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Dung Beetles (computer game)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dung Beetles was an Apple II computer game released in 1982 by Datasoft. It was ported to the Color Computer, where it was renamed Mega-Bug. Later versions for both the Apple II and Atari were named Tumble Bugs.
The game concept and gameplay were copied from Pac-Man, but featured a much larger maze and a moving "magnifying rectangle" which made it easier to see graphic detail of the main character and the bad guys; but also obscured a small area of the map near the main character, making short- to medium-range navigation more difficult.
In retrospect, Dung Beetles is only notable because whenever the player was caught, the game played a digitized voice saying "We Gotcha!" This was the only use of voice in the game, and was a novelty, as the Apple II speaker was only able to emit a click. Programmers would have to click the speaker rapidly in order to produce any sound — the typical Apple II game made beep and boop sounds, and of course plenty of clicking sounds. Programming the game to play back an audio sample, using only a clicking speaker, was an interesting technical accomplishment, shared with another 1982 Apple II game, Sea Dragon.