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SoulBlazer
07-19-2003, 08:21 PM
Last week I went with some friends to my local Dave and Busters, a place I had'nt been to for about six months. It's a small one (Providence RI) compared to other ones, but there's still a good mix of games, gambling games, and party stuff. There was some new stuff since last time I had been in there.

One of the 'new' games was the 20th Anniversary Edition of Ms Pac Man and Galaga, from Namco. Both games were in the same machine. It almost looked out of place, sitting in a corner surronded by more modern games. Still, it got as much play time as the other machines there.

Even though it had been a long time since I had played Ms Pac Man, I recalled how good I used to be at it and sat down to try it. Several things jumped out at me right away.

For starters, I would swear the game was MUCH faster then what I recall playing before. It did'nt take long for my friends to notice and comment on my hand-eye cordination as I handled the joystick to keep the game going. Also, the mazes seem to have been shuffled around in a different order then in the original game, and after the fruits started to repeat, the mazes changed also.

My biggest shock was around the 10th board when the power pellets suddenly lost effect totally! No fraction of a second like before, but no effect at all. The first time I saw this, I ran into a ghost beyond the pellet cause I thought that I could get that split second to eat him!

Still, I managed to get a score of about 76,000. I thought that was good -- until I noticed the high score was for over half a million! O_O

Nothing like impressing your friends and then feeling humbled. LOL

dave2236
07-19-2003, 09:08 PM
I saw one of those machines at a Budget Theatre last week when I went to see X2 . I went cool and was going to play it with the quarter that I had in my pocket, but I couldn't cause it was $.50 and I didn't want to ask the cashier for change......I went home dissapointed, but thought it was cool to see the machine.

NE146
07-19-2003, 09:22 PM
Yeah that's been out for a while..about 3 years now. The other "new" combo rerelease games you see are Centipede/Millipede/Missile Command and I think there might be one other. It sounds like maybe the MsPac you played had MsPacman's speed (herself) set to high? Since that's also an option on the new ones.

Yes there are some definite differences in the gameplay and overall "feel" from the original.. but that's to be expected. Anyway, to your average guy who doesn't play the originals constantly, it aint that noticeable. But there are definite subtle differences that any devout MsPac or Galaga player will pick up on.


My biggest shock was around the 10th board when the power pellets suddenly lost effect totally! No fraction of a second like before, but no effect at all. The first time I saw this, I ran into a ghost beyond the pellet cause I thought that I could get that split second to eat him!

Was your shock in that the power pellets had no effect, or in that it happened so early? In the original the power pellets lose effect on the 17th (?) board and then stay that way permanently from the 19th on. (My figures could be a board or two off). But yeah.. if they stopped on the 10th board, then that's pretty early! :P

Zaxxon
07-19-2003, 09:30 PM
Do the original Ms. Pac Man and Galaga run on identical hardware? If so, haven't people just made their own combos by swapping the roms by hand or with a switch? If you bought the PCBs you could legally do this and save yourself a ton of money instead of buying one of those new $3,000+ combos. Whata RIP!

sidgoop
07-19-2003, 11:18 PM
The original Pac Man is also available in that game. To get it, put your quarter in, and the screen should come up to the Ms. Pac Man / Galaga game select. Now move the joystick UP, UP, DOWN, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT and you will hear a chime. Then select the Ms. Pac Man, and the original Pac Man will start. As for the speed, it has two speeds in the game settings mode. Regular and Fast. The only problem is that "Regular" seems too slow, and "Fast" is VERY fast. There is another "multi" arcade game called the Ultracade. It has about 50+ games from Street Fighter to Defender. Here's a link:
http://www.ultracade.com/

Dire 51
07-19-2003, 11:38 PM
One of my former employers, Brookstone, sells those machines, along with one or two others.

http://www.brookstone.com/world.asp

Just do a search for Ms. Pac-Man or Centipede and they'll turn right up.[/url]

RJ
07-20-2003, 08:39 AM
sidgoop said:
put your quarter in,...

dave 2236 said:
...it was $.50...

??? :hmm: