Rocky's Boots facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Rocky's Boots |
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|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Warren Robinett and Leslie Grimm |
| Publisher(s) | The Learning Company |
| Platform(s) | Apple II, CoCo, Commodore 64, IBM PC, IBM PCjr |
| Release date(s) | 1982 |
| Genre(s) | Educational game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Rocky's Boots is a fun educational game from 1982. It teaches you about logic gates and how computers think! The game was made by Warren Robinett and Leslie Grimm. It was published by The Learning Company. You could play it on computers like the Apple II, CoCo, Commodore 64, IBM PC, and IBM PCjr.
Rocky's Boots was very popular. It won several awards, like "Software of the Year." It also sold over 100,000 copies! This game was special because it used pictures and interactive parts to help kids learn. It was one of the first computer games to do this so well. Later, a harder game called Robot Odyssey came out, which was a sequel to Rocky's Boots.
How to Play Rocky's Boots
In the first part of Rocky's Boots, your goal is to use a special mechanical boot. This boot needs to kick certain objects off a moving belt. These objects can be purple or green squares, diamonds, circles, or crosses. Some objects give you points, and some take points away.
To make sure the boot only kicks the good objects, you connect different logic gates to it. These gates are like tiny switches that decide when the boot should kick. You play as an orange square on the screen. You move this square over devices like the boot or logic gates. Then you press a button to pick them up.
When you successfully kick all the good objects and none of the bad ones, you get 24 points. Then, Rocky, a friendly raccoon, appears and does a little dance!
Designing Your Own Circuits
After the first part, the game lets you get creative. You can use all the game's tools in an open area. This includes AND gates, OR gates, NOT gates, and flip-flops. You can design your own logic circuits. It's like building your own mini-computer programs!
Many people think Rocky's Boots is more than just a game. They see it as a visual design tool. It helps you build and understand how logic works. The game uses orange and white colors to show "on" (1) and "off" (0) states. You can even watch the signals move slowly through your circuits. It looks like orange electricity flowing through clear pipes.
Games Like Rocky's Boots
The special way Rocky's Boots was made, called its "engine," was used in other games too. The Learning Company used it for the sequel, Robot Odyssey. They also used it for a later game called Gertrude's Secrets.
The unique art style of Rocky's Boots was inspired by an older game. This was Warren Robinett's game for the Atari 2600 called Adventure. In fact, Rocky's Boots was first planned to be a sequel to Adventure!
