Pac-Man but with more cops and robbers.
Thief is an arcade game developed and published by Pacific Novelty and first released in 1981. The game is a maze game similar to Pac-Man but with a cops and robbers theme.The player takes the role of a thief driving through city streets and stealing money (by running over dollar signs within the maze) all while avoiding police cars. Notably, the game uses an audio tape to play voices of police radio chatter as well as various sound effects during gameplay.
Tropes featured in the game:
- Endless Game: The game only ends when you lose all lives. After the eighth level, the levels begin to repeat.
- Made of Explodium: If the player's car touches a police car at any time, their car immediately explodes at the cost of a life. Collecting a golden dollar sign converts the police cars to explodium as well.
- Power-Up: The golden dollar signs power up the player's car if collected which allow it to destroy the police cars.
- Take That, Audience!: The game's voice track begins to taunt the player if the tape audio runs long enough.
- Turns Red: Police cars turn red after the player collects a golden dollar sign. In this state, they can be hit and blown up to earn extra points.
