Anteater

Oberth wrote an Apple II version of his own game for Datamost using a different title.

• Title — Anteater • Developer — Stern Electronics • Publisher — Tago Electronics • Designer — Chris Oberth • Released — 1982 • Platforms — Arcade • Genre — Maze • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer

• Illustration — The anteater extending its tongue in a new level full of ant larvae (red dots) The player controls an anteater that elongates its tongue through a maze-like ant colony in search of ants. Only the tip of the tongue can eat an ant. If an ant touches any other part of the tongue, then the player loses a life. Pressing the second button quickly retracts the anteater's tongue. Worms can only be eaten from behind. Once the sun has traveled across the screen and night falls, a spider appears. The spider climbs down the anteater's tongue, taking a life if it reaches the tip. Eating queen ants at the bottommost part of the nest kills the spider, all ants (except queen ant), and all worms from the playfield. The objective is to eat all of the larvae before time runs out, clearing the screen. Each larva is worth 10 points. Each ant is worth 100 points, while eating a worm is worth 200. Queen ants are worth 1,000. After losing a life or finishing a level, a bonus of 10 points for each ant eaten is multiplied by the number of worms eaten (for example, eating 5 ants and 2 worms = 50 x 2 = 100).

The game was ported to the Atari 2600 by Mattel in 1983 but never published. No official ports were released but Datamost's Ardy The Aardvark (1983), which is almost identical, was written for the Apple II by Anteater creator Chris Oberth. That game was converted to the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit computers by Jay Ford.