How to play Wabbit online
- Run left and right: left and right arrow keys
- Throw a rotten egg: Space bar
- Choose a game variation: F11 (the console’s Select switch)
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Fast or slow Billie Sue: F4 (Player 1 difficulty switch)
Gameplay
Billie Sue stands at the bottom of the screen, facing her carrot field. Burrows line both sides of the field, and the rabbits (the “wabbits”) pop out of them at random, grab a carrot and race back home. Hit a rabbit with an egg and it drops the idea and runs back to its hole.
| What happens | Result |
|---|---|
| You hit a rabbit before it reaches a carrot | 5 points |
| You hit a rabbit carrying a carrot home | 10 points |
| A rabbit gets a carrot back to its burrow | 1 carrot to the rabbits |
| Every 100 points you score | the rabbits lose 25 carrots |
Your score is on the right of the screen and the rabbits’ carrot count is on the left. The game ends when the rabbits have stolen 100 carrots, so the aim is to keep scoring fast enough that your bonuses keep pushing their total back down.
Variations and switches
There are eight variations. Games 1 to 6 set the number of rabbits (one, two or three) for one or two players. Games 7 and 8 are easy versions for very young children, with a single rabbit. In two-player games the players swap every time the rabbits collect 25 carrots.
The difficulty switch sets Billie Sue’s speed. In position B she runs almost as fast as the rabbits; in position A she is slower, and you have to plan your throws.
Tips
- Wait for the way home. A rabbit carrying a carrot is worth twice as much, and you still have its whole run back to the burrow to hit it.
- Don’t let too many get past. Every rabbit that makes it home costs you a carrot, and 100 carrots ends the game.
- Stay near the middle. Rabbits come from both sides, so a central position means a shorter run to either edge.
- Start with one rabbit. Games 3 and 4 are a good way to learn the timing before trying three rabbits.
The story behind Wabbit
Wabbit was designed, programmed and animated by Van Mai, a Vietnamese-American programmer, who is credited in the game under her maiden name, Van Tran. She suggested the idea at an Apollo team meeting as a game aimed at girls. It came out in October 1982, but Apollo filed for bankruptcy the following month, so few copies were sold and the cartridge is scarce today.
For years nobody knew who had made the game. In 2022 the historians Kate Willaert and Kevin Bunch tracked Mai down with the help of Apollo’s bankruptcy records, working with the Video Game History Foundation. Reviews at the time liked the graphics but found the game slow and repetitive. Mai later worked on an Atari 5200 conversion of Solar Fox before leaving the games industry.
Similar games to play next
- Gopher – another farmer defending a vegetable patch, this time from a hungry gopher
- Lost Luggage – an Apollo game about catching suitcases before they hit the ground
- Space Cavern – one of Apollo’s shooting games
- Skeet Shoot – a simple Apollo target-shooting game