Frostbyte Freddy - 2002 (PC)

Here's a small freeware game from a guy named Brien King. It uses the same basic concept of the arcade version of Pengo, adding in a few new features to make it a bit more modern. The board's absolutely gigantic, even compared to the arcade version, which can make keeping track of everything that's going on pretty difficult. The Sno-Bees also come in different colors, with reds being the dumbest, and yellows being unrelenting death machines who will hunt you down without mercy. Even the weaker Sno-Bees are pretty good at finding you, though, which means it'll take a while to even get past the first stage if your'e particularly bad.

The plus side is that there's new powerups to help you fight off the Sno-Bees, hidden inside the flashing red ice blocks. Besides stuff like bonus multipliers and extra points, you've also got items that will let you smash more blocks at once, boost your speed, or even kill every Sno-Bee on the level. Given how much of a tweak the difficulty's been given, you'll probably need these. There's also a co-operative mode, if that's your sort of thing, where you can either play to clear the stages, or to get the best score, depending on your mood.

Most of the graphics have been ripped right from the original Pengo, and for some reason, they tend to look a little chunkier than the original sprites. Since the board's so huge, the sprites are a lot smaller, which means it's not always easy to pay attention to where everything is and what all the Sno-Bees are doing. The music comes in .mod format, like what you'd hear out of an Amiga, and there's about twelve remixes of the Popcorn theme for each level. Overall, Frostbyte's Freddy's not a bad little Pengo clone. It's a little unpolished, and if you're not good at Pengo, you're going to get wrecked. But as an effort from one person, it's worth trying if you're a fan of the game.

Pengo, C64 Port

Pengo never officially ended up on the C64, possibly due to Atari holding the license, but thanks to the efforts of a bedroom coder named Jean-Francois de Wergifosse, the C64 did get it in some form. This port isn't particularly bad, even if it's a lot slower and easier than anything the arcade game would have put you through. There's a very quiet, lowkey version of the Popcorn theme played over the SID chip. Probably the most interesting thing about this particular version is that whenever Pengo dies, he apparently melts apart. Jean-Francois might have had some issues.

Pango, DOS Port

 Back in the early 80's, DOS machines were basically for word processing and business. Trying to get one to match the speed of a fast-paced arcade game like Pengo was just asking for failure, as shown here. Pretty much everything about this particular clone makes this version nearly unplayable, sad to say.

The board's about the size of the Atari 5200 version, and depending on the difficulty you select, you'll either deal with two enemies at once on the board, or all of them at once on the hardest difficulty. Needless to say, you'll probably die. Part of this reason is the controls, devised back in an ancient time when keyboards didn't have arrow keys. You use the O, L, K, and the ; keys for movement, with the space bar to kick. Yes, the ; key. The controls tend to be sluggish and unresponsive, which is very much something you don't want in a game like this.

Aside from that, you have to deal with four color CGA graphics, with poor Pengo being turned into some kind of potato on legs. The sound effects and music are just as bad, with some droning, rather unhappy sounding theme playing in the background. When it isn't interrupted by one of the sound effects. Overall, this version is best left avoided if at all possible, or, if encountered in floppy disc format, burned.