Ludography
Tooth Protectors cover

1983 · Action

Tooth Protectors

Atari exclusive

In this game the player must prevent objects dropping from the top of the screen from reaching the bottom by positioning their character directly under the falling objects. The player's character is a small smiling face carrying a strand of dental floss above its head. They must prevent the snack squares from reaching the row of white teeth along the bottom of the screen; repeated hits by the snacks cause the teeth to blink and disappear from tooth decay.

Released
1983
Platforms
Atari 2600
Genres
Action
Developers
—
Publishers
Johnson & Johnson
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Side view
Themes
Action
Country
United States

About

Tooth Protectors is a video game for the Atari 2600 video game console. It is an early example of an advergame, released exclusively via mail order in 1983 by American company Johnson & Johnson.

According to the AtariAge database, it is now very rare and sought after by collectors.

Keywords

  • gravity
  • advergame
  • based on - brand

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The gameplay is similar to that of Activision's Kaboom!, in which the player must prevent objects dropping from the top of the screen from reaching the bottom by positioning their character directly under the falling objects. In Tooth Protectors, the objects are small "snack" squares dropped by the "Snack Attacker", a menacing-looking face that moves horizontally along the top of the screen. The player's character is a small smiling face carrying a strand of dental floss above its head. The player must prevent the snack squares from reaching the row of white teeth along the bottom of the screen; repeated hits by the snacks cause the teeth to blink and disappear from tooth decay.

Occasionally the Snack Attacker will dive from the top of the screen in an attempt to grab the player; the player loses a turn if the Snack Attacker succeeds. If teeth begin to decay, the player can press the joystick's fire button to call in the "Tooth Protectors": an orange toothbrush, green box of dental floss and purple dental rinse bottle move across the teeth, brushing, flossing and rinsing them.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Atari 260031 December 1983North America

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Collections1 collection

Platform libraries

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.