Amidar

Amidar is a game developed by Konami and released in arcades in 1981 by Stern. The format is similar to Pac-Man: the player moves around a fixed rectilinear grid, attempting to visit every location on the board while avoiding enemies. When every location is visited, the player moves to the next level. The game is named after the Japanese lottery game Amidakuji. The bonus level in Amidar is a nearly exact replication of an Amidakuji game, and the way enemies move conforms to Amidakuji rules; this is referred to in the attract mode as "Amidar movement".

Amidar was the first game in the grid capture genre of maze games and was highly cloned in arcades and for home systems.

Like in Pac-Man, the player faces enemies that kill on contact. The enemies gradually increase in number as the player advances from one level to the next, and their speed also increases. On odd-numbered levels, the player controls an ape (in some versions labeled "Copier") and must collect coconuts while avoiding headhunters (labeled "Police" and "Thief"). On even-numbered levels, the player controls a paint roller (labeled "Rustler") and must paint over every spot on the board, avoiding pigs (labeled "Cattle" and "Thief"). Each level is followed by a short bonus stage.

Whenever a rectangular portion of the board is cleared (either by collecting all surrounding coconuts or painting all surrounding borders), the rectangle is colored in, and on even levels, bonus points are awarded (on odd levels, the player collects points for each coconut eaten). When the player clears all four corners of the board, they are briefly allowed to kill enemies by touching them (just like when Pac-Man uses a "power pellet"). Enemies killed this way fall to the bottom of the screen and revitalize after a few moments.

The game controls consist of a joystick and a single button labeled "Jump", which can be used up to three times, resetting after a level is cleared or when the player loses a life. Pressing the jump button does not cause the player to jump, but causes all enemies to jump, allowing the player to pass under them.

Extra lives are given at 50,000 points, and for 80,000 scored up to 930,000; after that, no more lives are awarded.

Konami

1981