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Anteater
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Name:
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Anteater |
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| Company: |
Mattel |
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Model #:
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N/A |
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Programmers:
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Stephen Tatsumi (Program), Joe King (Graphics), &
Patricia Lewis Du Long (Sound/Music)
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| Year: |
1983 |
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Released?
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No
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Notes:
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Displayed for the first
time at CGE 99 |
Based off the Stern coin-op of the same name, Anteater is an action/strategy
game in which you must guide an anteater's tongue through a underground
maze trying to eat all the dots while avoiding other deadly insects. Even
though this game stars an anteater, you really only control his tongue
as you weave it around the maze. Unfortunately for you only the
tip of your tongue is deadly to ants, so you need to watch out and make
sure nothing comes into contact with the rest of your tongue. Although
your tongue is quite flexible, you unable to back it up once you start
down a tunnel (you ain't got no reverse!). Thankfully you can retract
you tongue in case of an emergency, by pressing the fire button.

Although ants are mostly harmless and can be gobbled for bonus points
(your goal is still to clear all the dots however), there are two other
insects which must be dealt with in special ways. The worm is deadly
if approached from the front, however you can safely nab him from behind
for extra points. The spider on the other hand is indestructible
and is truly your arch nemesis throughout the game. The spider comes
out at night and will start to slowly travel down your tongue, if he hits
the tip it's game over! The only way to destroy the spider is to
eat a queen ant which will wipe out all the enemies on the board. However
queen ants are located deep within the anthill so catching one is no easy
task.

Anteater is an interesting and highly addictive game, but
oddly enough was not snapped up by any of the major software publishing
houses (although Sierra On-Line and Datamost both released clones of this
game). Mattel apparently grabbed the rights for the 2600 version,
but for reasons unknown chose not to release it even though the game was
complete and had gone through quality assurance. Romox also released
a game called Anteater for the Atari 8-bit, TI-99/4a, and Vic-20, but
don't be fooled, this is a completely different (and rather poor) game
and is not related to the arcade game in anyway. The rom file for this
game exists, but has not been released (most likely due to copyright issues).
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