16 things wrong with 2600 Pac Man

[Nukey Shay]

I hate to disagree, but, the ghosts are different colors and have personalities.  It is not nearly as pronounced as in the arcade version, however it is there to be seen.

 

Huh?? They all look and act identical to me (the program code would be a giveaway, I think). Is the same routine used for all of them?

 

But anyway, the progressive "fruit" values could probably be hacked in, if there is a single spare Ram byte lying around (?). Maybe also hack the score to show an extra zero to get the point values up, as well. Any takers?

 

How about hacking Ms. PacMan to use the original VCS PacMan board, tune, and sprites? Voila! Progressive fruits and less flicker.

[Room 34]

There are extremely small differences in the colors of the ghosts -- and in the colors of the "power pills." Two of the ghosts are slightly greenish and two are slightly orange-ish (same for the power pills). It is easier to see this difference on Stella screencaps than on a 2600 hooked to a TV.

 

As far as different personalities... I don't know. They may travel at slightly different speeds... I haven't wasted my time trying to figure that one out.

[Room 34]

How about hacking Ms. PacMan to use the original VCS PacMan board, tune, and sprites?  Voila!  Progressive fruits and less flicker.

Nukey, you are a sick individual.

[Simon]

I think it would be more interesting and effective to have a thread where we list what's NOT wrong with 2600 Pac-Man.

 

I'll start:

 

Pac-Man is yellow.

 

Uh... OK... anyone else?

 

This only applies for the NTSC-version, as there is no real "Yellow" on the PAL-palette of the VCS unfortunately.

So on a PAL-console not even that feature is correct.

 

Simon

[NE146]

I hate to disagree, but, the ghosts are different colors and have personalities.  It is not nearly as pronounced as in the arcade version, however it is there to be seen.  

 

I dunno... for all the time I put into 2600 Pacman (I even won a new VCS because of my skills at it ) I've never seen any different personalities in them.. but perhaps a look at the code will bear this out. However, all the ghosts are definitely the same color.. and that's a somewhat discolored YELLOW"

 

How about hacking Ms. PacMan to use the original VCS PacMan board, tune, and sprites? Voila! Progressive fruits and less flicker.

 

Yknow.. that's just wacky enough to be a GREAT IDEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 Wow! Just imagine it! I'm serious!

[Mind Master]

I'd like to add the highly redundant design of the maze to the list of 2600 Pac Man's faults.

 

Also, the monsters are four different colors:

 

Inky is Yellow

Blinky is Banana

Pinky is Lemon

and Pokey is Gold

 

[Room 34]

Not to be nit-picky here, but there are slight differences in the shades of the ghosts and the power pills, as demonstrated in the screenshots here:

 

http://www.atariage.com/screenshot_page.ht...wareLabelID=342

 

Note the color of the ghost in the center square, and the power pills on the right side, in the 2nd screenshot, compared to the color of the ghost in the escape tunnel, and the power pills on the left side, in the 3rd screenshot. The ones in the 2nd shot are slightly "greener."

 

I have taken some screenshots on my own in Stella and verified this.

[Room 34]

A better example:

 

http://www.digitpress.com/eastereggs/26pacman.htm

 

Thanks to whomever it was who sent me this. (Scott Stilphen perhaps?)

[Inky]

 

Inky is Yellow

Blinky is Banana

Pinky is Lemon

and Pokey is Gold

 

 

Come over here and call me yellow to my face, pal!

 

 

 

C'mon folks, you didn't expect me to let that go by without a comment, now did ya?

[Mind Master]

You know you've made a bad game when 20+ years later people are still debating what color the monsters are...

 

I also seem to recall (I don't play 2600 Pac Man often) that Pac Man mysteriously always faces the same direction whenever he eats a monster, regardless of which direction he is traveling. If that's true, add that to the list of things wrong.

 

For a cleansing sense of relief from 2600 Pac Man, play either Pac Man Arcade (of course) or to get even closer to the arcade, NES Pac Man is excellent.

[Godzilla]

I also seem to recall (I don't play 2600 Pac Man often) that Pac Man mysteriously always faces the same direction whenever he eats a monster, regardless of which direction he is traveling.

 

Hey. what a great opportunity for me to repeat myself:

 

Maybe 2600 pacman is a male model and that is why he can't face up (zoolander reference.)

[Video]

The ghosts are a slightly different color from each other. When they pass right next to each other, it can be seen, but just barely.

 

And they move at different speeds too. When they first come out of the center, if they all follow the same path, you can see them start to pull apart.

[Nukey Shay]

 

Inky is Yellow

Blinky is Banana

Pinky is Lemon

and Pokey is Gold

 

 

Come over here and call me yellow to my face, pal!

 

 

 

C'mon folks, you didn't expect me to let that go by without a comment, now did ya?

 

...and pokey is priceless. Anything else, and it would be illegal

[D.Yancey]

Agreed, they do travel at slightly different speeds. That's sort of what I meant when I said they had differing personalities. They are not simply all clones! Thanks for backing me up on the color contraversy.

[NE146]

hmmm well I guess then it's true. I'll take yer guys words for it

[D.Yancey]

@ NE146:

 

You are surely right about the manual-- it does say the ghosts turn back to "Yellow". HMMMM?

[horror_blood]

o

Edited February 27, 2008 by horror_blood

[horror_blood]

o

Edited February 27, 2008 by horror_blood

[tkarner]

They made Pac-Man for the 2600????

(The psychologists must be correct,

the memories of a childhood experience

as traumatic as 2600 Pac-Man get repressed).

 

 

Tom

[liquidcross]

Another thing wrong with Pac Man -- what the heck is a "Pac?"

Because there's a Japanese slang term "paku paku" that describes the motion of the mouth opening and closing while one eats. That's where the name came from. And Pac-Man himself was based on a pizza with a slice missing.

[NE146]

Another thing wrong with Pac Man -- what the heck is a "Pac?"

Because there's a Japanese slang term "paku paku" that describes the motion of the mouth opening and closing while one eats. That's where the name came from. And Pac-Man himself was based on a pizza with a slice missing.

 

As Zylon keeps pointing out, the Japanese name is PUCK-MAN. (which I think is derivitive of that slang term). The "PAC" came about just to change the name in the U.S version since they thought people would change 'puck' to 'fuck' (which of course, they would)

[slapdash]

Another thing wrong with Pac Man -- what the heck is a "Pac?"

 

Because there's a Japanese slang term "paku paku" that describes the motion of the mouth opening and closing while one eats.

 

As Zylon keeps pointing out, the Japanese name is PUCK-MAN. (which I think is derivitive of that slang term).

 

I'm pretty sure that's the case -- "paku" rendered into English became "Puck" until someone realized the potential chaos. "Pac", while not as close to "paku" as "Puck", does the job nicely.

[tkarner]

Another way to look at this is that 2600 Pac Man was genius.

After all, if the game was good nobody would still be talking about

it 22 years later and no one would know who Todd Frye was.

 

I take that back, despite the decades of attention it wasn't genius.

It was the most terrible thing I've ever seen. Todd Frye must have

been on Magnavox's payroll because it made me buy Odyssey2

and KC Munchkin.

 

And I don't buy the excuses that he had a deadline and was

limited to 4k. A good maze, one more like the original, would not

have taken anymore time or memory. Neither would a blue on

black maze, instead of that yellow/puke green maze. And it's

my belief that given a better maze most of us would have forgiven

the game's other problems.