Popcorn

A paddle, a ball, and a pile of bricks: Popcorn uses that recipe to fill a CGA-graphics PC with rebounds. The play area takes up the left side; on the right, its character with glasses and the red lettering make the menu recognizable at a glance. The hard part comes when you try to place the paddle where the ball will land, without chasing it too late.

Christophe Lacaze and Frédérick Raynal released it in 1988 under the name LACRAL Software. The package documentation credits both, and the screen divides the tasks: programming by Lacaze and graphics by Raynal. Years later, Raynal explained to the CNC that Popcorn was born in his father's shop and that the project served to teach Lacaze programming.

Choosing the control before playing

The menu is in French and is operated with function keys. F3 selects mouse and F4 selects keyboard; F1 leads to the name entry: type one and press Enter. When JOUEUR 2 appears, leave the field empty and press Enter again to play solo. During the game, J moves the paddle left, K moves it right, and Space launches the ball. Don't mistake F2 for starting: that option is an automatic demo. F5 lets you define the keyboard and F8 changes the color palette.

The rebounds require looking ahead. Following the ball with the paddle while it is up leaves little time to correct when it comes down. It pays to wait near the expected landing zone and make short adjustments. If a game goes wrong, restarting lets you practice the opening with the same brick layout.

It also comes with an editor

The original archive keeps POPGEN.EXE, a screen editor, and the levels in .PPC files. The program for playing is POPCORN.EXE. They are different tools: opening the editor does not start a game. The download keeps the files of the collection, including the French documentation and the high-score table.

This game page corresponds to the RetroBat DOS edition. The image that serves as cover is the original title screen, identified as such, and not an invented commercial box. The gallery shows the look of the game. No later recreation is presented as if it were this 1988 executable.