AMIDAR
Manufacturer: Stern
Licensed by: Konami
Year: 1982
Personal hiscore - 172,000

Another of the many Pacman variants, Amidar is a three-stage game.

The first stage sees you as a monkey collecting the coconuts, avoiding the Amidars which move across the maze and the Tracer which moves round the outer edge of the maze. You must clear all the coconuts to advance to the next level.

The second stage has you controlling a paintbrush, again avoiding the Amidars which move across the maze and the Tracer which moves round the outer edge of the maze. You must paint the edges of the boxes to fill them in, drawing each box one at a time. This must be in an unbroken line and if you leave the box you are currently painting you have to go back to pick up your paint trail.

The final stage is an interim bonus level appearing between every other type of level, and you have to hit the jump button in the correct place to make your way down the screen and collect the bunch of bananas for 5,000 points.

You have a jump button which can be used 3 times on each level. This causes the Amidars and Tracer to jump in the air, alowing you to pass under them.

This game also has the equivalent of Pacman's power pills, where you can kill the pursuing Amidars and the Tracer. All you have to do is fill in the four corner boxes of the screen and for a short time you can run into the enemies to kill them for bonus points.

On later levels more Amidars are added to the maze.


Scoring:

Collecting a coconut or painting a segment: 10 points.

Filling in a box with the paintbrush: the score in the centre of the box - 100 to 700 points.

Killing the Amidars and Tracer after filling in the corner boxes: 100 points, 200 points, 400 points, 800 points, 1,600 points, etc. 3,200 is the maximum on later levels (only in the Japanese version).

Collecting the bonus banana on the interim level: 5,000 points.


Clones Supported

Japanese version - Worse attract mode and does not display the number of jumps left. Also higher scoring (20 points per coconut/segment).

Version running on Scramble hardware.

Amigo - bootleg.


Game Dipswitch options

oStarting lives can be set to 3, 4, 5 or 255(!) (default is 3)

oExtra lives can be set to 30,000 & 70,000 or 50,000 & 80,000 (default is 30,000 & 70,000)


Playing hints/tips

o The Tracer always follows the outside edge and is easy to avoid. Try to ensure it is within range when you complete the fourth corner box of the maze, making it easy to kill.

o The Amidars all have a set movement pattern, which is detailed by the "Amidar movement" on the title screen. They only move in four ways: a) up/right, b) up/left, c) down/right and d) down/left. They will follow their current pattern of movement (a, b, c or d) until they reach the edge of the maze when they move round the edge of the last box they contact and continue with their new pattern. eg Up/right to the top right of the maze, round the last box and then down/left to the bottom left corner. Mastering their pattern of movement is the key to success!

o If all Amidars are close to the bottom of the screen on the coconuts level, they will take a while to make it to the top. Use this time to clear as much of the top area as you can.

o Remember you have three jumps available on each level so make use of them to get yourself out of a tight corner. Two quick jumps if used in succession will easily give you enough time to get well clear of any danger.


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