Who wrote Pac-Man?

[Callipygous]

Who wote Pac-Man for the 8-bit? The lousy version that came out for 2600 is much discussed, but I've never seen a credit for the superior 8-bit program.

[Tempest]

Jim Andreason did the 5200 version. I'm not sure if he wrote the 400/800 version and just ported it to the 5200 or was only involved with the 5200 version.

 

Tempest

[Callipygous]

Seems like a good bet. From what I have read, most 5200 games were programmed on the 8-bit first.

[Agent57]

Something I'm curious about: Since the 5200 ver. is basically the same as the 8k 400/800 cart, did they add the intermissions specifically for the 5200 cart version? Or, was there already a 16K version "in the labs" with intermissions which were stripped out for the 400/800 version to fit the cart in 8K when it was originally released? Anybody have any insight here?

 

Too much time on my hands, I know...

[NE146]

And like I pointed out.. there seem to be some 400/800 versions with a different (MORE ACCURATE) dot-eating sound than the regular 400/800/5200 version

 

Now if we could only put that correct sound into the 5200 version which also has the intermissions.. we'd have a pretty perfect Pacman

[Goochman]

The 800 version was originally programmed with the intermissions which were stripped to fit in a smaller cart.

 

I had a disk version of Pac Man with the intermissions back in the day when the cart was released.

[Callipygous]

@NE146 - Are you saying that slightly different 800 carts exist? Some with better sound?

 

@Goochman - Thank you very much. It has to be Jim Andreason then. This also fits in with my theory that "Glenn the 5200" was someone who had access to the original 800 versions and did not need to translate from 5200 to 800.

[Goochman]

I wonder about that though since there are 5-6 titles that are not available on the 800 at all - I would assume if these were originally developed on the 800 then some kinda of test cart would be avail?

 

Though pre-5200 titles on the 800 were def just ported.

[NE146]

@NE146 - Are you saying that slightly different 800 carts exist? Some with better sound?

 

Yes.I don't know if it came in cart format, but I was checking out various pacman disk images via an emulator, and found that some of them had a different "dot-eating" sound than the 5200 version. In fact, it was even closer to the arcade version and much better.

 

I posted about it here (and also uploaded the files for anyone to check out - scroll to the bottom). One has the "waka waka" dot-eating sound which is really close to the arcade version, the other one has the same dot-eating sound as the 5200 version (which sucked imho). Download them and check it out!

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15750