Pepper II

created and published by Exidy in 1982, running on Arcade

type: maze, action/reflex
genre: Amidar-like, Maze
perspective: bird's-eye
player options: single player

languages: eng

Find at ADB

Official description

Each play screen of PEPPER II is the side of a cube. Four of the sides must be filled in to advance to the next level. To fill in a side, the player guides 'Pepper' around an invisible floorplan. As Pepper travels, he leaves a track, resembling a zipper. Once he encloses a space or room, it fills in and points are awarded. The challenge and fun of PEPPER is to determine the size and shape of the rooms in the floor plan. Square markers, or posts, give clues. They mark the location of either a 'T' or an intersection.
The floorplan is shown on Side 1 during the first cube to help the beginning player learn the play of the game more quickly.

1. Obstacles and Hazards
Pepper, the angel, must avoid two enemies: Roaming Eyes, and the pink Zipper Ripper', who unzips all 'freestanding' lines (those not enclosing a room). Pepper's one defense is to enclose a room containing a pitchfork, which turns him into a devil for a few seconds. At that time he can go after all Roaming Eyes for points. At the same time, the Zipper Ripper freezes, but is still deadly.
If Pepper backtracks on a freestanding line, it unzips. The player soon learns to maneuver Pepper around on the lines enclosing rooms, to avoid losing freestanding lines to the Zipper Ripper.
The player goes to different sides of the cube by going out any of four exits, located in the middle of each side of the screen. When all four sides of the cube are filled in, a "Cube Bonus' is awarded, a new level is given, and a cube appears on the bottom of the screen.

2. Scoring
Points are made for enclosing a space (the larger the room, the more points earned), hitting a pair of roaming eyes, completing a side, and completing a cube. A bonus turn is awarded at the operator selectable score of 40,000, 50,000, 60,000 or 70,000.

VANITY MODE
Anytime a player's score exceeds one of the five current high scores, he is eligible to enter his initials in the Vanity Table. If both players of a two player game are record high scorers, the highest of the two is first invited to enter his initials. To do so, he directs a character through the alphabet with the joystick. Once on the letter desired, he hits either of the Start buttons. After either logging his initials, or after about 45 seconds, the game returns to the Attract Mode.