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Lady Bug is a Pac-Man-like maze-based insect-themed arcade game produced by Universal Games and released in 1981.
Description
The goal of Lady Bug is to eat all dots, hearts and letters in the maze while avoiding other insects. The player is represented by a red, yellow and green character resembling a ladybug while the enemy insects' appearance varies by level. The border of the maze acts as timer, with each circuit signalling the release of an enemy insect from the central area, up to (generally) a maximum of four. The speed of the circuit increases with each level.
Unlike the more famous Pac-Man, the player can alter the layout of the maze by shifting any of the twenty green gates. It is not possible to completely isolate a portion of the maze through gate-shifting.
If all four enemy insects are in the maze, the central area will show a level-specific vegetable. Eating a vegetable gives the player bonus points (known in-game as a "Vegetable Harvest Bonus") and immobilizes the enemy insects for several seconds, though touching them is still lethal. The skull icons are lethal to ladybugs and enemy insects. An enemy insect who dies returns to the central area. A ladybug who dies will shrink from view and be briefly replaced with icons resembling the stereotypical wings and halo of an angel.
The colors of the hearts and letters cycle through a short period of red, a medium period of yellow and a longer period of blue. The point values are as follows:
- Dot: 10 points
- Blue letter/heart: 100 points
- Yellow letter/heart: 300 points
- Red letter/heart: 800 points
- Vegetable: Starts at 1000 points, increases by 500 with each level
If a heart is consumed while it is blue, a point multiplier will come into effect, indicated by the blue section in the upper right corner of the screen. The first blue heart doubles all point values, the second triples them and the third quintuples them. This multiplier lasts until the level is complete. Eating hearts while they are yellow or red offers no benefit beyond the points collected.
At each level, the maze will contain three letters. One will be randomly selected from the set of {S, P, C, I, L} (which appear only in SPECIAL), one will be randomly selected from the set of {X, T, R} (which appear only in EXTRA) and the third will be an A or an E (which appear in both words). A secondary goal of the player is to complete the words SPECIAL (indicated in red in the top left corner) and EXTRA (in yellow at top center). If, for example, a letter S is consumed while it is red, the corresponding letter in the word SPECIAL will change from grey to red. Eating an S while it is any other color (or if the S in SPECIAL is already red) offers no benefit beyond the points collected. Completing the word SPECIAL rewards the player with a free game, while completing EXTRA gives the player an extra life. Completing either word causes all its letters to return to normal and immediately advances the player to the next level.
Ports
Lady Bug was adapted to the home video game systems Intellivision and ColecoVision. In these versions, completing SPECIAL puts the player into a bonus level where the goal is to consume as many randomly-placed vegetables as possible within a fixed time.
Vocies
- Ladybug Voice- If you own the Fast Talking Lighting Mcqueen from Disney/Pixar's movie "Cars" press only movement commands, then press Go. Hold him in your hand while your other hand controls Ladybug. When the toy stops, press Go again. When Ladybug dies, hit the toy's mouth. and he'll sound like he got hurt. When you start using your next life, hit Go again.
- Enemy Voice- If you own all four of the talking pens from "Family Guy," scotch tape all the pens to the control pannel and wenever and enemy enters the maze, press a button on any of the pens. Try pressing the pens in this order:
*1st Enemy- Quagmire *2nd Enemy- Peter *3rd Enemy- Brian *4th Enemy- Stewie
External links
1981 arcade games | 1982 computer and video games | Arcade games | Atari 2600 games | ColecoVision games | Intellivision games
"Lady Bug (arcade game)"