''Anteater'' (''The Anteater'' in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

, ''Ameisenbär'' in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

) is an

arcade video game An arcade video game takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. Most arcade video games are coin-operated, housed in an ar ...

designed by Chris Oberth and released in 1982 by Tago Electronics. The player steers the tongue of the eponymous creature through a maze, retracting it when dangers approach. Though the arcade game was not a hit, it spawned a number of direct clones for home computers; Sierra's ''

Oils Well ''Oil's Well'' (a pun on "all's well") is a video game published by Sierra On-Line in 1983. The game was written for the Atari 8-bit family by Thomas J. Mitchell. ''Oil's Well'' is similar to the 1982 arcade game ''Anteater'', re-themed to be a ...

'' became better known than the original. Oberth wrote an

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-mold ...

version of his own game for Datamost using a different title.

Gameplay

left, Arcade gameplay The player controls an

anteater Anteater is a common name for the four extant mammal species of the suborder Vermilingua (meaning "worm tongue") commonly known for eating ants and termites. The individual species have other names in English and other languages. Together wi ...

that elongates its tongue through a maze-like

ant colony An ant colony is a population of a single ant species capable to maintain its complete lifecycle. Ant colonies are eusocial, communal, and efficiently organized and are very much like those found in other social Hymenoptera, though the var ...

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. Eating

queen ant A queen ant (formally known as a gyne) is an adult, reproducing female ant in an ant colony; generally she will be the mother of all the other ants in that colony. Some female ants, such as the ''Cataglyphis'', do not need to mate to produce off ...

s at the very bottom of the nest temporarily removes all ants and worms from the screen. 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. The object 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).

Music

Between levels, Anteater plays "

In the Hall of the Mountain King "In the Hall of the Mountain King" ( no, I Dovregubbens hall, , In the Dovre man's hall, link=no, italic=no) is a piece of orchestral music composed by Edvard Grieg in 1875 as incidental music for the sixth scene of act 2 in Henrik Ibsen's 1867 ...

". At the start of each level, the music played is a short fragment of ''Ranz des Vaches'', the third movement of ''

William Tell Overture The ''William Tell'' Overture is the overture to the opera ''William Tell'' (original French title ''Guillaume Tell''), whose music was composed by Gioachino Rossini. ''William Tell'' premiered in 1829 and was the last of Rossini's 39 operas, af ...

''.

Ports

The game was ported to the

Atari 2600 The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocess ...

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories and sells products in more ...

in 1983 but never published.''Anteater''
at Atari Protos No official ports were released but Datamost's ''Ardy The Aardvark'' (1983), which is almost identical, was written for the

by ''Anteater'' creator Chris Oberth. That game was converted to the Commodore 64 and

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE ...

by Jay Ford.

Reception

Legacy

Sierra's 1983 home clone, '' Oil's Well'', was re-themed to be about drilling for oil and was heavily promoted. It sparked its own clones: ''Pipeline Run'' for the C64 in 1990 and ''Oilmania'' for the Atari ST in 1991. Other clones of ''Anteater'' are Bug-Byte’s ''

Aardvark The aardvark ( ; ''Orycteropus afer'') is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa. It is the only living species of the order Tubulidentata, although other prehistoric species and genera of Tubulidentata are known. Unlike ...

'' (1986), ''Jack the Digger'' (1986) for the Atari 8-bit family, and

Blue Ribbon The blue ribbon is a symbol of high quality. The association comes from The Blue Riband, a prize awarded for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by passenger liners and, prior to that from Cordon Bleu, which referred to the blue ribbon wo ...

's '' Diamond Mine'' (1984) and ''Diamond Mine II'' (1985). The current arcade high score holder is Maria Blasucci.

References

External links

*{{KLOV game, id=6891, name=Anteater
''Anteater''
at Arcade History 1982 video games Stern video games Arcade video games Arcade-only video games Maze games Cancelled Atari 2600 games Fictional sloths and anteaters Video games about insects Video games developed in the United States Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games about ants