Lock 'n' Chase (Intellivision) - The Intellivision's Take on Pac Man - Saturday Afternoon Gaming
16Running from the cops in 8-bits
I'm Gaming Jay: Youtube gamer, let's player, fan of retro games, and determined optimist... Normally I'm working my way through the book 1001 VIDEO GAMES YOU MUST PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE in my Let's Play 1001 Games series. This is a great book with a ton of classic retro games but it doesn't have everything and it's even missing some of my favorite video games. Hence, in Saturday Afternoon Gaming, screw it, I'm just going to play whatever I want!
In this series I will be playing some of the best retro games that don't appear in the 1001 VIDEO GAMES YOU MUST PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE book. So pull up a chair, slap on your headphones, and join me as babble aimlessly through some of my most favourite classic games! And hey, if you have ideas or suggestions feel free to leave them in the comments below. I'm always looking for more games to try! Today we play...
Lock 'n' Chase
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_%27n%27_Chase
Lock 'n' Chase (ロック・ン・チェイス) is a 1981 maze arcade game developed and published by Data East in Japan in 1981, and later published in North America by Taito. Lock 'n' Chase was Data East's response to Pac-Man. The game was licensed to Mattel who produced the Intellivision and Atari 2600 home console versions in 1982[1][2] and an Apple II version in January 1983.[1]
In the US, the game was part of Data East's DECO Cassette System. It was also licensed to Taito. This was the last Taito cabinet released in the "old style" cabinets.[citation needed] Taito's next arcade release, Qix, changed over to the familiar Taito cabinet style used until the mid-1980s.
The game's protagonist is a thief. The object of the game is to enter a maze and collect all the coins and, if possible, any other treasure that may appear. The thief must then exit the maze (a vault) without being apprehended by the Super D (policemen). The thief can close doorways within the maze in order to temporarily trap the Super D and allow him to keep his distance from them. Only two doors can be closed at a time. The Super D policemen are named Stiffy, Scaredy, Smarty, and Silly.[3]
Coins (depicted as dots) are worth 20 points each. In every level of Lock 'n' Chase, there exist money bags that appear in the center of the maze randomly. Money bags are worth 500, 1000, 2000, and up to 4000 points, respectively, for each time they appear.[4] Each level also has a specific treasure that appears near the center of the maze (much like the food items in Pac-Man). These treasures include the following items (listed respectively by level): top hat, crown, briefcase, and telephone. The first three of these treasures are worth 200 points, 300 points and 500 points, respectively. Additional treasures and their point values are revealed as the player completes successive levels.
A clone for the Atari 8-bit family was published in 1984 as Money Hungry.[5] In 1990, Data East produced an updated version of Lock 'n' Chase for the Nintendo Game Boy. The original Lock 'n' Chase is included in the Nintendo Wii release Data East Arcade Classics and a release on the PlayStation Network, both in 2010. The Game Boy version was released on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console on January 19, 2012. Telegames later re-published the game for the Atari 2600 after acquiring rights from Mattel. On June 16, 2018, Jason Vasiloff set a new world record of 136,140 points at the Funspot Family Fun Center in New Hampshire.