About the Game
History
How to Play
Geneology
Imitations
Links

Original Release
Arcade

Other Releases
Apple II
Atari 2600
Atari 5200
Atari 8-Bits
Commodore 64
Commodore VIC-20
ColecoVision
TI-99/4A

Picture Galleries
Coming Soon

Screenshot Galleries
Title
The Jungle
The River
The Rock Field
The Rescue

Audio Clip Galleries
Intro
Game
End of Screen

One Game Becomes Three

In 1982, Taito released an arcade game named Jungle King. The main character was a vine-swinging, loin-cloth-wearing, damsel-rescuing jungle dweller with a very distinctive yell. Seem familiar? The estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs thought so, and they sued Taito for infringement of their copyright to Tarzan. Taito responded by turning Jungle King into Jungle Hunt, replacing the Tarzan look-alike with a British explorer, complete with a pith helmet and khaki shorts. The rest of the game remained the same, tasking our hero with navigating a jungle full of swinging vines, an alligator-infested river, a hillside of falling boulders, and finally a cannibal luncheon, all to rescue his fair maiden. The new, Tarzan-less game proved less likely to inspire lawsuits, and went on to become a respectable hit for the company that had unleashed Space Invaders on the world.

Taito wasn't quite through yet, however, and before the year was out, yet another clone of Jungle King was making the rounds, named Pirate Pete. This time a few more graphics were changed, with the jungle vines becoming ropes on a pirate ship, and the river of alligators becoming an ocean of sharks. The game again remained the same, making Pirate Pete the third game to use the code created for Jungle King. Of those three, Jungle Hunt remains the best known, thanks in part to Atari's conversions for several home computers and game consoles, from the Commodore 64 to their own Atari 2600.