Super Pipeline was specifically written for the Commodore 64, but it plays like a classic arcade game from the golden age of arcades, complete with attract mode and intermissions between levels. And the gameplay isn't derivative of other games either!
You play as a foreman on a pipeline, making sure a certain amount of water makes it to the barrel below. Thwarting your progress are sewer bugs and lobsters that will knock you off the pipeline. Your other enemy is a small man who will drop "stop gaps" onto the pipeline causing the flow to stop. Who is this guy? Is he a sewer gnome?
Anyway, you can shoot the bugs and the lobsters (and you can even shoot the saboteur if you can get him while he's still on the purple ladder), but you can't directly repair the pipeline; that's where your worker comes in.
You can't control your worker, but you can lead him around if you get his attention. You can then take him to areas that need repair or just use him as a human shield against enemies. In a bit of morbid humor, you have an infinite supply of workers and there is no real penalty for killing them off. (I'm sure organized labor would have a field day with this.)
While you can clear boards pretty easily if you keep the saboteurs at bay before they wreck havoc, it's almost more fun when the levels get hectic and you have to figure out how to fix everything without getting knocked off.
The graphics are simple, but colorful and the music is upbeat and catchy. You can pick your difficulty level, number of lives and starting level before you begin. My only complaint is that after ten boards or so the game becomes very fast and difficult. If the difficulty ramped up smoother, I would recommend the game even higher. Even so, if you are a Commodore fan you really ought to give Super Pipeline a try.
2008 ben langberg, all rights reserved.