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Who made Ms Pac-Man


Darran@Retro Gamer

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sorry about the rubbish first post. I can't find the info anywhere :(

 

also, does anyone know how much the 2600 was when it was first released in the UK?

 

Cheers guys :)

999756[/snapback]

I can answer your first question at least. Ms. Pac-Man for the 2600 was developed by a Boston company called General Computer Corporation, which also developed several other home console and computer titles for Atari in the mid-1980s (as well as the Atari 7800 ProSystem). Incidentally, GCC also developed a modification kit for the original Pac-Man, which was bought by Namco and eventually became the Ms. Pac-Man coin-op.

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Here, this should help, this is the list of what games were written by whom at GCC for Atari:

 

2600

 

Ms. Pac Man - Mike Horowitz and Josh Littlefield

 

Phoenix - Mike Feinstein and John Mracek

 

Vanguard - Dave Payne

 

Galaxian - Glen Parker and Tom Calderwood (I think)

 

Jungle Hunt - Mike Feinstein and John Allred

 

Battlezone - Mike Feinstein and ?? (I don't remember his name, but he was very smart!)

 

Joust - Mike Feinstein and Kevin Osborn

 

Track and Field - Seth Lipkin and ??

 

Jr. Pac Man - Ava-Robin Cohen and ??

 

Pole Position - Betty Ryan Tylko and Doug Macrae (I think)

 

 

 

7800

 

Pole Position II - Doug Macrae and ??

 

Desert Falcon - Mike Feinstein, Bob Kukura, and John Mracek

 

Food Fight - Jonathan Hurd (he designed the arcade game, too)

 

Galaga - Dave Krall worked on this, but I don't remember who else

 

Centipede - I think Dave Payne worked on this

 

Dig Dug - Noeli Alito and Ava-Robin Cohen (I think)

 

Xevious - Wookie (I don't remember his real name)

 

Robotron 2084 - Carlos Smith

 

Ms. Pac Man - Mike Horowitz and Josh Littlefield

 

Ball Blazer - Dave Payne

 

 

This was a list sent to me by Michael FeinStein, former GCC programmer.

 

 

 

Curt

 

 

sorry about the rubbish first post. I can't find the info anywhere :(

 

also, does anyone know how much the 2600 was when it was first released in the UK?

 

Cheers guys :)

999756[/snapback]

I can answer your first question at least. Ms. Pac-Man for the 2600 was developed by a Boston company called General Computer Corporation, which also developed several other home console and computer titles for Atari in the mid-1980s (as well as the Atari 7800 ProSystem). Incidentally, GCC also developed a modification kit for the original Pac-Man, which was bought by Namco and eventually became the Ms. Pac-Man coin-op.

999775[/snapback]

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Here, this should help, this is the list of what games were written by whom at GCC for Atari:
Thanks for posting that list! I hadn't seen some of those names before and it's nice to see them get the credit they deserve; everyone says 2600 Ms. Pac-Man is one of the best ports of Ms. Pac-Man but nobody ever knows the names of the developers (until now!)
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GC was not affiliated with namco, the publisher of pac-man. They were a group of students who had some game machines that no one wanted to play, so they decided to mod them. They were sued by Atari for moding their missle command machine, but since they didn't copy or pirate any of the code, the case was settled and they became a developer for Atari.

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To answer the second question, I believe (although I can't find my source) that the VCS was released in UK in 1978 at a price of £249. Accounting for inflation, that'd be £854 today!! Little wonder that the 2600 wasn't as popular in UK as US :)

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Here, this should help, this is the list of what games were written by whom at GCC for Atari:

 

2600

 

Ms. Pac Man - Mike Horowitz and Josh Littlefield

 

Phoenix - Mike Feinstein and John Mracek

 

Vanguard - Dave Payne

 

Galaxian - Glen Parker and Tom Calderwood (I think)

 

Jungle Hunt - Mike Feinstein and John Allred

 

Battlezone - Mike Feinstein and ?? (I don't remember his name, but he was very smart!)

 

Joust - Mike Feinstein and Kevin Osborn

 

Track and Field - Seth Lipkin and ??

 

Jr. Pac Man - Ava-Robin Cohen and ??

 

Pole Position - Betty Ryan Tylko and Doug Macrae (I think)

 

 

 

7800

 

Pole Position II - Doug Macrae and ??

 

Desert Falcon - Mike Feinstein, Bob Kukura, and John Mracek

 

Food Fight - Jonathan Hurd (he designed the arcade game, too)

 

Galaga - Dave Krall worked on this, but I don't remember who else

 

Centipede - I think Dave Payne worked on this

 

Dig Dug - Noeli Alito and Ava-Robin Cohen (I think)

 

Xevious - Wookie (I don't remember his real name)

 

Robotron 2084 - Carlos Smith

 

Ms. Pac Man - Mike Horowitz and Josh Littlefield

 

Ball Blazer - Dave Payne

 

 

This was a list sent to me by Michael FeinStein, former GCC programmer.

 

 

 

Curt

 

 

That is a list of some damn good games. I had no idea GCC made so many of the good 2600 ports.

 

And I know this is the 2600 forum, but Food Fight and Robotron for the 7800 are gold.

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Wow! Lots of info there. Need to document that! Anyways, I've got to say Ms. Pac-Man is a very fun game on the 2600. I do prefer the 7800 to the 2600, but I still have love for the 2600 version.

1000054[/snapback]

There used to be a Ms. Pac-Man coin-op in an arcade near me, and although I was disappointed when it was taken out, I don't miss it anymore now that I have Ms. Pac-Man on the 7800. To me, that is the very best version of the game for a home system: it's GCC's game, running on GCC's hardware, and to me it's as good as you can get outside of MAME. The 2600 version would never be mistaken for the coin-op, of course, but it's a terrific game in its own right and light-years ahead of the original 2600 Pac-Man.

Edited by jaybird3rd
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I think its funny how the origional Pac-Man sequal was to have a character with legs.
Beg pardon?

1000058[/snapback]

He's referring to the original Crazy Otto kit for Pac-Man by GCC, in which Pac-Man was changed into a character with legs and the "ghosts" had little antennae. With Crazy Otto, GCC added the concepts of the different mazes and the bonuses that wandered about the maze and other gameplay changes that they added to make Pac-Man more interesting. This was before the game went to Namco, at which time the graphics were reworked and the game became Ms. Pac-Man.
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That information probably needs to go into the AtariAge database at some point.  I just did a quick search, and found that the programmers of Vanguard, Ms. Pac-Man, and Jr. Pac-Man (three of my favorites from GCC's 2600 list) are uncredited.

999980[/snapback]

Yes, I agree, and will update those entries. :)

 

..Al

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It was expensive here too, $249 in 1977, or about $776* today.

 

The VCS launched at $199.99 apparently, not $249.99, despite lots of places quoting that figure.

 

As for the UK, I found some research that shows it was £169 at launch, but I've already passed that onto Darran...

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I think its funny how the origional Pac-Man sequal was to have a character with legs.
Beg pardon?

1000058[/snapback]

He's referring to the original Crazy Otto kit for Pac-Man by GCC

Yeah, I'm familiar with Crazy Otto. Famicoman made it sound like it was somehow official (which it couldn't have been farther from).

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So were any of these guys involved with GCC's arcade endeavors as well? I did love Quantum. What's the rest of the list: Otto, Food Fight and the Missile Command tweak?

 

Only 500 Quantums were made? I knew of two arcades that had one.

Edited by NovaXpress
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Namco had nothing to do with Ms. Pac-Man (or Jr. Pac-Man, or Pac-Man Plus, or Baby Pac-Man). GCC showed their Crazy Otto design to Midway to stave off a lawsuit like Atari hit them with, and it was Midway who said "Instead of a hack, why not make us a sequel?", and so they had GCC turn Crazy Otto into Ms. Pac-man. Namco had no idea any of this was happening. GCC also hacked Pac-man into Jr. Pac-Man, but they were not a part of Baby Pac-Man. (And GCC sued Midway for using their idea of a "Pac-Man family" without them).

 

Midway and GCC eventually gave/sold all the Pac-hacks to Namco to prevent still more lawsuits, but Midway's unauthorized sequels were the main reason for Namco and Midway breaking off relations.

 

It was a lawsuit-happy time.

 

So GCC made both the arcade Ms. Pac-Man and the Atari 2600 port - that might be why the game is so true to the arcade (within Atari 2600 limitations, of course)

 

-DS-

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  • 3 weeks later...

Really? That's very odd. I guess they must have used Galaxian as the code base for Centipede. I can't think of any other reason it would have the graphics in it.

 

Tempest

 

 

 

Galaxian - Glen Parker and Tom Calderwood (I think)

Could they have done Centipede too? There are unused Galaxian graphics in the ROM.

1000310[/snapback]

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