Space Panic 1983 By: Coleco

Overview:

Play this game! If for no other reason than to watch this goofy little guy get bit in the trousers by an alien or to see his head shrink and watch him keel over and throw his legs up in the air when his oxygen runs out, you must play this game. Then, after you've played for those reasons, you'll play just 'cause it's fun. As opposed to the name, this game doesn't really have a lot to do with space as far as game play is involved. You do have a limited supply of oxygen, but since that's the only thing that could make it space-related, they could have named it Miner Panic and the monsters would no longer be aliens but creatures that have been awoken in the depths of the earth. Ah well. The word space probably sold the game to many people.
The appearance of the game is simple. You have a screen with ladders on it and blobby little things in various shapes and colors that are moving about and are your enemies, the aliens. The music and sound effects are strange and buggy.

Directions:

The idea here is to drop the enemies through the floor by digging a hole and then, using yourself as bait, get them to fall in it. While they are in the hole struggling to get back out, you then fill it back in over top of them. I know, sounds low down and dirty, but it sure is funny to watch. It looks like he's banging them in the head with the shovel for all he's worth. I can just hear his panicked high-pitched screams each time. Try imagining that yourself. Believe me, it'll add to your enjoyment considerably.
You can't dig too close to a ladder. Kill more than one enemy at a time by dropping one down onto another. If you begin digging in a spot, you will not be able to walk over that place again until it is completely filled in again. So don't leave a bunch of unfinished holes around or you could end up trapped. If you walk over a complete hole you will fall down to the next floor without any damage to yourself. Enemies will chase you to a certain extent. They will follow you up or down ladders and can get you while you're on them.
There are a few different kinds of enemies. They all look different, move at different speeds, require different lengths of drops to kill them, and are worth different amounts of points. Some enemies require you to drop them through two or three holes at one time to kill them. At the beginning of the game, it shows you the point worth of each alien. If you fail to kill an alien who has fallen in a hole, it will climb back out, replacing the floor as it goes, and become a stronger alien that will require more to kill it.
Since you are in space, you are wearing a neato terrific blue space suit that holds your air. It's all very high tech. If you run out, you die. You start each stage with 2000 points of air and it decreases as you play.