Head-On

Head-On (ヘッド-オン) is a 1979 arcade racing game, developed and published by Sega/Gremlin for VIC Dual hardware. It's the first known game where the player has to collect dots (a year before Pac-Man).

Viewed from a top down perspective, the player has to race around a circuit consisting of five lanes and collect all the dots that lies scattered around. At the same time he has to watch out for the jam cars that move in the opposite direction. To dodge the jam cars the player swap lanes which can only be done in the middle of each straight. To move faster it's possible to accelerate but then it's only possible to change one lane at a time. At normal speed two lanes can be crossed in one move.

A level is completed when all dots have been collected and when colliding with a jam car a life is lost. The game is over when all three lives are lost. As the player progresses through the levels he will come across more and faster jam cars. In later levels as many as three fast jam cars will be in his way.