How to play Rabbit Transit online
The rabbit only jumps diagonally. On the keyboard, press two arrow keys at once to jump.
- Jump up-left or up-right: Up + Left or Up + Right arrow keys
- Jump down-left or down-right: Down + Left or Down + Right arrow keys
- Skip the Bunny Bushes screen: Space bar
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- One or two players: F11 (the console’s Select switch)
- Change the difficulty: F4 (Player 1) and F9 (Player 2) toggle the difficulty switches
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
Gameplay
You play a rabbit who wants to cross the Mysterious Meadow and the Land of Ledges to start a family. Each level has three screens.
- The Mysterious Meadow. Hop row by row towards a river, dodging snakes, butterflies, choppers and other hazards, and passing through the gates in the fences. At the river you have to reach a turtle, which carries you onward.
- The Land of Ledges. Jump from ledge to ledge to change each one to the target colour. A figure throws rocks at you, and being hit can undo some of your work.
- The Bunny Bushes. A short rest screen where you see your rabbit family grow. Press the button to skip it.
Both main screens run on a timer. In the meadow you score for each row you advance, and in the ledges for each ledge you convert. On both screens the time left when you finish is added as a bonus. If the timer reaches zero first, you lose a life. You earn an extra life at 10,000 points.
Difficulty switches
With the difficulty switch in position B, the turtle at the river stays in view. In position A it dives underwater and comes back up, so you have to time your jump, and the whole game runs faster.
Tips
- Get used to diagonal jumps first. Every move is a diagonal, so practise on the early rows before the hazards get busy.
- Don’t waste time. Leftover time is worth points on both screens, and running out costs a life.
- Keep an eye on the rock thrower. Move away from its line of fire, because a hit can undo ledges you have already changed.
- Learn on position B. The visible turtle makes the river much easier while you learn the meadow.
History
Starpath, first called Arcadia, released the Supercharger in 1982. It plugged into the 2600’s cartridge slot, added extra memory, and had a cable for the earphone socket of an ordinary cassette player. The extra RAM let games like Rabbit Transit show more detailed graphics than most cartridges of the time. Rabbit Transit was the eighth game released for it, on cassette number AR-4104.
Atari itself seems to have been interested in the game. Two Atari cartridge prototypes have been found, one from June 1983 marked as an incomplete demo and one from August 1983 labelled as the Atari version. It is not known whether the two companies ever made a licensing deal or whether an Atari employee was simply experimenting, and no Atari cartridge was released. Starpath was bought by Epyx in 1984.
Similar games to play next
- Frogger – the road-and-river crossing game the meadow stage resembles
- Q*bert – the colour-changing pyramid game behind the ledges stage
- Dragonstomper – a Starpath Supercharger adventure
- Escape from the Mindmaster – a Starpath Supercharger maze game
- Sweat! The Decathlon Game – an unreleased Starpath sports game