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Thread: Is it wrong that I like Pac-Man for the Atari 2600?

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    Default Is it wrong that I like Pac-Man for the Atari 2600?

    I know it's a horrible port of a brilliant game. I know it helped cause the video game crash.

    But there's something about it that's a lot of fun.
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    I like Ms. Pac-man and Pac-man on the 2600 too. Too be honest though, the only other console port I've ever played of a Pac-man game has been Ms. Pac-man on the Genesis. I don't really like that version, because of the way it only shows portions of the actual screen. While I understand it's closer to the arcade, I prefer to see the whole screen at once.

    I'd rather play it on an arcade over a console though.

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    From what I read recently, the flickering and such were a side effect of getting the game to actually WORK on the hardware, which couldn't support all 4 ghosts without having them flash on and off in a cycle.

    And I know there are better games on the system, but how pretty do people expect 2600 games to look?

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    Pretzel (Level 4) shopkins's Avatar
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    Nah, it's not wrong. We knew it was different than the arcade when I was a kid, but we still had a lot of fun with it regardless. I was surprised to enter the Internet age and realize there was so much hate for it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Diosoth View Post
    And I know there are better games on the system, but how pretty do people expect 2600 games to look?
    Given that there's a version of Pac-Man for the 2600 that looks like this:


    The fact that the original, rushed to market version that looks like this:


    ...is inexcusable. Not to mention that it sounds and plays like crap too.
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    I loved it. Can't anyone remember the excitement of having Pac-Man at home (even though it was inferior to the arcade version)? It's crazy that this game was slammed so hard. I can't remember anyone being this upset about other crappy ports (and believe me, there are a ton that are less faithful given the technology available at the time of the game's release). Sure, Pac-Man is THE classic game, but cut the developers some slack. It could have been ALOT worse!
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    I have the 2nd version.

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    I liked it, played it for hours back in the days

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    I have fond memories of it for the simple fact it was the first video game I have ever played. That, and it's not as bad as people make it out to be

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    It's actually the only Pac-Man game I own, oddly enough. Found it at Goodwill for like $2.50.

    Pac-Man in the arcade was actually the second ever video game I played. First was Galaga.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Arcade Antics View Post
    Given that there's a version of Pac-Man for the 2600 that looks like this:


    That looks like a hack of Ms. Pac-Man, is it?

    Either way, the official Pac-Man is a horrible port, but I enjoyed it as a kid. It's funny, the flickering never bothered me as a kid, but it gives me headaches now. I always hated how there's no up/down animation for Pac-Man, though
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    the flickering doesn't bug me too much, though it's a bit of a bother.

    My main issue is that since my 7800 (that's what I play it on), has a sort of fuzzy connection due to using my SNES cable to connect it, sometimes I have trouble discerning when the ghosts have gone back to normal after I eat one of the big pellets. Or rather, big square.
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    Try this. A from-the-ground-up Pac-man for the 2600 using only 4K. Not a hack, but a fresh build, just to show that it was entirely possible to program a fairly close Pacman with the limits of a 4K cart. I prefer it to the Ms. Pac hack actually.

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    Thanks for the link Sniderman. Can that be played with the Starpath or do you have to convert it some how?

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    I believe that Atari was trying to capitalize like it did with Space Invaders. Was pac-man a horrible game? Probablly not for the time it was released. But it should not have been called Pac-Man. Because it wasn't. It is apparent that Atari rushed the game to market, and it back-fired.
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    i thought the flickering was because they were ghosts, sort of part of the game....

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    I love that version of Pac-Man. It's a part of my gaming childhood!

    The 'proper' versions that have been remade are nice, but nostalgia cares nothing for a real looking version of Pac-Man on the VCS. Give me the flickering ghosts and weird sound effects any day.

    If I want to play a real version of Pac-Man I'll use my MAME emulator, not my VCS emulator
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    I'm a child of the 8-bit era, and I love the 2600 Pac-Man. It's so iconic, and still fun. I can understand the hate, but why hate when you can love?

    Besides, it's all people had back then and they had to make do with what they had. Kinda like the way I felt with the X-Men game on Genesis. I wanted oh so badly to be playing the X-Men Arcade game, but I still enjoyed the Genny version.

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    Quote Originally Posted by tom View Post
    i thought the flickering was because they were ghosts, sort of part of the game....
    I always thought so too. Enjoyed it as a kid, same with the other infamous title, E.T.
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    Quote Originally Posted by shopkins View Post
    Nah, it's not wrong. We knew it was different than the arcade when I was a kid, but we still had a lot of fun with it regardless. I was surprised to enter the Internet age and realize there was so much hate for it.

    Same here, I was shocked to learn that it was so widely hated online.

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