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Ms.
Pac-man
5200 release
Developer/US
publisher: Atari
Ms.
Pac-man
400/800
release
Developer/US publisher:
Atari
Those who bought the new Atari systems during the
era of the crash may have infinitely regretted their
purchases, but at least they got the only decent home
conversions of the Pac games at the time. Ms. Pac was very
much like the arcade version for these systems except the
playfield was horizantal.
 Pac &
Pal
Arcade release
Developer:
Namco
US publisher: Atari
The Pac-man sequel
no one ever speaks of. Atari apparently released it to the
States in an extremely limited amount of arcades. After
playing it, it's obvious why.
Pac doesn't eat anything in
this game. He just runs around flipping over cards to unlock
doors where, with the "help" of an annoying little monster
named Pal, he collects a few items. The monsters are still
around, and this time there are no power pellets Pac can use
for defense. Instead, there are a couple strange powerups that
give Pac abilities from other Namco games, which he can use to
stun the monsters.
Even though each level had the same
layout (didn't Namco learn anything from Ms. Pac-man?), the
game was just too complicated to be any fun.
Professor Pac-man
Arcade
release
Developer/US publisher: Bally
Midway
This was an ambitious project by Midway, a
typical quiz game with Pac-man graphics. Midway hoped to have
these machines in bars all over America, and they planned to
update the machines often with new questions.
The game was
a spectacular failure. 400 machines were made, and nobody
played them.
Pac-man
Intellivision
release
Developer/US publisher:
Atarisoft
 Pac-man
IBM PC
release
Developer/US publisher:
Atarisoft
Pac-man
C64
release
Developer/US publisher:
Atarisoft
Pac-man
Vic-20
release
Developer/US publisher:
Atarisoft
Pac-man
Apple Computer
release
Developer/US publisher:
Atarisoft
Pac-man
TI-99/4A
release
Developer/US publisher:
Atarisoft
Pac-man
Sinclair Spectrum
release
Developer/US publisher:
Atarisoft
And here we hit the period of Atari's nutty
third-party phase. Here is where Pac gets its first release on
the home computer systems, which were becoming all the rage...
way back in the day when Bill Gates was just getting started
with his plans to screw Steve Jobs and then the rest of the
known planet. Back when 640k really was all the memory anyone
would ever need. Where was I?
 Jr.
Pac-man
Arcade release
Developer/US
publisher: Midway
Finally, Midway gives the
unauthorized Pac-man sequels a rest after this one. Yet
another family member is being pursued by monsters, this one
being Pac Jr. This was a very difficult game with large mazes
that wouldn't fit on the screen; they scrolled horizantally.
Even with two extra power pellets, the monsters were just too
hard to avoid, expecially since there were no escape tunnels.
Yet another Pac clone that didn't make it very far.
Clyde
once again sits this game out and another orange monster named
Tim takes his place, for no known reason.
The game also
introduced Yum-Yum, a monster Jr. falls in love with. In the
intermissions, we see them run away from their parents, who
don't approve of the forbidden love. It's all really cute. Too
bad it's impossible to see them all, along with the 5 maze
layouts.
 Pac
Land
Arcade release
Developer:
Namco
US publisher: None
Pac Land was not
only a side-scroller with awkward controls that no one
played... it was actually one of the first games of its
kind... An action platform game involving the rescue of a
princess that has an ending. So it did serve a purpose of
inspiring much better games down the road like Super Mario
Bros. Pac, Ms Pac, and their baby appear, along with several
clones of the monsters, who've apparently taken over the
entire city.
Pac
Land
Arcade release
Developer:
Namco/Midway
US Publisher: Bally Midway
The
already-incredibly-gay arcade game becomes even more gay when
Midway "Americanizes" it by altering the graphics to resemble
the Hanna Barbera cartoon that was playing at the time.
Pac-man's outfit changed, the monsters got hats, and other
stuff... but the gameplay (if you can call it that) was left
intact.
Pac-man
Intellivision
release
Developer/US publisher: INTV
INTV
puts out another version of Pac-man for the Intellivision.
Why? Who knows...
Ms.
Pac-man
IBM PC release
Developer/US
publisher: Atarisoft
Ms.
Pac-man
C64 release
Developer/US
publisher: Atarisoft
 Ms.
Pac-man
Vic-20 release
Developer/US
publisher: Atarisoft
Ms.
Pac-man
Apple Computer
release
Developer/US publisher:
Atarisoft
Ms.
Pac-man
TI-99/4A
release
Developer/US publisher:
Atarisoft
Ms.
Pac-man
Spectrum
release
Developer/US publisher:
Atarisoft
The Atarisoft legacy (?) continues with their
mass release of Ms. Pac-man.
Jr.
Pac-man
2600 release
Developer/US
publisher: Atari
A decent 2600 conversion of the
less-than-decent coin-op. Looked and played similar to the
2600 Ms. Pac-man, with a vertically-scrolling
playfield.
 Pac-man
Famicon
release
Developer: Namcot
US
publisher: not for a while
One would think the
8-bit Family Computer should be perfectly capable of
recreating the Pac-man experience flawlessly. Alas... the
gameplay was there, but the graphics were washed out and
flickery. But keep in mind that the Famicon was brand new at
the time... Nintendo couldn't even fit all the levels of their
own Donkey Kong game on a single cartridge back
then...
Pac-man
MSX
release
Developer: Namcot
US
publisher: none
The MSX has to be the weirdest case
of a game system developed in America, having had little
success outside of Japan... anyway, as required by Namco law,
it got a version of Pac-man.
 Pac
Land
Famicon release
Developer:
Namcot
US publisher: none
The Famicon gets
another Pac-man translation in its infant stage. This game was
never released in the US. Trust me, once you see it, it
becomes obvious why.
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