''Amidar'' is a
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
developed by
Konami
, is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company, video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machin ...
and released in arcades in 1981 by
Stern
The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...
.
The format is similar to that of ''
Pac-Man
originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...
'': 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. The game and its name have their roots in the Japanese lot drawing game
Amidakuji. The bonus level in Amidar is a nearly exact replication of an Amidakuji game and the way the enemies move conform to the Amidakuji rules; this is referred to in the
attract mode
This list includes terms used in video games and the video game industry, as well as slang used by players.
0–9
A
...
as "Amidar movement."
''Amidar'' was the first in the
grid capture sub-genre of maze games and was highly cloned in arcades and for home systems.
Gameplay
As in ''Pac-Man'', the player is opposed by enemies who 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
Apes (collectively Hominoidea ) are a clade of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and as well as Europe in prehistory), which together with its sister g ...
(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
pig
The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus ...
s (labeled "Cattle" and "Thief"). Each level is followed by a short
bonus stage
A bonus stage (also known as a bonus level, bonus round, or special stage) is a special level within a video game designed to reward the player or players, and typically allows the player to collect extra points or power-ups. Bonus stage eithe ...
.
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 in the even levels, bonus points are awarded (In odd-numbered 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 are given at 50,000 points, and per 80,000 scored up to 930,000; after that, no more lives.
Enemy movement
The enemies (and bonus stage pigs) in ''Amidar'' move
deterministic
Determinism is a philosophical view, where all events are determined completely by previously existing causes. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes overlapping motives and consi ...
ally; 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, when 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 beginning 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 difficulty by adding more complex game grids, adding more enemies, and reducing the delay before the Tracer begins pursuit, until eventually it gives chase after a single lap at the beginning of each stage.
Level differences
In the even-numbered levels where the player controls a paint roller, the roller cannot move too far from grid rectangles that have already been filled without running out of paint and having to return to completed parts of the map to refresh its supply. When this happens, any painted lines which are not part of a filled rectangle will vanish and must be painted again. In practical terms, this means that the player must build their completed squares around the starting point of the level (which always has a fresh supply of paint) and spread outwards, rather than completing squares in any part of the game board they please, as they can on the odd-numbered levels. This also makes filling the corner rectangles and becoming invincible more difficult.
Ports
''Amidar'' was ported by Parker Brothers to the
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocessor- ...
in 1982
and the Casio
PV-1000
The is a third-generation home video game console manufactured by Casio and released in Japan in 1983. It was discontinued less than a year after release.
History
The PV-1000 was released in October 1983. It was only released in Japan whe ...
console in 1983.
Gakken
is a Japanese publishing company founded in 1947 by Hideto Furuoka, which also produces educational toys. Their annual sales is reported at ¥ 90 billion ($789 million US).
Gakken publishes educational books and magazines and produces other ...
released a handheld version of ''Amidar'' in 1982. It was one of a series of three flip-top games with
VFD
VFD may refer to:
* Factory Workers' Union of Germany, (german: Verband der Fabrikarbeiter Deutschlands, link=no), a former trade union in Germany
* Vacuum fluorescent display, a display device on consumer electronics equipment
* Variable-freque ...
screen and magnifying
Fresnel lens
A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens developed by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788–1827) for use in lighthouses. It has been called "the invention that saved a million ships."
The design allows the c ...
.
Legacy
Numerous clones and spins on ''Amidar'' have been written. ''
Time Runner'' is an ''Amidar''-like game for the TRS-80, Atari 8-bit family, and C64. ''
Kid Grid
''Kid Grid'' is a grid capture game which borrows heavily from the 1981 arcade video game '' Amidar''. Written by Arti Haroutunian for the Atari 8-bit family, it was published by Tronix in 1982. A Commodore 64 port from the same programmer was ...
'' was published for the Atari 8-bit computers in 1982. Windmill Software produced ''Rollo and the Brush Brothers'' for IBM compatibles in 1983. ''
Spiderdroid
''Spiderdroid'' is a 1987 video game for the Atari 2600. It is a clone of ''Amidar'' (a more popular game that was in the arcades and also for the Atari 2600 in which this game is a hack of) with a more futuristic setting. The object of the game i ...
'' is a reskinning of the Atari 2600 version of ''Amidar'' published in 1987 by
Froggo Froggo Games was a video game company that published games for the Atari 2600 and Atari 7800.
History
Froggo Games incorporated in 1987 when the Atari 2600 and Atari 7800 were no longer popular systems, years after the release of the Nintendo Ent ...
. ''Omidar'' was published by Profiteam/M&T for the C64 in 1987.
The arcade game ''
Pepper II
''Pepper II'' is an arcade video game programmed by Exidy and published in 1982. Despite its name, there was no predecessor named ''Pepper'' or ''Pepper I.'' Its gameplay is similar to the game '' Amidar'' by Konami and Stern Electronics. Coleco p ...
'' has a grid spread across four screens, while the grid in ''
Triple Punch
''Triple Punch'' (also sold as ''Knock Out!!'') is a horizontally-scrolling grid capture game released in arcades by K.K. International (K.K.I.) in 1982. The goal is to color all of the lines on a grid while avoiding or punching pursuers. It wa ...
'' is wider than the screen and scrolls horizontally.
Competition
There are two ROM sets for ''Amidar'': a harder version distributed by Stern and an easier set created by Konami. According to
Twin Galaxies
Twin Galaxies is an organization and social media platform for people involved in the culture and activity of playing video games. It facilitates their interaction as well as their competition and recognizes their achievements.
Twin Galaxie ...
, Scott Karasek, of Racine, Wisconsin, USA, scored a world record 3,208,870 points on the Stern ROM set on June 22, 1982. On the Konami ROM set, Todd Lamb reached 19,225,030 points in Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA, on October 1, 1983.
References
External links
*{{KLOV game, id=6883
''Amidar''at the Arcade History database
1981 video games
Arcade video games
Atari 2600 games
Konami games
Maze games
Stern video games
Parker Brothers video games
Konami arcade games
Video games developed in Japan