Also known as “On The Ball” in some English-speaking regions, Cameltry is a game where you have to drop a ball through a rotating maze to reach a goal area within a time limit. It was first distributed into arcades by Taito in 1989.

Each maze has a variety of hazards, some will stop you dead and others might steal time from you if you touch them, so rotating the maze carefully and guiding the falling ball to avoid traps is key to making progress in Cameltry. The original arcade cabinet had a paddle control, for fast, analogue movement, which allowed for rapid reactions.

If you’re good at Cameltry you might be able to keep the ball from touching anything for long periods of time. At least on the easier levels.

Cameltry has four set of challenges, each with its own category of difficulty and which can be chosen at the start of the game. The training course is the easiest and introduces you to the various gameplay elements over six mazes. The beginner course has six medium-ranked challenges. The expert course is ranked as ‘hard’ and has eight mazes. And the ‘special’ course is ranked as ‘very hard’ and has ten different maze challenges.

Like all arcade games from the late 1980s, Cameltry is extremely challenging when you get into it. But the feel of the game is just about right and allows you to really get into the zone when you need to. It’s a simple premise, executed very well and requires progressively more skill (or luck) to master.

Cameltry was ported to a number of home systems including for the Super Nintendo, the Sharp X68000 and the FM Towns.

More: Cameltry on Wikipedia