Amidar

Amidar is a 1981 Arcade Game by Konami. It's a cross between Pac-Man, Qix, and a Japanese lot-drawing game called Amidakuji. (Amidakuji has also shown up in Psycho Fox, Decap Attack and Super Monkey Ball 2.)

You play either an ape or a paint roller, depending on the level. You run around an Amidakuji board, a grid with regular vertical lines and irregular horizontal lines. You fill in areas of the screen, as in Qix, but the areas are predefined rectangles. Headhunters or pigs wander around, taking every turn as per Amidakuji rules, except for one called the Tracer which patrols the perimeter for a while and then chases you around. Fill in the corner rectangles, and the enemies become killable for a few moments, as in Pac-Man. In between levels is a Bonus Round where you make your way from the top of the screen to a bonus at the bottom, following Amidakuji rules.

Tropes used in Amidar include:

• Attract Mode
• Bonus Round
• Collision Damage
• Endless Game
• Escape Sequence: When the Tracer starts chasing you.
• Follow the Leader: Pepper and Pepper II (the latter got some recognition on the ColecoVision.)
• Game Level: Alternating between an ape being chased by headhunters, and a paint roller being chased by pigs.
• Game Over
• The Golden Age of Video Games
• Instant 180-Degree Turn
• Invincibily Power Up: Filling in the corner rectangles.
• No Plot, No Problem
• One-Hit-Point Wonder
• Palette Swap: Normal enemies and the Tracer.
• Puzzle Game
• Scoring Points
• Space-Filling Path: Q*bert style.
• Video Game Lives: Three.