Kaboom! is an action video game published in 1981 by Activision for the Atari 2600 in 1982.
Kaboom! gameplay
The game is similar to Avalanche in concept, but instead of there being a pre-existing set of rocks across the top of the screen that randomly fall, a character known as the “Mad Bomber” moves back and forth randomly dropping bombs. As the game progresses, the Mad Bomber traverses the top of the screen more erratically, dropping bombs at increasingly higher speeds, making each of the seven higher levels more difficult.
The player uses a paddle controller to move buckets back and forth near the bottom of the screen to catch the bombs before they reach the bottom. The player starts with multiple buckets arranged over each other, which makes it more likely to catch the bombs in one of them. If the player fails to catch a bomb, it explodes, along with any other bombs still on the screen in a chain reaction from bottom to top. This also causes one of the buckets to disappear. The game ends when the player loses the last one. Points are awarded for every bomb caught, and extra buckets (maximum of three) are awarded at every 1,000 points.
While the Mad Bomber is dropping bombs, he has an unhappy face. If the player misses and a bomb is dropped, he smiles while the bombs on the screen explode. The game manual mentions that something “special” will happen after 10,000 points. When the player reaches that score threshold, the Mad Bomber’s mouth opens in surprise even if the player drops a bomb.
When Kaboom! was originally sold, players who scored above 3,000 points could send Activision a photograph of their television screens to receive membership in the Activision Bucket Brigade and a Bucket Brigade patch. (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaboom!_(video_game))