Jawbreaker

Atari 8-bit version of Jawbreaker

Jawbreaker is a Pac-Man style game releases initially for Atari computers and shortly after the Apple II by On-Line Systems (later known as Sierra On-Line) in 1981. Gameplay is nearly identical to Pac-Man; the maze layout is almost the same as Pac-Man and is rotated 90° to better fit on the screen, and characters in the game have been updated from the famous yellow Pac-Man and ghosts into a chomping jaw and smiling faces. In the game players control the chomping jaw while navigating through the maze with the goal of eating all of the dots (candy) without being caught by the smiling faces that are in constant pursuit. Near the corners of the maze are larger dots which temporarily turn the smiley faces into frowning faces; while frowing, players can eat the faces as well; after a face is eaten or after a short period of time the frowning faces turn back to normal. When all dotes are eaten, the game repeats with increased difficulty. The game ends when all of their jaws are caught by the smiling faces.

Due to similarities with Pac-Man, On-Line Systems was sued by Atari (who held the licensing rights to Pac-Man); the case eventually settled and although without going to court. Although it was determined that Atari could copyright the characters but not the overall concept, On-Line Systems still kept the game off the market. Following the case On-Line Systems co-founder Ken Williams was worried about another company/author copying his own games in a similar fashion and believed he couldn't continue to grow his company by simply copying other ideas, and as such Jawbreaker was reintroduced as Jawbreaker II with completely different gameplay.