Cat and Mouse

Cat and Mouse is history's first chase game — and Pac-Man's direct precursor. A maze overlay was applied to the screen. One player controlled the mouse (a square), the other the cat (another square), and the cat had to catch the mouse in the maze. It was asymmetric: the mouse was faster but the cat could predict movements. Ralph Baer described Cat and Mouse as his favorite Odyssey game, because it proved video games could be more than ball games — they could tell a predator-prey dynamic. Namco would perfect the concept eight years later with Pac-Man.