Tooth Protectors
- Brand
- Johnson & Johnson
- Year
- 1983
- Objective
- Awareness
- Industry
- Other
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- In-Game
- Agency
- DSD/Camelot
- Added
- October 2026
- 1
The player learns about the game through J&J print and in-store advertising; since it is not sold at retail, they must mail in proof-of-purchase stamps from J&J dental care products to receive the cartridge, which arrives in a plain foam sleeve with an instruction booklet rather than retail packaging.
- 2
After loading the cartridge on an Atari 2600, the player resets the console to start, and may use the Select switch beforehand to begin at a higher difficulty than the default starting level.
- 3
On screen, a smiling character called T.P. stands among a row of teeth holding a strand of dental floss, while an antagonist called Snack Attacker patrols overhead; the player moves T.P. left and right to catch falling snack pieces on the floss before they hit the teeth, catcher-style gameplay similar to Kaboom!.
- 4
Catching a piece scores 100 points, and knocking a caught piece into another falling piece scores 1,000, rewarding players who line up chain hits.
- 5
Missed pieces strike the teeth, causing visible decay after repeated hits and eventual tooth loss; pressing the fire button summons a cleanup crew (toothbrush, floss, and fluoride rinse) that restores all teeth to clean, a resource the player has only three of at a time, replenished every 50,000 points.
- 6
Snack Attacker can also dive down to try to carry off T.P., forcing the player to dodge, and surviving a wave earns a bonus based on how many teeth remain intact.
- 7
Levels are timed and grow progressively faster and more crowded with falling snacks, with fewer breaks between attacks.
- 8
The game ends after three teeth are destroyed or three T.P. characters are lost to Snack Attacker.
- 9
The instruction booklet closes with a section called "The Real Tooth Protectors," directly advertising actual J&J dental products such as floss, the Reach toothbrush, and Act fluoride rinse for purchase at drugstores.
Objective
Johnson & Johnson wanted its dental-care lineup — the then-new Reach toothbrush alongside its floss and Act fluoride rinse — in front of kids and families through the era's biggest home entertainment platform, not just an ad spot. The cartridge doubled as a purchase incentive: it was never sold in stores but mailed out in exchange for proof-of-purchase from J&J products, giving shoppers a reason to buy all three items at once.
Solution
The player guides T.P., a smiling tooth-protector character, back and forth along a row of teeth at the bottom of the screen, swatting away falling junk-food snacks dropped by the Snack Attacker patrolling above — a catch-and-block setup familiar from games like Kaboom!. Pressing the fire button calls in backup: a toothbrush, a length of floss, and a fluoride rinse sweep across the teeth in turn, clearing away any plaque that built up. Missed snacks let plaque pile up on the teeth, and the session ends once it overwhelms the row, with the brushing, flossing, and rinsing routine doubling as the game's core reward loop.
Can you still play it?
There's no official way to play Tooth Protectors today: the 1983 mail-in offer that distributed it in exchange for Johnson & Johnson dental-product proofs of purchase is long closed, and no re-release, download, or store page from the brand exists. The original Atari 2600 cartridge survives only as a rare collectible, but the ROM can be run in-browser through the Internet Archive's Console Living Room emulation collection.
