Pac-Man

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Pac-Man

Game No.	89
Voting	6.68 points, 31 votes
Company	Atarisoft
Publisher	Thunder Mountain
HVSC-File	GAMES/M-R/Pac_Man.sid
Release	1983
Platform	C64, Arcade, ZX Spectrum, MSX
Genre	Arcade, Pac Man
Gamemode	Single player 2 players (in turns)
Operation
Media
Language

Description[edit | edit source]

In 1983 the first Pac-Man conversion of the arcade blockbuster Pac-Man (from 1980) was realeased for the C64 by Namco under Arialosoft. In the first game the yellow smilie Pac-Man had to collect all dots inside a labyrinth by eating them. At the same time he needs to watch out for the 4 ghosts named Blinky aka Shadow, Pinky aka Speedy, Inky aka Bashful and Clyde aka Pokey that disturb him while eating and which cause him to lose a life when he touches them. Pac-Man can change the side of the labyrinth through the tunnels attached at the sides and with this confuse the ghosts. Furthermore by eating the 4 energy points he can make the ghosts take flight for a short time and eat them. As a bonus every few minutes fruit appears at the starting position of Pac-Man. A round is done when all points have been eaten. With every new level the ghosts get faster and need to be caught more quickly.

There are many versions of Pac-Man. Sometimes it is closer to the arcade version, sometimes it is more a 3D-labyrinth game or it is transferred to space surroundings. There are Pac-Man games for the most computer and console systems. Some versions for the C64 are Ms. Pac-Man, Jr. Pac-Man Super Pac-Man and Pacmania.

Design[edit | edit source]

... Pac-Man on big eating tour in level 1...

... Pac-Man's enemies clad in blue and on the run ...

The design corresponds the arcade version, i.e. a blue labyrinth with yellow dots and a yellow Pac-Man as well as 4 ghosts in the colours red, pink, bright-blue (turquoise) and orange. Slight animation of the dots, Pac-Man and the ghosts. Nice intermediate animations for taking breath. As background music serves a wail that is complemented by sound effects.

Hints[edit | edit source]

For eaten ghosts by collecting the energy dots you get 200, 400, 800, max. 1600 points.
Every 10.000 points reached you get an extra life.
There are special points for eating the fruit from 100 to max. 5000 points extra.

Bonus	Points	from level
Cherry	100	1
Strawberry	200	2
Orange	500	3
Apple	700	5
Plum	1000	7
Berries	2000	9
Bell	3000	11
Key	5000	13

Keyboard controls in the main screen:

F1 start the game
F3 1 or 2 players
F5 difficulty or startlevel over bonus
Restore reset the game
Other keys should not be pressed during the game

Solution[edit | edit source]

Data

 A      B    C   D   E    F     G
----------------------------------
 1     100  50  40  40  4 sec  5 x
 2     200  50  40  40  3 sec  5 x
 3     500  50  50  50  2 sec  5 x
 4     500  60  50  50  1 sec  5 x
 5     700  70  70  60  0 sec  5 x
 6     700  70  70  60  3 sec  5 x
 7    1000  70  70  60  0 sec  5 x
 8    1000  70  70  60  0 sec  5 x
 9    2000  70  70  60  0 sec  3 x
10    2000  70  70  60  3 sec  5 x
11    3000  70  70  60  0 sec  5 x
12    3000  70  70  60  0 sec  3 x
13    5000  70  70  60  0 sec  3 x
14    5000  70  70  60  1 sec  3 x
15    5000  70  70  60  0 sec  5 x
16    5000  70  70  60  0 sec  3 x
17    5000  70  70  60  0 sec  0 x
18    5000  70  70  60  0 sec  3 x
19&up 5000  70  70  60  0 sec  0 x
    
A = Level number        E = Speed of Pinky, Inky and Clyde
B = Nugget value        F = Ghosts are blue
C = Pacman's speed      G = Ghosts flash blue
D = Blinky's speed

Cheats[edit | edit source]

Voting[edit | edit source]

Voting of the C64-Wiki users (10=the best vote):
6.68 points at 31 votes (rank 565). You need to be logged in to cast a vote.
C64Games	6	18th June 2011 - "good" 27342 downs
Lemon64	7,5	18th June 2011 - 71 votes
Rombachs C64-Spieleführer	8	September 1984 - "2"

Reviews[edit | edit source]

Jodigi: "The classic, cult and always good for the diverting amusement. Even though other Pac-Man clones are often also tempting."

Werner: "Bad controls, as Pac-Man sometimes keeps stuck in the corners. Boredom lurks, as the first levels are far too easy. 5 points from me."

Robotron2084: The loveless graphics and the mising dynamics ruin the desire for more. Of course, the original didn't really look good either, but at least better than this porting. Otherwise it is quite o.k., but clearly stands in the shadow of Ms. Pac-Man, the definitely better conversion. Neither really good, nor really bad, therefore also 5 points from me."

Shakermaker303: "A true classic of video games, unfortunately for the C64 converted in a suboptimal way."

Miscellaneous[edit | edit source]

In the orignal there is a small blemish: in the title image the fruit that symbolizes the difficulty level is not shown in multicolour. This was repaired in the version by "Remember".

Cover