What were the most accurate contemporary home versions of Pac-Man?

[davidbrit2]

I'm talking pre-emulation or Namco Museum. Which console/computer ports got it right? It seems like the ones directly from Namco usually turned out pretty faithful (e.g. Famicom/NES), but most of the Atarisoft releases got the ghost AI extremely wrong. Strangely, the Intellivison version has the most accurate AI I've seen among Western conversions; it even has at least two of the one-way tunnels above the ghost box (not sure about the ones below it). It also has the cartoons, but the maze has been quite simplified. The accuracy of the ghosts makes me wonder if they actually talked to Namco while doing that version, or maybe disassembled some of the arcade code.

Who else nailed it?

[DK1105]

Don't quote me on this but I think the Ms. Pacman on the genesis is quite good. It's been a few years since I have played that version though. I guess its time to take it off the shelf and break out the arcade stick.

[MidnightRider]

As for the original, I think the best version was actually on a handheld, the Game Gear, or NeoGeo Pocket.

[wiggyx]

Neo-Geo Pocket is often regarded as the most accurate home console port.

[davidbrit2]

I just watched a bit of the unreleased Colecovision version. It looks very accurate except for a couple small details, such as the ghosts being able to exit the box to the right.

The NGPC version looks decent, but sound is a bit off. If we're looking at modern handhelds, I'm guessing the GBA version in Pac Man Collection can beat it. I'll bet it plays great with the NGPC stick, though.

[wiggyx]

The NGPC version is a far more accurate adaptation than the GBA version, gameplay-wise.

[davidbrit2]

The NGPC version is a far more accurate adaptation than the GBA version, gameplay-wise.

Interesting. I'll have to grab a copy of it sometime.

[sloan]

Basically, any Namco PnP you can get your hands on is quite faithful to arcade Pac Man in my experience.

[davidbrit2]

Basically, any Namco PnP you can get your hands on is quite faithful to arcade Pac Man in my experience.

I tried running both the cherry and strawberry patterns from this site on the first board (in case it's simulating the "hard" dipswitch setting), and they both fell apart by the second panel of the diagram. This is on the Pac-Man that looks like a tiny arcade control panel, with the fake coin return menu button in front. I'm guessing there are subtle speed differences that cause it to diverge. The ghosts seem to react properly, though I'm not sure if they fixed the Pinky/Inky targeting bug.

http://nrchapman.com/pacman/

[Tanooki]

I always felt the final revision of the home jakks pacific units did it the best, the totally wireless one called the Ms Pac Man unit that eats up a whopping 8 AAs and saves high scores. It has some strongly faithful version of all the games on there, even for the most part Pole Position is dead on due to the joystick as it can be rotated like a wheel.

[BlastProcessing402]

Strangely, the Intellivison version has the most accurate AI I've seen among Western conversions;

I didn't even know an Intellivision version existed.

Anyway, going the other direction, what was the worst, least accurate port? Obviously Atari 2600 comes to mind immediately, but was there any worse version? I had a watch version that was probably less accurate (it was about as accurate as Tiger's LCD games were to any game they were supposed to be) but I don't know that I'd say it was worse.

[davidbrit2]

I didn't even know an Intellivision version existed.

Anyway, going the other direction, what was the worst, least accurate port? Obviously Atari 2600 comes to mind immediately, but was there any worse version? I had a watch version that was probably less accurate (it was about as accurate as Tiger's LCD games were to any game they were supposed to be) but I don't know that I'd say it was worse.

The Atarisoft version for Vic-20 is pretty abysmal. In terms of accuracy, the Atari 2600 version is much worse, but on its own merits, it's the better (i.e. more playable) of the two.

[Serious]

I don't think that there would be any contemporary release that would be as true to the original as to allow the same patterns to work. That would require either emulation or a deliberate reproduction of the game logic (which would be very difficult to accomplish in the limited memory/capabilities of home consoles circa 1983).

From what I have read elsewhere, Namco actually regarded the use of patterns in Pac-Man as against the spirit of the game (they compared it to taking the glass off a pinball machine and hitting the targets with your fingers), so I don't think they would deliberately have produced any versions that allowed the user to leverage those same patterns.

Of the official home versions that were available back around 1983, I thought that the Atari 400 and 5200 versions were quite good. Of the unofficial versions, Muncher looked like the best (though I never got to actually play it myself).

For newer releases, I would highly recommend checking out the Pac-Man Collection for Atari 7800, available from AtariAge. The programmer has done some really remarkable things in producing this version that I think would really please anyone who considers themselves a Pac-Man purist.