Mouse Trap

Mouse Trap is an action game originally released in arcades by Exidy in 1981 and later ported to several game consoles. The game is a maze game with similarities to Pac-Man; players control a mouse in a maze with the goal of eating all the bits of cheese while avoiding all of the cats.

Similar to Pac-Man, Mouse Trap takes place in a maze filled with dots (in this case representing bits of cheese). Players control the mouse attempting to eat all of the cheese. Once all the cheese is eaten, the game continues to the next, more difficult level. Instead of ghosts, there are several cats in the maze that are in constant pursuit; being caught by a cat causes the player to lose a life, and the game ends when no more lives remain. To help escape the cats, the mouse can temporarily turn into a dog and chase the cats. This requires the player to have a dog bone; initially, players begin with one bone and additional ones can be found in the corners of the maze. As with the power pellets in Pac-Man, the effect of the dog bones is temporary and catching a cat only removes it from the maze for a short time. In addition to the dog bones, there are numerous doors in the maze. The mouse is capable of moving the doors while the cats can not so they can be used to reconfigure parts of the maze walls in order to aid in escaping. On more advanced levels, a hawk sometimes tries to catch the mouse. Hawks can't fly over the maze walls and can be difficult to avoid. In the middle of the maze is an "IN" box; this can be used to hide from opponents, including the hawk.