Pac-Man is the worst game!

[VectorGamer]

 

We played Pac-man on the 2600 and it was okay. We never played a more arcade accurate version until we got a C-64 and by that time we weren't that excited about Pac-man anyway.

 

Holy crap that game sucked. A lot of people felt duped when they had to be put on a waiting list to buy the darn thing and then you paid top dollar for something that made you go limp the first time you actually saw it on your TV.

 

Interestingly, there was a MAME hack of Pac-man that made it like the 2600 port. Now THAT was a hoot - wish I could find it again...

 

It's a Misfit MAME ROM. I have a copy of it.

[Zoyx]

It is a good game. I played it for many hours. Just didn't deserve the name pac-man. The skills you attained didn't really help you if you then played the arcade version.

[+batari]

It is a good game. I played it for many hours. Just didn't deserve the name pac-man. The skills you attained didn't really help you if you then played the arcade version.

The manual says otherwise:

Our PAC-MAN has all of the excitement and challenge of the standard

arcade game, and you get to play in the comfort and convenience of your

own home. This is especially advantageous if you still plan to make an

occasional appearance at the arcade to show off your great playing

skills. (Little do they know that you've been practicing at home all

along.)

[Zoyx]

@batari - LIES! LIES I TELL YOU!

[Nesbroslash]

You should be glad you meant the 2600 port, or else I'd get banned for the many sadistic insults I would make about hating one of the best arcade classics of all time.

[bohoki]

as crazy as this sounds i think they made it intentionally bad just to make the 5200 pac man look awesome

 

its kind of funny how atari kind of rips itself with this

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq7by5il1RI

[Nukey Shay]

Old topic (again!), so I'll just repeat the truth:

 

Those who state that Pac-Man, ET, Defender, or pretty much any of Atari's flicker-fests from the early days are the worst games released for the console obviously haven't played many games. I can think of over a dozen virtually-unplayable or completely boring messes without even trying.

[4Ks]

OK, here's what I think of Pac-Man:

 

1. The gameplay is hopelessly repetitive.

2. The graphics look like a mixture of turd and vomit.

3. The sound is bad. Pac-Mans dot eating effect is the sound of the earth cracking open and screaming from the agony of playing host to the humans who play Skeet Shoot all night. The ghost siren is actually the sound of your Atari weeping from inexpressable grief. The power pellet sound is really a recording of Tod Frye cackling and hugging his pile of royalties.

 

Yes that was inspired by Random Terrain.

 

Now here's was I REALLY think of Pac-Man:

 

1. The game is actually fun, but not in extended periods.

2. The graphics are unsightly, but far from the worst you'll ever see.

3. The sound is bad.

[NE146]

What Nukey said.

 

Our PAC-MAN has all of the excitement and challenge of the standard

arcade game, and you get to play in the comfort and convenience of your

own home. This is especially advantageous if you still plan to make an

occasional appearance at the arcade to show off your great playing

skills. (Little do they know that you've been practicing at home all

along.)

 

You always gotta love that.. it's as if you can imagine bloated Atari and whatever department that wrote that having a complete disconnect with the actual product.

 

p.s. in my experience the ONLY 2600 game that gave you any sort of "skills" for the actual arcade version was Q-Bert, even as scaled down as it was. The rest of the 2600 arcade ports? Naaaah

Edited August 11, 2010 by NE146

[Rom Hunter]

Old topic (again!), so I'll just repeat the truth:

 

Those who state that Pac-Man, ET, Defender, or pretty much any of Atari's flicker-fests from the early days are the worst games released for the console obviously haven't played many games. I can think of over a dozen virtually-unplayable or completely boring messes without even trying.

Amen.

 

[accousticguitar]

The "eating dots" sound effect would have been fine on an original game. It wasn't the best for Pac-Man though.

[Nukey Shay]

I just find it funny that for games that supposedly led to the downfall of the console market (which of course is so untrue, it's laughable), they sold in such record numbers. No word of mouth could contain them? The stores put the games on display to try and they STILL don't know what they are getting? Maybe what the hate is about is not the game, but for being a bad consumer?

[JacobZu7zu7]

Come to think, if I had a choice between playing the Atari 2600 Pacman and NES Pacman.....I'd totally choose the 2600 version.

 

 

The NES version sucks really bad. It makes the 2600 one look closer to the arcade.

 

Huh..lol what? The NES pac-man is 'very much' like the arcade, you did you play the Tengen made one right? 2600 version you could say you like more, but it doesn't look or play at all like the arcade pac-man.

[JacobZu7zu7]

Ohhh come on!!! It's not thaaat bad. I grew up with 2600 Pacman and I've played much worse.

 

 

 

IMO the worst 2600 game EVER goes to Home Run. Now that game sucks.

 

 

Well, I am not the biggest pac-man fan... so that's probably why I don't mind the 2600 port, but overall it is pretty mediocre! I understand why some hate it.

 

Lushgirl,

I cannot disagree with you there... Home Run is extremely weak, it's like they didn't even try to make a baseball game, but a back yard warm up with a few friends. I know the games old but common... Odyssey 2 sports games were better then Home Run.

 

I forgot which 2600 game I hate the most, but Laser Blast, Space Cavern, Space Jockey are in the running... I do hate all 3 of those, bad! Ok, sometimes Laser Blast is a guilty pleasure.

[JacobZu7zu7]

I just find it funny that for games that supposedly led to the downfall of the console market (which of course is so untrue, it's laughable), they sold in such record numbers. No word of mouth could contain them? The stores put the games on display to try and they STILL don't know what they are getting? Maybe what the hate is about is not the game, but for being a bad consumer?

 

THIS is what I am confused about, I read a few times online...

that Pac-man and E.T. did cause or "help" along the video game crash of 1983. If that was true, wouldn't E.T./Pac-man both have to be the worst selling Atari VCS/2600 games??

They made more money for Atari then the most the other 2600 games right?!

So how could that have helped the video game market crash??

 

1. I think the problem was maybe that ...the people who worked in Video games, such as Atari didn't handle managments well enough and wasted money??

 

2. It also could be that Atari games just weren't as facinating anymore since the 80's were fastly taking shape and progressing?

 

3. PC's were GETTING big and maybe was starting to faze out Video game systems?

 

4. People were expecting more out of video games, and were getting less then they hoped?

 

5. Prices were too expensive and too many different systems, canceling each other out?

 

I never really read a clear answer why the Video game crash happened, but seems I often read that E.T. is to blame that never changes... I'd like to hear an HONEST answer... or maybe I already answered it myself.

[Atari Joe]

i think its because a lot of people felt let down, almost betrayed, by those games. those were big names before they ever hit the 2600.. and when people bought them they had hoped for something better. i think it got to a point where people were just ready for something new and nobody was giving it to them in 1983.

[Zoyx]

True fact: The Berlin wall collapsed because of Pac-Man 2600. So some good came from the game.

[VectorGamer]

 

I forgot which 2600 game I hate the most, but Laser Blast, Space Cavern, Space Jockey are in the running... I do hate all 3 of those, bad! Ok, sometimes Laser Blast is a guilty pleasure.

 

I just did 600K on Laser Blast last month and recorded it for Twin Galaxies. I calculated like another 3 hours from that point to get to the one million "!!!!!!" score and said forget it. It's good enough for second place and I couldn't stand another minute of the monotony.

[VectorGamer]

 

THIS is what I am confused about, I read a few times online...

that Pac-man and E.T. did cause or "help" along the video game crash of 1983. If that was true, wouldn't E.T./Pac-man both have to be the worst selling Atari VCS/2600 games??

They made more money for Atari then the most the other 2600 games right?!

So how could that have helped the video game market crash??

 

 

I doubt ET was profitable since they had a surplus of it that had to be buried somewhere.

 

Also consider that Atari's best games were the silver and red series carts which were the last two series produced. I don't know how profitable they were I'm just saying the quality of the games were much improved with those releases.

 

I seem to remember that the games sitting in the bargain bins were of the third party variety: CommaVid, US Games, Apollo et al. If there were any Atari games in there it was probably the early text or black series games like Home Run or Hangman. I just don't recall Atari or Activision titles in the bins it's the other third party titles that stick out in my mind.

 

As a young gamer at the time, 2600 Pac-Man and Donkey Kong were HUGE letdowns. If you wanted something close to the arcade you bought a ColecoVision which was groundbreaking at that time. Perhaps if Coleco had moderate success with the Adam, they could have floated around until '85 when the NES renewed interest in home console gaming and upgrade the original ColecoVision with yet another expansion module or produce a backwards compatible ColecoVision II console. It's too bad it didn't work out that way.

 

I do not think that the crash in console games had a direct affect on the crash in coin-op games and vice versa. I think there may be common reasons why each sector crashed but I don't see Atari 2600 Pac-Man or ET taking down the coin-op sector. Also consider that something new was coming out in coin-op at that time and that was the laser disc games.

[NE146]

Oh let me say for the record I was 100% fully acquainted and loved the arcade game as a child when 2600 Pacman came out.

 

That being said I didn't "hate" the VCS version. I simply accepted the fact it was different and chalked it up to the 2600's limitations which were becoming more and more apparent as arcade games got nicer through the years. I played 2600 Pacman a lot and I even won a local contest with it.

[JacobZu7zu7]

 

THIS is what I am confused about, I read a few times online...

that Pac-man and E.T. did cause or "help" along the video game crash of 1983. If that was true, wouldn't E.T./Pac-man both have to be the worst selling Atari VCS/2600 games??

They made more money for Atari then the most the other 2600 games right?!

So how could that have helped the video game market crash??

 

 

As a young gamer at the time, 2600 Pac-Man and Donkey Kong were HUGE letdowns. If you wanted something close to the arcade you bought a ColecoVision which was groundbreaking at that time. Perhaps if Coleco had moderate success with the Adam, they could have floated around until '85 when the NES renewed interest in home console gaming and upgrade the original ColecoVision with yet another expansion module or produce a backwards compatible ColecoVision II console. It's too bad it didn't work out that way.

 

 

You would think that as exciting and fresh as Colecovision was in 1982... it would help save some of the game crash of '83. No such luck, but that means obviously E.T. is not first main cause of the game crash, because sales went down for every console not just the 2600. If people stop buying as much video games (on any system) because of E.T. not bein' up to par...that seems to be plain stupid. Maybe Atari and the like were just overstaying their welcome and people were ready for something BIGGER.

 

Maybe the poor controllers of Intellivsion, Colecovision and Atari 5200 had people waiting for something more groundbreaking... instead of breaking/clumsy hardware.

Super Mario, ZELDA perhaps??

 

I also read that Atari wasted money and was bound to crash eventually regardless of good profits. Danger was happening in the Pac-man 1981 time frame... how could a money making business go under so easy?! I don't quite get it... don't know why there was a game crash back then. Was there not enough good quality games that were easy to play, like Centipede and Space Invaders, so profits were only good for a "few" games?? Why was sales so bad in 1983, if Pitfall was a big hit, and came out around fall of 1982... couldn't that help things?? I guess not...

[Nukey Shay]

@JacobZu7zu7

Why "the" US console crash happened was not due to any specific game(s) or company...but rather, how the console industry functioned at the time. Videogames were hot...for a time, stores couldn't keep titles in stock. So they continue to place massive orders that were expected to sell and those numbers were handed over to production...which just kept cranking them out - production run rampant. Everybody wanted in...new consoles begin appearing to compete for a market share. Competition is good for industry growth.

 

Then console gaming wasn't so hot anymore. Public interest had levelled off and was falling (partially due to interest toward cheaper home computers, which you mention. Partially due to how fragmented the industry had become with so many fingers in the pie). This had started before Pac-Man and ET were even released. In fact, a console market crash had already happened a few years before...when public interest shifted from dedicated systems to cartridge-based reprogrammables. But this time it was much worse, a lot more $$$ tied up in the market. A lot more companies taking the gamble.

 

To keep in the black, stores begin returning or outright refusing delivery of full shipments of product. Even worse, cancelling preorders of games that were still in production (which had counted on those sales numbers that the stores gave them, and based the numbers of how many games to manufacture based on that data). One side feeds the other.

 

I prefer to think of it as a comedy of errors. The public was to blame for shifting it's interest so abruptly (but hey, that's what the public does). The stores were to blame for never anticipating public interest to fall. The game companies were to blame for letting production keep tying up all their capital into inventory...focusing on stores' sales forecast charts instead of paying attention to what the market was actually doing - not paying attention to what the sales numbers to end users actually was.

 

Pac-Man, ET, etc...those games were just unfortunate enough to have been in production at the time. So they got the blame for "causing" the market crash. Cancelled orders and preorders had those titles written all over them.

[JacobZu7zu7]

 

I prefer to think of it as a comedy of errors. The public was to blame for shifting it's interest so abruptly (but hey, that's what the public does). The stores were to blame for never anticipating public interest to fall. The game companies were to blame for letting production keep tying up all their capital into inventory...focusing on stores' sales forecast charts instead of paying attention to what the market was actually doing - not paying attention to what the sales numbers to end users actually was.

 

Pac-Man, ET, etc...those games were just unfortunate enough to have been in production at the time. So they got the blame for "causing" the market crash. Cancelled orders and preorders had those titles written all over them.

 

You seem right on the money with all of that... you just solved some of the mystery that I wanted to myself... but couldn't quite put it all together.

(Not quite my understanding to be able to) but I wanted a clearer answer that the internet wasn't giving me, so thanks Shay.

 

You are also right that Pac-man and E.T. were victims of the wildfire basically. Not the actual cause of the "spark/flame" to say.

 

There was a big buzz around home computers at that time... I know when I was around 5 years old.. I heard my older brothers friends discuss AppleIIC, Commodore 64, Macintosh etc...

this around early or mid 80's.

 

AND.. as you said, there's like 5 different factors which were headed in wrong direction and/or were dealt with poorly.

[Nukey Shay]

Pac-Man and ET did share part of the blame, however...since the licenses for those two games in particular were so costly. So, production had multipled forecast figures accordingly to offset the cost of the license (rather than pay 5 cents per unit to use the name on 1 million carts, pay 1 cent per unit and produce 5 million carts...that sort of thinking). Unmoving finished goods sitting at the factory was where all the money went.

[4Ks]

What is this? The new epic derailment thread?