Wow, just found out about this. I knew of the original from the TI-99/4A (note the punctuation!) version, which is the computer I grew up with. I always loved the game, but the code had a bug that caused the monster to get stuck. I analyzed it a few years ago, and re-wrote a SuperChase II in TI Extended BASIC -- though I don't have it released. It adds to the original clever monster AI that tracks you and its own paths (which is where the bug was), and adds more monsters. I've been thinking of doing a re-write in XNA/MonoGame, kind of like what you did here - pretending to be on the old original 8-bit machine! Though the TI-99/4A was actually 16-bit, crazy, huh? (EDIT: Oh wait - you actually did code it for the C-64? I can't believe any form of interpreted BASIC goes this fast - wow. Oh it's a compiled BASIC. Very cool!) Anyways, neat method to the madness of having the monster go faster then calm down (EDIT: I see this is a design from the original Atari version!), and having an exit you must reach rather than ending the level after an arbitrary number of pick ups. I'll have to check out the other 2 original versions to see what helped drive your inspiration.
Hey!! Thank you A TON for your comments, I can see your BIG enthusiasm for this game and its origins, I'm happy I'm not the only one! :)
You know, I was SO SURE it was "TI99-4/A" that I was ready to say "oh no, you got it wrong", BUT... I looked it up, and I stand very humbly corrected, so thank you so so much for that! Now I'll always think of this next time I'm going to mention the TI-99! :D
Of course now I want to see your Extended BASIC version (I used that too, a lot, back in the day!), as well as your future "modern-retro" remake!
Some guy on Facebook who saw my version also suggested to put more than a Monster in the game, but I was really exhausted and wanted to move to something else: I had been working on this, in my spare time, for about 4 months! :) Still, I'm really curious to see the kind of impact that has on the game!
Yeah, XC=BASIC is surprisingly fast, to me at least!
Did you see my source code of this? XC=BASIC is pretty similar to Microsoft QuickBASIC regarding the syntax, so you shouldn't have too much trouble understanding what I did :)
(If my English is weird to you, I'm sorry, I'm from Italy...)