Bristles (video game)

Bristles is a video game written by Fernando Herrera for the Atari 8-bit family and published by the company he cofounded, First Star Software, in 1983. It was ported to the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Exidy's Max-A-Flex arcade system. In "Bristles", the player uses ladders and elevators to move Peter the Painter through a cutaway view of a house to paint all the walls.
Gameplay.
In "Bristles" the player controls Peter the Painter to paint walls of eight different houses within a time limit. To move between the different floors Peter can ride an elevator or climb a ladder. If he gets caught in an open elevator shaft, Peter is sent to the bottom of the building.
Dangerous objects that hinder Peter's task include "flying half pints" that knock him down and "dumb buckets" that steal Peter's brush. Later levels add "Brenda the Brat", who leaves handprints all over the freshly painted walls, and the "Bucket Chucker" who never stops chasing Peter. Fortunately, Brenda can be pacified with a candy cane and Bucket Chucker can be temporarily trapped in a paint mixer. 
The player starts with 10 brushes serving as lives and additional two brushes are added after finishing the paint job on every level.
Music.
"Bristles" soundtrack uses arrangements of different pieces from Tchaikovsky's . The main theme is "II. Danses caractéristiques - a. Marche". A soundtrack can also be described as one of the first examples of adaptive music. For example: when the player is knocked down, the game will react with a IIc piece: "Russian Dance", or, when Brenda is ruining freshly painted walls, piece IIe "Chinese Dance" will be played.
Reception.
In a review for "Antic" in 1984, George Adamson wrote: "The game's action is fast and furious. It doesn't get faster in higher levels, though. Instead, "Bristles" offers more novel challenges". "Video Games" magazine wrote, "As excellent and colorful as the visuals are, the melodies throughout this contest are the real show stoppers."
In a 1985 "ANALOG Computing" review of reduced price games, Andy Eddy cautioned, "Many users will find "Bristles" too difficult and demanding, as it's a very hard game to master."
Legacy.
In 2004, an authorized modification of the Atari 8-bit computer version was released as an Atari 5200 cartridge.