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Park Patrol Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]

4,832 views · Published 13 March 2013 · 8:06 · Indexed 9 October 2026

Channel: AL82 Retrogaming Longplays · 2013 · Gaming

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Developed by Tony Ngo and published by Activision in 1984.

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Foreword: The game has no ending and simply loops around after level 5; C64Endings.co.uk confirmed that the game continues to loop after the level counter reaches 99. Therefore, I've played the 5 basic levels that cover all the music and enemy types.

I can't believe that anyone who owned a C64 has not played this, or if not played it then at least seen or heard about it. What amazes me is that this came out in 1984, which was so early in the C64's lifetime (released 1982).

The first thing you notice is the amazing tape-loader screen by Paul Docherty (Dokk) and  the game itself does not let you down when it finally loads.

The objective of the game, as the ranger of a nature park, is to collect all the litter lying around, be it on land or floating in the river. Along the way, you can use your yellow dinghy to rescue swimmers that get into difficulty and turtles that plop into the water.

Collecting litter and saving swimmers is hungry work, so you must keep the parkie's strength up by visiting the yellow ranger station for a snack to keep up his energy. On later levels there are pesky ants that run off with your food and you must knock them into the river to stop them.

The park is a perilous place and the parkie must avoid turtles and quicksand whilst on land and snake/eels whilst in his boat. You can throw some kind of repellent into the water that causes the snakes to submerge, but this costs a fair bit of energy, so use it sparingly.

If you hit a floating log with your boat then you'll be catapulted out and, most likely, into the river and lose a life.

The attention to detail that Tony Ngo put into this game really was quite impressive for the time. There's a degree of parallax scrolling present so the foreground moves by at a greater speed than the background while the ripples and wake effect added to the boat/river are great.

Of course, the music from the first level will stick in most people's heads for eternity as well.

A real classic!
#retrogaming

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