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Quite a challenging game - with intermissions!

Graphics: 4 Sound: 4 Replay Value: 3 Notes: 1-player game only Screen Shots

Buzz Bombers is Mattel's variation on the Centipede theme, wherein you battle bees in your garden. It seems to me you'd want bees pollinating the flowers in your garden... In any case, when you kill a bee with a shot of spray from your spray can, it creates a honeycomb, which acts as an obstacle like the mushrooms in Centipede. The unique aspects are that if a bee gets trapped, it creates a beehive, and there is a hummingbird that eats the honeycombs and the beehives, giving you bonus points. The hummingbird becomes more of nuisance than anything else, as it tends to eat the honeycombs that are most helpful to you. The sound is pretty nice, using "The Flight of the Bumblebee" as the soundtrack. Turns out this game pushes your RF modulator pretty hard - many old Intellivision units exhibit interference when firing a shot from the spray can. The graphics are nice enough, and there are several intermissions. Although I haven't reached the third intermission lately, I do recall three intermissions:

1. After level 5: a swarm of bees chases a bear
2. After level 10: the swarm chases the bear, but then the "mama bear" chases the swarm
3. Later, you see the level 10 intermission, followed by a huge bee chasing the mama bear

The key to this game is to build up a nice bee-trapping layout, as when a bee builds a hive, you don't need to shoot it. Your spray can is limited to a small number of sprays - use it up, and you're down one turn. Also, if your garden hems you in, you lose a spray can. The Intellivision Lives site reports that Mattel attempted to market the game to the makers of Raid insecticides, but they declined the tie-in. Imagine that! Best Score: 339100 [Level 19]

A total of six Buzz Bombers box variants have been documented.

Image	Vendor	Part Number	Year	Origin	Description
	Mattel Electronics	4436-0910	1983	Singapore	Possibly initial version—gatefold box; plastic tray; really could use an upgrade of this one
	Mattel Electronics	4436-0210	1983		Standard box, but with '1 or 2 can play' blacked out by a marker; is it one of the infamous hand-modified boxes alluded to at the official site?
	Mattel Electronics	4436-0210	1983		Origin is not printed on box, but generic copyright info printed on back; opens on bottom flap—not a gatefold box; has barcode on back; erroneously states '1 or 2 can play.'
	Mattel Electronics	4436	1983		French-Canadian; trayless socket; no specific part number visible; no info on top or bottom flaps of box - instead, it's inside the box; the socket for the cartridge is offset to the bottom portion of the interior rather than centered, and is different from the 'trayless pocket'
	Intellivision Inc.	4436-0210	1983	Singapore	Standard Intellivision, Inc. box; bottom flap has full Mattel part number; retains '1 or 2 can play.' error
	Digiplay	N/A	None	Brazil	Digiplay logo on box; 'Av. Açaí' address on back; uses Activision-style composition; no part number or copyright apparent; TM Mattel on back; trayless pocket; manual and overlays in separate slots

A total of seven Buzz Bombers manual variants have been documented.

Image	Vendor	Part Number	Year	Origin	Description
	Mattel Electronics	4436-0920	1983	U.S.A.
	Mattel Electronics	4436-0920	1983	Hong Kong
	Mattel Electronics	4436-8920	1983	Canada	French-Canadian
	Mattel Electronics	4436-0920	1983	Italy	Italian version; instructions properly list FOR 1 PLAYER (in Italian, of course); light/dark blue rather than black/blue like English editions; special thanks to Intellivotion; found in French-Canadian style gatefold box–in Italy; is there another version with part number 4436-0131?
	Mattel Electronics	N/A	1983	U.S.A.	NOTE: no part number on front or back; found in box of PlayCable manuals (though many were standard manuals)—so the natural question is: was this a PlayCable manual?
	Intellivision Inc.	4436-0920	None	U.S.A.	Accordion-style folding
	Digiplay	N/A	None	Brazil	Digiplay edition; no part number or copyright apparent; submitted by Psycho Stormtrooper; image courtesy of Hankster; 'Av. Açaí address printed on back

A total of six Buzz Bombers overlay variants have been documented.

Image	Vendor	Part Number	Year	Origin	Description
	Mattel Electronics	4436-4289	1982	U.S.A.
	Intellivision Inc.	4436-4289	None		Copyright has been removed
	Digiplay	4436-4289	None		Copyright has been removed; these seem identical to Intellivision, Inc. version without copyright, though perhaps thinner
Image not available.	Digiplay	4436-4289	None		Localized version
	Intellivision Productions	N/A	None		Part of the standard 10 overlay set from the 2014 Intellivision Flashback; copyright information has been removed
	Blue Sky Rangers	N/A	2019		Reprint from Blue Sky Rangers in 2019

A total of six Buzz Bombers label variants have been documented.

Image	Vendor	Part Number	Year	Origin	Description
	Mattel Electronics	N/A	1982	U.S.A.	Origin lower left; © M.I. 1982 right of origin; ™ upper right; smaller label, rounded corners
	Mattel Electronics	N/A	1982	Singapore	Origin lower left; © M.I. 1982 right of origin; ™ upper right; smaller label, rounded corners
	Mattel Electronics	N/A	1982	Singapore	Origin lower left; © M.I. 1982 right of origin; ™ upper right; larger label, square corners
	Mattel Electronics	4436-0340	1982	U.S.A.	Odd black & white label with Mattel copyright; origin lower left; © M.I. 1982 right of origin; ™ upper right; large label, square corners; part number lower right
	Intellivision Inc.	N/A	1983	Singapore	Note the misspelling of the game name: BUZZ BOMBER; origin lower right; © I.I. 1983 to left of origin; ™ small, centered vertically on right edge; smaller label, rounded corners
	Digiplay	N/A	None		Digiplay edition; no origin; ™ upper right; red label; name not localized; submitted by Psycho Stormtrooper; image courtesy of Hankster

The strange version with the part number and other indications that it's from Mattel is of indeterminate origin. The print quality is high, and it's definitely old enough, judging by the paper. Is this an extremely well-made homemade sticker? The label isn't the standard size, but it does have the Mattel part number on it. Was this stock from when Intellivision, Inc. tried to avoid shipping games in boxes? Can anyone out there shed light on this?

	Title screen for Buzz Bombers.
	Similar to Centipede, when you hit a bee with the killer bug spray, it leaves behind something—in this case, a honeycomb. The faster 'killer bees' leave behind red ones. Eventually, the (mostly pesky) hummingbird will come to devour some of the honeycombs. Typically, they seem to be the most strategically placed ones. ;-)

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