🎮 Play Lock N Chase Online (Arcade)

Lock ‘n’ Chase is a 1981 maze arcade game developed and published by Data East in Japan, with Taito handling its North American release. You play a thief named Lupin, sneaking through a bank vault’s maze of corridors to grab every coin and treasure bag before the “Super D” police squad — four cops named Stiffy, Scaredy, Smarty, and Silly — can catch you. It plays like a cousin of Pac-Man, but with a sharper trick up its sleeve: instead of eating your pursuers, you outsmart them by shutting doors in their path.

How to Play

Move Lupin through the maze with the arrow keys, collecting every coin along the way. Money bags appear at random and are worth far more than ordinary coins, so it’s worth detouring for them when the cops aren’t close. Press Z to slam a door shut on a corridor behind or beside you, trapping any cop unlucky enough to be caught in it — only two doors can be closed at once, and each one swings back open after a few seconds, so timing matters more than brute force.

Tips

• Save your door-closing move for chokepoints rather than using it the instant a cop appears — a well-timed door can buy you a clear run across the whole maze.
• Money bags (500–4,000 points) and the occasional treasure — top hat, crown, briefcase, telephone — are worth far more than the 20-point coins, so route toward them when it’s safe.
• Since only two doors can be shut at a time, don’t panic-close early doors you don’t need; save that second slot for the cop that’s actually closing in.