Arcade Video game published 40 years ago: Frisky Tom © 1981 Nichibutsu [Nihon Bussan Company, Limited.]. You play the plumber Frisky Tom who is trying to get water from the top tank to a shower tank below. Mice interfere with your plans by stealing pipes blowing-up pipes and by biting Tom. If Tom fills enough water the shower tank, he advances to the next level. Depending upon how much water is in the tank, a woman in a bath tub will appear as an interlude between levels. The object of the game is to provide enough water for a shower by crawling along a network of plumbing pipes and picking up/replacing loose pieces. Various types of mice are the game's antagonists, trying to thwart Tom in different ways: knocking pipes loose to disrupt the water flow, jumping down to fall on him, or setting a bomb to blow up the entire plumbing arrangement. A Bandai Electronics VFD handheld version of Frisky Tom was released in 1982. A version for the Atari 5200 was programmed in 1983, but never published. Much later, ports of Frisky Tom were published for the Nintendo Game Boy (in 1995) then the PlayStation (in 2002). Frisky Tom was released in October 1981. Nichibutsu never released the old version in the U.S. for unknown reasons, although one could guess one of them. Perhaps it was the naked woman in the bath tub in which as you advanced in the game, bubbles would be washed away revealing her breasts?? Probably didn't go over too well with the U.S. arcade owners in the early 80's.
