Spy's Demise
| Spy's Demise | |
|---|---|
| Publisher(s) | Penguin Software |
| Designer(s) | Alan Zeldin |
| Platform(s) | Apple II (original) Atari 8-bit, C64, TI-99/4A, Vector-06c |
| Release date(s) |
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| Genre(s) | Action |
Spy's Demise is an action game written by Alan Zeldin for the Apple II, published by Penguin Software in 1982 . It was ported to the Atari, Commodore 64, Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, and Vector-06c. The game contained a puzzle which could be solved for a Spy's Demise T-Shirt. According to Antic magazine in June 1984, only four people had solved it.
Spy's Demise was followed by a sequel, The Spy Strikes Back, written by Penguin Software founder Mark Pelczarski. Both games, along with Penguin's Thunderbombs, were later released together as Arcade Album #1 for the Apple II, Atari 8-bit, and Commodore 64.
The first level of Spy's Demise consists of twelve floors. The player must cross the series of floors, one at a time, while avoiding seven elevators at varying positions. Being hit by an elevator results in loss of a life. Finishing all floors starts the next level. Floors are gradually removed from level to level making it more difficult for the player to avoid the elevators. The game's music is a looped rendition of Hungarian Dance #5 in G Minor.
The puzzle consisted of a nine-line cryptogram, one line of which was displayed after completing the corresponding level. It revealed a phone number to call, and a person's name for whom to ask. However, at least on the Apple II version, there is a tenth line which is never displayed, but which should have been necessary to truly "solve" the puzzle. That last line is a code word which is meant to be spoken to the person on the phone, but it contains a spelling mistake, making it almost unpronounceable.
In the July/August 1983 "New Products" column of Atari computer magazine ANALOG Computing, the author wrote "SPY'S DEMISE is the winner of this issue's 'Potato Chip' award. You can't stop playing it."
In 1984 Softline readers named the game the eighth-worst Atari program of 1983, tied with Gwendolyn.
A type-in machine language listing for a clone of Spy's Demise was printed in ANALOG Computing as Elevator Repairman (1985). Another clone is Elevator (1986) by David Bayliss for MS-DOS.
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