Kool-Aid Man®

INTELLIVISION CARTRIDGE [Mattel Electronics #4675]

Release 1983

Characters used under license from General Foods Corporation

Design: Vladimir Hrycenko, Mark Kennedy

Program: Mark Kennedy

Graphics: Monique Lujan-Bakerink


Instructions Posted Here

PACKAGE DESCRIPTION

Two children are trapped in a haunted house. A pair of insatiable THIRSTIES roam around trying to catch them! Help the children avoid the dangerous THIRSTIES and collect all the makings for a batch of KOOL-AID soft drink mix. Hooray! KOOL-AID MAN comes to the rescue! From then on -- the THIRSTIES, plus PHANTOM FLAVORS get chased by KOOL-AID MAN!

• For one player against the computer.

• 13 skill levels, including a super-easy level for the very young!

• Two totally different game screens to figure out and master!


FUN FACT: "And please, no 'Jonestown' references," admonished manager Russ Haft (TRON Maze-A-Tron) upon announcing the contest for game ideas. He was trying to stem the inevitable suggestions that would revolve around the 1979 mass suicide via cyanide-laced-grape-Kool-Aid of Jim Jones and his religious followers in Guyana. Some people at Mattel feared that sick, juvenile jokes made by the programmers might get back to the Kool-Aid folks and screw up the deal. Of course, the only people who feared that were the people who actually knew us.

FUN FACT: Reportedly, General Foods was delighted with the games and the response to the special promotion, and expressed an interest in a Kool-Aid Man II project. But at the time (July, August, 1983) Mattel Electronics was dealing with a massive layoff and management restructuring, and Kool-Aid Man II apparently got lost in the shuffle.

FUN FACT: One magazine dubbed Kool-Aid Man as the "stupidest video game of 1983," adding "What's next, the Michelin Man game?"As a result, to this day when someone refers to Kool-Aid Man, Mark Kennedy corrects them with, "that's the AWARD-WINNING Kool-Aid Man!"