Pirate Mayhem won the 2004 Allegro Speedhack game programming competition. The yearly competition challenges entrants to write a game in just 72 hours. The 2004 edition of the competition required racing games with a relaxing theme, and multi-ligual support. Pirate Mayhem includes a very poorly done French translation of the in-game text to meet this last requirement.

The gameplay is simple yet fun. In order to pay the the ransom to get his gilfriend back, the pirate must try and steal a leprechaun's gold. Problem is, the leprechaun finds out, and you have to race him to it. The gameplay consists of the pirate jumping across clouds in a race with the leprechaun to get to the treasure first.

The controls are simple (only the arrow keys are used), but the arrangment of the clouds, and the placement of the power-up keeps you guessing.