Ebivision Pac-Man

[Ferris]

About six years ago Ebivision created a *SPECTACULAR* version of Pac-Man for the 2600.... essentially puting right what once went wrong. From what I remember it was more than a hack of Ms. Pac-Man, it was something they programmed from scratch and it was absolutely gorgeous and for the most part arcade-accurate.

 

IIRC it got a lot of attention at the time although they only produced a few cartridges which were given away as prizes. The game was shown off on the big screen at NWCGE in 1999 to rave reviews. I believe Ebivision made a few changes to the game and released it as Pesco (essentially changing some colors and making Pac-Man a fish.)

 

My question is, does anybody have the ROM to this version of Pac-Man or know of an Ebivision Pac-Man cartridge that is available? I've been trying to find this thing for years and years with no luck...

 

The game is listed here in AA - http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html...areLabelID=1022

 

And here are pictures of it playing while projected onto a wall -

http://www.cyberroach.com/cyromag/15/seattle3.htm

[+FujiSkunk]

My understanding is that the folk(s) behind Ebivision were really worried that the Namco lawyers might come knocking on their door, and so decided not to officially release their version of Pac-Man, instead offering a handful of "unofficial" cartridges to those who could beat their game of Pesco, which uses the same game engine. More info about Pesco can be found here.

 

Unlike a lot of homebrewers, Ebivision doesn't want their games freely distributed. AtariAge and others have respected that decision, so right now the only way to get their official releases is to buy them. As for Pac-Man, we'll just have to go without.

 

All is not lost, however. Hacking maestro Nukey Shay took the Pesco code and hacked it back into Pac-Man, throwing in versions of Hangly Man and Pac-Man Plus to boot. You can try out his verison here. His port isn't an exact recreation of Ebivision Pac-man, but it certainly gets the job done.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

His port isn't an exact recreation of Ebivision Pac-man, but it certainly gets the job done.

And much, much better than the Ebivision original.

[Marco]

Perhaps, but nothing beats Ebivision Pac-Man, in the sense that it was the first to do a good Pac-Man and that it's such an elusive title.

 

Cheers,

Marco

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Perhaps, but nothing beats Ebivision Pac-Man, in the sense that it was the first to do a good Pac-Man and that it's such an elusive title.

It's the "myth factor" which makes the difference.

[DominiRican05]

Too bad Ebivision's Pacman isn't available but given the danger they'd face from Namco, it makes perfect sense. But after testing Nukey Shay's hack this morning, I was totally impressed, I'm going to have to get me a copy of Pesco now. What's the verdict on this game? Is it just as playable as PacMan?