Bert and the Snake

Bert and the Snake is a game of skill by William J. Piazza for the PC, dated 1983. The title screen signs the program as Bill Piazza and identifies version 1.0b. Bert moves across a pyramid of squares and changes their color by jumping onto them. A snake and falling objects complicate the route.

The DOS copy is in English and uses CGA graphics. The board occupies the center of a 320 by 200 pixel screen. The score and the round appear at the top. The Bert figures along the side show the remaining tries. The identifying image and the background of this game page come from the program's original title screen.

A pyramid crossed on the diagonal

The squares form steps. To move from one to another, you have to choose one of the four diagonals. Moving up and to the left uses 7, and up and to the right uses 8. To go down, you use 4 for the left and 5 for the right. These are the assignments shown in the Keyboard Set Up section of this copy.

The numbers can be pressed on the top row of the keyboard. In the game we tested, you start at the top with zero points. A jump with 4 changes the first square and adds ten points. The sequence 4, 5, 8 and 7 covers all four directions and returns to the top. The screenshots preserve the start and the result of forty points.

It is best to press one key at a time and wait for the jump to finish. The tilt of the board forces you to recognize the diagonals from the very first move. At the edge, a wrong direction can send Bert off the pyramid. Moving across the squares near the center lets you test the response before approaching the corners.

From the title screen to the game

Space lets you continue from the title and open the menu. There you will find the options for colors, instructions, joystick, keyboard setup and exit. Esc starts the game from that menu. Before the first round, a square is shown with its value in points, along with a message asking for Space to continue.

That second press of Space takes you to the board. The new game begins at Round 1. The zero-point label and the squares not yet visited let you recognize the start. Jumps must be made after that introduction. The gallery includes both screens so you can tell the round announcement from the active board.

During a game, Esc pauses the game. The message at the bottom asks for Space to resume. The program's own pause lets you stop and look at the board. The player also has its own pause button, in addition to the full-screen and restart controls.

The snake and the falling objects

The snake chases Bert around the pyramid. The falling objects descend from the top and can hit the characters. The instruction text included in the executable explains that they can also knock down the snake. The layout of the squares and the position of these hazards force you to change your planned route.

The game is organized in rounds. The program presents the value of the squares at the start of each one and shows the remaining tries at the side. To advance, you have to complete the color change of the board. In the first jumps it is easy to focus only on the score, although keeping a route back also matters when the snake appears.

Testing of this adaptation covers the start of a game and the four diagonal moves. The original keys have been preserved. You can check Keyboard Set Up from the menu to see them or change them. Shift and K opens that section with the keyboard in the tested session.

A small program with its own instructions

The ZIP in the collection contains a single file, bert.exe. The help, the options and the game's images are all part of the program. The download keeps that executable intact. To play in the browser, a DOS configuration and a launcher that runs it directly are added.

The gallery keeps the screenshot from the collection and adds the title, the menu, the round introduction and several images from the controlled game. The setup screen lets you check how the numbers correspond to each diagonal. The image used on the game page is an identifying screen from the program.