Adventures of the Pink Panther# AC9542

In the early 1980s, videogames were such a boom industry that even companies like Quaker Oats and 20th Century Fox tried to get in on the act. The videogame market crashed, however, and most of them got out fast. When Quaker Oats decided to close down its Atari 2600 division, U.S. Games, they sold the rights to Trail of the Pink Panther, a game in development, to North American Philips. Philips planned to release versions of the game for the Atari 2600 and ColecoVision under its Probe 2000 label. An Odyssey² version was announced as well.

Philips hyped the Pink Panther series at the 1983 Consumer Electronics Show, going so far as to put the Pink Panther on the cover of one of its brochures (pictured at right). Inside the brochure, the game was advertised:

The Pink Panther is up to his old tricks again in this hilarious action game! You control the Pink Panther as he sneaks and slinks his way through several screens, attempting to out maneuver The Inspector. If you successfully bypass the Inspector you face your final challenge: to dangle precariously from a swinging rope, steal the pink panther diamond and escape unnoticed. For one or more players.

Unfortunately, no Pink Panther games were released. Prototypes of the Atari 2600 version and ColecoVision version have been discovered, but so far nothing has surfaced to indicate whether or not the Odyssey² version ever existed. A Philips cartridge listing from the CES says that the Atari 2600 version was to be available in September 1983, the ColecoVision version in December. The Odyssey² version was just "To Be Announced," leading me to question whether work had even begun on the game. The existence of Odyssey² Pink Panther is therefore doubtful, but anything's possible.