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Below, is an overview of maze video games developed until the year 2000.

Maze chase video games Often called "dot eat games", Maze chase are exemplified by Namco's Pac- Man (1980), where the goal is to clear a maze of dots while being pursued. Pac-Man spawned many sequels and clones. Other maze chases don't have dots and the goal is to clear the maze of the pursuers themselves (like in Pengo, Guzzler or Jungler).

● Heiankyo Alien – 1979 A video game created for Arcade, PC-88, Apple II, Game Boy, Super Famicom, Windows and Mobile phone. The player controls a Heian period police officer from an alien invasion by digging holes in the ground and filling them back up after an alien falls inside. The player scores points for every alien trapped, and the quicker the hole is filled up after the alien falls in, the higher the number of points are scored. The aliens increase in number as the levels progress, and they can escape from holes after a certain period of time. There is a time limit for each level. The game also contains a two-player mode, where the players can either alternate turns or play on the same screen simultaneously. ● Pac-Man (or Puck Man) – 1980 A maze chase game developed and released for Arcade. The player controls the eponymous character through an enclosed maze. The objective of the game is to eat all of the dots placed in the maze while avoiding four colored ghosts — Blinky (red), Pinky (pink), Inky (cyan), and Clyde (orange) — that pursue him. When all of the dots are eaten, the player advances to the next level. If Pac- Man makes contact with a ghost, he will lose a life. The game increases in difficulty as the player progresses. Pac-Man was ported to a plethora of home video game systems and personal computers and become a series.

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 1 of 25 Pac-Man was a widespread critical and commercial success, and it has an enduring commercial and cultural legacy. The game is important and influential, and it is commonly listed as one of the greatest video games of all time. Pac-Man series was awarded eight times in Guinness World Records. ● Rally-X – 1980 A maze and driving video game developed for Arcade, MSX and Mobile phone. The player drives a blue car around a multi-directional, scrolling maze. The car automatically moves in whichever direction the joystick is pushed, but if it runs into a wall, it will turn and continue. In every round, ten flags are scattered around the maze. The player must collect all of them to clear the round and move on to the next round. Several red cars chase the blue one around the maze and contact with any of them results in losing a life when hit. The car has a limited amount of fuel which is consumed with time, though it is normally sufficient to last until all ten flags have been collected. When fuel runs out, the car moves very slowly and the smoke screen no longer works, so it very quickly falls victim to the red cars. There are also stationary rocks — randomly distributed throughout the maze — that the player avoid them so as not to be killed. On the third stage and every fourth stage after that, a bonus stage ("Challenging") will start – red car will not move. If a player hits a red car or a rock, the challenging stage ends but the player will not lose a life. Once the player has run out of lives, the game will be over. ● Frisky Tom – 1981 A maze videogame for Arcade, VFD and later for Nintendo Game Boy and PlayStation. The object of the game is to provide enough water for a shower by crawling along a network of plumbing pipes and picking up/replacing loose pieces. Various types of mice are the game's antagonists, trying to thwart Tom in different ways: knocking pipes loose to disrupt the water flow, jumping down to fall on him, or setting a bomb to blow up the entire plumbing arrangement.

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 2 of 25 ● Gobbler – 1981 A clone of Pac-Man for the Apple II. The player uses the arrow keys to move the character left and right, and the A and Z keys to move up or down. Each dot is worth five points, while pieces of fruit (cherries, an apple and a lime) are each worth 200. Consuming the white pellets makes the four ghosts vulnerable for a short time, during which they are colored green and can be eaten (earning 200 points for the first, 400 for the second, etc.). ● Jawbreaker – 1981 A Pac-Man clone-like programmed for Atari 8-bit, Apple II, Atari 2600 and Commodore 64. Technically different from Pac-Man and impeccably written, Jawbreaker was well received by critics : "is not only truly addictive, but also paced". A rough sketch of the 2600 game was used as the basis for new computer versions from programmers and, confusingly, sold as both Jawbreaker and Jawbreaker II — but not as successful as the original. ● Jungler – 1982 A maze game developed for Arcade (original) and Tomy Tutor, Arcadia 2001. Players control, in a blue maze, a white multi-segmented creature attempting to destroy similar enemy creatures by either shooting them or eating them. Inside the maze, are three enemy creatures similar to that of the player but colored in red, yellow, green. The object of the game is to eliminate the enemy creatures before one of them eliminates the player. When all three enemies are defeated, the player advances to the next maze. The player can shoot at the creatures, with each hit reducing the number of segments by one. As segments are removed, the creatures move faster, so harder to catch. Points are scored for both shooting the creatures and collecting fruits that appear in the maze at random locations. These fruits will add an extra segment to the player's creature.

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 3 of 25 ● Lady Bug – 1981 An insect-themed maze chase video game for Arcade, ColecoVision and Intellivision. The goal of Lady Bug is to eat all "flowers," hearts, and letters in the maze while avoiding other insects. The player is represented by a red, yellow, and green character resembling a ladybug while the enemy insects' appearance varies by level. The border of the maze acts as timer, with each circuit signaling the release of an enemy insect from the central area, up to (generally) a maximum of four. The speed of the circuit increases on stages 2 and 5. There are eight different enemy insects — a different insect is introduced on each of the first eight levels. Beginning on level 9, each level has four different enemies. Unlike Pac-Man, the player can alter the layout of the maze by shifting any of the twenty green gates. An enemy insect who dies returns to the central area. Once a vegetable is eaten, the central area will remain empty unless an enemy insect dies and is re-released, revealing a new vegetable. At each level, the maze will contain three letters. The secondary goal of the player is to complete the words SPECIAL and EXTRA. ● Lock 'n' Chase – 1981 A video game developed for Arcade, Atari 2600, Intellivision, Apple II. The game's protagonist is a thief. The object of the game is to enter a maze and collect all the coins and, if possible, any other treasure that may appear. The thief must then exit the maze (a vault) without being apprehended by four Super D (policemen). The thief can close doorways (only two at a time) within the maze in order to temporarily trap the Super D and allow him to keep his distance from them. Money bags and treasures appears in the center of the maze and their point values are revealed as the player completes successive levels. Lock 'n' Chase is one of several Data East games featured in the video game Heavy Burger.

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 4 of 25 ● Make Trax – 1981 A maze game for Arcade and Neo Geo Pocket Color. The player controls a paintbrush and must paint the entire layout in order to advance to the next stage. Two fish – one yellow, the other light-blue – emerge from separate aquariums to pursue the paintbrush around the board, and if either of the fish succeeds in making contact with the paintbrush, the player loses one of three lives. The player may use two "rollers" to attack the fish. The fish initially are dumb, but as time goes on they get "smarter" learning to avoid the roller. Killing fish scores bonus points. A third character may enter the maze and leave tracks that must be painted over in order for the board to be completed. The player score progressively increases as more boards are cleared. ● Mouse Trap – 1981 A maze game developed for Arcade, Atari 2600, ColecoVision and Intellivision. The player uses a four-position joystick to maneuver a mouse throughout a maze and eat pieces of cheese scattered along the paths. Six cats patrol the maze and chase the player, with two present at the outset and four more being released one at a time. The maze has three sets of color-coded doors, which the player can open or close by pressing the corresponding buttons in order to block the cats' approach. At times, a hawk will fly through the maze, trying to catch the player. At any given time, a bonus object is present in the maze and can be eaten for points, causing a more valuable object to appear elsewhere. It’s a Pac-Man game with different element to be cleared. ● K.C. Munchkin! – 1981 Cartridge number 38 in the official Philips line of games for the Philips Videopac (Philips Videopac – Europe and Magnavox Odyssey² – US). Munchkin plays much like Pac-Man, with the following key differences : - there are only 12 pills - the super-pills are called blinking munchies

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 5 of 25 - some of the mazes become invisible as soon as the player starts moving - the game has a programmable mode - the box where eaten ghosts regenerate rotates - player's character is called Munchkin and the ghosts are called munchers - there are three munchers rather than four ghosts - the game has fewer objects on the game board but renders them with more color and animation - when the Munchkin is killed by the munchers, the score resets itself back to zero. ● New Rally-X – 1981 A maze and driving game developed for Arcade, Xbox 360 and Mobile phone. The player controls a blue racing car and their goal is to collect all yellow flags (checkpoints) of the map before their fuel bar (which depletes itself slowly) runs out. Each round has ten flags, being those eight common and two special : a Lucky Checkpoint (that rewards the players with points according to their current fuel bar's level) and a Special Checkpoint that doubles the score of the others flags. The antagonists of the game are similar-looking red cars that chase the player and make them to lose a life by colliding with them. The player can defend themself by pressing the smoke screen button, making the red cars unable to move for a short period if they run over the smoke screens. Other obstacles are big but immovable rocks that also make the player lose a life by colliding with them. There are challenging rounds, in which the enemy cars only move themselves if the player runs out of fuel by taking too long to collect all flags. ● Radar Rat Race – 1981 A licensed clone of Namco's Rally-X game made for VIC20, MAX Machine and Commodore 64. The player guides a mouse through a large maze. The camera follows the mouse and shows only a small portion of the maze at any given time. The player is pursued by at least three rats. The goal is to eat all of the pieces of cheese, shown for the entire maze on a radar screen, without getting caught by a rat or bumping into a stationary cat. By pressing the joystick button, the mouse

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 6 of 25 can disperse a limited amount of magical dust (called "star screen") which confuses the rats for about five seconds. Once the round is complete, the game starts again, with more rats and faster play. The gameplay is accompanied by a frenetic, rhythmically altered melody which cycles endlessly. ● Round-Up – 1981 A maze video game released for Arcade. The object of the game is for the player to maneuver his white robot within a maze, capture a red character robot as they move about the maze, and race to the center to change the 9 white balls located there to red. The player may only change one white ball to red at a time after he has captured a red robot, and must evade 4 chaser monsters in the process. Bonus point may be earned when capturing the elusive 'red king' that appears on the screen. Capture him and you will momentarily immobilize the chasers. Play is over when the chasers have captured all of the player's robots. If the player is successful in changing all of the balls in the center to red, the pattern clears and then a new challenge is presented: a 3×3 or 4×4 tri-colored pattern will appear at the bottom of the screen and a slightly different tri- colored cube of corresponding size will appear at the center of the screen. ● Scarfman – 1981 A clone of Pac-Man written for TRS-80, TRS-80 Color Computer. The game presents a maze filled with dots and five symmetrically-placed power capsules, and the player- controlled Scarfman tries to eat the dots without being eaten by one of the monsters that randomly roams the maze. Unlike Pac-Man, there are five monsters instead of four.

● Taxman – 1981 A clone of Namco's Pac-Man written for Apple II.

Taxman is set in the land of Tanstaafl in which the citizens are in revolt and rioting in the streets, and the player passes through tax centers in each precinct to pacify the

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 7 of 25 rebels. ● Thief – 1981 A maze game similar to Pac-Man developed for Arcade. The player operates a car being pursued by several blue police cars, in a maze that is supposed to represent city streets. There are eight mazes in all, which change every level in a set order, then repeat starting with the ninth screen. The ninth through sixteenth levels are identical to the first through eighth, except the cars all move faster and the dollar signs (see next paragraph) don't last as long. After that, the game loops back to Level 9, even identifying it as such. Mazes can have up to three side tunnels that the cars can use to go from one side of the screen to the other, but a few have no tunnels at all. ● Treasure Island – 1981 A maze game released for the DECO Cassette System, Arcade, TI-99/4A. Game for one or two players, alternatively. In the game, you take the role of an island explorer who must get to the top of Treasure Island before it becomes completely submerged in water, and along the way avoid monsters, gorillas, poisonous skulls, and boulders while picking up scattered treasure for points. Your only line of defense is an unlimited supply of rocks which may be hurled at the monsters and gorillas that are on your tail. The game uses an interesting concept where the island constantly is sinking downward into the water while you try to make your way to the top. It's because of this vertical scrolling that the game becomes more challenging and interesting than a simple one-screen video game. You start out with 5 explorers, and in a matter of seconds the island will start to sink with your only hope for survival being to head for higher ground. However, getting to higher ground is not as easy as it sounds! This is because you can only move on the white paths that lead up and across the island - and sometimes these paths are blocked by enemies. But there are, of course, also the treasures. On your safari to the top of the island, there are ruby lamps and golden crowns scattered about randomly. you are not required to pick them up, but they will increase your score dramatically if you do.

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 8 of 25 Once you reach the 4th level, things get hard pretty quickly. ● Turtles – 1981 A video game developed for Arcade, Arcadia 2001, Adventure Vision, Odyssey², Casio PV-1000. The player is a turtle trying to bring baby turtles (called "kidturtles") to their homes while avoiding beetles. Scattered throughout the maze are boxes with question marks on them. When the player walks over a question mark, a baby turtle crawls onto the main turtle's back, a house will appear at a random location on the map, and the player will have to bring the baby turtle to its house while avoiding beetles. Other times, however, beetles will come out of the boxes, which the player will have to quickly run away from. The player's only offensive move is the ability to drop bombs (which behave more like mines) to temporarily stun the beetles. Additional bombs can be picked up in the middle of the maze. Each maze represents a floor of the building. After eight floors, there's a cutscene showing the baby turtles following their rescuer out of the building and gameplay begins again on the ground floor. The game was ported to an unusual set of home systems. ● Ms. Pac-Man – 1982 A maze game developed for Arcade, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari 8-bit, VIC-20, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, IBM PC, Apple II, TI99-4/A, Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy and Game Boy Color.

The gameplay is very similar to that of Pac-Man. The player earns points by eating pellets and avoiding monsters (contact with one causes Ms. Pac-Man to lose a life). Eating an energizer (or "power pellet") causes the monsters to turn blue, allowing them to be eaten for extra points. Bonus fruits can be eaten for increasing point values, twice per round. As the rounds increase, the speed increases and energizers generally lessen the duration of the monsters' vulnerability, eventually stopping altogether. There are many differences from the original Pac-Man : - the game has four mazes of different color schemes

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 9 of 25 - some mazes have two sets of warp tunnels - the monsters' behavioral patterns are different - instead of appearing in the center of the maze, the fruits bounce randomly around the maze - monster’s name is different - the three intermissions follow the developing relationship between the original Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man - the sound effects and music are all new. ● Alien – 1982 A maze video game for the Atari 2600. The player controls a member of the human crew pursued by three aliens in the hallways of a ship. The goal is to destroy the alien eggs laid in the hallways (like the dots in Pac-Man). The player is armed with a flamethrower which can temporarily immobilize the aliens. Additionally, "pulsars" (like the power pills in Pac-Man) occasionally appear which turn the tables, allowing the human to overpower the aliens. ● Dung Beetles – 1982 A maze video game developed for Apple II, Atari 8-bit, TRS-80 Color Computer and NEC PC-6001. The game concept and gameplay are based on Pac-Man, but features a much larger maze and a moving "magnifying rectangle" which makes it easier to see graphic detail of the main character and the opponents. This obscures a small area of the map near the main character, making short- to medium-range navigation more difficult. In addition, whenever the main character passes through a part of the maze, it leaves a trail of dung. The player can backtrack over his own trail (often necessary as the map can contain dead ends) creating false leads for his pursuers. Whenever the player is caught, the game plays a digitized voice saying, "We've Gotcha!" This is the only use of voice in the game. Softline called Tumblebugs' magnifying glass "an impressive programming feat" and concluded that it was "a solid game ... It could stand some more variety, but it certainly does not lack challenge".

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 10 of 25 ● Baby Pac-Man – 1982 A hybrid maze and pinball game released for Arcade. Play begins on the video screen, where the player controls Baby Pac-Man through a maze. Play mechanics are similar to Pac-Man in that the object is to navigate the maze while gobbling dots and avoiding ghosts. In contrast to earlier games in the series, Baby Pac-Man's maze starts with no energizers, which allow Baby Pac-Man to eat the ghosts. Instead, there are two vertical chutes at the bottom edge of the screen, which suspend video play and transfer the game to the pinball table when the player travels down either of them. ● CatChum – 1982 A text-only clone of Pac-Man written for the CP/M operating system Kapyro. The Pac-Man character is a letter C, which goes from upper to lower case intermittently (to simulate a chomping Pac-Man). The four ghosts are capital As (which turn to lowercase Ms when the CatChum Pac-Man chomps a power-pellet), and the "fruits" are represented by dollar signs. There is no sound. Instead, flashing text messages appear every now and then saying things like "Get Set!", "Get Ready!" or "Go for it!" ● Devil Fish – 1982 A maze game released for Arcade. The player uses a four-position joystick to maneuver a dog through a maze and avoid several wandering squid. The maze is filled with gates of varying sizes that slow the player's movement while passing through them. The player must pick up fish as they appear, then press a button to drop them and lure the squid toward the gates. Tunnels allow the player to move from the left side to the right and vice versa; some tunnels are permanently open, while others have barriers that periodically open and close. When a squid eats a fish, it increases in size. If the player destroys it, a small cabin appears near the center of the maze. The player must then touch this cabin, causing it to disappear and revealing a portion of a picture in the large center square. Once the entire picture is revealed, the player moves on

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 11 of 25 to the next level. ● Horace Series – 1982 A video game series created for ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Dragon 32/64, Timex Sinclair 2068. The series comprises : - Hungry Horace - Horace Goes Skiing - Horace and the Spiders - Horace to the Rescue - Horace in the Mystic Woods - Horace Goes To The Tower. ● Money Munchers – 1982 An Apple II maze game. In Money Munchers, the player guides a small figure through a randomly generated maze, picking up the dollar signs and avoiding the deadly "Money Munchers": creatures that attempt devour the money before you can collect it. The goal is to clear each level of money to advance to the next. The second level adds deadly spiders, while the third adds snakes. ● Munch Man – 1982 A video game written for the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A home computer and published as a cartridge. The player controls the Munch Man using either the keyboard or joystick. Like Pac-Man, the goal of a level is to visit every part of the maze, but instead of eating dots the player fills the maze with a chain pattern. Four Hoonos (the equivalent of Pac-Man ghosts) attempt to thwart Munch Man's efforts to complete his mission. However, Munch Man always has his "Energizer" (the equivalent of a Pac-Man power pill) which gives Munch Man the ability to devour the Hoonos. The game ends when the player's lives are depleted. In level 20, 40, and 60, the maze is invisible and there are no chains. Instead, Munch Man must eat all the TI logos in the invisible maze. This gives the odd effect of showcasing the maze at first, but slowly hiding the maze as the player removes the indications of the maze paths by eating the TI logos.

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 12 of 25 ● Pengo – 1982 An arcade game developed for Arcade (original), Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit and Game Gear. The player uses a four-position joystick and a single button to control Pengo, a penguin character. Pressing the button while pushing the joystick against an ice block will cause it to slide in that direction until it hits another block or a wall if space directly ahead of it is unoccupied by a block or wall. If that space is occupied, pressing the button will crush the block instead. The goal is to destroy every Sno-Bee on the board by one of three methods : - sliding ice blocks to crush them - crushing blocks that contain unhatched Sno-Bee eggs - running over them after stunning them at a wall. At the start of each round, a certain number of eggs hatch into Sno-Bees, while other blocks flash to indicate that they contain eggs. As the player destroys active Sno-Bees, new ones hatch from the eggs to replace them. Crushing multiple Sno-Bees with one block awards extra points. ● Preppie! I & II – 1982–1983 A video game written for the Atari 8-bit family. Preppie! is a sequel to Frogger. Walking changes the floor to a different color and the goal is to paint the entire maze. Revolving doors rotate when pushed, changing the shape of the maze. Radioactive frogs, golf carts and reel mowers from the first game are deadly to the touch. The joystick button activates a time- limited cloaking effect which allows the character to walk through enemies and also the revolving doors without activating them. Preppie! II replaces the country club setting with an abstract, overhead view maze. Some obstacles from the first game appear in the second. ● Serpentine – 1982 A video maze game written for Apple II, IBM PC, Atari 8- bit, VIC-20 and Commodore 64. The player controls (rides) a multi-segmented blue 'good' serpent in a maze with the objective of eating all computer-controlled 'evil' (red or orange or green) serpents. Eating the tail segments of serpents makes

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 13 of 25 them shorter and a red or orange serpent turns green when shorter than the player. Hitting a green serpent headfirst eliminates it, and causes the player's serpent to grow an additional segment. Hitting a red or orange serpent headfirst causes the player's serpent to die. A frog appears at random intervals and gives any serpent eating it an additional segment. Once all opponents have been eliminated, the player's serpent automatically returns to a protected area. As the game progresses, opposing serpents are faster and longer, increasing the difficulty and each advancing level the existing player’s serpent gets slower. If the player's serpent dies, the replacement regains its original speed, but loses any additional segments gained by the previous incarnation. One unique aspect of the game is how extra lives are gained. ● Snapper – 1982 A clone of the Namco arcade game Pac-Man programmed for BBC Micro and Acorn Electron. To distinguish it from Pac-Man, the player's character became a round yellow face with very short legs wearing a green cowboy hat and the ghosts became skinny humanoid monsters — the main difference in gameplay being the behaviour of the ghosts. ● Snack Attack I & II – 1982 A video game created for Apple II. The gameplay is very similar to those of Pac-Man. The player controls the Snacker, a small, white, fish-like character, moving through a maze in order to eat all the gumdrops scattered throughout. Meanwhile, the Gumdrop Guards, four enemies that resemble the ghosts in Pac- Man, patrol the maze in an attempt to catch the Snacker. Green and purple barriers can only be crossed by the Snacker and the Guards, respectively. By eating one of several magic stars in the maze, the Snacker gains a set of sharp teeth and can briefly eat the guards for bonus points, sending them back to their home base to regenerate. At times, a giant jack-o-lantern appears and can be eaten for bonus points. Once all the gumdrops have been cleared, the player begins the next

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 14 of 25 maze at a faster speed. The game cycles through three different mazes. The game cannot be paused, however, one of the three mazes contains a small safe area where the Guards cannot enter; the player can leave the Snacker there indefinitely. ● Super Pac-Man – 1982 A video game from the Pac-Man Series developed for Arcade, Commodore 64, IBM PC and Sord M5. Sound and gameplay mechanics were altered radically from the first two entries into the Pac-Man series — instead of eating dots, the player is required to eat keys in order to open doors, which open up sections of the maze that contain what in earlier games were known as "fruits". Once all the food is eaten, the player advances to the next level, in which the food is worth more points. In addition to the original power pellets which allow Pac- Man to eat the ghosts, two "Super" pellets are available and will turn Pac-Man into Super Pac-Man for a short time. When Super Pac-Man is about to revert to regular Pac- Man, he flashes white. The Super power can then be prolonged by eating a power pellet or super pellet, if available. Bonus levels appear at intervals. ● Alien's Return – 1983 A video game — also known as Col 'N', E.T. Go Home and Go Go Home Monster — released for the Atari 2600. An alien crashed on Earth and to get back to his planet he must find the four pieces of his spacecraft. Go into the several rooms and press the button. Hopefully, a piece of the ship will show on a corner of the screen. Pick it up and repeat the procedure until you can go back home. Beware of the guardians, as they would follow you to trap you. ● Bank Heist – 1983 A maze game written for the Atari 2600. Each level in Bank Heist is a maze-like city (similar to Pac- Man). The objective of the game is to rob as many banks as possible while avoiding the police. The player controls a car called the Getaway Car. The car has a limited amount of fuel, which can be refilled by changing cities. Robbing a bank will cause a cop car to

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 15 of 25 appear, as well as another bank. Up to three cars can be present in a city at a time. Cars can be destroyed by dropping dynamite out the tail pipe of the Getaway Car (however, dynamite can also destroy the Getaway Car). The player starts out with four spare cars (lives). Lives are lost by running out of fuel, being hit by dynamite, or hitting a cop car. If the player can rob nine banks in one city, an extra car is earned. The left and right difficulty switches alter how hard the game is. ● Crystals of Zong – 1983 A maze-chase game written for Commodore 64. Each level consists of nine single-screen rooms arranged in a 3×3 grid. At the centre of each room is a locked treasure area. The treasure areas in eight of the rooms contain different treasures and one of the rooms contains a ladder to the next level. The player's task is to navigate the maze-like corridors of the rooms to unlock the treasure areas and get the treasure. The player can descend to the next level via the ladder once they've unlocked it, collecting all the treasures is not necessary to proceed. Various monsters inhabit the rooms. The monsters start out slow and dim-witted, but become faster and smarter on later levels. Contact with a monster kills the player instantly. There is a time limit to each level in the form a torch health bar, which decreases slowly as time passes. It can be replenished by collecting the torch power up. ● Crystal Castles – 1983 A maze video game developed for Arcade (original), Apple II, Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Commodore 64, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC. Player control a heroes named Bentley. Crystal Castles has nine levels with four castles each, and a tenth level which features a single castle — the clearing of which ends the game. Each of the 37 trimetric- projected castles consists of a maze of hallways filled with gems and bonus objects and also includes stairs, elevators and tunnels that the player can use as shortcuts. The three-letter initials of the player with the highest score are

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 16 of 25 used to form the first level's castle structure. When all gems in a castle have been collected, a melody is played, and the player moves on to the next castle. Enemies can be avoided by use of the maze and its constructs, or by making Bentley jump over opponents with the jump button. At the beginning of every maze, gems are worth 1 point each — this value increases by 1 for every gem Bentley picks up. Crystal Castles contains two notable Easter eggs. ● Drelbs – 1983 A maze game written for Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64 and Apple II. The playfield is a maze of gates, similar to the Lady Bug arcade game, which can be rotated 90 degrees by walking into them. The player controls a walking eyeball called a Drelb, with the goal of flipping the gates so they create closed boxes. Pursuing the Drelb are square Trollaboars who can also use the gates, but can't seal them into boxes. There is an empty border on the outside the maze patrolled by screwhead tanks which shoot at the Drelb. Occasionally one of the boxes becomes a "Drelbish window to the dark corridor." This leads to a separate screen where the goal is to free — by touching — as many Drelbs as possible while avoiding Gorgolytes. Completing the dark corridor, or kissing a randomly appearing "mystery lady" awards a bonus based on the number of completed boxes. There are eight rounds, each named after a gemstone, and three difficulty levels: Novice, Tough, and Super. ● Felix and the Fruit Monsters – 1983 A video game written for Acorn Electron and BBC Micro. While using the same character as Felix in the Factory, the gameplay bears no relation to that platform game, instead taking the form of a maze game. The game is set out like a typical Pac-Man clone but plays very differently. The maze design is very similar with the four monsters emerging from a central cave and four power cells in the corners but there are no dots in the maze. There are pieces of fruit that float freely around the maze (except for the first level on the BBC Micro version where the fruit is

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 17 of 25 static). The object of the game is to stop the monsters eating all of the fruit until the timer (shown as a bar at the top of the screen) runs out. ● Getaway! – 1983 A crime-themed, multidirectional-scrolling maze game for the Atari 8-bit family. Getaway! takes place on multidirectional-scrolling map of a town, 35 screens in size, containing bridges, factories, neighborhoods, and an airport. The player leaves the hideout and drives around the city using up gasoline in the process. Pausing at a gas station refills the tank. Also in the maze are dollar signs (which give a little money when collected), armored vans (which give a lot of money and immediately alert the police) and three loot items. Completing a level requires collecting all three loot items, then the armored van, and then returning to the hideout. A level must be completed within one day/night cycle. The more money being carried, the more aggressive the three different police vehicles are. If the player is caught, any money carried at the time is lost. As the game progresses, police begin setting up roadblocks. Running a roadblock puts a hole in the gas tank, causing it to drain quickly until stopping at a gas station. ● Guzzler – 1983 A maze game developed for Arcade and SG-1000. Each level is a maze of varying openness. Monsters spawn from colorful fires that must be extinguished to complete the level. The character can attack with three blasts of liquid before becoming empty. With each blast of liquid, the character moves faster and gets closer to being an empty outline with pink shoes. When empty the character is a shell of a sprite, but can move more quickly. Liquid is replenished by drinking (guzzling) from puddles. Occasionally, an alcoholic beverage will appear in the center of the screen. If the player picks it up, liquid supply fills to maximum and the fires temporarily freeze. A coin-op preview in the Electronic Fun with Computers & Games 1983 wrote : "Of all the brand new [conversion] kit titles that we saw, probably the best is Centuri's Guzzler".

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 18 of 25 ● Hover Bovver – 1983 A maze game released for the Commodore 64 and Atari 8- bit family. The lawnmower is controlled with the joystick. Completion of a level requires to mowing every square of grass on the screen. The mower moves slowly at first, but accelerates rapidly if the joystick is held in a single direction, encouraging the player to optimise a route to include as many long, straight lines as possible. The player is pursued by "the neighbour" — an antagonist who always moves directly towards the player. If caught by the neighbour, the player loses a credit. As well as grass, the boards include blocking spaces (through which the mower cannot be moved) and flowers. Mowing flowers results in a second antagonist, the gardener. The player's only weapon is a dog. By hitting the fire button, the player can set the dog on the neighbour or gardener. The game had six sequels. ● Jr. Pac-Man – 1983 A maze game released for Arcade, Atari 2600, Commodore 64 and MS-DOS. It is based on Pac-Man and its derivatives, but written without the authorization of Namco. The gameplay of Jr. Pac-Man is very similar to that of its predecessors: The player controls the eponymous Jr. Pac- Man (who wears an animated propeller beanie), and scores points by eating all of the dots in the maze, while four ghosts chase him around the maze and attempt to kill him. ● Marvin's Maze – 1983 A maze game developed for Arcade. The player fight against Robonoids while trying to clear the maze of dots. There are two ways to finish each rack: eating up all the dots, or destroying a certain number of Robonoids (listed at the bottom of the screen). Two ways to destroy the Robonoids : - shoot them - remove the ground from under them at certain points of the maze (the 'Trick').

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 19 of 25 ● Monster Munch – 1983 A clone of Pac-Man programmed for Commodore 64. The player must guide the character of "Munchie" around the maze so that he eats all of the white dots. Munchie is pursued by monsters, which cause the character to be killed by a bolt of lightning, losing one of three lives. Eating a flashing power pill turns the monsters blue, during which time Munchie is able to eat them for bonus points. A question mark occasionally appears, which can be eaten for a mystery bonus. When all the dots are eaten, the player is presented with a more dangerous screen. ● Traxx – 1983 A maze game released for VIC-20 and ZX Spectrum. The gameplay is similar to Amidar, where the goal is to color all of the lines on a grid of equally-sized squares. Unlike Amidar, the sections of the grid are not captured when surrounded. The goal is purely to color all of the lines. The player moves along a rectangular grid painting all of its sections. The level ends when the entire grid has been painted. Various enemies also inhabit the grid and will try to kill the player. ● Devil World – 1984 A maze video game developed for NES and Famicom and later for Wii's Virtual Console. Devil World is a Pac-Man styled maze game in which player 1 controls Tamagon, a green dragon who decides to "attack the Devil's World", along with a red player 2 version of him. He navigates through a series of mazes patrolled by monsters and touches Crosses to power up and summon the ability to breathe fire and eat the dots in the maze. Without a cross, he is completely helpless and cannot complete the maze.

● Oh Shit! – 1984 A Pac-Man clone originally developed for ZX Spectrum, MSX and MSX2. The gameplay is identical to that of Pac-Man — noted as positive by reviewers. The ghosts in Oh Shit! are named Joey, Paul, Willy and Frankie.

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 20 of 25 ● Pirate Ship Higemaru – 1984 A maze video game originally released as a coin-operated arcade game and ported to Saturn, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PSP and Xbox. The player controls a Norwegian sailor by the name of Momotaro, who must use barrels to defeat the titular pirate crew. Momotaro has no attacks of his own. However, he has the ability to grab barrels, drums, large bags and various other items which he can throw (either horizontally or vertically) across the screen. Any pirate who stands in the way of a barrel or other object will be hurled off the screen. The game has no ending, but following the sixteenth level, the enemy patterns will reset to level one. ● I'm Sorry (or Gombe's I'm Sorry) – 1985 A political satire arcade game. The goal is for the greedy protagonist to collect all the gold bars while jumping over or defeating various enemies and obstacles in each maze-like level. Some of the enemies are Japanese and American stars. Obstacles include Gates, "fire" hydrants, safes (making it difficult to gain access to the gold), a rolling barrel, conveyor belts and a swimming pool with platforms ranging in size and strength. When the player collects all the gold in a given level, he must cash it into a building labeled "out". The player can only hold ten bars of gold at once. In later levels there are more than 10 bars of gold, so the player must make multiple deposits. There are 32 distinct levels. Once level 32 is completed, the player returns to level 16. ● 3D Dotty – 1987 A video game published for the Acorn Electron and BBC Micro home computers. The aim is to clear the dots on the three levels of each screen while avoiding the dreaded fungus. Any contact with the fungus will reduce energy, and a life is lost when the energy reaches zero. The fungus can be blocked, but only three blocks are permitted at any one time. On completing a screen, a bonus is added to the score,

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 21 of 25 proportional to the amount of energy remaining. There are eight different screens. After the eighth, the screens are repeated, but energy is reduced by two units upon contact with the fungus. Extra lives are awarded when the score reaches 5,000 and 10,000 points. There is a practice mode to allow the player to try any of the eight screens. ● Fantasy Zone Series – 1987–2012 A game developed for Arcade, Nintendo Entertainment System, MSX, Master System, PC Engine, Game Gear, Sharp X68000, Sega Saturn, Mobile phone and Nintendo Switch. The player controls a sentient spaceship named Opa-Opa who fights an enemy invasion in the titular group of planets. The game contains a number of features atypical of the traditional scrolling shooter. Opa-Opa is sometimes referred to as Sega's first mascot character. In the game, the player's ship is placed in a level with a number of bases to destroy. When all the bases are gone, the stage boss appears and must be defeated in order to move on to the next stage. There are eight stages, and in all of them, except the final one, the scroll is not fixed; the player can move either left or right, although the stage loops. The final level consists of a rematch against all of the previous bosses in succession before facing the final boss. Sequels : - Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa - Opa Opa - Galactic Protector - Space Fantasy Zone (1990, unreleased) - Fantasy Zone Gear: The Adventures of Opa-Opa Jr. - Super Fantasy Zone - Fantasy Zone (Redemption Game) - Medal de Fantasy Zone.

● Pac-Mania – 1987 An isometric maze game that was developed for Arcade, Archimedes, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX2, Nintendo Entertainment System, Master System, Sega Genesis, X68000, ZX Spectrum, Zeebo, Game Boy Advance, Windows and iOS.

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 22 of 25 The player controls Pac-Man as he must eat all of the dots while avoiding the colored ghosts that chase him in the maze. Eating large flashing "Power Pellets" will allow Pac- Man to eat the ghosts for bonus points. Pac-Mania gained a highly-positive critical reception for its uniqueness and gameplay. ● Fast Food (or Fast Food Dizzy) – 1989 Two slightly different arcade-style maze video games for Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Enterprise 64/128, Atari ST, Amiga and MS-DOS. The games are in the vein of Pac-Man featuring the video game character, Dizzy the anthropomorphic egg designed by Oliver Twins. In both games, Dizzy's aim in each maze is to gather all of the food (burgers, pizzas, etc.): some of the food also moves around the maze, either evading Dizzy or trying to meet him. Dizzy is pursued by four mushroom-like monsters. Power-ups and breakable walls add to the complexity of the game. ● Perplexity – 1990 A video game created for the Acorn Electron and BBC Micro. Perplexity is an isometric pseudo 3D maze game which graphically resembles the 1987 arcade game Pac-Mania (both the maze view and main characters) but while it shares some gameplay elements, it is much more calm and organized, playing experience emphasis being on puzzle-solving. There are sixteen mazes containing diamonds which must be collected and monsters to be avoided. The mazes are broken up with doors that must be opened by pushing keys (facing in the correct direction) into them. ● Trog – 1990 A maze game developed for Arcade, NES and MS-DOS. The game includes elements of Pac-Man — collect all items in a maze, eat a special item to turn the tables on pursuers — but supports up to four players at once. The player assumes the role of Rex, Bloop, Spike, or Gwen, small Theropod-like dinosaurs (with Styracosaurus-

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 23 of 25 like heads) in the land of "Og", home to the one-eyed cavemen known as the "Trog". Players must pick up all colored eggs lying around the map as the Trog cavemen wander around, attempting to eat them. The dinos can attack at any time with a punch that does not require a power-up. Power-ups — red flowers that increase the player's speed; ice cubes that freeze all on-screen Trogs; pineapples, which turn the character into a full-grown T-Rex that can temporarily eat his enemies and a firebrand which bestows a temporary fire breathing ability on the dinosaur — help the heroes to finish the level. The multiplayer mode consists of two to four dinos on the same screen competing to get all of his/her same-colored eggs first, and players can either attack or protect each other. There are three different levels of difficulty — Easy, Advanced and Expert — and 49 stages in all. Completing them all wins the game. ● Tinkle Pit – 1994 A maze arcade game running on Namco NA-1 hardware. Pitt (and Patti) must walk around the mazes, collecting items and avoiding enemies. They have the power to drop their Tinker Balls, which are both invulnerable to the enemies, and move around by pressing the Line button to create a line between them and their balls. There are also pieces of popcorn which Pitt and Patti can throw at the enemies. Killing all enemies in a maze advances the player to the next stage. ● Bubble Trouble – 1996 A maze game originally released for Mac OS 7 and later for Mac OS X. It is an interpretation of Sega's Pengo from 1982 with the penguin recast as a goldfish and the setting moved underwater. Bubbles appear all over the playing field and can be used to defeat the balls by launching them in their direction. However, the bubbles are just as deadly to the player if they are launched in his direction — but only certain enemies can launch bubbles.

Old Maze video games — 2/3 ● Page 24 of 25 There are four kinds of enemies in the game. Certain bubbles contain useful items, pushing them together can rack up points. Others contain dynamite, which will detonate either by igniting or by being pushed towards a target. Occasionally, a bonus bubble will float up across the screen, which can bestow powers of invisibility, or temporarily capture all enemies in static bubbles. A new version of the game titled Bubble Trouble X was released for Mac OS X in 2002. It includes a level editor. ● 3D Maze Man: Amazing Adventures – 1998 A video game for Microsoft Windows unofficially based on Namco's Pac-Man games and character. The main character (Maze Man) is a yellow sphere with a triangular mouth whose goal is to collect all the pellets in the current level and avoid the enemy ghosts. The 3D format enables 3D Maze Man to avoid the ghosts when not in "Party Time". Some levels include colored keys which unlock certain correspondingly colored bricks. Four other variants of 3D Maze Man also exist, all having the same gameplay style and engine, but different maze layouts and scenery.

Source: Wikipedia videogamehouse.net mobygames.com

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