How to play Holey Moley online
Important: Holey Moley does not use a joystick. It was made for Atari’s keypad-style controllers (the Kid’s Controller, the Keyboard Controller or the Video Touch Pad). Each button on the keypad matches one hole on the screen, so you press a button to swing the hammer at that hole. The emulator on this site does not emulate these keypad controllers, so you can load the game here, but you cannot really play it with the keyboard.
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Save and load a state: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
Gameplay
Each board gives you a set amount of time to whack as many moles as you can. You need at least 300 points to pass a level, and every point above that is added as a bonus. There are three things that can pop up:
| What pops up | Points |
|---|---|
| Standard mole (brown) | 10 to 40 |
| King Mole (red, with a crown, a little faster) | 30 to 100 |
| Acorn (looks like the back of a mole) | minus 30 to 50 |
How many points a mole gives depends on when you hit it. Every third round is a bonus stage: the whole screen fills with moles, but the buttons are shuffled, so you have to work out which button hits which hole.
The story behind Holey Moley
Holey Moley looks like an original idea, but it is based on a rare 1982 arcade machine called Mole Attack by Rollertron. That machine was released in the USA by Thomas Automatics under the name Holey Moley. Atari gave the 2600 game the model number CX-26130, yet it never reached the shops. According to Bob Polaro, it was shelved because of the change of management at Atari. Atari had also recently turned the Rubik’s Cube puzzle into Atari Video Cube, which did not sell well, and that may have made the company wary of another conversion of a physical game.
