Chapter 10: Waddle We Do Now?

You put the last brick on the last igloo, and jump inside, huddling for warmth. “M-Melvin, that was h-horrible. Why d-do those animals h-hate us so much?”

Melvin shudders and shrugs, not that he has shoulders. “I d-dunno. But at l-least, we got p-plenty of fish to eat.”

You look around at all the fish in your igloo. “I think if we do much more of this, I’ll be hallucinating fish.”

“Ha, magic fish, that’s a good one,” says Melvin.

As you huddle in the igloo, trying to warm up out of the wind, suddenly you feel much warmer, but then hear a dripping sound and you realize it’s because the igloo is melting fast around you. As its walls melt away, you see the younger brother smiling, aiming the heat gun at you again.

Just then the older brother runs over and snatches it away from him. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING? That’s how we got in trouble in the first place!”

“Sorry,” says the younger brother, kicking a chunk of snow. “I couldn’t help myself.”

Melvin confronts them. “We built all your igloos. Now, tell us where the cave is.”

The younger brother looks at the older one in distress. The older brother looks at his feet.

Melvin is angry now. “DID YOU LIE TO US?”

“Whoa, whoa, no!” says the older brother. “I mean… WE don’t know where the cave is…”

The younger brother pipes up. “But our Dad does! He has a map!”

Melvin says, “Okay, great, we’ll just ask him,” and starts to head in that direction.

“No, no, no!” exclaims the older brother. “That’s no good… he’ll never tell you. He always says, one day, he’s going to go there, and hunt for diamonds.”

“Yeah,” says the little brother, “but Mom won’t let him because it’s too dangero…” The older brother claps a hand on his mouth again. “Too dank,” he finishes. “Dad might, uh, catch a cold.” He releases his brother, who seems to realize he should stay quiet now.

“Anyway,” the older one continues, “Dad would never give it to you. But if you borrowed it, he’d never know.”

You give him a skeptical look. “So… we’re going to rob your house?”

He shakes his head. “No… it’s in our treasure cave.”

“Your what?”

“Our treasure cave. Everyone up here keeps valuables in their treasure cave. That’s how we got the heat gun. We snuck into Dad’s treasure cave and took it.”

“So… why don’t you sneak back in there and get us the map?”

The boy looks around nervously. He whispers “It’s getting late. We’re already in big trouble from the igloos. But look, it’s easy. You just put on this penguin costume, hunt around inside ‘til you find the map, and you’re all set.” The little brother nods, holding up a tattered penguin suit.

“What? Why?” you ask.

“Why what?”

“WHY A PENGUIN COSTUME?” you shout.

The boy shushes you and keeps whispering. “Treasure caves are always guarded by Sno-bees. They kind of look like penguins, so you can fool them when you wear a penguin costume.”

It is getting dark out. The door to their house opens, and you can see the silhouette of their father framed in it. “Boys? Are those igloos all rebuilt?”

“Yes, Dad!” shouts the older brother. Then he whispers “Look, we gotta go. The cave is right over there.” He points to a nearby hillside. “Take the heat ray, you’ll need it to melt the ice blocks.” He hands it to you. “Oh! And don’t take any of the jewels – Dad will totally notice that.”

The little brother pipes up. “If you put three jewels in a row, though, it’ll stop those Sno-bees pretty good!” They turn to run off. The younger boy stops before running inside. “You are so good at building igloos, you deserve this. It’s my Frostbite Bailey patch.” He hands you a square blue patch that reads Frostbite Bailey’s Arctic Architects. He runs back to the house, calling, “It was fun playing with you, Player! I hope you find your cave!”

He goes in and closes the door, leaving you and Melvin alone in the gathering gloom. You shake your head, looking down at the penguin costume. “Just when I thought this day couldn’t get any stranger.”

Melvin laughs. “There’s stranger things than this in the Atariverse… you’ll see!” He starts to zip toward the cave. “Come on,” he says. “Our Queen needs a crown!”

You climb into the penguin costume, and start trudging after him, hefting the heat ray in your hand. “Well,” you say, “at least we’ll have this to stay warm.” You get to the mouth of the cave. It looks pretty dark inside.

“Okay,” says Melvin. “I’ll hunt around for the map, you deal with the, uh…”

“Sno-bees.”

“Right! You deal with the sno-bees, whatever they are. I’ll let you know when I find the map, and then we should be all set!” Melvin zips into the cave, and by the light of his glowing pixel, you can make out a bunch of large ice blocks, and some weird yellow penguin things. “Well,” you think, “here goes nothing!” as you charge in, heat ray pistol drawn.

Insert the Pengo cartridge into your Atari 2600. Set the left difficulty switch to a or b, your choice. Start on level 1. Play until you get a score of 50,000 points. Post a link to a video in the comments section of yourself completing the challenge.