CV Pac-Man Collection: A Review.
Graphics: 10
Sound: 10
Gameplay: 10
Arcade-To-Home: 9
Overall: 10
Opcode’s ColecoVision Pac-Man Collection, here at last, after a few years’ delay. A CV cartridge with not one but THREE games, this was one of the most eagerly awaited homebrew games ever. Containing Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and Pac-Man Plus, the big questions are: does it live up to the standards set by Space Invaders Collection, and was it worth the wait? Of course- but first, a brief background of these games…
Journey back with me, if you will, to an America before the Age of the Internet, before MP3 players, before cell phones that could do anything but cook dinner, before television with hundreds of channels…
Before a ruined economy. Before anyone had even heard of Indiana Jones, or Mr. T; when if you received more than five broadcast television channels you were doing well. Before political correctness and the Rush Limbaughs were everywhere. When a teenager’s first car did not require a Japanese Ph.D in physics to repair. When jobs were plentiful. When LPs were still around. When Disco was not yet dead. A different time, the start of a new decade…a different atmosphere and attitude…
1980.
It was the year Luke Skywalker discovered a terrible secret and Reagan first took office.
It was also the year when something odd appeared in the arcades: a game with a little yellow ball moving through a blue maze eating dots while being chased by colorful ghosts. It seemed to be a more colorful variation of an earlier game called “Dodgem,” but wait- here you could eat a large dot, and turn the tables on the frightened now-blue ghosts! And look- BONUS PRIZES!! ESCAPE TUNNELS!
This game would become one of the most successful ever.
It was Namco’s Pac-Man, released in this country by Bally/Midway .
The all-time King of Video Games, Pac-Man would earn who-knows how many millions of dollars, spawn a number of sequels direct and indirect, a cartoon series, a Christmas special, enough merchandise to sink an aircraft carrier, and even a cereal. The game was originally called Puckman, but an obvious bit of vandalism made the name change quite necessary.
Obviously, the massive success of this game caused a number of similar games to appear in the arcades: Ladybug, Mousetrap, Marvin’s Maze, the truly weird Fitter, and many others; some inspired, some outright rip-offs.
But there was something about Pac-Man dedicated players soon discovered: since the ghosts were programmed to react in certain particular ways, it was possible to develop patterns for the game that would allow a kid to play for up to a few hours on a single quarter. Since this was something any self-respecting arcade owner was not happy with, soon a number of fiendish programs appeared, all designed to cut playing time. There were also a large number of Pac-Man rip-offs, often identifiable by different names, more tunnels, or the like. All of these were illegal, although it was easy to find them back then, especially since there were many mini-arcades and more video machines to be found back in those days. There was also one program meant to make the game tougher that was legal; more on that later…
Of course, there were sequels, the best known being the pretty-colored game called Ms. Pac-Man. Contrary to popular belief, Namco did not develop Ms. Pac-Man; they developed Super Pac-Man instead. With some hacker help, Bally/Midway itself produced Ms. Pac-Man, who would become the all-time Queen of the Arcades. Move over, Chun-Li, Lara, Toadstool, Tina, Sophia, the lot of you; that little yellow ball with the bow topped all of you combined!
The feminine look was deceiving, though, because the game was much more difficult than her predecessor. It had not one but FOUR mazes, the prizes moved through the mazes, and, worst of all, the ghosts were programmed to move at least somewhat randomly, so patterns were mostly useless. In spite of this, Ms. Pac-Man proved so popular, she can still be found in arcades to this day!
Earlier, I mentioned a legal speed-up program for Pac-Man. It was hard to find (I myself, in spite of being in countless arcades, even Dutch and English arcades, back then, have seen it in one and only one place), but if you did it was certain to take you by surprise. It was Pac-Man Plus, and at first it didn’t seem to be any different. Sure, the maze was now green, the prizes looked different, and the ghosts looked different and each had a little leaf on its head when it turned blue, but other than that…then, you’d play it.
The first thing you noticed was that when you ate a prize, not only did the ghosts turn blue, but when you ate them you’d score 400, 800, 1600, and then a whopping 3200 points! And this could happen TWICE per screen! WOW!
Uh, then you’d eat a regular energizer, and notice that not only did the maze and regular dots sometimes all turn invisible, but…usually one of the ghosts did NOT change color; so, so much for grouping them close to you, or chasing one over an energizer. You also realized that the overall difficulty was higher than in Pac-Man. Normal patterns did not work, although there were those, the ones that did not use the energizers that were effective, such as the Lee Pattern.
Due to the popularity of Pac-Man, soon there was a home version announced by Atari for the Atari VCS (2600) back in 1981, and the excitement it generated was truly tremendous. We scooped it up, and then…
They could feel the disappointment all the way to Andromeda.
The game was AWFUL, so bad, that to this day it makes the Top Ten Worst Games Ever lists. Adding insult to injury, even the Odyssey 2 had a better game, K.C. Munchkin, which they were forced pull after Atari sued (one wonders if they had the legal right to do that- was it not Namco’s place, or possibly Bally/Midway’s, to sue?). While Atari did stage an amazing comeback with the 2600 version of Ms. Pac-Man, they’ll never be forgiven for their Pac-Man fiasco!
Obviously, when the 5200 was released against the ColecoVision in 1982, it had a version of Pac-Man, too. True, the ghosts were single-colored and the controllers were terrible, but overall it was quite good. Atari, with its Atarisoft division, also released a number of versions for numerous home computers.
Here one must mention a peculiar bit of trivia: Atari had a commercial showing off its 5200 version against the one for the ColecoVision. The only problem was, that was the 2600 version played on the CV 2600 adapter- they were mocking their own version! Even stranger, an unreleased 1983 prototype for the CV from Atarisoft was discovered that was SUPERIOR to the 5200 version in every way!
So much for history. Now, for the review.
Opcode’s CV Pac-Man Collection is, quite simply, an almost unbelievably accurate arcade-to-home translation of all three games. He has not only met the standards achieved by the Space Invaders Collection, but may well have exceeded them.
First of all, there are the title screens. Big, colorful words COLECOVISION streak together from top and bottom, then NAMCO, and then, the actual title screen: PAC-MAN COLLECTION.
The words are on a metallic-looking plate, done in such a way as to make it look as though the CV can show more colors than it actually can. A tiny hand can point to Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and OPTIONS. If you OPt to use OPcode’s OPtions (couldn’t resist), you can choose number of lives, Japanese or American versions, alternate names, normal or hard difficulty, or even how many credits you get for the two coins you insert (for a “normal” version, go with 2 coins/one credit).
Meanwhile, Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man are there, sometimes blinking their eyes; but, best of all, an electronic version of that goofy Buckman and Garcia song “Pac-Man Fever” plays- and it is amazingly good, even haunting, at times; “Wolf” has done an incredible bit of work there!
Note: If you want to play Pac-Man Plus, press the numbers 7, 5, 8, and 7 during this title screen (you might have to use controller two). Those would match PLUS on a telephone dial.
Since there are three games, I will first review those things they all have in common, rather than going through them three times.
First, the graphics: as you might have guessed, they are superb. The ghosts are multi-colored and, unlike most pre-NES versions, they are ROUNDED, not squared. Ms. Pac-Man looks like she does in the arcades, even more so than in the 7800 version, and the prizes are multi-colored, too.
To fully appreciate this, one must remember that a CV sprite can only be one color, and if more than four line up left to right, they can flicker and disappear. Therefore, if you want a multi-colored sprite character, you must combine two or more in order to do this. In some cases, like the enemy soldiers in Frontline, or the red and green monsters in Space Panic, you can “stack” two or more sprites, thus creating a multi-colored character which will not create more flickering, since its component colors do not line up horizontally, but this will not work with the ghosts or Ms. Pac-Man in these games. Therefore, in Pac-Man, you could have up to nine sprites lining up (assuming two-color ghosts), and even more in Ms. Pac-Man! This would create an intolerable amount of flickering, even worse than in Burgertime.
But by using a quick flickering method, Opcode has greatly cut down on this. The flickering is never severe, and nothing ever disappears. Ever. A weakness of the CV has been mostly overcome here, and the results are unbelievable. Oddly enough, what flickering (actually, more like some fading) does not really seem to get worse when more characters line up. By the way, if you watch this game on Youtube, remember that the flickering there is nothing like in “real life.” This alone boosts the “Graphics” score up to 10.
Of course, there are certain limitations. Pinky has either gotten a tan or become a huge Prince fan, because here he is purple. In fact, the colors are at times noticeably different than in the arcade versions, but this is simply due to the fact that the CV has a 16-color palette, and those arcade colors are not available. The information is all on the right side of the screen, just like Coleco’s 1982 Ladybug, and for the same reason: the arcade screen is taller than it is wide, as opposed to the home screen. The prizes, while they all look good, are usually not as colorful as their arcade counterparts, and may even look different than they do on the side; the pears and Galaxians are examples (the pears look better in the maze!). Also, some prizes look better than others: apples, peas, pretzels, and oranges merely look good, while bread, pancakes, and lemonade look excellent.
In all three games the mazes are arcade-exact as far as shapes, proportions, and number of dots are concerned, unlike most other versions. If there are seven dots somewhere in the arcade version, be assured there are seven in this version, too. This makes the game play here just like the arcade. The mazes for Pac-Man and Pac-Man Plus also look like their arcade counterparts, although the mazes in Ms. Pac-Man are single-colored. More about this later.
Naturally, all of the intermissions are here, too.
Sound is also terrific, although not quite the same as the arcade version at times- the wahca-wahca-wahca is more like wehca-wehca-wehca, for example, but again, this is due to the CV sound system. Listening to this game is every bit as satisfying as looking at it. Especially good is the sound after you eat a ghost! And, again, the title screen music is so good, it would boost the “Sound” score up to a 10+, if that was allowed.
Control is also superb. No other version I’ve ever played has the incredibly smooth control of this cartridge; the best way to describe it is “as smooth as liquid silk.” Not even Pepper 2 responds this well.
Patterns used in the original arcade games will work here.
In all three games there were "holding positions." These were places you could go to where the ghosts would not go; in Pac-Man and Pac-Man Plus, it is immediately to the right and up from the starting position- and you MUST be facing up. There are certain times it will not work: if you are being closely pursued, just after a chomped ghost (especially the red one) returns to the maze, or if a ghost is looking at you when you enter it. This feature is also present in Opcode's version, although, as in the arcade version, the holding positions are trickier in Ms. Pac-Man.
(Special thanks to TheDomesticInstitution for the Ms. Pac-Man holds information.)
Finally, a little-known feature of all three of these games is included: ghost territories. If you divide the maze(s) into four quarters, then in each one one of the ghosts will become unusually aggressive. In the upper left, it is the Pink (purple, here); the upper right, Red; lower left, Orange; and the lower right, Green ("PROG"). What's more, as in the arcade versions, the orange ghost will not close in on you anywhere but in its own territory, or just after returning to its normal color. Otherwise, if it can avoid you, it will. This explains why old patterns work in this home version.
And now, the individual games…
Pac-Man. This, Opcode’s version, is one of the absolute best anywhere. It leaves behind the 2600, 5200, Namco handheld, Atarisoft computer, NES, and even Atarisoft CV versions. True, the colors are a bit different (such as the purple ghost), but aside from some minor improvements in sound and graphics, not even the X-Box 360 or Playstation 3 can give you a better arcade-to-home experience than this version. The famous blue maze, as mentioned before, is shaped just like the arcade version, the dots are all properly accounted for, the length of time the ghosts stay blue (or if they don’t), the fact that they stay blue longer after the intermissions (for one screen), which, again, are all here- the sound, the side tunnels, the behavior of the ghosts…it’s all here. This home version is about as close to perfect as one can possibly achieve on a CV, and that is much closer than anyone would’ve suspected. What’s more, you even have the option of playing it as “Puckman.” Again, from what I’ve been able to ascertain, even the old patterns used on the original arcade machines will work here.
Ms. Pac-Man. The first thing you’ll likely notice is the fact that this version has single-colored mazes, instead of the multi-colored ones that gave the arcade version its distinct look. The reason for this? Because it is impossible to make the mazes both multi-colored AND arcade-perfect on a CV or most other earlier systems. While most other programmers would have chosen the multi-colored look (as seems to have been the case with the 5200 version), Opcode chose the proper shapes and numbers of dots. (If you wish to try to do both, just remember that on each line in a single space a CV can show any two, but ONLY two, colors, and if you want a black background, then you can include only one other color besides- can't do it, can you?). This game is an interesting example of how different programmers approach the same problem in different ways.
As a result of Opcode’s decision, the CV version of Ms.Pac-Man plays exactly like the arcade, unlike many other home versions.
What’s more, all four of the mazes still look quite good, and the dots are the same colors as in the arcade version (as close as a CV will allow, anyway). The moving prizes are superb, and move just like their arcade counterparts. I’ve also noticed that the sound effects are even closer to the arcade version than in Pac-Man. All three of the intermissions are present and accounted for, too, and once again “blue time” for the ghosts increases after one- for one screen, anyway.
An interesting thing about this game is that, once you finish the fourth maze four times, the game then cycles you through the third and fourth mazes for the rest of the game (as in the arcade), but the first time, and then every other time after, those mazes will have different colors (purple for the third and red for the fourth). If you are not expecting this, you may think that new mazes were added, but none were; only the colors are different.
This is probably the most challenging of the three games on this cartridge, and, just like in the arcade, you’ll find that the third maze is the most difficult. Overall, with the authentic game play and superb-looking characters, this is one version that cannot disappoint.
Pac-Man Plus. THE reason I bought this cartridge. As I mentioned earlier, I’d only seen this game in one place, back in 1983. Luckily, thanks to YouTube and an old book on video games, I was able to brush up on whatever I may have forgotten.
Sure enough, this game is about as accurate as I can possible tell, and playing it reminded me of how much fun it was back then. All of the weird quirks designed to make it so much trickier are present and accounted for, and it really is a near-perfect translation of the lesser known arcade game- yes, not all of the ghosts always change when you eat an energizer. Yes, sometimes the maze and dots do disappear. Yes, the prize does act as a double-point energizer. Best of all, the Lee pattern, which is described in Gamestar’s guide on arcade games, ACTUALLY WORKS here. This is proof that Opcode must have studied the games here very closely, so not only do they look and sound great, they also play so very much like the arcade versions, too. And it really is fun, earning 3200 points by chomping a ghost.
Since the maze is as it was in Pac-Man, except for being green, it looks just like it did in the arcade version. The odd look of the blue ghosts has been accurately reproduced here. The prizes all look good, but some more so than others, as mentioned earlier. Sound is also, of course, as good as in Pac-Man. Overall, then, it is about as flawless an arcade-to-home translation as one could possibly want, and with the different options you can choose, this game can be easier or even more difficult.
There is also one more thing here- it is not enough for a game to merely have great graphics and sound; it also needs that one thing that makes a good arcade-to-home translation truly great: the essence of that game. This is the element that truly recreates the experience of the arcade game, as much as possible, be it from 1978 or 2008, it doesn’t matter. It can be an experience and memory of a game an older gamer played in the arcades back in 1975, or a game a little kid enjoyed playing at the Laundromat a few years ago when mom did the wash before taking him and his brother for ice cream afterwards. Since almost all arcade games have a very limited lifespan in the arcades, some as short as a few months, then any home version that can capture that essence is truly something special…because that is all that will remain of it from then on. Pac-Man Collection has it, especially with Pac-Man and Pac-Man Plus, and that is why I stand by my statement that not even the modern systems can give you a better experience. The graphics and sound might be somewhat better, that is true, but that’s really about it. And that’s what makes this game a real achievement.
Finally, there is the cartridge, instruction booklet, and the box itself. No cheap, tacky half-effort here; what you have is exactly what you would've expected from a large company. Everything is of top quality, which does tend to show that maybe the hope of the future will once again come from small cottage industries. It has to start somewhere. So, to everyone involved in this project: congratulations! This effort scores a perfect 10.
Fun Trivia:
* Pac-Man became such a cultural phenomenon back around 1980, an entire CBS news spot for kids on Saturday mornings- "In The News"- was dedicated to it. Among the possible inspirations for the game they mentioned was a mythical Japanese creature that ate everything around him.
Does anyone else remember that whirling globe?
* Since Ms. Pac-Man was programmed in a way that patterns did not really work, a method used by skilled players was "grouping." This involved using a hiding place in each maze, a place where the ghosts would not go. From here, you could venture out to eat dots and group the ghosts closer and closer to each other, to make them more manageable.
The problem was that no such position existed for the fourth maze, or "Junior" board. Since half of all screens after this were Junior boards, players would soon be wiped out.
In 1983, three expert players from Bozeman, Montana- Tom Asaki, Don Williams, and Spencer Ouren- formed "The Bozeman Think Tank," dedicated to figuring out how to make themselves the best players around. They became true experts, but, like other players, just couldn't figure out that fourth maze.
One day, a friend named Matt Brass, who'd just returned from the North American Video Olympics in jolly olde Ottumwa, Iowa, shocked the three when he told them that he'd seen some players grouping ghosts ON THE FOURTH MAZE!
It wasn't true; he'd meant BEFORE the fourth maze, but...the Think Tank was in a state of near-panic. How could they ever be the best if some mysterious super-player had overcome that one deciding obstacle?
As a result, they set to work on figuring it out themselves. Luckily, they were able to use the "rack advance" option in the machine to skip to those boards, so they wouldn't be tempted not to sacrifice a good game. They observed, they experimented, and noticed that the orange ghost seemed drawn to Ms. Pac-Man in the escape tunnels; they also noticed that the pink ghost (purple, in the CV version) could be fooled into taking a wrong turn if you pointed Ms. Pac-Man's eyes up (it's programmed to get ahead of you, so it can cut you off).
Finally, it was Tom who discovered that yes, THERE WAS A HIDING PLACE in the fourth maze; you just had to activate it, in part by grouping three of the ghosts before you went into it (not easy).
As a result, those three players were reaching scores nobody had thought possible.
You can imagine their surprise when Matt found out what had happened, and cleared up the misunderstanding. THEY had been the first, and all because of a misunderstanding. That, combined with determination, and hard work, made them into three of the best players anywhere.
It's also fascinating how even then, video gaming was building up a history of interesting facts. Games from those days had more than some might think: this, the discovery of the 300-point UFO in Space Invaders, and other things as well. Imagine how vast it must be now, in 2009.
* The origin of both the game and its name caused plenty of speculation back in its early years. The name itself was said to have come from the Japanese word "paku," which means "eat."
* In 1982, American Pac-mania earned the Pac-Man games over six BILLION dollars, which was more than Vegas casinos and movie theaters took in that year- considering the movies that came out in 1982, this was no small accomplishment! Pac-Man also made Time magazine's Man of the Year that same year.
* Did Pac-Man have a final screen, and was there such a thing as a "perfect, completed" game? For years, none of us thought so- we figured the game would go on for an eternity- but no, this wasn't the case.
You could only play 255 screens before the game would crash ("Fixed Quantity Overflow Bug") and become unplayable. If you were able to complete 255 screens, eating both prizes each time, and all four ghosts with each power pellet, you would score a perfect 3,333,360 points. Of course, since the screen only blinks for an instant when you eat the power pellets in the higher levels, nobody thought this was possible in any case.
But, as it turns out, somebody did indeed do the seemingly impossible, and managed to play the first known perfect game: one Mr. Billy Mitchell of New Hampshire, back in the year 1999...it took him roughly six hours. The president of Namco was said to have witnessed this feat. A documentary called "Chasing Ghosts" would be of interest here.
Fun Fact: For years, a small number of expert players managed to simply finish the game- and they often quickly made themselves scarce, believing that they had broken the machine they were playing, and would have to pay for it!
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Originally Posted by MarioMania
