View Full Version : Teach me about Pac-Man
JustRob
11-02-2011, 11:38 AM
When I was a kid, I had Pac-Man for NES. It was one of the few games I could get my aunt to actually sit and play with me. Now that I'm older and I have access to any system I want, I was curious about which of the older systems had the best, or rather, most faithful version of the game?
chrisbid
11-02-2011, 11:50 AM
the 7800 or Colecovision Pac Man Collection homebrews are the most faithful ports of the arcade game. including ms pac, pac plus, and the speed cheats.
BlastProcessing402
11-02-2011, 01:51 PM
Not Atari 2600 :deadhorse:
Joking aside, is there a reason, other than love of vintage stuff, that you're limiting this to 8-bit? I would guess that some of the later versions (usually as some sort of compilation) would stand a better chance of being arcade faithful than something designed around the limitations of home systems three decades ago. And don't forget about MAME.
VCS version is not that bad.
I liked it a lot, but I never played arcades, so I wasn't aware of it being an arcade game. For me it was a great VCS game, played it for hours.
Of course, A8 version is up there with being the best version, and Namco on PSX.
JustRob
11-02-2011, 05:21 PM
Well, I have a tendancy to put limitations on requests like this, more to narrow the scope, but I guess the question can be extended to any version really. What is the "best" version of pac-man, 1) regarding arcade faithfulness, 2) just all around fun version?
MachineGex
11-02-2011, 06:10 PM
The "funnest" version is Ms. Pacman Tengen version on NES. It has Strange mazes and you can play two player co-op (at the same time)! Not sure if you wanted just Pacman, but Ms.Pacman is part of the family and you will not find a funner version. Pacmania is also a really fun game on the NES.
Satoshi_Matrix
11-02-2011, 06:41 PM
I recommend Tengen Ms. Pacman for NES. In fact, it placed 84th in my top 100 NES/Famicom games list. http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/2011/08/20/top-100-nesfamicom-games-list-89-80/
JustRob
11-02-2011, 06:45 PM
All versions welcome. I actually don't know much about Pac-Man to be honest. I'd played it in the arcades, and lately that dual Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga machine is pretty much the only game I'll play if I find games at all in places.
So let's have it, let's hear your opinions on the Pac-Man family.
treismac
11-02-2011, 07:40 PM
So let's have it, let's hear your opinions on the Pac-Man family.
Ms. Pac-Man is superior to Pac-Man. This view is nearly universal so I think it could be considered fact rather than opinion. The mazes change their layout and color, and the fruit moves. Bam. Winner.
The newer Pac-Man Championship Editions rock too. It is a crying shame this game never found its way to the Wii. What a crappy consolation that exclusive Pac-Man Party game was for Wii owners...
What I recommend that you buy is the Jakks Ms. Pac-Man Plug n' Play (http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/41). In addition to Ms. Pac-Man, it also comes with Pole Position, Mappy Land, Galaga, Xevious, and some version include a cartridge that has Dig Dug and Rally-X on it. They use to go for like $20 at stores. There is a Pac-Man version too, that includes a bunch of different versions of Pac-Man (Pac-Man Plus, Super Pac-Man, Pac & Pal, and the original). The joystick's controls aren't as fluid as the Ms. Pac-Man version, unfortunately.
Baloo
11-02-2011, 07:51 PM
As a big fan of Ms. Pac-Man, I must say that no version stands up to an actual arcade cabinet with speed chip. All home ports save for the Genesis one play slow as molasses and make me feel like I'm on cough syrup.
If you really want to play a derivative of Pac-Man at home, go with the Genesis version where you can adjust the speeds. The only problem with this version is that unlike the arcades, the ghosts will travel as fast as you do, making it still different from the arcade classic.
Frankie_Says_Relax
11-02-2011, 08:38 PM
As far as the Pac-Family of games is concerned Super Pac-Man is my #1 favorite.
It's not nearly as punishing as traditional Pac-Man games and once you get the hang of it/get in a groove a typical game can go for quite a while.
Hard to find on home consoles of the 8 and 16 bit era (appeared on some 8-bit computers) but starting with the 32 bit generation you can find it on many of the Namco released collections.
It's also pretty faithfully represented on a few of the Namco/Jakks Pacific Plug&Play TV Games.
If you've never played it, and you're educating yourself on Pac-Games give it a go!
MachineGex
11-02-2011, 09:01 PM
As far as the Pac-Family of games is concerned Super Pac-Man is my #1 favorite.
It's not nearly as punishing as traditional Pac-Man games and once you get the hang of it/get in a groove a typical game can go for quite a while.
Back in 1996 I saw an ad for a pacman arcade machine. We drove 1.5 hours to see it after work one night. When we got there, we were happy to see it was a cocktail table, but when they plugged it in, Super Pacman started up. I had never played Super Pacman, and really didnt see the appeal in the five minutes that I tested it out. My Girlfriend(my wife now) and I were going in half's, but we couldn't decide if Super Pacman was worth the $200 we scrapped together. Back then, $200 was an almost impossible amount of money. After a long debate, we decided to go home empty handed would stink and we bought it.
We loaded it into my '79 Datsun 210. It fit like a glove. We got home and after a few plays, we figured out the in & outs of the game and we both fell in love with it. We played the game more than I would like to admit to a non-gamer. I believe my high score was around 300,000 or so. We still have that arcade. It was our first and it has never had a problem. It has moved with us from house to house, state to state. It still looks great and besides slight burn-in, plays like new.
So yeah, I think Super Pacman is under-rated. Give it some time and the game will get it's hooks in ya.
shertz
11-02-2011, 09:18 PM
When I was a kid, I had Pac-Man for NES. It was one of the few games I could get my aunt to actually sit and play with me. Now that I'm older and I have access to any system I want, I was curious about which of the older systems had the best, or rather, most faithful version of the game?
If you talk about "older" systems, that can go back as new as the N64 and the PS2. But I'm assuming you mean 8-bit. So there for, the NES and the Colecovision (atari) ports are the most faithful IMO.
Compute
11-02-2011, 10:40 PM
I think limiting to 8 bit makes sense because Namco Museum. I think my favorite is Ms. Pac Man for Genesis/Megadrive, though.
Edmond Dantes
11-03-2011, 12:38 AM
Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures. SNES version includes arcade-perfect ports of both Pacman and Ms. Pac-Man (Genesis version replaces the latter with Pac-Man Jr).
Leo_A
11-03-2011, 01:10 AM
As a big fan of Ms. Pac-Man, I must say that no version stands up to an actual arcade cabinet with speed chip. All home ports save for the Genesis one play slow as molasses and make me feel like I'm on cough syrup.
The SuperNes release is just like the Genesis release. And I believe the NES and perhaps even the SMS version are more or less the same.
Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures. SNES version includes arcade-perfect ports of both Pacman and Ms. Pac-Man (Genesis version replaces the latter with Pac-Man Jr).
Try using a arcade pattern on Pac-Man. It won't work.
The only arcade perfect version has been on Namco Museum 50th Anniversary for last generation consoles. Unlike every other release that has been done from scratch, it relied on emulation. Everything works as it should, including patterns developed 30 years ago.
Edmond Dantes
11-03-2011, 04:12 AM
Admittedly I'm no Pac-Man expert, so I don't know what this is about "patterns."
I just know it as "that game you kill a few minutes with."
Leo_A
11-03-2011, 05:42 AM
People have been developing patterns to clear the mazes in Pac-Man almost since day 1. They're just what they sound like they are, a predetermined route through the maze that will keep you safe from the ghosts (And sometimes, they've even advanced enough to allow you to kill all 4 ghost, 4 times a round on the rounds where it's possible). Check out almost any strategy book on videogames from back in the day (Of which the DP library has several of) and they're full of such things.
And except in the case of Namco Museum 50th Anniversary, they've never worked at home since they've always just been recreations of the arcade game done from scratch and don't 100% mimic things like the behavior of the ghost in the actual arcade game.
Blanka789
11-03-2011, 07:06 AM
If you don't know too much about Pac-Man, I'd advise you to go with Pac-Man Championship Edition DX for the PS3 or 360. Even though it isn't the original, it recreates that feeling of playing Pac-Man for the first time in a dark arcade more than any other version has for me.
It isn't the original version, but it's incredibly fun. Like others have said, no home release has been a perfect translation from the arcade. Pac Man Championship Edition DX is an original, but is one of the closest things I've seen to gameplay perfection.
Unless you have room for a cabinet or cocktail, this is the one to get.
Rob2600
11-03-2011, 02:28 PM
If you get a chance, try Pac-Man vs. on the GameCube.
Frankie_Says_Relax
11-03-2011, 03:46 PM
If you get a chance, try Pac-Man vs. on the GameCube.
And by try Pac Man Vs. he means be sure to have a GBA with a Gamecube cable and three friends to play it with.
It's a really fun experience if you have the required setup.
Rob2600
11-03-2011, 04:12 PM
And by try Pac Man Vs. he means be sure to have a GBA with a Gamecube cable and three friends to play it with.
It's a really fun experience if you have the required setup.
Agreed, thanks for the additional info :)
Frankie_Says_Relax
11-03-2011, 04:15 PM
Agreed, thanks for the additional info :)
It's also on Namco Museum DS and can link with three other DS'es in the same way.
Fun fact: Shigeru Miyamoto designed Pac-Man Vs.!
BlastProcessing402
11-03-2011, 04:28 PM
Has there ever been an attempt at a home port of Baby Pac-Man? Obviously that's one where you'd never be able to completely recreate the arcade experience, but considering how many video game pinball games there have been it seems someone would've tried at some point.
I don't remember it being a particularly great game, but the local place had several of them when I was a kid, so it'd be kinda neat to play a little now and then to nostalgia out.
Leo_A
11-04-2011, 10:22 PM
It's also on Namco Museum DS and can link with three other DS'es in the same way.
What happens to the 4th ghost? Too bad it doesn't allow 5 person multiplayer, but I suppose few would ever be in a situation where they could ever take advantage of that anyways.
Has there ever been an attempt at a home port of Baby Pac-Man? Obviously that's one where you'd never be able to completely recreate the arcade experience, but considering how many video game pinball games there have been it seems someone would've tried at some point.
No home ports, but I believe a version of MAME (To handle the videogame half) and VisualPin or whatever it's called (To handle the pinball half) can be linked to recreate it. So if you're willing to invest the 50 hours into getting the things working together correctly, you could do it.
BlastProcessing402
11-05-2011, 07:53 PM
No home ports, but I believe a version of MAME (To handle the videogame half) and VisualPin or whatever it's called (To handle the pinball half) can be linked to recreate it. So if you're willing to invest the 50 hours into getting the things working together correctly, you could do it.
Interesting. Maybe if I get really bored someday I'll look into that. Thanks for the info anyway.