Random Game O' the Day: Pac-Man (2600)

[digitalpress]

Today begins a week of "game 'o the day" that I am going to dub "Nasty Week". Seven days of seven really awful games. At least in my eyes... you can be the judge and agree or dispute it!

So the "Random" "Game" "Generator" "(tm)" has chosen Atari 2600 Pac-Man, a brilliant collection of blocks and large square dots.

Let's hear about it.

DP Guide sez:

Pac-Man (Atari 2600, by Atari) $1/R1 -
Designed by Tod Frye. Based on the 1980 Namco coin-op. Original arcade game designed by Tohru Iwatani. A pack-in with the Atari 2600 console beginning in 1983, Tod received a reported $1 million in royalties for this game. Note that the "gobble" sound was ripped from Atari's own Street Racer! There are two different boxes for this title. The Atari Inc. box features the standard two-dimensional Pac-Man while the Atari Corp. release has a running, 3-D Pac-Man. SANTULLI SLANT: Rather than describe this game that everyone knows, here's a list of games that "borrow" some of Pac-Man's ideas: Alien, Amidar, Bank Heist, Burgertime, Cat Trax, Clean Sweep, Jr. Pac-Man, KC Munchkin, Ladybug, Lock `N Chase, Mouse Trap, Ms. Pac-Man, Muncher, Oil's Well, Pac-Mania, Pepper II, Pirate's Chase, Spiderdroid, Tunnel Runner. Now that's what I call homage. I've never played a worse version of this game on any system, including several hardwired handhelds. This is one butt-ugly, sluggish, flicker-fest of a game. The dots are squares. The walls are longer squares. Yes, even Pac-Man and the ghosts are squares, but some of their corners are a little less square than the walls themselves. My friends, this game is squarer than the squarest thing you've ever seen. Keep away. [Gr: 3, So: 2, Ga: 4, Ov: 3] c1981 Atari. #CX2646.

http://www.digitpress.com/dpsightz/atari2600/pacman.gif

[soupforare]

Ok, so it's not anything like Pac-Man arcade, but it was fun for a bit, I still plug it in occasionally.

There are certainly worse games on the 2600.

[Flack]

Even as a ten year old, I realized this game sucked. That didn't stop us from playing it, of course. Kids now who think that Mario or even Sonic were big probably don't remember Pac-Mania. I had Pac-Man sheets, drinking glasses, back pack, school folders ... and finally, a version I could play at home. So even though we all knew it didn't look exactly like the arcade, that didn't keep us from playing it.

I can only remember my dad letting my skip school a few times -- one was for the Pac-Man launch, the other was when Return of the Jedi came out.

I mentioned this thread to my wife, and she said she can remember her dad actually breaking joysticks off playing Pac-Man. My dad never broke one on Pac-Man ... Atari Pinball was his vice.

[sisko]

I don't understand why everybody hates this game so much. I loved it!

Obviously, its not the best out there, but its still a fun two player game that can really test your abilities when you get to the higher levels.

My biggest complaint is that he was a little stiff to control. But I'm not sure if that was the game or the faulty joystick.

[scooterb23]

I like Pac-Man on the 2600. It's a fun game, yeah...it doesn't look like the arcade version...but that doesn't matter to me. It's a fun game in its own right.

Plus, my high score on 2600 Pac-Man is about 350,000..can't break 100K on the arcade version. :D

[oesiii]

I liked it as a 12-yr old kid, the Pac-Man arcade machines were usually too crowded so this was a good alternative and if it's all you have them you learn to like it :D

But now I can't play it for more than a couple of minutes, there's just too many better alternatives on the 2600, Jr. Pac, Better Pac (PacMan Arcade), and Ms. Pac.

[Retsudo]

Actually I never owned a 2600. My best friend had one and this game.I thought it looked kinda silly back then because it was a poor excuse for a Pac-man game. But, it was the closes thing to it, and if you wanted to play Pac-man without putting in Quarters, then this was your only alternative at the time. @_@

[Aswald]

Bleah.

[Darth Sensei]

I hated it. I spent my own hard earned money from working in the yard on that blatant cheap and easy money grab by Atari. I was soooooo disappointed. Back then they didn't have graphics shots on the back of the box so you had very little idea what you were really buying and then you couldn't return the game if it sucked. Reviews weren't plentiful like you have today. I was suckered.

About the only ram job worse than that was buying ET for the 2600. We fell for that too. :embarrassed:

D

[Ascending Wordsmith]

ilovedthatgameiusedtoplayitallthetimewheniwasakid.

[ddockery]

I just hate it because it could have and should have been much better. That said, I still played it like crazy.

[Mayhem]

There's something to be said when my brother and I deliberately broke the game after a couple of days (by pulling it out of the 2600 whilst the power was still on) so mother could take it back to the shops and get a different cartridge for us as replacement...

[Britboy]

I remember it was so overhyped, the release day was trumpeted for months like a major motion picture. A buddy of mine shelled out the fifty bucks and we all gathered around as he switched it on. There was then a collective ??????? from the group, followed by several "What the %@%# is this &$#&%#???????"

[Oobgarm]

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/images/avatars/2509.gif


*DANK DANK DANK... BOOP!*

I think that sums it all up. LOL

[Kid Ice]

You dare speak the name of "The Thing That Should Not Be"?

[Nature Boy]

Count me amongst those who like the game. Sure I like Ms. Pac-Man more, but I like it more in the arcade as well.

It's only a disappointing game if you insist on it being the same as the original. I've never cared about that. So what if the maze is different. Or the ghosts flicker. Or the sound was different. It was Pac-Man, and it didn't cost me a quarter when I wanted to play it.

In hindsight, as someone who has looked at various code for various games, I'm impressed that something was thrown together so quickly. As a programmer I totally admire that. And as a programmer I feel bad for those who slam Pac-Man's creater when it was his employer's timelines that forced a rushed product.

[bargora]

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/images/avatars/2509.gif


*DANK DANK DANK... BOOP!*

I think that sums it all up. LOL
And here I was thinking "BONK BONK BA-BONK"

While I'm glad I didn't buy it (or, more accurately, "whine at my parents to buy it") when it first came out (at $50, no less, when bog-standard carts were $40 new in my neck o' the woods), we did eventually get one. Yeah, it's not like the arcade. Yeah, it flickers. But I played the hell out of it for a while.

[IntvGene]

When I was a kid, I was so into Pac-man, that I couldn't tell the difference between a good game and a bad one. So, I still liked it.

Looking back, it's a pretty awful version, especially comparing it to Jr. and Ms. Pacman on the same system. I really hate the sounds the most, and yet it seems to be one of the "video game" sounds I still hear alot on TV commercials these days.

[1bigmig]

My grandparents had an Atari 2600. Whenever my cousin and I were there, this one was in regular rotation. I liked it and still do. In fact, until fairly recently I thought this was what the original Pac-Man looked like and was surprised to find out it was like the one on the NES. I especially like the sounds of the game.

Dun-ah Dun-ah

dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun

Pock U Wock Pock U Wock (eating ghosts noise)

dun dun dun

[TripppsK]

I was disapointed with it, but that didnt stop me from playing the hell out of it.

[NE146]

I've got so much stuff written on various boards about 2600 Pacman.. I'll just end up repeating myself. Ah what the heck I'll just quote a recent but semi relevent post:


I have to think to remember my reaction to 2600 Pacman. I think I remember being somewhat mixed. I was a fan of the arcade game and was HOPING that it would be close... but I was also pretty aware even then of the 2600's limitations. So when Pacman hit, I think I remember being slightly disoriented by it, cognizant that it wasn't anything like the arcade game, but also relatively satisfied to a certain extent that it was was in essence, a boiled down Pacman and there for me to play as much as I wanted. Then of course MsPacman came around"

Anyway, another story is around 96-97 or so I got to thinking about the disparity of 2600 MsPacman and Pacman.. And it struck me that with MsPacman being so good, then it was obviously just as possible to have a just as awesome Pacman! I slept on it for a couple of years until it started keeping me up at night (seriously). One sleepless night I came out and decided to photoshop a screenshot of Mspac and mold it into a feasible Pacman. I named it "2600 Pacman: what could have been" and emailed it to various webmasters at the time. And voila! Rob Kudla saw the pic, got "inspired" and went ahead and hacked up MsPac to a decent 2600 Pacman. Aahhh closure LOL

[Oobgarm]

It just struck me:

When I was a kid, I had never played Pac-Man in an arcade, and the only way I knew the game was with the 2600 version. I was shocked to see it in the arcade for the first time, radically different from what I remembered playing at home.

For that reason, I'm kinda ambivalent to the both of them.

[Stamp Mcfury]

Wow this was a bad game did you know Atari buried 5 million copies of it in the Nevada desert.

http://www.snopes.com/business/market/atari.asp

I loved pac man (still do) but Atari just ruined him :bawling:

[RetroYoungen]

I liked it, I thought it was a bit fun and a funny way to see Pac-Man translated. After maybe 20 minutes, the magic kinda went away, but sure, it was fun for a time.

[tynstar]

I don't really remember how much I played this game when I was younger. I probably played it a lot. Not to long ago I put it in and what a terd of a game. The flashing was just too much to take. Good coin op game killed by the 2600.