Mouser

Mouser for the IBM PCjr

Mouser is a top-down maze game developed by Gebellli Software and published by IBM for the IBM PCjr. Featuring a mixture of action and strategy, players take on the role of a farmer attempting to get rid of all of the mice; to do so, the walls of the maze need to be arranged to trap the mice allowing the cats to rid the farm of the menace.

The maze in Mouser consists of nine rooms (layed out in a 3x3 arrangement) with each room containing numerous walls that can be pushed either clockwise or counter-clockwise. Each room consists of an 8x4 grid of posts which the walls pivot around; pushing the wall will cause it to pivot unless something (such as a cat or mouse) is blocking it. If two walls are pushed into the same location, the color changes from blue to white; pushing a white wall will cause one of those two walls to move forward one space rather than pivot as usual. The goal is to eliminate all of the mice in the maze by trapping them so the cats will eat them. To trap a mouse, players need to move the walls until the mouse is completely closed in with no open spaces around it; when a mouse is finally trapped and players leave the screen, a cat will eat it and bonus points are awarded. In some rooms there is a piece of cheese; if a male mouse (indicated by a light red color) eats the cheese it will simply disappear and reappear elsewhere in the maze. If a female mouse (light magenta in color) eats the cheese, it will spawn another male mouse making the player's task more difficult.

Some of the rooms in Mouser are dark and the walls can't be seen; to help out a flashlight can be found which illuminates a small circle around the player revealing the walls. The mice are constantly on the move making it tricky to trap them; Additionally, players can't touch any of the mice or a life is lost. The mice move about randomly, but also may chase the player (female mice tend to be more aggressive in pursuing players). The game is also timed; if time runs out, players lose one of their lives. The game begins with three lives and ends when they are all lost.