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Amidar
Amidar was an arcade game published in October 1981 by Stern.
Its basic format was similar to that of Pac-Man: the player moves around a fixed rectilinear lattice, attempting to visit each location on the board while avoiding the enemies. When each spot has been visited, the player moves to the next level. As in Pac-Man, the player is opposed by enemies who kill on contact. The enemies increase in number as the player advances from one level to the next, but do not increase in speed. Their speed is always matched exactly to that of the player.
On odd numbered levels, the player controls an ape, 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 each spot of the board while avoiding pigs (labeled Cattle and Thief). After each even level is a short bonus stage.
Whenever a rectangular portion of the board is cleared (either by collecting all surrounding coconuts, or painting all surrounding edges), the rectangle is colored in, and bonus points are awarded. This leads to some comparisons with the popular and influential Qix, although the similarities between these games are superficial at best.
When the player clears each of the four corners of the board, he is briefly empowered to kill the enemies by touching them (just as when Pac-Man uses a power pill). The game controls consist of a joystick and a single button labeled Jump, which can be used up to three times per level. Pressing the jump button does not cause the player to jump, but causes the enemies to jump, enabling the player to walk under them.
The enemies (and bonus stage pigs) in Amidar move deterministically; this is described in the game as 'Amidar movement.' Each normal-type enemy moves vertically from the top to the bottom of the screen, and then back to the top, and so on. While moving in a constant vertical direction, the enemy will take every horizontal turn available.
Each level has one special enemy (the Tracer, colored white) which, at the beginning of each stage, simply traces around the perimeter of the board in a counter-clockwise direction. However, following a certain number of"laps, the Tracer will begin to chase the player along their backtrail, making the gameplay much more frantic.