Amidar

As in Pac-Man , the player is opposed by enemies who kill on contact. The enemies gradually expand in number as the player progresses 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 each spot of the board while 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 edges), the rectangle is colored in; on the even levels, bonus points are awarded while on the odd levels, the player collects points for each coconut eaten. When the player clears all 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"). Enemies killed in this way fall to the bottom of the screen and revitalise themselves 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 the player loses a life. Pressing the jump button does not cause the player to jump, but causes all the enemies to jump, enabling the player to walk under them. Extra lives can be earned at different point totals, depending on the set-up of the machine. Enemy movement 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 until they reach the top or bottom of the grid, where they will continue to move either left or right in the direction they are headed and then take the first vertical turn available to re-enter the game board. This ensures that, while the movement of the enemies can be predicted and avoided, there are no safe points on the grid in which the player can stay still for too long. Each level has one special enemy (the "Tracer", colored white) which, at the start of each stage, simply patrols around the perimeter of the gameboard in an anti-clockwise direction.

However, following a certain number of "laps", The Tracer will begin to relentlessly pursue the player by following the path their on-screen avatar takes. While the Tracer cannot deviate from following the player's exact route, it does not mimic any pauses the player makes, meaning that hesitations or backtracking will eventually allow the Tracer to catch up and kill the player. Later levels increase the difficulty by adding more complex game grids, having more enemies, and reducing the delay before the Tracer begins pursuit, until eventually it gives chase at the beginning of each stage.