How to play Pengo online
- Move Pengo: arrow keys
- Kick an ice block or the wall: Space bar
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Choose a one- or two-player game: F11 (the console’s Select switch)
- Choose the starting round (1 to 10): the joystick (arrow keys) before the game starts
- Theme song on or off: F4 (the left difficulty switch; A plays the song, B turns it off)
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
Gameplay
Each round takes place in a walled ice field packed with blocks. Stand next to a block and press the button to kick it: it slides across the field and flattens any Sno-Bee in its path. A block with no room to slide, because another block or the wall is right behind it, crumbles instead. Some blocks blink at the start of a round; they hold Sno-Bee eggs that hatch later, so breaking them early saves you trouble. You can also kick the outer wall until it shakes, which freezes any Sno-Bee touching it for a moment. A frozen Sno-Bee can be removed just by walking over it.
You start with five lives, shown as red boxes at the lower left. A round lasts about two minutes and ends when every Sno-Bee is gone, when the last one escapes, or when time runs out. Three special jewel blocks are hidden among the ice. Push them into a straight line, touching each other, for a large bonus.
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Breaking an ice block | 30 |
| Walking over a frozen Sno-Bee | 100 |
| Crushing one Sno-Bee with a block | 400 |
| Breaking a block with an egg inside | 500 |
| Crushing two / three Sno-Bees with one block | 1,600 / 3,200 |
| Jewel blocks lined up against a wall | 5,000 |
| Jewel blocks lined up away from the walls | 10,000 |
Clearing a round in under a minute earns a time bonus, from 10 points for 50–59 seconds up to 5,000 points if you finish in under 20 seconds.
Tips
- Break the blinking blocks first. Each one is worth 500 points and removes a Sno-Bee before it can hatch.
- Wait for lines. Let two or three Sno-Bees line up in the same row or column, then send one block through all of them.
- Use the wall shake as an escape. When a Sno-Bee corners you near the edge, kick the wall to freeze it and walk over it.
- Go for the jewels in the middle. Lining them up away from the walls doubles the bonus to 10,000 points.
History
The arcade Pengo was a big hit in Japan in 1982, and Atari licensed it for its home systems. The Atari 5200 and 8-bit computer versions came first; the 2600 cartridge was the last to appear, in 1984. It was programmed by Mark Hahn, with graphics by Courtney Granner and sound by Andrew Fuchs and Jeff Gusman, which made it one of the first 2600 games built by a team rather than a single programmer. To fit the hardware, the ice field shrank from 12 by 10 blocks in the 5200 and 8-bit versions to 11 by 8, and there is noticeable flicker. Because it reached shops when the home video game market was collapsing, the cartridge is fairly rare today.
Similar games to play next
- Dig Dug – another early-1980s arcade port where you can crush enemies with falling rocks
- Mr. Do! – a maze game where you dig your own tunnels and drop apples on monsters
- Ms. Pac-Man – the classic maze chase, well converted for the 2600
- Frostbite – Activision’s arctic adventure on drifting ice floes