About Gobstopper Gobbler
Gobstopper Gobbler is a maze game from Wonka.com, released in 2000. You steer a Gobstopper around the maze eating bottlecaps while the Wangdoodles try to catch you.
The letters of WONKA are hidden under the bottlecaps. Find all five, then reach the WONKA goal to clear the maze. Shock Tarts give you a few seconds of super powers, Runts are worth bonus points, and clearing every bottlecap earns a bonus too.
Browsers can no longer play the original Shockwave movie, so this page runs a rebuild of it: the game's own Lingo scripts, translated to run in your browser, with its original artwork and sounds.
It began as a promotional game for the Wonka.com website. It is a Macromedia Director 7 movie, version 1.0, and it has 17 mazes.
How to play
- Steer the Gobstopper along the maze paths and eat every bottlecap. Press the next direction a moment early at a junction and the game holds the turn for you.
- Five of the bottlecaps hide the letters W, O, N, K and A. Collect all five and the finish line at the exit opens. Walk into it to clear the maze.
- Touch a Wangdoodle and you lose a life. The game has four kinds of pest, and they track where you go, so keep moving.
- Shock Tarts give you a few seconds of super powers. Runts appear for a short time, travel a route through the maze and score when you touch them, then blink out if you ignore them.
- The mazes have conveyor belts that carry you, gates that open and close, and teleporters that move you across the maze. Teleporters appear in most of the 17 mazes.
- After each maze a bonus screen adds up your bonus. Press any key, or wait, and the next maze loads. You earn an extra life at 10,000 points. When the last life goes, the Game Over screen plays and a click returns you to the title.
- The Instructions button on the title screen opens three pages. They include short animations of the runts, the pests and the teleporters.
Controls
- Arrow keys or W A S D: steer the Gobstopper
- I, J, K and M: the original game's own movement keys
- Mouse: the Start, Instructions, Restart and Quit buttons
- P or Esc: pause
On a touch screen, arrow buttons appear under the game.
How this version was made
The original game is a Macromedia Director 7 movie from 2000. Director's Shockwave plug-in no longer runs in current browsers, so this site rebuilds the movie rather than emulating the plug-in.
The movie's Lingo scripts, the language the game was programmed in, were translated mechanically into code a browser runs. A small player draws the original 450 by 350 pixel stage using the game's own artwork and its 26 sounds. An automatic player has cleared all 17 mazes, which is how we check that the rules still work.
The game files come from a copy of the game kept at the Internet Archive, in its Tucows software library.
Questions
Do I need Shockwave or a download?
No. The game runs in your browser from one click on Play. There is nothing to install, no plug-in and no file to pick.
Does it cost anything?
No. It is free to play and needs no account.
Is this the original game?
It is a rebuild of the 2000 Shockwave game from its original scripts, artwork and sounds. If something plays differently from the original, tell us with the Feedback button.
How many levels are there?
The original has 17 mazes, and all 17 are here.
What are the Wangdoodles?
They are the pests that chase the Gobstopper. There are four kinds, and they track where you go.
Can I play on a phone?
Yes. On a touch screen, arrow buttons appear under the game, and the game fits phone-sized screens.
Where does the game come from?
From a copy of the original kept at the Internet Archive. The Credits and rights section below links to it.
Credits and rights
Original game: Gobstopper Gobbler, 2000, from Wonka.com.
This version: a rebuild of the original Shockwave movie, its Lingo scripts translated to run in the browser, with the game's own artwork and sounds.
The Wonka name, the candy names and the game's artwork belong to their owners. The game is hosted here free under this site's removal policy: the rightsholder keeps all rights and can ask for it to be changed or removed.
Rebuilt from the copy kept in the Internet Archive's Tucows collection. Attribution and rights information ↗ · Ask for a change or removal ↗