Crazy Otto coming to MAME!

[diskoboy]

General Computer Corp. is releasing the ROMs to Crazy Otto into a future version of MAME!!

http://www.rotheblog.com/2009/12/arcade/general-computer-corp-crazy-otto-release-mame-2010/

For those of you wondering why you should care... This is actually pretty big news.

You all may know Crazy Otto better as Ms. Pac-Man. The picture below was accidentaly used in a Time Magazine article about the Pac-Man craze, back in 1981. This is the only picture that has ever been seen of this game.
http://www.arcade-history.com/images/game/10886_1.png
It was the bootleg copy of Pac-Man that GCC designed after their lawsuit with Atari over thier Missile Command 'upgrades'. They took Crazy Otto to Midway to get their blessing to sell as an upgrade for Pac-Man machines. Instead, Midway asked them to change it into a full fledged sequel (which also pissed off Namco to no end...)

Thus Ms. Pac-Man was born!

This game has sat in GCC's possession since 1981 - never played by the general public.

[InsaneDavid]

That's pretty damn amazing.

[aclbandit]

Exciting news! Thank you so much for the heads up!

[Tempest]

Am I the only one excited at the mention of locating Manhattan in that article? Probably... :)

[Raedon]

Interesting stuff. I had no idea about this game.

[Gapporin]

Here's another thread on the subject (http://www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Number=208340) with a lot more screenshots (courtesy of MAMEworld).

[GrandAmChandler]

Where Is The Marble Madness 2 Rom!?

[Baloo]

Although this is rather interesting (I heard a different story about Ms Pac-man, that some college students developed it) and great for preservation, I don't know if a slightly different version of Ms. Pac-Man will be all that interesting to play.

[diskoboy]

Although this is rather interesting (I heard a different story about Ms Pac-man, that some college students developed it) and great for preservation, I don't know if a slightly different version of Ms. Pac-Man will be all that interesting to play.

You basically heard the same story... Those college kids were Doug Macrae and Kevin Curran who founded GCC. They designed Super Missle Attack upgrades for Missle Command machines. Atari sued, the case was eventually settled. As we all now know, they later developed the 7800, Food Fight, and Quantum for Atari. They were working on Crazy Otto during the trial. Instead of throwing away their work, they took it to Midway. Midway said screw the upgrade, give us a legit sequel. The rest is history.

Steve Kents book describes this whole ordeal, in great detail.

[k8track]

The first thing I thought of when I saw "Crazy Otto" was the weird German pianist from the 1950s who had several LP records; I have one of them and you see them from time to time in junk stores. Fresh!

[Sanriostar]

Say Crazy Otto's to me, and this is what I think of, other than the game:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v88/Sanriostar/otto2.jpg

The biggest breakfast you can get in the Antelope Valley, in Southern California.

[GOLDEN KEYS]

in the most recent game informer there is a four page article on the history of ms. pac-man.

http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2009/12/17/news-ms-pac-man-was-once-a-man-named-otto.aspx

[boatofcar]

Wow, great news! Thanks for posting it diskoboy!

[Tupin]

http://www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=210002&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1&vc=1

I'll just leave this here.

[Kitsune Sniper]

WOW. What a disappointment. :(

[Ed Oscuro]

What they ought to do is dump the ROMz and then wait until everybody's dead to release it. Yep.

Cripes, if they had just released it without saying where it came from, nobody would have had a clue.

[Videogamerdaryll]

in the most recent game informer there is a four page article on the history of ms. pac-man.

http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2009/12/17/news-ms-pac-man-was-once-a-man-named-otto.aspx


Yes yes..
I was talking about this with my Brother in law,yesterday since we both own Ms Pac Man Machines..

[guitargary75]

That's awsome!