Buzz Bombers
Platform: Intellivision
Region: USA
Media: Cartridge
Controller: INTV
Genre: Action 
Gametype: Licensed
Release Year: 1983
Developer: Mattel Electronics
Publisher: Mattel Electronics
Players: 1
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Buzz Bombers is an arcade action game similar to Centipede. You control a can of bug spray at the bottom of the screen, and you need to defend yourself from the swarms of incoming bees. The bees start at the top of the screen, and fly their way back and forth, slowly heading towards the bottom of the screen. If they reach the ground, they will pollinate the flowers there which causes them to grow and will restrict movement of your spray can. When you shoot a bee, it will turn into a honeycomb. The honeycombs will cause the bees to head towards the ground even faster, since they will turn around when one is in their way. Your spray can is able to shoot the honeycombs, but if you leave them in place a hummingbird will fly around and eat the honey from them. The more honey the hummingbird eats, the more points you get. The game ends when all of your spray cans are destroyed by growing flowers.


PRODUCTION HISTORY:

Marketing was trying to get as many games as possible that were similar to known arcade hits, so when retailers said "Atari has Pac-Man," they could say "We have Lock 'n' Chase," or "Atari has Asteroids," "We have Astrosmash and Space Hawk." Buzz Bombers was put into production as Intellivision's answer to Centipede.


FUN FACT:

Marketing had a version of the game prototyped with a RAID can and tried to sell Johnson & Johnson, makers of Raid bug-spray, on a tie-in deal a la Kool-Aid Man . They gave it, according to a memo by Director Don Daglow, a "cool reception."

The classic tune "Flight of the Bumblebee" is used in the cartridge, but it almost wasn't; the crack Legal Department couldn't track down whether the melody was in the public domain or not. Bill Goodrich (Quest) pointed out that the composer, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, had died in 1908, but Legal still wasn't convinced. Eventually, though, they gave it the green light.

Buzz Bombers is a one-player game only, a fact that wasn't properly communicated to the Visual Design (packaging) department. Tens of thousands of copies were packed before someone realized the back of the box said "1 or 2 can play." They had to cross it out. Every copy. By hand.

(This was just after Josh Denham "resigned" as President of Mattel Electronics. As part of his resignation deal, he was given an office at Mattel from which he could continue to conduct business [i.e., look for work]. The joke going around was that as another part of the deal, he was in there with a Marks-A-Lot crossing out "1 or 2 can play" on Buzz Bomber boxes.)


http://www.mobygames.com/game/intellivision/buzz-bombers
http://www.intellivisiongames.com/bluesky/games/credits/1983.html#buzz_bombers