[1] Like the original game, Pac-Man clones typically have the goal of clearing a maze of dots while eluding deadly adversaries.
[3] Lock 'n' Chase (1981) was developed and published by Data East in Japan and later in North America by Taito.
Mighty Mouth (1981) is a game by A-1 Machines that District Court Judge Warren Keith Urbom described as "for all practical purposes, identical to...Pac-Man"[4] Among the similarities cited were the color and shape of the player character and ghosts, the maze configurations, the sound effects, the paths of the characters in the attract mode and the paths of the characters in both the attract mode and a game where the player does not move.
The central character is the titular Thief in a getaway vehicle, while police officers in cars replace the ghost monsters.
Thief uses scripted radio communications between the officers, played from a cassette tape inside the arcade cabinet.
Instead of clearing a maze, the player fills it with "links" (in Munch Man parlance)—a change made by TI to avoid possible lawsuits.
Snack Attack (1982) is a clone for the Apple II written by Dan Illowsky and published by Datamost.
[12][13] The player's character became a round yellow face with very short legs wearing a green cowboy hat and the ghosts became skinny humanoid monsters.
[14] Vacuumania (1984) for MSX Pac-Man is a clone for the Xerox Alto, the first computer with a mouse-driven graphical user interface.