About the Game
History
How to Play
Imitations
Links

Original Release
Arcade

Other Releases
Atari 2600

Picture Galleries
Coming Soon

Screenshot Galleries
Screen 1
Screen 2
Bonus Screen
Extra

Audio Clip Galleries
Intro
Screen 1
Screen 2
Got the Four Corners!
End of Screen
Bonus Screen
Bonus Get!
Game Over

How to Play Amidar

Two completely different casts of characters star in this game. First there is a gorilla, hungry for coconuts and being chased by primitive headhunters. Next there is a living paint roller, eager to claim territory infested with annoying pigs. Your job is to help the gorilla and the paint roller stay alive and complete their quests!

In every odd level, you control a gorilla, and your task is to gather all the coconuts on screen. You can only move on the lines, but you can gather coconuts in any pattern you choose. As you work, enemy headhunters move around the playfield in a pre-defined fashion. Most of them follow the rules of Amidakuji or "Amidar movement": starting at the top of the screen, they move steadily downward until they reach the bottom, and then move upward again. Every time a headhunter reaches a horizontal path, he takes it, and then continues upward or downward again. One of the headhunters, called the Tracer, patrols the outside of the playfield, counter-clockwise. If you take too long collecting coconuts, the Tracer break his pattern and come after you directly! The time you have before the Tracer comes after you is lesser in higher levels of the game.

Figuring out enemy patterns isn't your only defense. You can also force all enemies to jump, letting you walk safely under them. Jumps only last about a second, so you must time each jump carefully. You only get three jumps every level, so don't waste them.

When you collect the coconuts outlining the four corner "boxes" of the playfield, you are granted temporary invincibility. This is your chance to knock the headhunters off the lines for extra points! They'll be back soon after, but at least you can enjoy a few seconds of peaceful coconut collection in the meantime.

In the even levels, you control a paint roller. Now instead of collecting coconuts, you're painting lines. The rest of the game is fairly similar, with one big difference: You can only paint new lines using lines you've already painted, and you must paint complete boxes for those lines to stay painted. This means you can only paint new boxes using the lines of existing boxes. For this extra effort, you get additional bonus points for every box you paint. Instead of headhunters, you must content with pigs while painting. The pigs move the same way as the headhunters, with most of them using "Amidar movement" while the Tracer behaves differently.

In between each level is a bonus round. A pig is at the top of the screen and a bunch of bananas is at the bottom. The pig hops between the five vertical lines until you press the jump button, and then he starts travelling downward, using Amidar movement. If he reaches the bananas, you win extra bonus points!

After the bonus round it's back to helping gorillas and paint rollers. As the levels progress, your enemies become faster and more numorous, and the Tracers become even more aggressive. How long can you survive? Good luck!