Gobbler

Last updated: January 17, 2026

Overview

Gobbler is a Pac-Man clone developed by Olaf Lubeck and published by On-Line Systems for the Apple II in 1981.¹ The game represents one of the earliest examples of arcade game cloning in the home computer market, featuring gameplay that was mostly identical to Namco’s original Pac-Man arcade game, though with a slightly different maze layout.² On-Line Systems, founded by Ken Williams and Roberta Williams, would later become Sierra Entertainment, making Gobbler part of the company’s formative catalog of early titles.¹

The game holds significant historical importance not for its gameplay innovations, but for its role in establishing legal precedent for video game copyright protection.³ Gobbler was removed from the market after just five months following a lawsuit from Atari, which held the home console rights to Pac-Man.³ During its brief commercial life, the game achieved notable sales of approximately 800 copies per month, demonstrating the strong consumer demand for Pac-Man-style games on home computers.³

Gobbler was created by Olaf Lubeck, a researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Computer Research and Applications Division, who developed the game in response to On-Line Systems’ “Authors Wanted” advertisement.³ The game arrived on floppy disk for the Apple II and, despite its derivative nature, was described as a “very well done” copy of the original arcade hit.³

Game Info

Developer: On-Line Systems¹ Designer: Olaf Lubeck³ Publisher: On-Line Systems¹ Engine: Custom Platforms: Apple II¹⁴ Release Year: 1981¹⁵ Series: None Protagonist: Gobbler character Sierra Lineage: Core Sierra

Story Summary

As a direct clone of Pac-Man, Gobbler features no narrative storyline in the traditional sense.²⁶ The player controls a circular character navigating through a maze, consuming dots while avoiding enemy ghosts.¹ The objective mirrors that of the original Pac-Man: clear each maze of all dots while surviving ghost encounters.

The game’s setting consists of a single maze design that varies slightly from the original Pac-Man layout.² Players must strategically navigate this maze, using power pellets to temporarily turn the tables on the pursuing ghosts. The gameplay loop continues through increasingly difficult rounds as the player attempts to achieve the highest possible score.

Like its arcade inspiration, Gobbler offered no ending or conclusion—the game simply continued until the player lost all lives, with the goal being to accumulate the highest score possible.²

Gameplay

Interface and Controls

Gobbler utilizes a control scheme that contemporary players found somewhat unconventional. According to period accounts, “the control scheme is a bit weird and takes some time to get used to.”³ The Apple II version relied on keyboard input for directional movement, which was standard for home computer games of the era but represented a departure from the arcade joystick controls that players familiar with the original Pac-Man would have expected.

Structure and Progression

The game follows the standard Pac-Man formula of maze-based progression:²

• Maze Clearing: Players must consume all dots in the maze to advance
• Ghost Avoidance: Four enemy ghosts pursue the player through the maze
• Power Pellets: Special items allow temporary ghost vulnerability
• Bonus Items: Fruit and other items appear for bonus points
• Increasing Difficulty: Each subsequent level increases ghost speed and aggression

Puzzles and Mechanics

Gobbler’s mechanics are directly derived from Pac-Man, featuring the same core gameplay loop.² The maze layout represents the primary distinguishing feature from the original game, with slight modifications to the pathways and tunnel positions.² Players must employ strategic movement patterns to efficiently clear dots while avoiding ghost contact, using the maze’s structure to create distance from pursuers.

The power pellet mechanic allows players to briefly reverse the predator-prey dynamic, turning ghosts blue and vulnerable for a limited time.¹ This strategic element requires timing and positional awareness to maximize point scoring opportunities.

Reception

Contemporary Reviews

Due to Gobbler’s brief five-month market presence before being pulled due to legal action, contemporary review coverage was limited.³ The game’s removal from sale in early 1982 prevented the extensive magazine coverage that longer-lived titles received. However, the game clearly found an audience, as evidenced by its reported sales figures of 800 copies per month during its availability.³

The game was acknowledged within the industry as a competent clone. One contemporary assessment noted that “there was no doubt, to neither Ken Williams nor anybody else, that Gobbler was a (very well done) copy of Pac-Man.”³ This acknowledgment of quality, even while recognizing the derivative nature, suggests the game successfully replicated the addictive gameplay of its inspiration.

Modern Assessment

Modern retrospective assessment of Gobbler focuses primarily on its historical significance rather than its gameplay merits.³ The game is recognized as an important artifact in the history of video game intellectual property disputes and as an example of the “clone wars” that characterized early 1980s game development.³

The LaunchBox Games Database community has rated Gobbler at 3.50 out of 5, reflecting a moderate assessment that acknowledges both the game’s competent execution and its derivative nature.²

Aggregate Scores:

• LaunchBox Games Database: 3.50/5 (Community rating)²

Development

Origins

Gobbler originated when Olaf Lubeck, a researcher working at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Computer Research and Applications Division, responded to On-Line Systems’ “Authors Wanted” advertisement.³ This solicitation, placed by Ken Williams, sought talented programmers to develop games for the growing Apple II market. Ken Williams personally promised availability for “technical discussions, helping to debug, brainstorming, etc.” to potential contributors.³

Lubeck submitted his Pac-Man clone on floppy disk to On-Line Systems, and the company accepted it for publication despite the obvious copyright concerns that would later prove problematic.³ The decision to publish reflected the freewheeling nature of the early home computer game market, where the boundaries of intellectual property had not yet been legally established.

Production

Development of Gobbler took place during Lubeck’s spare time away from his primary employment at Los Alamos National Labs.⁷ This moonlighting arrangement was common among early game developers, many of whom created games as a hobby or side venture while maintaining day jobs in technical fields.

On-Line Systems served as both developer and publisher for the project, providing the distribution infrastructure and marketing that transformed Lubeck’s programming project into a commercial product.¹ The game was released exclusively for the Apple II platform, which was On-Line Systems’ primary development target during this period.¹

Development Credits:³

• Designer/Programmer: Olaf Lubeck
• Publisher: On-Line Systems (Ken Williams)

Technical Achievements

As a clone of an existing arcade game, Gobbler’s technical achievements lay primarily in successfully translating the Pac-Man experience to Apple II hardware.² The Apple II’s limited graphics capabilities and different control scheme presented challenges that Lubeck addressed competently, creating a playable approximation of the arcade experience.

The maze layout modifications represent the most notable technical deviation from the source material, whether implemented for legal distinction purposes or hardware optimization.²

Technical Specifications

Apple II Version:³

• Media: Floppy disk
• Platform: Apple II series
• Display: Standard Apple II lo-res or hi-res graphics
• Audio: Apple II internal speaker

Version History

Version	Date	Platform	Notes
1.0	August 15, 1981	Apple II	Initial and only release2

The game received no updates or revisions following its initial release, as it was removed from the market approximately five months after launch due to legal action.³

Technical Issues

No specific technical bugs or compatibility issues have been documented for Gobbler. The primary “issue” affecting the game was its legal status rather than any programming defects. The control scheme, while functional, was noted as requiring an adjustment period for players accustomed to other input methods.³

Easter Eggs and Trivia

• Gobbler was one of the earliest games to be involved in video game copyright litigation, helping establish legal precedent for game protection³
• The developer, Olaf Lubeck, went on to create Cannonball Blitz (1982), a Donkey Kong clone, also for On-Line Systems¹
• Cannonball Blitz was conceived during Lubeck’s spare time at Los Alamos National Labs, following the same development pattern as Gobbler⁷
• On-Line Systems later became Sierra Entertainment, one of the most influential adventure game companies in history¹
• The game sold approximately 800 copies per month during its brief market availability³
• Gobbler was removed from sale after just five months due to Atari’s lawsuit³

Legacy

Sales and Commercial Impact

During its five-month commercial availability, Gobbler achieved sales of approximately 800 copies per month, representing solid performance for an Apple II title in 1981.³ This sales rate demonstrated the strong consumer appetite for arcade-style games on home computers, even when those games were obvious derivatives of existing properties.

The legal action that ended Gobbler’s commercial life proved more historically significant than the game itself.³ The Atari lawsuit against On-Line Systems helped establish the legal framework for video game intellectual property protection, contributing to the end of the “clone wars” era where publishers freely copied popular arcade games without legal consequence.

Collections

Gobbler has not been included in any official Sierra compilation releases due to its brief commercial lifespan and the legal circumstances surrounding its withdrawal from the market.³ The game exists primarily as a historical curiosity preserved through archival efforts.

Fan Projects

The game is preserved through digital archiving efforts, including availability through the Internet Archive’s software collection.⁸ These preservation efforts ensure that Gobbler remains accessible for historical study despite its removal from commercial availability over four decades ago.

Related Publications

No official hint books, strategy guides, or related publications were produced for Gobbler due to its brief market presence.³ The game’s removal from sale occurred before such ancillary materials would typically have been developed.

Critical Perspective

Gobbler occupies a unique position in video game history as both a competent product and a legal cautionary tale.³ The game demonstrated that the early home computer market had both the technical capability and consumer demand for arcade-style experiences, while simultaneously revealing the unsustainable nature of the clone-based business model that many publishers had adopted.

The lawsuit that ended Gobbler’s commercial life represented a turning point for On-Line Systems and the broader industry.³ For Ken and Roberta Williams, the experience may have reinforced the value of original intellectual property, contributing to their subsequent focus on adventure games with unique settings and characters. The company’s evolution into Sierra Entertainment and creation of landmark franchises like King’s Quest can be viewed partially as a response to the legal vulnerabilities exposed by titles like Gobbler.

From a modern perspective, Gobbler serves as an artifact of the video game industry’s formative period, when the boundaries between homage, clone, and infringement had not yet been legally defined.³ The game itself, while competently executed, offers little beyond historical interest—its significance lies not in what it achieved but in what its withdrawal from the market prevented and what legal precedents it helped establish.

Downloads

Purchase / Digital Stores

• Not currently available on modern digital storefronts

Download / Preservation

• Internet Archive – Wozaday Gobbler⁸
• MyAbandonware – Gobbler⁹

Database Entries

• MobyGames – Gobbler¹⁰
• LaunchBox Games Database²

Series Continuity

Gobbler is a standalone title and not part of any game series. However, it connects to On-Line Systems’ broader catalog of arcade clones from the early 1980s through its developer, Olaf Lubeck, who also created Cannonball Blitz.¹

Cannonball Blitz, released in 1982 for Apple II and later ported to Commodore VIC-20 in 1983 under Sierra’s SierraVision label, was a Donkey Kong clone featuring a Revolutionary War theme set at “Cannonball Castle on Nutcracker Hill.”⁷ The game was described as “fun but at times frustrating and difficult” and continued Lubeck’s pattern of translating popular arcade experiences to home computers.⁷

Related Titles by Developer:

• Cannonball Blitz (1982) – Donkey Kong clone by Olaf Lubeck¹

References

Footnotes

1. Wikipedia – Gobbler (video game) – developer, publisher, platform, release year, connection to Cannonball Blitz, company history ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴

2. LaunchBox Games Database – On-Line Systems – release date August 15 1981, community rating 3.50/5, maze layout differences, Pac-Man clone description ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³

3. Retro365 Blog – Gobbler: Ken and Roberta Williams Takes on Atari – Olaf Lubeck biography, Los Alamos employment, development history, control scheme critique, sales figures, lawsuit details, five-month market presence, Ken Williams quote ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷ ↩²⁸ ↩²⁹

4. VirtualApple – Gobbler – Apple II emulation, playable version, technical requirements ↩

5. SierraVault Game List – comprehensive Sierra games catalog, release chronology ↩

6. GameSpot – Gobbler – platform coverage, genre classification, game database entry ↩

7. Retro365 Blog – Cannonball Blitz: Clones, Lawsuits, Clones – Olaf Lubeck development pattern, Los Alamos spare time work, Cannonball Blitz details, SierraVision label, VIC-20 port ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

8. Internet Archive – Wozaday Gobbler – game preservation, download availability ↩ ↩²

9. MyAbandonware – Gobbler – game preservation, download availability ↩

10. MobyGames – Gobbler – database entry, game documentation ↩