Did Pac-Man Get a Fair Shake?

[Nukey Shay]

Frye is (and was) a brilliant, capable programmer. As I tried to point out above (apparently unsuccessfully) is that the code is already there to support a better game...even tho the display kernal - the heart of any game - wasn't his first choice. IIRC, at least 2 other programmers supported his claim that a prototype multiplex kernal was designed for the project. Misinformation abounds, and I suppose we'll never know the whole story. Geez...even little details like the romsize are often mistakenly given as 2k, for example. This guy insists that the game only has 3 monsters (but then again, he says that $0.10 x 7m = $70m!). Reviewing the port seems to be less accurate than the port was to it's parent

 

A better metaphor is that he was told to build a house, but only given a screwdriver. The color scheme of the game seems to have been done by persons unknown (if not, why would the "ghost" monsters have such a high lum to make them all appear to be the same color? Why use such a low contrast for the background if such a high flicker rate is constant?).

[+SpiceWare]

This guy insists that the game only has 3 monsters (but then again, he says that $0.10 x 7m = $70m!). Reviewing the port seems to be less accurate than the port was to it's parent

Don't forget the "Notice everything wonderful about this image! This is on Atari 2600 hardware! Fantastic!" caption below the screen capture from a 7800.

[Feyer]

So what is the general opinion for why the 2600 version of Pac-Man was so poorly executed?

 

Limited cart rom size? Limited programming time? Limited imagination of the programmer? Something else? All of the above???

 

As a kid, I was completely disappointed in Atari Pac-Man. The huge amount of hype that went along with it didn't help either and built up the expectation level to unreachable levels. The near-by shopping mall had a huge opening day celebration with contests and "live" mascots. It was a fever-pitch to get the game home and play it.

 

Thankfully, Atari made up for it all with the great release of Ms. Pac-Man, even though it was programmed by another company.

[TwiliteZoner]

Here's a picture of me playing Pac-Man on Christmas Morning, 1983, moments after receiving my first Atari 2600. (Note the Pac-Man manual lying on the floor in front of me.)

 

 

If you look closely at my face, I'm obviously not too thrilled with the conversion job. I was probably thinking, wow, if only Atari management had allowed an 8k bankswitched cart, Tod Frye could have included the intermissions. Possibly the game was also making me a bit constipated.

 

Or maybe I was just concentrating really hard.

 

Also note - footie pyjamas rock.

 

Amazing at that age the things you thought of.

[Nukey Shay]

Limited cart rom size? Limited programming time? Limited imagination of the programmer? Something else? All of the above???

 

It's obviously a combination of things. A pet theory of mine ties up all the loose ends, but it cannot be confirmed unless it's known exactly when the new projects discussion took place (Tod and Rob were available...and Rob chose Missile Command)...and how much time was spent on the scrapped kernal. The "6 weeks" thing doesn't really enter into it (because most games at that time had been given similar timeframes) - UNLESS - the majority of the conflict happened within those 6 weeks...meaning the project would be pushed behind schedule. The royalty agreement might seem a bit steep, unless you consider that the atmosphere within Atari was getting pretty thick at the time. Programmers were leaving, and everybody was watching their backs (esp. since Atari was suing everybody) - so he probably just wanted the guarantee that he was going to be paid after seeing some of his collegues get screwed over.

[Feyer]

So is there any truth to the story that Atari produced the game based on the unfinished prototype by Tod as explained on Wikipedia [Pac-Man(Atari 2600)] from the article by Jacobi, Scott (Issue #27 Retrogaming Times Monthly- August 2006)?

[Nukey Shay]

Never read it. But it appears to have the facts reversed. The original unfinished multiplex kernal was never used (and AFAIK, it was lost forever). The alternative is what the game was built on.

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys:

 

I felt that the Atari 2600 version was a nice game. Sometimes I play it to have fun once in a while.

 

Anthony...