Flip and Flop is an isometric action/maze/platform game designed by Jim Nangano and first published for Atari 8-bit computers by First Star Software in 1983.

Flip is a kangaroo who bounces on platforms the right way up, and Mitch (not ‘Flop‘) is a monkey who hangs from upside-down platforms. The levels alternate between right-way-up and upside-down.

The aim of the game is to flip over all the marked squares by moving over them and to avoid being caught by chasing enemies. Flip the kangaroo is chased by a zookeeper, and Mitch the monkey is chased by a net. If you’re caught, or fall off the edge of the maze, you lose a life.

The platforms are connected by ladders and also have flashing squares that are key to avoiding being caught. These flashing squares are ‘fly paper’ sticky traps that will delay the zookeeper (or net) if they step onto them, allowing you to move past them without being caught. Enemies don’t always willingly blunder onto the sticky traps, though, and sometimes require some coaxing to get them to mis-step. Beware, though: if you step onto them they’ll trap you temporarily too, making you much easier to catch, so if you’re running around them you have to be careful not to mis-step yourself.

Every five levels there’s a circus intermission (don’t ask me why), and the game – and the platforms – become increasingly more complex as you progress. Later levels require you to step on marked tiles twice to change them, which makes the game much more difficult.

Flip and Flop is quite a cool little game, considering its age, although I have to admit that it did make my eyes go funny after a while (at times my brain got confused as to whether I was playing a right-way-up or an upside-down level).

A C64 version of Flip and Flop was released the following year by Statesoft, and an unofficial 16-bit clone, called Clown-O-Mania, was released in 1989 by Starbyte.

More: Flip and Flop on Wikipedia