Munchman High Score

[orion1052003]

According to Twin Galaxies, the highest score on Munchman is 146, 790 by Patrick Scott Patterson on 11-25-2008. But that doesn't mean that's the highest score anybody's reached. The manual says there are 60 screens, and then I assume the game ends. Getting 107,100 after 26 screens, makes me figure one would need 250,000 points or so to reach the end. Does anybody know if anyone has ever reached the end of Munchman?

 

What is the highest score in the '80s, like in 99er magazine or other old magazines and scoreboards? There were probably some crazy high score back then. **Spoiler alert** I attached a pic of screen 20 where the maze disappears, the manual says screen 20, 40, and the last screen 60 does this.

 

Orion

Edited May 18, 2013 by orion1052003

[unhuman]

pretty awful considering how unresponsive the controls are compared to pac man.

[RobertLM78]

pretty awful considering how unresponsive the controls are compared to pac man.

That's the truth - Pacman would turn on a dime, whereas munchman is a bit more sluggish to put it nicely .

Edited May 22, 2013 by RobertLM78

[dendawg]

From what I recall, the game does NOT end at level 60, nor is the highest possible score 250,000. I remember rolling over the score on at least one occasion when I played it as a teen. (The score rolled over at 1,000,000) As for the horrible controls, you learn to adapt. At least I did. The invisible maze happened every 20 levels.

Edited May 22, 2013 by dendawg

[rocky007]

try the cheat code SHIFT + 838 on the main screen and you can try to select directly the round 2 level 19.. after this level, it'll continue again and again

[+mizapf]

I found the control of Munch Man not that unresponsive. Mind that Munch Man is running much faster in the maze than Pac Man. I quickly learned to pull the joystick a fraction of a second before reaching a crossroads and could easily navigate this way. Luckily this still works perfectly with a Joystick-to-USB adapter I got some time ago and Munch Man running on MESS ... brings back the authentic feeling

[senior_falcon]

According to Twin Galaxies, the highest score on Munchman is 146, 790 by Patrick Scott Patterson on 11-25-2008. But that doesn't mean that's the highest score anybody's reached. The manual says there are 60 screens, and then I assume the game ends. Getting 107,100 after 26 screens, makes me figure one would need 250,000 points or so to reach the end. Does anybody know if anyone has ever reached the end of Munchman?

 

What is the highest score in the '80s, like in 99er magazine or other old magazines and scoreboards? There were probably some crazy high score back then. **Spoiler alert** I attached a pic of screen 20 where the maze disappears, the manual says screen 20, 40, and the last screen 60 does this.

 

Orion

I know that back in the day I went through all 60 screens, but this was on the original munchman, not the one that was released where you lay down the chain. The original munchman was more like pacman in that you ate dots. I don't know what score I reached but believe that I could have played pretty much indefinitely. At a certain point the hoonos become quite predictable. They aggressively seek you until you eat a power dot. Then they all want to get as far away as they can. So the trick is to loiter by a power dot until they have all come out (you can eat some dots while you are waiting but don't stray too far), When they have almost reached you eat the power dot and clear out that corner when they run away. Don't make any effort to chase them. Then go to the next power dot and repeat. I think the cartridge version works the same as the original one.

[sometimes99er]

It this the one you played ?

 

http://www.videogamehouse.net/munchmanproto.html

 

[rocky007]

and talking about high score : http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5574883395&toolid=10001&campid=5336500554&customid=&mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.befr.ebay.be%2Fitm%2Fws%2FeBayISAPI.dll%3FViewItem%26item%3D261216585321%26ssPageName%3DADME%3AB%3AWNA%3ABE%3A1123

 

WOW !

[senior_falcon]

It this the one you played ?

 

http://www.videogame...chmanproto.html

 

That's the one.

[orion1052003]

SeniorFalcon, what happened at the end of the game? The Munchman II cartridge is rare, but readily available on emulation. Pretty fun game, smaller screen, seems easier than Munchman 1 at first, because the hoonos don't chase you right away. But as one plays, I think it is a lot harder than Munchman 1, and I could only get through like 2 levels after just getting 26 screens on Munchman 1 on a real TI. An old 99er magazine has a picture of a Munchman cake.

[senior_falcon]

As I recall it just started over with everything set the way it was at the beginning except for the number of lives you have earned. This was over 20 years ago, so don't take this as gospel. As you get to higher levels it goes really fast but is actually easier because the hoonos are very predictable. So if you can make the turns the way you intend it's not too bad. At some point you have to be very careful not to eat any of the hoonos. If you do they go to the jail in the center of the screen instead of to the corner furthese from you, and when the power dot wears out the one you ate is much closer than the others and almost impossible to avoid. You could probably use the 838 cheat to see if my memory is right as to what happens after level 60. I have not used the released munchman (with the chains) very much. I would assume that the hoonos behave the same in both versions.

[jaybird3rd]

The Munchman II cartridge is rare, but readily available on emulation. Pretty fun game, smaller screen, seems easier than Munchman 1 at first, because the hoonos don't chase you right away. But as one plays, I think it is a lot harder than Munchman 1, and I could only get through like 2 levels after just getting 26 screens on Munchman 1 on a real TI.

I prefer Munchman II to the original Munchman these days; the split-screen maze and the teleporter add interesting elements to the gameplay. I used to play it all the time in emulation, until I built myself a reproduction cartridge. Here's my highest score to date:

 

[orion1052003]

Senior Falcon, How did you end up playing the proto rather than the finished module? Jaybird, that's awesome! Munchman II seems harder than Munchman 1. That must have taken 45 minutes or more, huh? Well, as I expected, I was probably beaten by a 14 year old girl. At least it was a young girl that got a high score in the 80's. She would be around 45 now. Here is some Munchman clips from magazines such as 99er for your enjoyment.

Edited May 29, 2013 by orion1052003

[sometimes99er]

I think the original maze design (the prototype version we could compare with) was closer to the original Pac-Man, but only slightly.

At the time, early eighties, a black background was almost a must, to me. Even the 3270 terminals at work had green or was it 7 colors on black background. I’d even program on those from 1985 and on, so for a while I’d even set up my Amiga editor to have black background. I’d even say that Cars Wars and Munch-man would have been more popular with more arcade feel simply by having a black background, but of course, it would appear even more rip-off-ish. Parsec is one thing, nice black background, but TI Invaders was (in my opinion) an almost complete rip-off (boriiing interludes of hitting the saucer), - but then certainly one of the best (conversions), if not the best, at around that time. Wonder how TI dared (being so protective about their own stuff).

 

[+Lee Stewart]

...

At the time, early eighties, a black background was almost a must, to me. Even the 3270 terminals at work had green or was it 7 colors on black background. I’d even program on those from 1985 and on, so for a while I’d even set up my Amiga editor to have black background. I’d even say that Cars Wars and Munch-man would have been more popular with more arcade feel simply by having a black background,....

 

Must be why they used white on black for the 64-column editor in TI Forth—that was almost unreadable with its 3x7 font. I changed my copy to black on gray as soon as figured out how!

 

...lee