Rattler Race (1991)

Very much a snake game, Rattler Race adds a few twists to the long-held conventions of the genre (those being: you guide a snake from a top-down perspective, always in forward motion; it eats its targets and grows in length, but dies should it collide with any obstacles): in addition to a competing snake foiling your routes, a ball bounces around the play-field, Pong-style, killing your snake should the ball ricochet against its head. The other standout qualities are largely cosmetic: periodically enemy movement "freezes", giving the player a period of free motion; the opposing snake will also "eat" your targets (here "apples" -- occasionally bonus "golden apples") and grow longer, though it doesn't seek them out; gameplay can be conducted with as many as three opposing snakes and three bouncing balls complicating the playfield at once; you head for the exit once all apples are eaten, but the enemy snake(s) can exit instead, restarting the level. Triumph against all these odds and you get 29 more levels of similar gameplay! This unremarkable clone is largely known on account of having been included in the second "Microsoft Entertainment Pack" for Windows.

• Release Date: December 31, 1991