June 15th, 2015 by Benj Edwards
“This is it, boys. Over the anthill.”
[ From Wired, November 1994, p.33]
Discussion Topic of the Week: How many insect-themed computer or video games can you name off the top of your head?
Tags: 1994, advertisement, Battle Bugs, Epyx, IBM PC, insects, PC games, Retro Scan, Sierra
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June 15th, 2015 at 1:59 pm
SIM Ant…
June 15th, 2015 at 2:47 pm
I recall playing a C64 game where you played an ant eater, and navigated your tongue through a maze of ant tunnels. You could eat the ants with the tip of the tongue, however if an ant came in contact with the side of the tongue, you’d have to restart the level.
June 15th, 2015 at 5:36 pm
Yes, Ant Eater was originally an arcade game. There was Lady Bug, or course; Bubbles by Williams had some ants in it; in Atari Black Widow you are a spider.
June 15th, 2015 at 7:13 pm
Centipede and of course Millipede.
June 15th, 2015 at 10:26 pm
Ant Eater must have been what Sierra cloned when they made Oil’s Well (twice!)
Was this the last game ever made by Epyx?
Oh yes, insect games… Superfly was a fun MS-DOS fly swatter game, not unlike the game baked in to Mario Paint. Ant Kill was an interesting reskinning of Bob’s Dragon Hunt. Gottlieb’s Exterminator is a peculiar one!
June 16th, 2015 at 12:27 am
The simple “Bug!” title (and its sequel “Bug Too!”) immediately crossed my mind.
June 16th, 2015 at 9:54 am
I don’t know how strict this list is, and I’m aware that spiders aren’t insects, but since someone did open the door with centipede and millipede, I’ll toss Crackpots for the 2600 out there. Then there was Frogs and Flies, also for the 2600.
June 16th, 2015 at 12:37 pm
Ant Attack, Bugaboo the Flea, and Horace and the Spiders on the ZX Spectrum.
June 18th, 2015 at 8:10 am
Does the flyswatter minigame in Mario Paint count?
June 18th, 2015 at 9:41 am
Of course it counts, Jay. Rowan mentioned that as well.
Man, there are more bug themed games than I remembered. Pretty cool.
Don’t forget Dung Beetles for the Apple II. 🙂
June 21st, 2015 at 1:23 pm
Microid’s Empire of the Ants. http://zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/read/read.html has a list of ant games I found.
June 21st, 2015 at 8:25 pm
Spider Fighter, Bug Hunt, Sim Ant
Pushover on my Amiga is probably my favorite. I loved that music!
June 26th, 2015 at 2:27 am
Bugdom, Yar’s Revenge, Bugs (by Data Age for Atari 2600), Frogs and Flies (the whole point is to eat flies).
While it technically is just a secret campaign, the “It Came From Red Alert!” missions in RA1 were alot of fun. Blasting giant ants with tanks and whatnot? Awesome.