Gorby no Pipeline Daisakusen

Gorby no Pipeline Daisakusen
Famicom version box art
Developer(s)	Compile
Publisher(s)	Tokuma Shoten
Platforms	Famicom MSX2 FM Towns
Release date(s)	(Family Computer) (MSX2)/ (FM Towns)
Genre(s)	Puzzle

Gorby's Pipeline Plan (Japanese: ゴルビーのパイプライン大作戦, Hepburn: Gorubī no Paipurain Daisakusen) is a puzzle video game developed by Compile for the MSX2, Famicom, and FM Towns. It was published by Tokuma Shoten in 1991.

With permission of the Soviet embassy, the game and its promotional materials feature the name and likeness of Mikhail Gorbachev, who was President of the Soviet Union at the time of the game's development and release.

In the game, the player assembles water pipe segments for a pipeline from Moscow to Tokyo in order to strengthen Japan–Soviet Union relations.

Gameplay

Gameplay (MSX2 version)

In this falling-block puzzle game, a small girl—wearing a Russian national costume of sarafan, kokoshnik, and valenki—pushes tiles representing segments of water pipe down a two-dimensional, vertical shaft; this shaft is the field of play. A second girl, also in national costume, waves semaphore flags to give the impression that she guides the placement of the tiles.

The player must quickly rotate and place the tiles to catch and conduct a continuously-flowing stream of water from pipes on one side of the shaft to the other. When the player successfully links an inflow pipe on one side of the shaft to an outflow pipe on the other side, a row of tiles disappears, and the player earns points. If the player routes the water to a dead end, the game adds a layer of pipe segments for the player to clear. If the accumulating pipe segments stack to the top of the shaft, the game ends. By clearing the requisite number of rows, the player proceeds to the next game level.

Music

The background music for each level is a rendition of a Russian classical music composition. Among the selections are "The Great Gate of Kiev" (final movement from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition suite (1874); "Swan's Theme" from Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake (1876); and "Flight of the Bumblebee", an interlude from Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan (1900).

See also

• Tetris (1984)
• Pipe Mania (1989)
• Ganbare Gorby! (1991), a Game Gear title that also features Gorbachev. It was published in Europe as Factory Panic and in South America as Crazy Company.

External links

• Gorby no Pipeline Daisakusen at MobyGamesTemplate:Accessdate
• Instruction manual (Family Computer) at Giant Bomb