Nibbles (video game)

Nibbles
Nibbles
Developer(s)	Rick Raddatz
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Corporation
Designer(s)	Rick Raddatz
Platform(s)	MS-DOS
Release date(s)	1991
Genre(s)	Arcade game
Mode(s)	Single player, Multi player

Nibbles is a simple video game and variant of Snake. It was inspired by an early 1980's game called Hustle from the Radio Shack TRS-80 micro-computer. (It was not influenced by Mozaik Software's 1984 Amstrad CPC game, Nibbler in spite of the similar names). Nibbles was written in QBasic by Rick Raddatz, who later went on to create small business companies such as Xiosoft and Bizpad.^{[citation needed]}

Gameplay

The game's objective is to navigate a virtual snake (or worm) through a walled-space while consuming numbers (from 1 through 9) along the way. The player must avoid colliding with walls, other snakes or their own snake. Since the length of the snake increases with each number consumed, the game increases in difficulty over time. After the last number has been eaten, the player progresses to the next level, with more complex obstacles and increased speed. There is a multiplayer mode which allows a second player to control a second snake by using a different set of keys on the same keyboard.^[1]

History

Nibbles originally became popular because it was included with MS-DOS version 5.0 and above. Written in QBasic, it is one of the programs included as a demonstration of that programming language.^[1] The QBasic game uses the standard 80x25 text screen to emulate an 80x50 grid by making clever use of foreground and background colors, and the ANSI characters for full blocks and half-height blocks. Microsoft's 24kB QBasic version was copyrighted in 1990. Because of MS-DOS's prevalence at that time, it was available on almost every PC in the early 1990s. Modern computer speeds have rendered the game-speed-delay timing loops invalid, and thus the QBasic version of Nibbles requires some code changes to operate correctly on modern PCs. However, the adjustable clock rate on the DOSBox DOS emulator has accounted for feasibility of optimized speed too.^{[citation needed]} Nibbles is also runnable on QB64 as a way to avoid emulation.

GNOME Nibbles, a clone of QBasic Nibbles

Clones

Nibbles had a revival in the early 21st century thanks to clones for other platforms, including mobile phones and browsers. Notable versions include GNOME Nibbles for Unix-like operating systems and Triton Productions' FT Nibbles.^[2][3]

See also

• GORILLAS.BAS
• DONKEY.BAS

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "QBasic Nibbles for DOS". MobyGames. 2001-06-25. http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/qbasic-nibbles. Retrieved 2009-08-13. 
2. ^ "Nibbles". The GNOME project. 2008-02-03. http://live.gnome.org/Nibbles. Retrieved 2009-08-13. 
3. ^ "FT Nibbles for DOS". MobyGames. 2006-06-20. http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/ft-nibbles. Retrieved 2009-08-13. 

External links

• Nibbles at MobyGames
• FT Nibbles at MobyGames
• GNOME Nibbles
• jQuery snakey a Javascript nibbles clone
• Nibbles for DOS A nibbles written by Mohammad Toossi
• Nibbles for curses Nibbles for curses by Luke Th. Bullock & Nils Magnus Englund