How to play Planet of the Apes online
- Move Taylor: arrow keys
- Shoot, or break out of a cage or pit: Space bar
- Start a new game: F12 (the consoleās Reset switch)
Gameplay
You can walk in any direction, but only heading south (down) moves you towards your goal. Apes cross each screen from right to left, and there are three kinds:
- Chimpanzees are harmless, and shooting one is worth only 3 points.
- Orangutans capture you if they touch you. Shooting one is worth 200 points.
- Gorillas capture you and also shoot at you. Oddly, they are worth just 42 points.
The counter L is your life, which starts at 60; E is the escapes you have left. Captured players end up in a cage in the ape village, and forest pits drain your life fast. Fire gets you out of either but uses an escape. The game ends when your life runs out, or when you are trapped with no escapes left.
The route leads through a forest, a river, a desert and a maze of rainbow-coloured caverns. At the end waits the Statue of Liberty, the final image of the 1968 film. Reaching it earns bonuses, then the game starts over with faster and more numerous apes.
Tips
- Run rather than fight. The apes keep coming, so shooting them mainly wastes time. Keep heading south.
- Ignore the chimpanzees. They cannot hurt you, so you can walk straight through them.
- Escape the cage quickly, but carefully. Apes hit you while you are locked up, yet the village is crowded, so you can be caught again at once.
- Count screens in the desert. They all look almost the same, so it is easy to get lost.
Why it was never released
John Marvin got the game as far as early playtesting, then left Fox for Epyx. Fox closed its video game unit about three months later, during the video game crash of 1983.
The surviving prototype was found in a case labelled Alligator People, another unreleased Fox game, and was known by that name until a real copy of Alligator People turned up. Collector Matt Reichert then identified it as Marvinās lost Planet of the Apes. In 2003 the independent group Retrodesign finished the game and released it as Revenge of the Apes, adding music and an updated ending.
