Blackman

The Namco cabinet, not a maze game that resembles it. The original 28 by 31 maze with the tunnel and the ghost house, 244 dots, and the level table as the arcade had it: how fast you move, how fast they move, how they crawl through the tunnel, when Blinky turns into Cruise Elroy, and how long an energizer lasts before the flashing starts.

The four ghosts are four different problems. Blinky chases you. Pinky aims four tiles ahead of you, including the bug that also shifts his target four to the left when you face up. Inky draws a line from Blinky through the tile in front of you and doubles it, so he is unpredictable in a way that depends on where Blinky is. Clyde chases until he gets within eight tiles and then loses his nerve and heads for his corner. Every few seconds the whole set switches between scattering to their corners and hunting, and they reverse when it happens.

Fruit at 70 and 170 dots, worth the real values up to the key at 5,000. Ghosts eaten on one energizer pay 200, 400, 800, 1,600. An extra life at 10,000. The three coffee breaks play after levels 2, 5 and 9, nail and torn sheet included, and Enter skips them if you have seen them enough.

Written for this site by PunkyBruiser. If something is broken, say so below.