Baby PacMan should have been ported

[Gunstarhero]

This could have been a great game on a home console like the 5200, or even on one of those Playstation Namco Classics discs. They could have easily ported the pinball section to a video pinball game IMHO. This would have been a cool game, and I would have preferred this as a substitute for PacMania on Namco 5 for PS1.

[davidbrit2]

You know, it's been emulated for about a year now. I guess nobody's really spread the word. Get Visual Pinball (I think it's at www.randydavis.net,) then install Visual PinMAME (maybe from the same page,) and look for the Baby Pac Man ROMs, and the table that I made (I'm sure it's out there somewhere.) Be warned, though, you'll need a freaking Cray just to run it at 100% speed. It's still fun to tinker with, though.

And yes, it should have been ported to something.

[ManekiNeko]

That baby needs to be changed... INTO A BETTER GAME!
Seriously, folks, nostalgia's getting the better of you. I thought a home version of Baby Pac-Man would have been a good idea, too... until I saw it twenty years after its initial release. It's bad as a pin because the playfield is small and utterly devoid of objects. It's bad as a video game because it's ridiculously hard without readily available energizers and lacks the polish of a true Pac-Man game (it was designed by Midway, not Namco as it should have been). Put 'em together and you've got yourself a very bad game.

JR

[CrazyImpmon]

Bu why not? Not even a homemade version? I mean there's a zillion version of Pac Man and Ms. Pac Man and not all of them were scantoned by Namco.

And Cray- isn't that a 20 year old computer that did Tron CGI? I think a modern computer outperforms Cray.

[davidbrit2]

Cray has been around for a while, and I think they've made some modern stuff. I'm not sure. I'm not really up on my supercomputer vendors. :-)

[Gunstarhero]

Yeah the pin section wasn't filled with objects, but it still had goals to accomplish. You couldn't get Energizers without being good in the pin section for instance.

Baby Pacman was a Hard game, no question about it, and it was the maze that was hard, but I like that, as I love strategy and this game required good strategy and utilization of the Pin section. It's loads more unique than the mediocre isoteric PacMania IMHO, and I don't hate PacMania in any sense.

This was one of the best games for me too because I was pretty poor, and I don't know how the replay was setup around you, but for my local arcade at the time, all you needed to do was successfully complete the first maze to get a free game. Not to say that was 'easy' though, even the first stage was god awful hard. At my best I could get to the 4th maze.

[slapdash]

Cray has been around for a while, and I think they've made some modern stuff. I'm not sure. I'm not really up on my supercomputer vendors. :-)

The thing is, they shifted their focus from "supercomputers" to "superservers". You'd have to ask them for the full distinction... But generally, I think they moved from custom architectures to massively parallel computing, but I'm not positive of that...

[davidbrit2]

That could be. My point is that you'd need something ridiculously overequipped in order to play Visual PinMAME tables. :-) Now where's that six processor Pentium Pro board... He he.

[Zaxxon]

Whenever I see a Baby Pac Man machine, it's always in the back room of a game dealer being repaired. That game is probably the most breakdown prone machine ever. Worse than Tempest. There probably were never many working machines available for people to play, now or then.

[Daniel Thomas]

Baby Pac-Man definitely should have been put onto a console or two. I only remember it from the early '80s, but I thought it was cool. No doubt that I would quickly grow tired of the game's sole maze if I played it today.

The best thing for a home version would have to include multiple mazes (ala Ms.).

But, hey, here's another question. Why hasn't there been a home version of Jr. Pac-Man since the 5200? If there's any one Pac game that's perfect for today, especially for the handhelds, it's Junior. Personally, I don't care if it's among the "unofficial" Pac-Men.

[Zaxxon]

No comparison. Tempest machines aren't that reliable (in an arcade environment), but are easy to fix (and there's been several solutions to the monitor problems since then, so if anything, they can be more reliable now). Baby Pac's are one of the WORST in both reliability and repair difficulty. ar every other week it was down (usually for board work). Even .


Yeah, I know. That's what I was saying. Tempest has this rep as being super unreliable but Baby Pac is actually worse. I'm aware of the moniter fixes they have now.

[kainemaxwell]

I only played Baby a couple times at a local 7-11 when I was a kid.

[kainemaxwell]

I only played Baby a couple times at a local 7-11 when I was a kid.

[Stamp Mcfury]

I know this sounds crazy but I liked Baby Pacman. I thought the idea of combining Pinball and Arcade. I wish they would make some sort of console port of it. They have plenty of pinbal games out there and the Baby Pacman pinball section wasn't that complex, you wouldn't thin it would be that hard.

I would by that game in a heartbeat! But then again I am a Pacman Fanboy! and Baby Pacman doesn;t seem to be everyones "Cup of Tea" as far as the series goes

[Stamp Mcfury]

I know this sounds crazy but I liked Baby Pacman. I thought the idea of combining Pinball and Arcade. I wish they would make some sort of console port of it. They have plenty of pinbal games out there and the Baby Pacman pinball section wasn't that complex, you wouldn't thin it would be that hard.

I would by that game in a heartbeat! But then again I am a Pacman Fanboy! and Baby Pacman doesn;t seem to be everyones "Cup of Tea" as far as the series goes

[scooterb23]

I really enjoy Baby Pac-Man as well...and the Visual Pinmame table runs fine on my P4 1.6 Ghz machine :)

I'm just not very good at it unfortunately...

[scooterb23]

I really enjoy Baby Pac-Man as well...and the Visual Pinmame table runs fine on my P4 1.6 Ghz machine :)

I'm just not very good at it unfortunately...

[goatdan]

The problem with Baby Pac-Man (and Granny and the Gators, the other early pin/video hybrid) is that they combined a video game and a pinball that weren't anything overly special. The concept was neat, and the few times I've come across working machines, I haven't not liked them but seriously...

If you wanted to play a Pac-Man game, chances were the arcade already had two of them -- Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man. If you wanted to play a pinball game, hell you could play Pac-Man pinball or a variety of others.

I think that a pin/vid hybrid done right would be awesome. I don't even think the two games by Bally/Midway were too good. If Wizard Blocks would have been released for the Pin 2000 system, it would have rocked (think Breakout with a real pinball)!

[goatdan]

The problem with Baby Pac-Man (and Granny and the Gators, the other early pin/video hybrid) is that they combined a video game and a pinball that weren't anything overly special. The concept was neat, and the few times I've come across working machines, I haven't not liked them but seriously...

If you wanted to play a Pac-Man game, chances were the arcade already had two of them -- Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man. If you wanted to play a pinball game, hell you could play Pac-Man pinball or a variety of others.

I think that a pin/vid hybrid done right would be awesome. I don't even think the two games by Bally/Midway were too good. If Wizard Blocks would have been released for the Pin 2000 system, it would have rocked (think Breakout with a real pinball)!

[Lady Jaye]

The basic idea was great but it was a poor implementation. I too would have liked to see a more elaborate pinball section.

[Lady Jaye]

The basic idea was great but it was a poor implementation. I too would have liked to see a more elaborate pinball section.

[Querjek]

I've never played Baby Pacman, but that machine has always looked HELLA cool. I don't know what it is, but I want one. Even if it sucks, or is broken.

[Querjek]

I've never played Baby Pacman, but that machine has always looked HELLA cool. I don't know what it is, but I want one. Even if it sucks, or is broken.

[Lady Jaye]

Actually, the only time I've ever seen a Baby Pac table/cabinet was at PhillyClassic 3.

[Lady Jaye]

Actually, the only time I've ever seen a Baby Pac table/cabinet was at PhillyClassic 3.

[goatdan]

I got to play it at Santa Cruz Beach and Boardwalk, and I've seen no less than three of them auctioned off, although only one of those even came close to functioning correctly... :roll:

[goatdan]

I got to play it at Santa Cruz Beach and Boardwalk, and I've seen no less than three of them auctioned off, although only one of those even came close to functioning correctly... :roll:

[bargora]

I played Baby Pac-Man at the Showbiz Pizza Place in Dayton back in the 80s. And I agree that it (or an improved version of it) would have made (or still would make) a cool console game.

But it'd probably need X-tR33|\/| 3-D-Z0r grAf-X or something (like the ladies from DOA, maybe?) to get made today.

[bargora]

I played Baby Pac-Man at the Showbiz Pizza Place in Dayton back in the 80s. And I agree that it (or an improved version of it) would have made (or still would make) a cool console game.

But it'd probably need X-tR33|\/| 3-D-Z0r grAf-X or something (like the ladies from DOA, maybe?) to get made today.

[Jive3D]

Someone above said they liked baby pacman over Pac-Mania?! No Friggin way!

Baby Pacman was VERY COOL. I admit to have been obsessed with finding it for a while, I only saw 2 machines in my life. One in Florida @ the Polinesian Resort Hotel and the other at a random arcade at Lake Winepesaki. They were cool. but nestalgia is getting the better of ya'll fo sho!

Pacmanis kicks babypac's ass. The pinball sucked and the onscreen was terrible too. The fact that it wasnt Japanese Namcot designed is points against it in my opinion as well.

Viva Pacmania, Viva Japan (Viva Jay Sherman, eh Viva Quebec ^_^)

[davidbrit2]

I still say Pac-Land whoops them all.

;-)

[goatdan]

Baby Pacman was VERY COOL. I admit to have been obsessed with finding it for a while, I only saw 2 machines in my life. One in Florida @ the Polinesian Resort Hotel and the other at a random arcade at Lake Winepesaki. They were cool. but nestalgia is getting the better of ya'll fo sho!

Hunh!

All the Disney hotels that I've stayed at have had some pretty darn good arcades, but I don't think I've ever seen any classics there. That's pretty cool.

[Gunstarhero]

I still say Pac-Land whoops them all.

;-)

Tell me...how faithful is the TG-16 version? I used to have the Lynx version, and that was awesome. Pac-Land is a corny kind of fun.

[davidbrit2]

I still say Pac-Land whoops them all.

;-)

Tell me...how faithful is the TG-16 version? I used to have the Lynx version, and that was awesome. Pac-Land is a corny kind of fun.

In terms of gameplay, it's really damned good. You can choose between "button" or "lever" control. Keep in mind, though, that the game has been given a definite ending, and some little cut scenes. It's also got some amusing debug menus that you can fiddle with, and I think there's a "pro" mode, too. It's been a while, so I can't remember for sure. If you like Pac-Land, though, don't pass this up.

[Gunstarhero]

Cool...it sounds enhanced even...like a Pac-Land DX or something. I always liked Pac-Land, because it seems to have been based off of the cartoon, which I also loved.