Jawbreaker II

Last updated: January 9, 2026

Overview

Jawbreaker II is an arcade-style maze game developed by Chuck Bueche (credited as “Chuckles”) for On-Line Systems in 1982¹. Unlike the original Jawbreaker, which was a direct Pac-Man clone, Jawbreaker II featured an original maze design and gameplay mechanics to avoid potential copyright infringement issues¹. The game maintained the dental theme established in the first Jawbreaker, where players control a set of false teeth navigating through mazes while avoiding enemy “jawbreakers”².

The game was released across multiple platforms including Apple II, Atari 8-bit computers, Commodore 64, and TI-99/4A, with John M. Phillips handling the TI-99/4A conversion³. As part of Sierra’s early arcade-style catalog, Jawbreaker II represented the company’s continued efforts to create commercially viable alternatives to popular arcade games of the early 1980s¹.

Game Info

Developer: Chuck Bueche¹ Designer: Chuck Bueche, Dan Drew, Doug Whittaker, John Harris¹ Publisher: On-Line Systems¹ Platforms: Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari 2600, Commodore 64, VIC-20, TI-99/4A, MSX, Colecovision⁴ Release Year: 1982 Series: Jawbreaker Sierra Lineage: Core Sierra

Story Summary

Jawbreaker II maintains the candy store theme established in the original game. Players are invited to “think of the maze as a candy store” where they must “eat all the candies to get a teeth brushing and advance to the next, harder, level”⁵. The game’s manual describes the adventure as: “Evade the relentless Grinning Gobblers as they chase you through a maze of shifting walls and escape routes”³. Marketing materials emphasized that “A trip to the candy shop was never so exciting - nor so dangerous!”⁶

Gameplay

Interface and Controls

Jawbreaker II supports both joystick and keyboard controls, accommodating 1-2 players in hot seat multiplayer mode¹. Players can choose from 5 difficulty levels to customize their experience⁷. The game features a top-down perspective with fixed/flip-screen visual presentation¹.

Structure and Progression

The core objective requires players to collect all candies in each maze while avoiding the pursuing enemies. A new Jawbreaker (extra life) is earned for every 10,000 points scored⁷. The game progressively increases in difficulty as players advance through levels, with both player abilities and enemy challenge scaling appropriately⁸.

Puzzles and Mechanics

Unlike the original Jawbreaker’s static maze design copied from Pac-Man, Jawbreaker II features “a maze of shifting walls and escape routes,” providing a more dynamic gameplay experience³. The game incorporates a memorable death animation where “when hit by a Jawbreaker, all of its teeth fall out!” emphasizing the dental theme². The technical implementation includes full music tracks and four enemy animations in the complete version³.

Reception

Contemporary Reviews

Publication	Score	Notes
Computer Gaming World	Four stars	John Anderson praised graphics and sound quality, calling it “truly addictive”8
Softline Magazine	2nd Place	Second most popular Atari 8-bit program in 1983 poll, behind Star Raiders9
Atarimania	5.6/10	Described as “like a cross between Pacman and Turmoil”7
MyAbandonware	4.67/5	User rating from community reviews10

Modern Assessment

Modern retrospective reviews show mixed reception. MobyGames critics scored it between 40-70% across different platform versions¹¹. GameSpot user Sensei_Pong awarded it 7.5/10 in 2007, while other users were more critical¹². Lemon64 users gave it 6/10, with reviewers noting that “John Harris is a very smart game developer” and praising the “3D smiley faces” visual design¹¹. Some modern players recommend it as “good for the occasional, casual play” and “a variation on the Pacman style of play”¹⁰.

Development

Origins

Jawbreaker II emerged from the legal complications surrounding the original Jawbreaker’s close resemblance to Pac-Man. When Atari acquired the Pac-Man license, they began threatening lawsuits against clone developers². Ken Williams of Sierra expressed concern about this precedent, stating: “If this opens the door to other programmers ripping off my software, what happened here was a bad thing”⁸.

Production

The development team included Chuck Bueche as the primary developer, with contributions from Dan Drew, Doug Whittaker, and John Harris¹. Notably, according to John Harris, “the programmer had never seen the 2600 version of Jawbreaker,” leading to a completely different approach for the sequel¹³. Ken Williams provided design direction by drawing “a quick sketch that limited the game’s design”¹³.

Technical Achievements

The game was programmed in machine language for optimal performance on early 1980s hardware¹. File sizes varied significantly across platforms: Atari 8-bit (5 KB), Commodore 64 (9 KB), and Apple II (73 KB)¹. The TI-99/4A version was released as a “Solid State Software Command Module” with part number PHM 3194, requiring 48K memory¹⁴. The game featured chiptune music described as a version of “The Candy Man”⁹.

Legacy

Jawbreaker II received recognition in the industry, winning “Best Computer Action Game” at the 3rd annual Arkie Awards in 1982, with judges describing it as “a must for ‘Pac Man’ fans lucky enough to own an Atari 400 or 800 computer”⁸. The game was featured in Steven Levy’s influential 1984 book “Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution”⁹.

The Jawbreaker series represented Sierra’s successful navigation of early video game copyright challenges, establishing precedents for how clone games could be legally differentiated from their inspirations¹⁵. A later version, Jawbreaker IV, was also released, continuing the series¹. In 2014, the game saw renewed interest when it received second place in MSXdev’14, showing its enduring appeal to retro gaming communities¹⁶.

Downloads

Purchase / Digital Stores

• GOG Dreamlist - Community wishlist
• Available through various retro gaming collections

Download / Preservation

• MyAbandonware
• Internet Archive - Manual
• Internet Archive - Game Files

Series Continuity

• Previous: Jawbreaker
• Next: Jawbreaker IV

References

Footnotes

1. MobyGames - Jawbreaker II – - Developer and publisher information ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

2. Lemon64 – - Death animation description ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. 4APedia – - Platform conversion details ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

4. MobyGames Search Results – - Platform availability ↩

5. MobyGames - Jawbreaker – - Gameplay description ↩

6. Sierra Chest – - Marketing description ↩

7. Atarimania – - Difficulty level options ↩ ↩² ↩³

8. [Computer Gaming World via Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawbreaker_(video_game) – ) - Progressive difficulty description ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

9. Retro365 Blog – - Softline poll results ↩ ↩² ↩³

10. MyAbandonware – - User rating ↩ ↩²

11. MobyGames - Jawbreaker – - Critic scores ↩ ↩²

12. GameSpot – - User review scores ↩

13. Dadgum.com – - John Harris development account ↩ ↩²

14. eBay Listing – - TI-99/4A cartridge specifications ↩

15. Filfre.net – - Legal precedent discussion ↩

16. MSX.org – - MSXdev’14 award ↩