped cartridges were destroyed.
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and eat. This gives an additional 100 points. If the player misses, no points are awarded and the game advances to the next maze screen. If the player does not press the fire button, the dish falls repeatedly and the game does not advance.
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I was approached by a good friend who ran TMQ/ICOM and he badly needed this game programmed over a weekend. Yes, it took me all of 3 days to cobble this game together. I had existing code from my first game,
187:
The amount of time left at the end of each maze is the player's score for that stage. Each successfully completed reward screen adds 100 points. The total score is displayed at the end of the game.
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The player uses the joystick to move
Chuckie through mazes and to change his facing on the reward screen. The fire button is only used to stop the dropping food dish on the rewards screens.
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The player starts the game with three
Chuckies. Chuckies are lost when time runs out on a maze or upon contact with the dog catcher. The game ends when all the Chuckies are exhausted.
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164:(signified by the maze changing color), making it more difficult to reach the end of maze within the time limit or avoid the dog catcher.
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241:, to look at. The sound effects were basically the same. I apologize for the weak gameplay, but I was rushed!
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133:. In the 1970s and 1980s, popular television commercials for Purina dog food included a dog chasing a tiny
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is far from the rarest of games for the Atari 2600, but it is often referred to as the
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to create a game themed around dogs and dog food. Customers could redeem
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357:"Atari 2600 Manuals (HTML) - Chase the Chuck Wagon (Spectravision)"
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383:"Scan of the original instruction sheet for Chase the Chuck Wagon"
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Chuckie avoids a dog catcher. A flickering bone isn't visible.
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331:"Chase the Chuck Wagon by Spectravision for the Atari 2600"
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does not start the game (which is the typical behavior).
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How to Do Things with
Videogames (Electronic Mediations)
483:"Atari 2600 - Chase the Chuck Wagon (Spectravision)"
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137:. The gameplay is loosely based on this premise.
333:. Atariguide.com. January 3, 2014. Archived from
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581:can be played for free in the browser at the
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300:"The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers"
531:"Chase the Chuckwagon - Complete Interview"
1190:Video games developed in the United States
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400:"AGH - Third Party Profile: Spectravision"
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430:. University of Minnesota Press. p.
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314:Classic Chuck Wagon Dog Food Commercial
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213:As part of a promotion involving the
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129:by sending in proofs of purchase to
221:contracted video game distributor
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117:written by Mike Schwartz for the
1185:Video games about food and drink
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1195:Works based on advertisements
518:. April 1997. pp. 44–45.
988:Television Interface Adaptor
817:American Multiple Industries
125:. It was available only via
533:(Interview). Archived from
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485:. AtariAge. Archived from
359:. AtariAge. Archived from
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31:
461:. O'Reilly. p. 48.
1115:Atari video game burial
1180:Video games about dogs
455:Kohler, Chris (2005).
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176:
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115:promotional video game
1160:Atari 2600-only games
1008:Starpath Supercharger
578:Chase the Chuck Wagon
561:Chase the Chuck Wagon
265:video game collecting
257:Chase the Chuck Wagon
174:
154:Chase the Chuck Wagon
148:
110:Chase the Chuck Wagon
26:Chase the Chuck Wagon
958:Howard Scott Warshaw
337:on February 29, 2012
1067:Atari Greatest Hits
1042:Emulation and ports
993:Atari joystick port
983:Atari 2600 hardware
537:on January 13, 2011
121:and distributed by
1175:Spectravideo games
508:"The Real Thing".
458:Retro Gaming Hacks
424:(August 5, 2011).
227:proofs of purchase
217:line of dog food,
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489:on April 13, 2014
441:978-0-8166-7647-7
363:on April 13, 2014
205:is used instead.
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1155:Atari 2600 games
1145:1983 video games
1089:Related articles
903:Steve Cartwright
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529:"So Cal" Mike.
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514:. No. 28.
511:Next Generation
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298:Hague, James.
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862:Spectravideo
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688:Street Racer
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539:. Retrieved
535:the original
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491:. Retrieved
487:the original
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404:. Retrieved
394:
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365:. Retrieved
361:the original
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339:. Retrieved
335:the original
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308:
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278:Kool-Aid Man
276:
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149:Attract mode
109:
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54:Publisher(s)
42:Developer(s)
25:
1080:Atari 2600+
1074:Atari Vault
943:Alan Miller
933:David Lubar
908:David Crane
896:Programmers
872:Tigervision
807:Atari, Inc.
712:Bestselling
422:Bogost, Ian
215:Chuck Wagon
76:Platform(s)
66:Designer(s)
1165:Maze games
1150:Advergames
1139:Categories
1033:Atari 7800
1028:Atari 2700
953:Carol Shaw
877:U.S. Games
812:Activision
800:Publishers
783:River Raid
653:Basic Math
620:Atari 2600
285:References
261:Holy Grail
135:chuckwagon
127:mail order
119:Atari 2600
113:is a 1983
81:Atari 2600
1102:Atari Age
1018:CompuMate
918:Rob Fulop
847:M Network
776:Adventure
734:Asteroids
681:Star Ship
660:Blackjack
493:April 10,
406:April 10,
367:April 10,
341:April 10,
1126:Category
1023:GameLine
976:Hardware
913:Tod Frye
837:Data Age
832:CommaVid
769:Atlantis
727:Pitfall!
695:Surround
674:Indy 500
541:April 9,
271:See also
244:—
191:Controls
141:Gameplay
96:Genre(s)
867:Telesys
790:Kaboom!
720:Pac-Man
572:YouTube
319:YouTube
209:History
183:Scoring
87:Release
1049:Stella
827:Coleco
822:Imagic
667:Combat
637:Launch
465:
438:
252:Legacy
219:Purina
203:Select
131:Purina
123:Purina
887:Zimag
882:Xonox
628:Games
386:(PDF)
199:Reset
156:is a
857:Sega
762:E.T.
543:2014
495:2014
463:ISBN
436:ISBN
408:2014
369:2014
343:2014
101:Maze
90:1983
570:on
317:on
47:TMQ
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371:.
345:.
302:.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
