Ricochet, Happy Pill - and the joy of kibitzing

I think it was maybe 1982. I was working for a company called Automated Simulations, which later became Epyx. One of the first games I designed for them was called "Ricochet." You can still find mention of it hither and yon on the Internet. It was successful enough to be made for every machine around: Commodore 64, Atari, TRS-80. It was a strategy game, with paddle-like pieces that could be moved like checkers, and changed orientation every time they were hit by a fusilade from one of the corner canons. What I liked about the game is exactly what I like about Happy Pill.

The principle is somewhat similar - you aim (well, there was no aiming in Ricochet - I said "somewhat" similar) and then fire off a shot, hoping that it will bounce off all the targets (the faces). Happy Pill is more of a puzzle than a game, but it is an intriguing puzzle, with increasingly complex dynamics. Once fired, the "pill" keeps on bouncing off the walls and the faces. The faces have four "states" - from smiling, to grinning, to looking wounded, to looking dead. Every time you hit a face, it changes state. If it hits a face too many times, the game is over. The strategic issues: where to place the pill, and in which direction to aim it.

It's a logic game, not an arcade game. There's just enough animation and interaction to keep the game from getting boring, and enough silliness in the game to keep it from being taken too seriously. Which lends itself wonderfully to kibitzing. Which, of course, is a great way to get students and family involved in some remarkably intelligent dialogue about things like frictionless physics and the emotional weight of "I told you so."