Chase the Chuckwagon

Chase the Chuck Wagon
Opening splash screen of Chase the Chuck Wagon
Developer(s)	Michael Schwartz / ICOM/TMQ
Publisher(s)	Spectravision
Distributor(s)	Ralston Purina
Designer(s)	Michael Schwartz
Platform(s)	Atari 2600
Release date(s)	1983
Genre(s)	Maze

Chase the Chuck Wagon is a 1983 promotional video game distributed by Purina for the Atari 2600/VCS home console. It was available only via mail order by sending in proofs of purchase to Purina.

In the 1970s and 1980s, popular television commercials for Purina dog food included a dog chasing a tiny chuck wagon. The gameplay is loosely based on this premise.

Chase the Chuck Wagon is a maze game. The object of each maze screen is to move Chuckie, the dog, through mazes of four different designs and escape through the opening directly below the chuckwagon. The player has limited time (60 or 30 seconds depending on the difficulty setting) per maze to accomplish this.

There are two obstacles in each maze: the dog catcher moves through the maze, and if he touches Chuckie, the player loses one life; the bouncing object (bone, etc.) travels back and forth across the maze unhindered by the maze walls, and if it touches Chuckie, he will be frozen momentarily (signified by the maze changing color), making it more difficult to reach the end of maze within the time limit or avoid the dog catcher.

After successfully completing a maze screen, the maze clears and the reward screen appears. A dog dish drops from the Chuckwagon, and the player must use the joystick to orient Chuckie left or right to face the dish, and press the fire button at the right moment to stop it horizontal to Chuckie, allowing him to move to the dish and eat. This scores an additional 100 points. If the player misses, no points are awarded and the game advances to the next maze screen. If the player does not press the fire button, the dish falls repeatedly and the game does not advance.

The player starts the game with three Chuckies. Chuckies are lost when time runs out on a maze or upon contact with the dog catcher. The game ends when all the Chuckies are exhausted.

The amount of time left on the clock at the end of each maze is the player's score for that stage. Each successfully completed reward screen adds 100 points. When the game is over, the total score is displayed.

The player uses the joystick to move Chuckie through mazes, and to change his facing on the reward screen. The fire button is only used to stop the dropping food dish on the rewards screens.