Radar Rat Race

A maze full of cheese, a hungry mouse, and cats that want to get you. Radar Rat Race is a brisk arcade game for the Commodore VIC-20 that takes the familiar maze-chase concept and spices it up with a cute but nerve-wracking race against the clock.

You control a mouse weaving through the maze, whose task is to collect all the pieces of cheese scattered across the corridors. The complications are the cats chasing you, plus the ticking clock. Besides the playfield itself, you also have a sort of radar that helps with orientation and tracking threats. The result is a hectic mix of collecting, dodging, and route planning, where you can't afford to lose a single second.

Radar Rat Race is one of the titles Commodore released for the VIC-20 in its early era, when it was trying to fill the game library as quickly as possible to attract owners into their homes. The game clearly draws on the popular maze-chase genre that ruled arcades and living rooms at the time, and translates it into a colorful, accessible form suitable for the whole family.

Accessibility and instant comprehensibility are exactly what characterize Radar Rat Race. It isn't a title that needs a manual; it's enough to understand that you collect cheese and run from cats, and the growing pace and the competition for the highest score take care of the rest.

In the context of the early VIC-20 library, it's a pleasant example of how proven arcade principles were transferred onto the first wave of affordable home computers, where every released game helped build the charm of the whole platform.

Why play: A brisk and accessible maze arcade about a mouse, cheese, and cats, an ideal light dose of nostalgia from the early VIC-20 era.