DESCRIPTION

The Atari 5200 prototype of Frisky Tom appears to be complete and playable. In this unreleased home version of Nichibutsu's arcade sleeper hit, players guide Tom the plumber around a maze of pipes as he tries to repair broken sections to ensure that the flow of waters continues from the tank at the top of the screen to a bathtub at the bottom of the screen. Rats will try to stop Tom from completing his task, but he can knock them off the pipes (but needs to be careful not to fall off and plunge to his own demise). If the pipes are repaired in time, the bathtub fills and Tom gets to ogle the young lady for whom the bathwater is running.

The graphics are true to the arcade game, though the game's maze of plumbing is made quite a bit larger and clunkier, so the visual side of Frisky Tom may have been due for more work before release. There was other evidence of a licensing deal between Atari and Nichibutsu — namely the now highly-sought limited edition Crazy Climber cartridge for the Atari VCS. But given that Atari had sued Mystique, the makers of such "adult" VCS titles as Custer's Revenge, and keeping in mind that Frisky Tom's "goal" — to watch a woman taking a bath — was the tip of the iceberg for Nichibutsu (which markets adult-oriented arcade games in Japan). With this in mind there's no telling how long the agreement between the two companies would have lasted. ~ Earl Green, All Game Guide