To me, the abstract idea is a 3D wireframe world where you accumulate points and avoid being shot by wireframe enemies, much in the same way that the Munchkin ruling says:

  Other games, such as "Rally-X" (described in Dirkschneider)
  and North American's own "Take the Money and Run," illustrate 
  different ways in which a basic maze-chase game can be expressed.

The idea could still have been a 3D wireframe world where things try and shoot you, but it didn't have to be tanks. Atari's own Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back from 1985 shows how the idea can have a radically different expression.