Difference between revisions of "Pac-Man"
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Pac-Man - ARC - Fan Art - Travis 76 - The Madness of Mission 6.jpg|Fan art by Travis 76. | Pac-Man - ARC - Fan Art - Travis 76 - The Madness of Mission 6.jpg|Fan art by Travis 76. | ||
</gallery> | </gallery> | ||
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+ | ==Credits== | ||
+ | Although Pac-Man doesn't feature credits, fans of the game have discovered the majority of the design staff. | ||
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+ | {| class="wikitable" | | ||
+ | ! Person !! Roles | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | [[Toru Iwatani]] || Game Designer | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | [[Shigeichi Ishimura]] || Hardware Designer, Sound Designer | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | [[Shigeo Funaki]] || Programmer | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | [[Toshio Kai]] || Sound Composer | ||
+ | |} | ||
==Videos== | ==Videos== |
Revision as of 10:16, 13 March 2018
Pac-Man, known in Japan as パックマン [Pakkuman], is an action video game developed and published by Namco on 1980-05-22, and distributed by Midway in the USA in 1980-10-26. Pac-Man is the best-selling arcade cabinet to date, and the second most profitable. Despite being so lucrative, the game's designer Toru Iwatani did not receive a bonus or even official recognition from Namco for his creation.
I remember first playing this game in the mid-1980s. I was with my mother and brother, I think at a laundromat in Pontiac. I remember my brother playing and getting to the second stage, but I, being 3-years-younger, couldn't get past the first. I've since watched people who are really good play Pac-Man in arcades, but I've never had much of a desire to get good myself. The game is just too primitive to keep my interest.
Contents
Status
I do not own the game, and I have not reached the kill screen. I haven't tried to get a decent high score.
Review
- Overall: 5/10
- Best Version: Arcade
Good
- The game is pretty solid. It remains challenging and fast-moving the entire time you play.
- The increasingly difficult ghosts and shorter-length power pellets increase the challenge of the game at a nice steady rate.
- Adding a different "personality" to each ghost was a wonderful idea and really adds to the challenge, as did having the ghosts systematically move toward their own corners.
- Changing the bonus fruit is a nice change of pace.
- The cut-scenes between levels was a nice break in the action.
- The game has some pretty memorable sound effects and jingles.
Bad
- The game is too hard. Most players are unable to beat the first level on their first attempt, which is a bit frustrating.
- Overall, there isn't much to do with the game. You're essentially repeating the same actions the entire game.
- Since the game uses a pseudo-randomizer, players can actually just repeat the exact same movements over an over again to beat the game.
- The game lacks a true victory condition. Sure, the kill screen ends the game, but it's insanely difficult to reach, and wasn't even intended in the first place.
- There is a minor bug with collision detection where you can sometimes pass right through a ghost.
Ugly
- Nothing
Cabinet Art
Documentation
- Pac-Man - ARC - Manual.pdf
Arcade manual.
- Pac-Man - Arcade Instruction Card.png
The Japanese instruction card.
- Pac-Man - ARC - Ad.jpg
Arcade ad.
- Pac-Man - 5200 - Manual.pdf
Atari 5200 manual.
- Pac-Man - C64 - Manual.pdf
Commodore 64 manual.
- Pac-Man - GB - Manual.pdf
Game Boy manual.
- Pac-Man - NES - Manual.pdf
NES manual.
Design Documents
- Pac Man - ARC - Design Document - Toru Iwatani.jpg
Toru Iwatani showing off his original design documents.
- Pac Man - ARC - Design Document - Labyrinth.jpg
The labyrinth layout.
- Pac Man - ARC - Design Document - Pac-Man Sprite.jpg
The Pac-Man sprite.
- Pac Man - ARC - Design Document - Sprites.jpg
Various game sprites.
- Pac Man - ARC - Design Document - Ghost Behavior.jpg
Ghost movement behavior.
Screenshots
- Pac-Man - Arcade Kill Screen.png
The infamous kill screen on level 256.
Gallery
Credits
Although Pac-Man doesn't feature credits, fans of the game have discovered the majority of the design staff.
Person | Roles |
---|---|
Toru Iwatani | Game Designer |
Shigeichi Ishimura | Hardware Designer, Sound Designer |
Shigeo Funaki | Programmer |
Toshio Kai | Sound Composer |
Videos
- gdcvault.com/play/1014631/Classic-Game-Postmortem-PAC - Postmortem.
- youtube.com/watch?v=AuoH0vz3Mqk - A perfect Pac-Man play through.
- youtube.com/watch?v=l7-SHTktjJc - Ghost AI explanation.
Links
- mobygames.com/game/pac-man - MobyGames.
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man - Wikipedia.
- vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title=Pac-Man_(ARC) - Music.
- Pages with broken file links
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