Exterminator

Wandering, vicious bugs are on the loose. Your object is to trap them in seven boxes as they fall through cracks in a conveyor moving across the top of the screen. Unlike most arcade-style games of this era, Exterminator provides the player with nothing to move or aim. You must simply wait, fingers on seven keys -- one for each box -- estimating where the crawling bugs will meet a moving crack and fall through.

Getting the box number right, however, is not enough. The trap doors are open only for a second, so your key-presses must be timed within each bug's drop to be successful. Meanwhile, the cracks are catching more bugs which are dropping toward your closed traps. Naturally, the speed of the conveyor and the number of cracks increases with time. Let twenty-five escape and it's "Game Over," fifty points tallied for each one you successfully trapped.

Simple sound effects lend creepiness to the exercise, which centers around remembering which of your fingers will activate which trap door as you focus on the screen. There's no time for hunt-and-peck; at last those piano lessons will pay off!