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Pickaxe Pete is a video game released in 1982 as cartridge number 43 for the Philips Videopac console. It was published in North America for the Magnavox Odyssey² as Pick Axe Pete!. In Brazil, it was re-branded as Didi na Mina Encantada (Didi in the Enchanted Mine) for the Odyssey.[2] Pickaxe Pete is a platform game that followed in the wake of Donkey Kong before the term existed; a 1982 issue of Joystik magazine labeled it a "climbing game".[3] It was designed and programmed by Ed Averett, who wrote the majority of the games for the system.[1]
| Pickaxe Pete (Europe) Pick Axe Pete! (US) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Publisher(s) | Philips Magnavox |
| Designer(s) | Ed Averett[1] |
| Platform(s) | Philips Videopac (EU) Magnavox Odyssey² (US) |
| Release | 1982 |
| Genre(s) | Platform |
A U.S. national competition, "The Pick Axe Pete Pick-Off," was held at the World's Fair in October 1982.[4][5]
Gameplay
editThe player controls a miner named Pickaxe Pete who starts in the middle of the screen with a pick-axe. There are three doors from which boulders are coming, bouncing down the mine-shafts; every time Pete destroys one of these he gains 3 points, although the axe wears out after a while and disappears. When two boulders collide, they explode, and out comes either a pick-axe which floats to the bottom of the screen, a key which floats to the top, or nothing. If Pete has no axe, the player can either jump over boulders (gaining him 1 point), or get to the bottom of the mine to retrieve a new axe (gaining a 5-point bonus). If Pete collects a key then he can enter the doors, which lead him to the next level.[4]
Reception
editIn a December 1982 review, US magazine Joystik called the game "Odyssey's new entry in the Donkey Kong lookalike contest".[3] The reviewer gave it a 3/10 for graphics and 7/10 for gameplay and concluded:
We're not overly thrilled by the graphics of this game—there's just nothing spectacular about the way it looks. But we think most "level game" fans will enjoy Pick Axe Pete's challenging game play.[3]
References
edit- ^ a b Hague, James. "The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers".
- ^ "Didi Na Mina Encantada!". Odyssey Mania (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on November 15, 2011. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
- ^ a b c "Pick Axe Pete". Joystik. Vol. 1, no. 3. December 1982. p. 54.
- ^ a b Cassidy, William. "Pick Axe Pete - Overview". AllGame. Archived from the original on November 14, 2014. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
- ^ "Pick Axe Pete Pick-Off News Coverage". The Odyssey2 Homepage. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
External links
edit- Pickaxe Pete can be played for free in the browser at the Internet Archive
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