MunchMan

MunchMan is an action game developed by Texas Instruments and released in 1982 for the TI-99/4 and TI-99/4A computers. It is essentially a clone of Pac-Man with a few variations. In the game players have the goal of guiding MunchMan through a maze to lay down chains while avoiding the dangerous "Hoonos" that are in pursuit.

As in Pac-Man, MunchMan consists of maze that takes up the entire screen. Initially, the maze is empty; to complete each level, players need to navigate the entire maze to fill it with a continuous chain. Once the entire maze has been linked, the level is complete and the game continues to the next, more difficult level.

Also in the maze are four Hoonos (analogous to Pac-Man's ghosts). The Hoonos begin in a box at the center of the screen and start chasing the player shortly after each turn begins. If one of the Hoonos catches the player, a life is lost and the game ends when players have no remaining lives. Each of the four Hoonos has a different intelligence level so they each will chase the player with different patterns and aggressiveness. In each corner of the maze is an energizer (shaped like a Texas Instruments logo). Eating one of the energizers temporarily makes the player invulnerable; during this time the Hoonos can be eaten as well. When one of the Hoonos is eaten, it will return to the box in the center of the screen for a short time.

MunchMan includes a total of 60 levels. For each of the first 20 levels the Hoonos have a different shape; starting with level 21, the pattern repeats. As the levels increase, the Hoonos become more difficult to avoid, the game increases in speed, and the length of time the player remains invulnerable after eating an energizer decreases.

As MunchMan moves around the maze, 10 points are earned for each piece of chain linked together. Additionally, 70 points are earned for eating one of the energizers. Eating Hoonos earns 100 points for the first Hoono, 200 points for the second, 400 points for the third, and 800 points for the fourth. For every 10,000 points scored players earn an extra MunchMan.