[bennysaurus]

Given the name, it'll be Qix, I had a copy as well!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qix

[lxe]

Bingo. This is it. One of the variants for sure! Thank you so much!

[mbreese]

As soon as I read the description, that was my guess too. It was such a simple game and I spent a lot of time playing it.

If you wanted to be patient, it was almost impossible to lose. But if you hurried, it was anlmost impossible to win.

[lloeki]

Completely forgot about this one, yet I spent so much time playing it! Absolutely true that pacing is key.

The version I had had cycle-based speed so it became unplayable when I changed computers for a faster clocked one, which prompted me to attempt coding a clone.

[SupremumLimit]

Thanks! I used to play it as a kid and have been trying to remember the name of the game for years.