Kick Man 1981 Midway
1981
Kick Man (c) 1981 Midway.
Move a man on a unicycle and catch falling balloons and Pac-Men on your head. Use the Kick button to make the character's legs kick out and knock balloons back up for another try. Balloons stack up eight high and then the man will pop them. Stack Pac-Men for bonus points.
>>> TECHNICAL DETAILS
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Kick Man was available in 3 different dedicated cabinets, an upright, a cocktail, and a cabaret (or mini). The only physical difference between 'Kick' and 'Kick Man' machines is the name on the marquee, otherwise they are identical.
The upright machine had yellow and orange painted side-art of a guy on a unicycle kicking balloons up onto his spiked helmet. The guy on the side-art looks more like an athlete than a clown, and doesn't resemble the game character at all. The marquee has an orange logo superimposed over a city skyline. Moving downward the game has an attractive monitor bezel that extends the background graphics that are already in the game. The control panel features a large black trackball, and a pair of huge 'Kick' buttons that light up when the machine is turned on.
The cabaret (or Mini-Myte as the promotional material calls it) was in a smaller brown cabinet with no side-art or marquee. It had slightly smaller yellow buttons, and the game's name was advertised directly below the control panel. There were no other decorations on the machine.
The cocktail version of this game came in the ever popular Midway cocktail table, which was the same one used for 'Pac-Man', 'Galaga', and many others. The only decoration was the title of the game which was silk screened under the glass. You will probably never see one of the cocktail versions anyway. In the last few years it seems that almost all Midway cocktails seem to have been converted to 'Ms. Pac-Man' or 'Galaga' (probably because that is a very profitable conversion to make).
Bally Midway MCR 1 hardware
Main CPU : Z80 (@ 2.496 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Z80 (@ 2 Mhz)
Sound Chips : (2x) AY8910 (@ 2 Mhz)
Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 480 x 512 pixels
Screen refresh : 30.00 Hz
Palette colors : 32
Players : 2
Control : Trackball
Buttons : 1 (KICK)
>>> TRIVIA
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Released in December 1981. Kick Man was planned as a sequel to 'Pac-Man', but didn't catch on to anywhere near the same degree. The game was actually first developed back in 1978 as a black and white game entitled 'Catch 40'. Midway never actually got around to releasing 'Catch 40', so they reworked it in color and released it as 'Kick'. Then they turned around a few months later and and re-released the game as 'Kick Man'. 'Kick' and 'Kick Man' are essentially the exact same game. The only difference is in the title screen.
A Kick Man unit appears in the 1982 movie 'Jekyll & Hyde... Together Again' and in the 1982 movie 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High'.
>>> DESIGNERS / PROGRAMMERS / STAFF
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Designed & programmed by : John Pasierb
>>> GAME PORTS TO OTHER SYSTEMS
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* Computers :
Commodore C64
>>> OTHER GAME RESOURCES
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Game's rom.
Machine's picture.