Pac-Man
For other meanings, see Pac-Man (disambiguation).Pac-Man (or
Puck-Man) is an
arcade game developed by
Namco and licensed for distribution by
Midway, first released in Japan in
1979. Immensely popular from its first release through today,
Pac-Man is universally considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games, and an icon of
1980s popular culture. Upon its release, the game became a social phenomenon
that sold a bevy of merchandise and also inspired an
animated television series and a Top 40
pop single.
When
Pac-Man was released, most arcade video games in North America were primarily
space shooters such as
Space Invaders and
Defender. By breaking out as a completely new style of non-violent game that appealed to both boys and girls, it found massive success.
is often credited with being a landmark in video game history, and is among the most famous arcade games of all time.
The character also appears in over 30 officially licensed games and sequels, as well as in numerous unauthorized clones and bootlegs.
|
The Japanese sales flyer from 1980 displays the Japanese title, PUCK MAN, as well as the original character design. |
The game was developed primarily by Namco employee
Toru Iwatani over eighteen months. The original title was pronounced
pakku-man (パックマン) and was inspired by the Japanese
onomatopeic phrase
paku-paku taberu (パクパク食べる).
Although it is often cited that Iwatani was inspired by a slice of pizza to create the character,
, he admitted in a 1986 interview that it was a half-truth and the character design also came from simplifying and rounding out the Japanese character for mouth,
kuchi as well as a basic eating concept.
Iwatani's efforts to appeal to a wider audience — beyond the typical demographics of young boys and
teenagers — would eventually lead him to adding in elements of a
maze. The result was a game he entitled
PUCK MAN. When first launched in
Japan in
1979 by Namco, the game received a lukewarm response, as
Space Invaders and other games of similar ilk were far more popular at the time.
However, the following year, the game was picked up for manufacture in the
U.S. by
Bally division
Midway, under the altered title
Pac-Man (actually closer to the original Japanese pronunciation) because
PUCK MAN was similar in spelling and pronunciation to
a common expletive, and vandals could easily change it. Although many people think this concern depended only on the language, English game titles " and such phrases as "
HIGH SCORE" and "
GAME OVER" " were generally understood in Japan. Says Chris Kohler in his book
Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life, "Don't believe for a second that Japanese
teenagers didn't realize what they could change
Puck-Man into; it's just that they wouldn't ever do it."
Both
PUCK MAN and
Pac-Man machines can be found throughout Europe.
American audiences welcomed a breakaway from conventions set by
Space Invaders, which resulted in unprecedented popularity and revenue that rivaled its successful predecessor, as even Iwatani was impressed with U.S. sales
. The game soon became a worldwide phenomenon within the
video game industry, resulting in numerous sequels and merchandising tie-ins. Its style of gameplay became widely imitated by games created by competitors, but none could equal the original in profit or popularity.
When Midway released
Pac-Man in the United States, the company also redesigned the cabinet's artwork, as the Namco-style artwork was more costly to mass produce, as well as being considered too stylish for the American market.
PUCK MAN was painted overall white featuring multicolored artwork on both sides with cheerful Puck-Man characters in different poses while
Pac-Man was painted yellow, with very simple and easy-to-stencil artwork on both sides and front.
The first known "perfect
Pac-Man game", in which the player must complete all of the 255 levels, a maximum point score without ever being caught, was verified by the
Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard on
July 3,
1999.
Billy Mitchell, of Hollywood, FL, achieved the feat in six hours. To attain the maximum possible score of 3,333,360 points, it was necessary for Mitchell to eat every fruit, every energizer, every blue ghost and every dot for 255 boards.
Marketers from the video game manufacturers were taken completely by surprise by the phenomenal success of
Pac-Man in 1980. Interviews with programmers who worked in the industry during the initial
golden age of video games revealed that marketing executives completely overlooked the game (and likewise dismissed the classic
Defender as "too complex"), while they looked to a racing car game called
Rally-X as the game to outdo that year. The appeal of
Pac-Man caught on immediately with the gaming public and the game's popularity outpaced anything seen in the industry before; it even surpassed
Space Invaders as the most popular and most influential game of the
1980s. The game was so popular that it was one of the most widely bootlegged games in the early 80s; these versions often had significant differences in how the monsters ran their patterns.
The unique and original game design inspired game manufacturers to look into game designs that differed from endless "alien invader battle" games.
Pac-Man introduced an element of humor into video games that designers sought to imitate, as it appealed to a wider demographic than the teenage boys who flocked to the action-oriented games. Many popular video games of the 1980s, including
Q*Bert,
Donkey Kong, and
Frogger partially owe their existence to the success of
Pac-Man.
The
Killer List of Videogames lists
Pac-Man as the #1 video game of all time on its "Top 10 Most Popular Video games" list
.
Pac-Man, and other
video games of the same general type, are often cited as an identifying cultural experience of
Generation X, particularly its older members, sometimes called
Baby Busters.
Pac-Man is a
maze game. The player maneuvers Pac-Man, a yellow circle with a mouth, to navigate a maze while eating small dots and other item prizes. A
level, or board, is finished when all the "dots" are eaten. Four
ghosts (Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde) also wander the maze in an attempt to catch Pac-Man. Each level begins with three ghosts in their "ghost pen" and one above it, and Pac-Man near the bottom of the maze. The ghosts are released from the pen one by one at the start of each level.
There are four power-up items near the corners of the maze, known as "energizers" or "power pellets" which provide Pac-Man with the temporary ability to eat the ghosts. The ghosts turn a deep blue and reverse direction immediately when Pac-Man eats an energizer, and they move more slowly while they are vulnerable. The ghosts are worth 200, 400, 800, and 1600 points, in sequence. The values reset back to 200 each time another Power Pellet is eaten, so it is advantageous for the player to eat all four ghosts per pellet. If a ghost is eaten, his eyes return to the "ghost pen" where they will be restored to normal. The ghosts flash white five times before they revert to being dangerous. The amount of time the ghosts remain vulnerable after a Power Pellet is eaten varies from one board to the next, but the time period generally becomes shorter as the game progresses, and after many boards have been completed the ghosts will actually not turn blue at all when the energizers are eaten (but they will still reverse direction).
Regular "dots" are worth ten points each (there are 240 of them on each board), and Power Pellets (known as "power food" in Japan) are worth fifty points each. Additionally, points can be earned by having Pac-Man eat a bonus prize (generically referred to as a "fruit," even though a few are not actually fruit) that appears twice during each board just below the monster pen. The symbols change with each successive one or two boards, and their point value steadily increases:
*Cherries, 100 points
*Strawberry, 300 points
*Orange, 500 points
*Apple, 700 points
*Indistinct green fruit (supposedly a bunch of grapes), 1000 points
*Flagship from
Galaxian, 2000 points
*Bell, 3000 points
*Key, 5000 points
A myth arose that far into the game, an extremely rare item would appear, either a screwdriver or a bar of gold, with these items giving 50,000 and 100,000 points respectively. In reality, there are no such items.
Pac-Man is awarded a bonus life one time only, at 10,000 points (the default setting;
DIP switches inside the machine can change the required points to 15,000 or 20,000 or disable the bonus life altogether).
Ghosts
|
The various Pac-Man ghosts with their "character" and nicknames, here in the American arcade version, were displayed during the Attract mode. |
Initially, Pac-Man's enemies were referred to as "monsters", but soon became known as "ghosts." (see
Ghosts vs. monsters.)
Names
The ghosts are introduced during
attract mode by the following names and nicknames:
| Colour of ghost | Original Puckman | American Pac-Man | | Name | Translation | Nickname | Translation | Alternate
name | Alternate
nickname | Name | Nickname |
|---|
| Red | Oikake (追いかけ) | chaser | Akabei (赤ベイ) | red guy | Urchin | Macky | Shadow | Blinky |
| Pink | Machibuse (待ち伏せ) | ambusher | Pinky ("ンキー) | " | Romp | Micky | Speedy | Pinky |
| Cyan | Kimagure (気まぐれ) | fickle | Aosuke ('助) | blue guy | Stylist | Mucky | Bashful | Inky |
| Orange | Otoboke (お惚け) | stupid | Guzuta (愚図た) | slow guy | Crybaby | Mocky | Pokey | Clyde |
Alternate names were selected by a switch on the cabinet.
Speed
While the ghosts are bound by the same limitations of the maze as Pac-Man himself, they differ in speed in several ways:
*They turn corners more slowly than Pac-Man.
*They slow down while walking through the "tunnels" on the sides of the maze, whereas Pac-Man walks through them unhindered.
*Blinky increases greatly in speed once a certain number of dots are eaten. The higher the level, the sooner this happens. The accelerated Blinky is unofficially referred to as Cruise Elroy, which may be a reference to
Elroy Jetson. (Apart from Cruise Elroy, the ghost speeds are equal and constant.)
Behavior
The movements of the ghosts are strictly deterministic—there is no random or even pseudo-randomness in the
algorithms choosing their paths. Experienced players have exploited this flaw by devising precise sequences of movements for each level in order to play indefinitely (termed "patterns"). A later revision of the programming altered the behavior, but it still wasn't random, and new patterns were devised for it.
There are a few notable quirks in the behavior of the ghosts:
*If the player survives long enough in a level without being caught by a ghost, the ghosts will all suddenly reverse directions and each will head for a different corner. This term is called "Scatter Mode", and it will continue to happen as long as the player stays alive without having finished the level, cycling between converging on the player, and de-converging into their respective corners (Blinky: upper right, Pinky: upper left, Inky: lower right, Clyde: lower left). If this process goes on long enough, and the player has still not completed the level, then the ghosts will constantly attack and never go back into Scatter Mode.
*The ghosts will never go upwards into either of the two passages immediately above their monster pen (unless they are in their blue vulnerable state). Players being closely pursued can lose their pursuers by leading them to the top of the monster pen then going upwards into either of the two passages; the ghosts will not follow.
*Pac-Man may go upwards into (and stop in) the corner immediately to the right and above his starting location facing upwards. When the ghosts are not closely pursuing him, they will never find him, and instead will roam aimlessly around the board until Pac-Man leaves that spot. This trick is used by marathon Pac-Man players to allow themselves an occasional bathroom break.
*There is a software coding bug that allows Pac-Man to sometimes pass through a ghost unharmed. Though this rarely occurs, several patterns have been developed which consistently pass through a ghost or ghosts. Most expert players have their favorite "pass through" pattern.
Personalities, relationships and back-story
Another series of inconsistencies in the history of the game is the different
personalities and roles of the ghost-monsters. In the original game, and most others afterward, the order of the listed villains in the intro screen shows Blinky as the leader. In the actual gameplay, he is the one who pursues you the most aggressively, especially in the state of Cruise Elroy. He is often followed by Pinky. Then Inky often cuts Pac-Man's escape route off, as was stated. Clyde always seems to be wandering off and doesn't get in the way as much. This pattern was followed consistently, until the cartoon, in which the personalities were changed, with Clyde as the
boss, Inky as the
dumb one, Sue (a purple ghost who originally appeared as Clyde's orange replacement in Ms. Pac-Man, she later appeared in
Pac-Land and
Pac-Mania) as also bossy and Blinky as very timid. (Only Pinky's personality matched 'his'
character as a tough bully.)
The games released after the TV series continued the original roles, until
Pac-Land, which was based squarely on the cartoon. While the four male ghosts basically do not differ from each other in their moves (they mostly bob up and down in their
vehicles), the eyes now reflected the cartoon, with Clyde as the
angry-looking leader, Blinky as timid looking and Inky as
stupid-looking, with crossed eyes. Sue was also particularly
aggressive, lurking behind you if you moved too slowly through the game. These were the basic drawings of the ghosts used on most merchandise and newer game artwork to the present.
Pac-Mania changed things again. The facial expressions were not used in the game or cabinet artwork, with the exception of Sue's angry eyes in the game, and Blinky's angry "boss" eyes are shown when he is eaten and in the intermissions. The screen displaying the list of high-scores, however, shows the cartoon ghosts chasing Pac-Man, with Blinky having the angry "boss" eyes, while Inky still having the
goofy crossed eyes. On the other hand, the screen-side art somewhat followed the cartoon, listing "Clyde" as "The Boss. He's super fast when mad." (Which would presumably refer to the "Cruise Elroy" associated with the true boss, Blinky.) Blinky is listed as "The slow, absent minded one." However, on the actual gameplay, players see pretty much the same pattern from the original game, with Blinky coming fast, Pinky being tough, Inky moderately tough, and Clyde hardly bothering the player at all. The difference is Sue, who is once again very aggressive (and now often gives you more trouble than Blinky), along with the game's new ghosts, Funky (known as "Common" in Japan) and Spunky (known as "Grey Common").
In
Pac-Man Arrangement, the personality-
swap introduced by the cartoon completely affected the personalities in the game. The different-
colored ghosts still act the normal way, but now, on the introductory screen where the ghosts are listed, players see that Blinky and Clyde have swapped sheets! (Clyde is now wearing red, and Blinky is the orange one at the bottom).
Intermissions
During the opening boards of the game, the linearity of the game's progression is interrupted by "intermissions" — humorous animated scenes featuring Pac-Man and the monsters. There are three different intermissions:
#Blinky chases Pac-Man off the screen. Blinky reappears as a vulnerable blue monster coming the opposite direction, being chased by a giant Pac-Man. This intermission plays after Board 2.#Blinky chases Pac-Man across the screen, but his pelt gets caught on a tack in the floor, and part of it is ripped off revealing his 'skin'. This intermission plays after Board 5.#Blinky, with the corner of his pelt sewn back on, chases Pac-Man across the screen. Blinky reappears coming back the opposite direction, naked, dragging his pelt behind him. This intermission plays after Boards 9, 13 and 17.
Split-screen level
|
The 256th and final level in Pac-Man is unplayable due to corrupting map glitches. |
The game technically has no end; the player will be given new boards to clear as long as Pac-Man does not lose all of his lives. However, due to a glitch in the game the right side of the
256th board is a garbled mess of text and symbols rendering the level unplayable. This occurs because of a bug in the subroutine that draws the fruit at the bottom of the screen that indicate the current level. Normally, at most 7 fruits are displayed, regardless of the current screen, but since the level number is stored in a single byte, level 255 ("FF" in
hexadecimal) rolls over to 0 in the subroutine, and 256 fruit are drawn, corrupting the bottom of the screen and the entire right half of the maze. Enthusiasts refer to this as the "Final Level," the "Split-Screen Level," or simply as the ending. Although there are claims that someone with enough knowledge of the maze pattern can play through it, it is generally considered impossible to be cleared via legitimate means.
However, in December 1982, an eight-year-old boy named Jeffrey R. Yee received a letter from
U.S. President Ronald Reagan congratulating him on a worldwide record of 6,131,940 points, a score only possible if the player has passed the Split-Screen Level. Whether or not this event happened as described has remained in heated debate amongst video game circles since its supposed occurrence. In September, 1983, Walter Day, Chief Scorekeeper at the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard, took the U.S. National Video Game Team on a tour of the East Coast to visit video game players who claimed they could get through the "Split-Screen." No video game player could demonstrate this ability. Later, in 1999,
Billy Mitchell offered $100,000 to anyone who could provably pass through the Split-Screen Level before
January 1,
2000; there is no evidence that anyone could.
Through tinkering, the details of the Split-Screen Level can be revealed. As playable through arcade game emulator
MAME some
ROMs of the game are equipped with a "rack test" within the DIP switches which will automatically clear a level of all pellets as soon as it begins. This method not only makes reaching the long-mythical 256th board easier (thus making detailed analysis possible) but also allows a demonstration of what happens after the board has been cleared:
Because the right side of the map does not exist, Pac-Man and the ghosts can move freely throughout the right side of the screen, barring some of the garbled symbols which are fractured pieces of the maze. Other symbols also entail power pills, which must be eaten for the player to continue (unlike the unglitched boards, if Pac-Man loses a life, the pills on the right side of the screen will reset after being eaten). Because the maze fracture blockades are "placed" in many locations, it is difficult — if not impossible — to locate them all.
If the board is cleared, the game restarts from the first board without error, once again repeating through 256. However, while the power-ups and intermissions repeat from the opening of the game, the monsters will retain their speed and invulnerability to power pellets from the later boards.
Ports
Pac-Man is one of the few games to have been consistently re-released for over two decades. In the 1980s, it was released for the
Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 8-Bit Computers (400/800/etc.), Intellivision and Commodore 64, and the
Nintendo Entertainment System (1987 and 1990). In the handheld world, it was released on the
Game Boy (1991),
Sega Game Gear (1991),
Neo-Geo Pocket Color (1999),
Pac-Man: Special Color Edition for the
Game Boy Color (1999), and
Pac-Man Collection for the
Game Boy Advance (2001). However, it has been most widely distributed in Namco's long-running
Namco Museum series, starting on the
PlayStation in
1996 and continuing to this day on every major console (as well as the
PSP and
Game Boy Advance) with the
50th Anniversary Collection (2005). An
Xbox 360 port was released via
Xbox Live Arcade on
August 9th 2006. Pac-Man is also available in its original form as part of the
GameTap service.
Namco has repeatedly re-released this game in arcades. In 2001, Namco released a
20-Year Reunion game that combined
Ms. Pac-Man and
Galaga in one cabinet. To play the original Pac-Man on this machine, move the joystick in this order on the "Press Start Button" that appears after you insert your coins: up, up, up, down, down, down, left, right, left, right, left. If done correctly, you should hear a sound, and Ms. Pac-Man will change color. Press the Ms. Pac-Man start button, and you will be able to play Pac-Man. It should be noted that
Ms. Pac-Man machines are far easier to locate in today's arcades than a dedicated Pac-Man. In 2005, Namco released a board openly featuring all three of the games on the
20-Year Reunion board in honor of
Pac-Mans 25th Anniversary.
Namco's wireless division released a line of PAC-MAN games for the cell phone in 2002, starting with the original arcade version and following up with Pac-Man game extensions like Pac-Man Bowling and Pac-Man Pinball. This division (Namco Networks America Inc.) also launched a networked game, Ms. Pac-Man For Prizes', in 2004. Pac-Man mobile games are available on both
BREW and
Java platforms across major cellular carriers, as well as on Palm PDAs and Windows PC phones.
Atari 2600
|
The Atari 2600 port of Pac-Man was panned by critics and lost money for Atari. |
The first attempt to
adapt Pac-Man to the home video game market was a critical and commercial failure.
Atari Inc. bought the home video rights to the game, and it promoted the release of the
Atari 2600 version of the game with an enormous marketing campaign. In the eyes of the public, the combination of the world's most popular home video game console with the world's most popular arcade game seemed like a "can't miss" blockbuster. The game sold a record-breaking 7 million copies.
However, Atari published 12 million cartridges, incorrectly anticipating that the game would spur VCS sales (which up to that point had been under 10 million). The Atari 2600 adaptation of the game ended up being panned by critics as stiff and lifeless, somehow managing to remove the colorful, "fun" aspect of
Pac-Man from the game. It was one of two major home video game releases (along with the Atari 2600 version of
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial) that ruined Atari's reputation for quality and may have triggered the
video game crash of 1983.
Gallery
Sequels
Pac-Man spawned numerous sequels, though none of them were as popular as the original. Of these, the most significant title was the popular
Ms. Pac-Man. Originally created as a unauthorized hack of the original game called
Crazy Otto by a small group known as General Computer Corporation as was eventually sold to Bally Midway without Namco's permission.
Crazy Otto was actually seen in a photograph in
Time magazine, mislabeled as the original
Pac-Man.
The game featured several improvements and changes from the original
Pac-Man, including faster gameplay, more mazes, new intermissions, and moving bonus items. Some consider
Ms. Pac-Man to be a superior game to the original, and even the best in the entire series.
Eventually Bally Midway struck a deal with Namco to make
Ms. Pac-Man an officially licensed sequel, although the American company continued to release several unauthorized spin-off games later on, such as
Pac-Man Plus and
Baby Pac-Man. These other titles were generally considered inferior and unimportant, serving to oversaturate the market for
Pac-Man games.
Arcade
Ms. Pac-Man (1981)
Super Pac-Man (1982)
Pac-Man Plus (1982) - unauthorized title created by Bally Midway
Baby Pac-Man (1982) - unauthorized title created by Bally Midway
Jr. Pac-Man (1983) - unauthorized title created by Bally Midway
Professor Pac-Man (1983) - unauthorized title created by Bally Midway
Pac & Pal (1983)
Pac-Land (1984)
Pac-Mania (1987)
Pac-Man VR (1996) created by Virtuality
Pac-Man Arrangement (1996) - released as part of
Namco Classics Collection Volume 2Console
|
Official artwork of Pac-Man in his current form, from the Pac-Man World Series. |
Pac-Attack (based on the
Cosmo Gang the Puzzle engine) (1993)
Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures (1994)
Pac-In-Time (1995)
Pac-Man Ghost Zone (1999)
Pac-Man World (1999)
Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness (2000)
Pac-Man: Adventures in Time (2000)
Ms. Pac-Man: Quest for the Golden Maze (2001)
Pac-Man All Stars (2002)
Pac-Man World 2 (2002)
Pac-Man Fever (2002)
Pac-Man Vs. (2003)
Pac-Man Pinball Advance (2005)
Pac-Pix (2005)
Pac 'n Roll (2005)
Pac-Man World 3 (2005)
Pac-Man World Rally (2006)
Mobile phone
Ms. Pac-Man for Prizes (2004)
Pac-Man Casino Card Games Pack (2004)
Pac-Man Casino Slots Pack (2004)
Pac-Match! (2004)
Pac-Man Puzzle (2004)
Pac-Man Pinball (2004)
Pac-Man Bowling (2004)
Pac-Man's Arcade Corner (2005)
Clones and bootlegs
|
A unauthorized 1992 Pac-Man knockoff, CD-Man, was one of many clones and bootlegs to be released. |
Unauthorized "pirate" versions of the game were also created, most notably
Hangly-Man (a mangling of "Hungry-Man"), one variant of which replaced the Pac-Man character with the head of
Popeye. There was another hack of Hangly-Man called
Caterpillar Pac-Man made in 1981 by Phi. In this game you play as a
caterpillar, and the
ghosts are replaced by four
spiders.
Another popular
clone game was
Piranha, which replaced Pac-Man with a munching
fish. The maze was replaced with a
coral reef, and the monsters are
squids. (In an earlier variant, they are little more than ghosts with extended
sprites for the tentacles). A brief reference to the game was even included in the
Pac-Man TV series, when in an underwater scene, a fish is shown eating a ghost-squid.
In addition, soon after the release of the original
Pac-Man, many other maze-themed video games entered the arcade market (
Make Trax,
Thief,
Lady Bug and
Mouse Trap being the most prominent). In the home video game market,
K.C. Munchkin was actually withdrawn after Atari successfully sued its creator, since its imitation of the
Pac-Man characters was so blatant and undisguised.
Several handheld versions were released in 1981, most using
VFD technology. The playability of most handheld games of this age was limited by today's standards, since each ghost and Pac-Man position was represented by an immovable fixed-cell character that lit up accordingly. Game titles included:
* PacMan by Tomy
* PacMan2 by Entex
* Pac-Man by Coleco. As the "official" adaptation of the game, Coleco Pac-Man was shaped like a miniature Midway arcade cabinet.
* Epoch Man by Epoch –
LCD-based, this game can be seen in
National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) in Russ's hand.
Texas Instruments released a clone called
Munch Man for the
TI-99 home computer line in 1982, in which the player lays down a "track" (or "links," in Munch Man parlance), as he progresses through the maze instead of eating pills – a change made by TI to avoid possible lawsuits from Midway.
In 1981,
Leisure and Allied released
Ghostmuncher/
Galaxian. This game was a dual bootleg of Pac-Man and Galaxian. You can change the game with the Dip Switch. In this bootleg, the colors, sounds and names of the ghosts have been changed. The "Galaxian" bootleg is also sped up significantly.[
1]
In the 1990's, Microhard/Magic Games released
Funny Strip. This is a maze game & a rip-off of Pac-Man & Ms. Pac-Man featuring nudity whenever "STRIP TEASE" is spelled out. The lettersthat spell this appear after certain ghosts turn into them after a pill is eaten. [
2]
In 1992,
Creative Dimensions released a Pac-Man clone called CD-Man. CD-Man ate dots and ran from enemies such as spiders and sharks. [
3]
In 1994,
Virtuality released
Hyper Pac-Man[
4], which mixed
Bomberman with
Pac-man. This was followed up by a sequel called
Twinkle[
5] in this version they colored Pac-Man orange and gave him sunglasses.
In 1999,
ESD released
Multi Champ Deluxe. Multi Champ Deluxe is an adult orientated multi game system, where the player chooses a girl and then 1 of 6 games, win the game to save the girl. Games include clones of Pac-man, tetris and columns styled games, as well as pang, Mahjong, and a solitaire card game.[
6] [
7]
In 2000, Genie released
Puckman Pockimon[
8] which teamed up Pac-man and
Pokémon. Player 1 controls Puckman and Player 2 controls
Pikachu's head.
Grandpa Pac-Man was an unofficial sequel created by Lafe Travis Games for the PC and is available as
freeware. Grandpa Pac-Man has 13 mazes to master, 12 intermissions, and 30 different prizes to gobble up. [
9]
Non-video games
In 1982,
Milton Bradley released a
board game based on Pac-Man
[1982 Milton Bradley Pac-Man. The Great Game Database. ] and another based on Ms. Pac-Man
[1983 Milton Bradley Ms. Pac-Man. The Great Game Database.]. Several other pocket games and a card game were also produced.
There have been various debates over the naming of some elements of the game.
Ghosts vs. monsters
The longest-running of these debates are of the villains. The four villains of the game have been called both "monsters" and "ghosts" Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde (and Sue). Among the general population, "ghosts" seems to have become more popular. On the original gameplay instructions located next to the screen, however, the successive "200, 400, 800, 1600" scoring is referred to as "
Monster point value." In
Pac-Mania, the artwork next to the screen also calls them "monsters," and the "Sandbox Land" level introduction screen warns, "Beware of jumping
monsters." On the cabinet artwork for the earlier American games, the villains were also drawn as furry monsters.
The term "ghosts" originates from the
failed Atari 2600 port. Technical limitations caused the villains to flicker, and the game's manual dubbed them "ghosts" so as to cover up the flaw. Although the game was ultimately unsuccessful due to these flaws, the term stuck, and soon spread to all of the
bubble gum cards, stickers, and other merchandise released afterwards.
On the Japanese cabinet art and flyers, the villains appeared somewhat like sheeted ghosts. These became the basis for most drawings on the various merchandise. Consequently, cabinet artwork for later arcade games depicted the villains as more ghost-like.
The TV cartoon version compromised between the two conflicting names by calling them
"ghost-monsters." Despite the name, however, the villains' characteristics were more ghost-like than monster-like. Their outfits, for instance, were now
linen "ghost suits" kept stored in a closet. The villains also appeared to be
spirits with eyes under the suits. However, the game
intermissions show that they have fleshy bodies.
One theoretical way to explain the differences could be in the change that occurs in the monsters when the player eats a "power pellet" (aka "energizer," "energy dot," or "power pill", or in Japan, "Power Ide"). The "energized" monsters change in appearance to a blue shade with yellow eyes and mouths. During this phase the monsters become like ghosts, which are soft enough for Pac-Man to consume without danger.
Power pellets
On the instruction cards, the power items were called
"energizers", but on the Atari 2600 port they were called
"power pills", and on the cartoon they were called
"power pellets" ("pellet" is considered more appropriate, since "pill" might suggest a drug reference). The 240 basic ten-point items on the game are simply called "dots" on the card. Again, the Atari 2600 version changed the dots to "video wafers" (because of their rectangular shape, no doubt). "Pac away" was used as the verb for the act of "eating" them. But there were no such pellets in the cartoon, but rather all were power pellets. (The act of one character eating another was called "
chomping" in the cartoon).
Bonus items
The fruits were not officially classified in the original instruction cards and were not represented in the cartoon. Players have generally adopted the name of "fruits" to the bonus items that appear in the middle of the board.
Pac-Mania officially calls them fruits; when a fruit appears, a notification says, "Fruit target."
Jr. Pac-Man calls them "bonus symbols," but that game had toys instead of fruits. The static square-within-a-square prize in the center of the Atari 2600 board is called a Vitamin by the game's instruction manual. Strategy guides published in the 1980's (mostly about the arcade versions) commonly referred to the fruits as simply "prizes" to accommodate the objects which were not actually fruit (such as the bells, keys, galaxian ships, etc).
A great deal of
Pac-Man merchandise was marketed in the 1980s, from
t-shirts to
toys to hand-held video game imitations to even a pasta. Then, there was the aforementioned Saturday morning TV
cartoon also called
Pac-Man based on the game was produced by
Hanna-Barbera and lasted two years from
1982 to
1984. It was also the basis for a Pac-Man
Christmas special titled
Christmas Comes to Pac-Land. In the series and the special, the "nicknames" given Pac-Man's enemies in the game—Blinky, Pinky, Inky, Clyde; became their official names, and Sue was a new ghost, colored purple. They were led by the evil Mezmaron, who employed them in his plots to raid the Power Pellet Forest (as called by Mezmaron in the show's opening; it is known as simply the "Power Forest" in the actual episodes). Even though Mezmaron was a new character and not from the game, as the leader of the ghosts, he can be seen as representing the game's "
Artificial Intelligence". It certainly did "
mezmerize" many kids, which is perhaps what led to the name.
Marty Ingels was the
voice actor of Pac-Man. Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures released for Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo, was heavily influenced by the cartoon version.
Namco often puts the characters of Pac-man into their other games, as actual opponents or subtle references. Some of the most prominent uses include the
Ridge Racer series of games and
Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune. In addition, similar to
Namco x Capcom, Pac-Man appears as a statue in
Tales of Symphonia, another one of Namco's games. In another
Tales game,
Tales of the Abyss, playable character Jade Curtiss's main outfit has a belt with a buckle shaped like Pac-Man. Because of this, the Pac-Man appears to be eating the belt holes, much like an in-game Pac-Man eating dots.
The comedian
Marcus Brigstocke, referring to controversies over the influence of video games on children, famously stated that "If Pacman had affected us as kids we'd be running around in dark rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music", an allusion to
rave culture.
The
PBS children's show
Square One often featured a segment called
Mathman, a videogame based loosely on
Pac-Man. There is only one monster on the
Mathman board, a
tornado-like creature named "Mr. Glitch", who ordinarily left Mathman alone. Each board had a certain mathematical theme (numbers that are multiples of 4, reduceable fractions, etc.). In order to progress, Mathman would simply move next to one of the problems presented on the board and determine its answer by a count of three. A correct answer/consumption was accompanied by a fanfare similar to that played on many home computers. However, eating an equation which didn't match the theme (a common occurrence used to end the segment) caused Mr. Glitch to endlessly chase Mathman and eventually eat him.
The makers of the
1982 Disney feature-film
Tron snuck a tiny Pac-Man into one quick shot when
Sark is ordering the tanks to be sent out
[Tron - Pac Man. The Easter Egg Archive. Accessed on 2006-07-31.], giving the character a movie
cameo appearance in effect.
In the film
National Lampoon's Vacation, "Rusty Griswold" (
Anthony Michael Hall) asks his cousin if he has
Pac-Man, among other video games popular during the time of the movie's
1983 release (including
Space Invaders and
Asteroids).
In an episode of the TV comedy series
Friends the character
Chandler Bing is given a Ms. Pac-Man machine, and is seen playing it several times.
In the film
Man on the Moon,
Andy Kaufman (portrayed by
Jim Carrey) is seen playing a Ms. Pac-Man machine when
George Shapiro (portrayed by
Danny DeVito) informs him that he was selected to appear on
Taxi. The scene is actually an
anachronism, for the machine model being played by Kaufman was not released until the
1980s.
One of the segments of the
Futurama episode "
Anthology of Interest II" is a parody of various classic video games. Video game aliens attack New New York, and
Philip J. Fry works alongside general Colin Pac-Man (a reference to
Colin Powell) to defeat them. One scene features the characters running through a Pac-Man maze, complete with roaming ghosts and yelling "Waka-waka-waka...!" (in imitation of the Pac-Man "eating" noise). Ms. Pac-Man also appears in this episode after Pac-Man gets shot by the Invaders (he even dies as he does in the games; by opening all the way up and popping out of existence.)
A known distribution of
Linux,
Arch, uses a package management system known as
pacman.
In the popular
video game-oriented
webcomic Penny Arcade, Gabe is almost always seen wearing a yellow shirt with a black outline of Pac-Man. Other strips reveal that his room is decorated with Pac-Man sheets and matching curtains, and his car's license plate reads "PCMNFN" (Pac-Man Fan).
Mike Krahulik, the Penny Arcade artist who uses Gabe as an alter-ego actually has a tattoo of Pac-Man eating pellets around his arm.
VG Cats, another popular
video game webcomic, also uses Pac-Man in one of its logos or graphical representations of the comic. The logo is identical to Pac-Man, however it is colored blue instead of yellow, and has a cat-like tail added to it, along with tiny cat-like ears atop it.
In the
Family Guy direct-to-video film
Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story,
Brian and
Stewie are in the Drunken Clam playing Pac-Man. Brian tells Stewie to get the fruit, and Stewie says he can't get it because there's a ghost right there. Additionally, there is a reference in a different episode about a depressed Pac-Man, in which the ghosts arrive at his house to cheer him up, even resorting to blinking in the hope to raise his spirits. Nonetheless, Pac-Man stays depressed. The ghosts leave, mentioning they will seek out
Q*Bert.
In 2004,
New York University's Interactive Telecommunications graduate program created a "real-world" version of the game called "
Pac-Manhattan" where one player runs around the streets of
New York City dressed as Pac-Man and collects "virtual dots" (there are no physical representations of the dots in the streets, but a map on a central computer knows where Pac-Man has been and, therefore, which streets have been "cleared"). Four other players play the part of the monsters. Pac-Man (or the monsters when Pac-Man has eaten a power pill by touching a streetsign at certain intersections) are killed by (touching with the hands). Each player has a controller counterpart in constant
cell phone contact and are monitored from a centralized location using Wi-Fi Internet connections, and custom software designed by the Pac-Manhattan team.
The 2004 movie "
Club Dread" features a live version of Pac-Man played on "Coconut Pete's" tropical island, in which four bikini clad girls would chase one man through a hedge maze; drinking from a cup of alcohol was the equivalent of a Power Pellet. The full rules of the game were unknown, as it was called off for murder, particularly those dressed in costumes resembling the various fruit pieces of the game.
In the TV comedy series
Scrubs an upright Pac-Man arcade machine can be seen in the doctors' mess room.
Pac-Man appears as a character in the
Drawn Together episode "
Gay Bash," and in a comic twist is revealed to be Ms. Pac-Man in drag.
Other video games
Also called "Kick" in earlier versions, Pac-Man made a guest appearance in this game. The object of Kickman is to catch falling balloons on the head of a unicycle rider. In some levels of the game, a Pac-Man may descend and, with his familiar sound effects, eat the already-caught balloons for bonus points. Ghosts appear as well in higher levels.
In Wolfenstein 3D, there is a secret level, which is a remake of one of the mazes in Pac-Man, complete with Pac-Man ghosts which chase the player. They cannot be killed. The dots are replaced with treasure items and the power pills are replaced with extra lives.
|
Pac-Man is one of the first non-Mario characters to be playable in a Mario Kart game. |
Pac-Man is a playable character in the
Mario Kart Arcade GP game; in fact, Pac-Man is one of the first non-Nintendo characters to appear in a Nintendo game.
Klonoa, a Namco character, always wears a blue cap with a little Pac-Man on it. Curiously, this mark was erased in
Namco x Capcom, in which Pac-Man's only appearance is as a statue in a single stage. Some fans might use Pac-Man's playable appearance in
Mario Kart Arcade GP as an explanation for his total absence in
Namco x Capcom, seeing as he crossed over with
Mario instead.
Ms. Pac-Man and the red ghost Blinky are also playable.
Pac-Man is a secret yet unlockable character in the title: Anna Kournikova's Smash Court Tennis. He looks exactly like his 3D render. To unlock him, the player had to complete Times Square court under "Street Tournament" six times.
Songs
There have been a number of songs inspired by the game:
*
Buckner and Garcia recorded a 1982 song titled
Pac-Man Fever. This song used some sounds from the game.
*
I-Mockery wrote and performed an over-the-top song titled "
I Will Beat Pac-Man" and created an animated video for it.
*
Lil' Flip recorded a song called
Game Over which incorporated some sounds from the game.
*The
Bloodhound Gang used Pac Man sound effects and dialog with Pac-Man in the song "Mope." Pac-Man also appeared in the music video.
*
Aphex Twin, in the guise of Power Pill, recorded
Pac-Man which incorporated many sounds from the game along with most of its soundtrack.
*
"Weird Al" Yankovic has an unreleased song entitled "Pacman", paroding the song "
Taxman" by
The Beatles.
*There is a song misattributed to
"Weird Al" Yankovic called "I'm a Wigga" that features some Pac-Man sound effects in certain parts of the song.
*
Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota has a song called
Un Pacman en el Savoy (a Pacman in the Savoy).
*Rapper
Beanie Sigel has a song called "Mac Man", which uses sounds from the game as part of the instrumental beat, and is full of videogame-inspired lyrics.
*The UK group
Kaiser Chiefs make a reference to Pac Man in the song "
Oh My God" with the lyrics "Knock me down I'll get right back up again / I'll come back stronger than a powered up Pac-Man".
*The band
Barnes & Barnes released a song entitled "I Had Sex With Pac-Man" on its 1982 untitled EP.
*
Worm Quartet released a song in 2003 entitled "Pac-Man is Naked and So Should You".
MySpace
When
MySpace's main servers lost power in the early hours of July 24, 2006 its webmasters put up a temporary, playable Pac-Man game on the main page. This game also replaces the main page when the servers are down for maintenance or other reasons.
;Further reading
* Trueman, Doug (November 10, 1999). "
The History of Pac-Man".
GameSpot. Comprehensive coverage on the history of the entire series up through 1999.
* Morris, Chris (May 10, 2005). "
Pac Man Turns 25".
CNN Money.
* Vargas, Jose Antonio (June 22, 2005). "
Still Love at First Bite: At 25, Pac-Man Remains a Hot Pursuit".
The Washington Post.
* Hirschfeld, Tom.
How to Master the Video Games, Bantam Books, 1981. ISBN 0553201646 Arcade strategy guide to several games including incarnations of Pac-Man. Includes hand drawings of some of the common patterns for use in the arcade Pac-Man.
* Hirschfeld, Tom.
How to Master Home Video Games, Bantam Books, 1982. ISBN 0553201956 Follow-up guide covering home versions among others.
, Arcade machine from the Former Eastern Bloc, incorporating their answer to
Pac-Man.
Official sites
* Namco Games official page for the mobile phone port
* PAC-MAN on Palm devices
* PAC-MAN on Windows Mobile devices
;Other
* Pac Man entry on the Killer List of Videogames
* MobyGames' entry for Pac-Man
* Strategy wiki-guide for Pac-Man at strategywiki.net
* Arcade History entry
* Pac-Man at The Dot Eaters
* Pac-Man being used to test cognitive reasoning in chimps
* A collection of over 150 pacman online-games
