Gobble Man (1982)

This text-mode BASIC game finds you in a large room littered with dots. Your character's goal is to gobble up these essential nutrients, without getting caught by the four enemies that patrol the arena. Your movements are limited to straight lines, but your foes can travel diagonally as well. The four side tunnels help you outsmart them: enter one, and you emerge at the opposite side of the playfield.

More or less, Gobble Man is basically Pac-Man without the maze, or the power pills, or the extra lives: a single encounter with your ever-smiling oppressors will force you to start over from scratch.