How to play it

You're a penguin in a maze made out of ice blocks, which you can push around. On each level, you'll be hunted by monsters that hatch from weird-looking eggs. The monsters start out very slow (a third of your speed), but become faster on later levels. To progress to the next stage, squash all the monsters by pushing ice blocks onto them. If you're not quick enough, the squashed ones will reappear!

Move using the arrow keys. Push ice blocks with space. If the keys don't seem to work, try clicking the game once with the left mouse button.

There are 36 levels.
 

Other important keys

On the title screen, use space to start, "h" to show hiscores, and "s" to read the story.

While playing, you can pause the game with "p" and turn in-game music on or off with "m".

There's an alternative "slippery-slidey" control mode, which you activate by pressing "k".

Oh, and the "g" key has no function whatsoever in this game.

About AI Pengo

I wrote this game in April 1999 to try out some ideas for artificial intelligence routines. I wanted to make a game where the enemies always did the smartest thing possible; where they worked in teams to get you, and where you'd have to think to avoid them. There is just one kind of enemy, but it uses every trick in the book to get you - even psychological tactics.

From an aesthetic perspective, I've tried to make the monsters look like computer game enemies did in the early/mid-eighties; they're Bubble Bobble/Mr Do! enemy clones.

The song "Sounds Like A Melody" from the excellent 1984 album Forever Young is used with permission from the band Alphaville.