Arcade Video game published 43 years ago:

Joyful Road (c) 1983 SNK.

A weird driving game with a car that has long arms that reach out to grab a variety of edible items that appear along roadside.

The object is to drive safely down the road. Pick up enough fuel to stay alive while avoiding other vehicles that go by, grab as many bonus objects as possible including apples, cherries, bananas, acorns, live fish and money, and park your car in the garage. Driving while trying to pick up the goodies is difficult and you can crash very easily on the narrow roads. The pace of the game is frustrating because the hands move slowly while the car itself moves really fast, especially in the later rounds. If one of your hands hits a tree or any other foreign object in its quest for food, the car winces in pain for a few moments until it can use its hands again.

You can get a bonus for putting used-up food into garbage cans. Grabbing fish which leap out of surrounding rivers is a safe bet, but most other bonuses are placed, so you can crash if you try to grab them. The best strategy is only to go for the fuel, since the car is a big gas guzzler and you can also get a bonus for leftover fuel at the end of the drive.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID: A2001

Main CPU: Zilog Z80 (@ 3.75 Mhz) Sound CPU: Zilog Z80 (@ 3.75 Mhz) Sound Chips: (2x) General Instrument AY8910 (@ 1.5 Mhz)

Players: 2 Control: Double 8-way joysticks

- TRIVIA -

Released in January 1983.

This game is known in US as "Munch Mobile".

- PORTS -

* OTHERS: Texas Instruments TI-99/4A (1983)

Player layout in our catalog: 2P alt.

If you are exploring by feel rather than by title, jump from the tags above into the matching genre rooms, or return to the Arcade hall for the full wall.

Open Play on this page to start Joyful Road (Japan). Keyboard, USB/Bluetooth pads, and the on-screen touch gamepad all work inside the emulator bar. Save states and fullscreen live on that same bar so you can pause mid-session and resume later.

Joyful Road (Japan) is filed in our catalog as a 1983 release.

Player layout on this cabinet: 2P alt.

Genre tags on Classic Arcade Games: Driving.

Credit line lists SNK as developer.