Kick (upright)

Arcade Video game published 43 years ago:

Kick Man (c) 1981 Midway.

Move a man on a unicycle and catch falling balloons and Pac-Men on your head. Use the Kick button to make the character's legs kick out and knock balloons back up for another try. Balloons stack up eight high and then the man will pop them. Stack Pac-Men for bonus points.

- TECHNICAL -

[Upright model]
[Game No. 968]

The upright machine had yellow and orange painted side-art of a guy on a unicycle kicking balloons up onto his spiked helmet. The guy on the side-art looks more like an athlete than a clown, and doesn't resemble the game character at all. The marquee has an orange logo superimposed over a city skyline. Moving downward the game has an attractive monitor bezel that extends the background graphics that are already in the game. The control panel features a large black trackball, and a pair of huge 'Kick' buttons that light up when the machine is turned on.

Bally Midway MCR 1 hardware

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 2.496 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 2 Mhz)
Sound Chips : (2x) General Instrument AY8910 (@ 2 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : Trackball
Buttons : 1 (KICK)

- TRIVIA -

Kick Man was released in December 1981 and was planned as a sequel to "Pac-Man", but didn't catch on to anywhere near the same degree. The game was actually first developed back in 1978 as a black and white game entitled 'Catch 40'. Midway never actually got around to releasing 'Catch 40', so they reworked it in color and released it as 'Kick'. Then they turned around a few months later and re-released the game as 'Kick Man'. 'Kick' and 'Kick Man' are essentially the exact same game. The only difference is in the title screen.

A Kick Man unit appears in the 1982 movie 'Jekyll & Hyde... Together Again' and in the 1982 movie 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High'.

- SCORING -

Balloons:
Blue: 15 points.
Red: 10 Points.
Yellow: 5 points.

Ghosts:
Inky (blue): 25 points.
Pinky (pink): 25 points.
Clyde (Orange): 25 points.
Blinky (red): 25 points.

- STAFF -

Original game (Catch 40) by: Ron Halliburton
Conversion to the color system: Don Zimmer, Bill Adams, Henry Ross

- PORTS -

* COMPUTERS:
[EU] Commodore C64 (1982)