Unicycle

Unicycle! is a 1997 side-scrolling arcade game for the classic Mac OS by Brian Kendall, the developer behind The Demented Cartoon Movie. It pairs cheerful, very catchy chiptune music with straightforward, addictive gameplay that escalates into genuinely challenging later levels and a famously surreal bonus round.

Pedal, Hop, Survive

The hook is simple: keep a unicyclist upright and rolling forward across a side-scrolling obstacle course, timing hops over hazards and threading through level geometry that grows more punishing as the game advances. The control scheme is forgiving early on but rewards practice as the levels accelerate.

That Bonus Round

Unicycle! is best remembered for its psychedelic bonus stage, often described as something "the likes you might expect to see after dropping a tab," a brief, hallucinogenic palette-cycling interlude that mirrors the comedic visual sensibility Kendall would later refine in The Demented Cartoon Movie.

System Requirements

The published 68k binary targets System 7.0 through 7.6 and Mac OS 9, with the monitor required to be set to 256 colors. It runs cleanly under both SheepShaver and Basilisk II for modern preservation. Versions 1.3 and 2.0 are archived, alongside the soundtrack and unreleased materials from the never-completed Unicycle II.

Cult Status

Despite its tiny footprint, Unicycle! has held a fond place in classic-Mac shareware retrospectives, often cited as an example of a one-developer project that punched well above its weight on charm and music alone.