A clone programmed by Carol Shaw of Activision, Happy Trails, was published for Intellivision before the official version was released.

Loco-Motion is an updated version of a sliding block puzzle game in which the player can move tiles horizontally or vertically within a rectangular frame that contains one empty square.

The player uses a joystick to slide a piece of the track into the vacant square and can use a button to accelerate the locomotive, but it is always in motion and cannot be stopped.

As the player moves the pieces of track around, the route the locomotive will take is highlighted in yellow up to any dead end.

If passengers are waiting there and the player picks them up before the countdown reaches zero, the remaining amount is added to the score as bonus points.

Activision's Happy Trails, with strikingly similar gameplay, was released prior to the Intellivision port of Loco-Motion.

Mouse Puzzle (1982) for the VTech CreatiVision, and Confuzion (1985) for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 are similar in design to Loco-Motion.

[7][8] Blodia aka Timeball was released in 1990 for NEC PC Engine, Sharp X68000 and Nintendo Game Boy.