I remember playing this strategy game at least ten years ago. It was a simple but challenging game. Here’s a description:
The board was an 8x8 grid, like in chess. You’d start in some pre-determined square with the goal of reaching some other square. Somewhere else on the board would be the computer’s piece, which would try to reach your piece before you reached your destination, in which case you’d lose.
Certain squares were separated by walls which prevented you (or the computer) from moving directly between them. A wall between squares A1 and A2, for example, would mean that you’d have to move A1-B1-B2-A2 to get there. The computer followed a simple algorithm for “chasing” you: it would always try to move directly toward you, and if it could not, would just pass its turn. So, to go back to the example, if you were at A1 and the computer at A2, separated by a wall, it would never try the circuitous path to reach you, since the first move in the path would actually move it farther away from you. The trick was to “trap” the computer so that you could move freely for a few turns and reach the destination before getting caught.
Anyone remember this game? Is a version available on the web. (I’m pretty sure it was freeware). Thanks.
Oh and. I forgot, if you can draw a perfect diagonal line between you and the mummy, will the mummy move horizontally until he’s in the same column as you, then move vertically, or vice versa? In this version, it’s horizontal first (if possible).
This reminds me a little of the “Cat & Mouse” game released by Microsoft. Played it on a Windows 3.1 machine, I think. The cats would move a bit randomly, but basically, their movements were just as you described.
There were also some monsters in Chip’s Challenge (and, undoubtedly, several other games) that followed the same rules, but that was in real-time, so you could get away by simply outrunning them, which isn’t as strategically interesting.