Pac-Mania
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| Pac-Mania | |
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 Box art of the Sega Master System version |
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| Developer(s) | Namco |
| Publisher(s) | Namco / Atari Games |
| Designer(s) | St. Daimyōjin |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Amiga, Commodore 64, MSX, NES, Master System, Mega Drive, Sharp X68000, ZX Spectrum, Zeebo, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Atari Jaguar, Zeebo |
| Release date(s) | 1987 |
| Genre(s) | Retro/Maze |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players, alternating turns |
| Input methods | 4-way Joystick, 1 button |
| Cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade system | Namco System 1 |
| Display | Vertical orientation, Raster |
Pac-Mania (パックマニア) is an arcade video game in the Pac-Man series, released by Namco in 1987 and distributed by Atari Games in the United States and Europe. It is a pseudo-3D interpretation of the classic maze game genre and features most elements of the original Pac-Man, as well as several new features. Pac-Mania runs on Namco System 1 hardware.
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[edit] Gameplay
As in Pac-Man, the objective of Pac-Mania is to score as many points as possible. The player controls Pac-Man and attempts to eat all the dots in a maze, while avoiding being caught by ghosts that roam the maze. The player can eat power pellets that cause the ghosts to turn dark blue and become vulnerable; the player can then eat these ghosts for extra points, sending them back to their pen to return to their original color and behavior.
[edit] Differences from Pac-Man
Pac-Mania contains several new features and significant differences from its original counterpart. The most noticeable change is the view used, cabinet projection, an oblique pseudo-3D format, in which Pac-Man always occupies the center of the screen and a virtual camera moves around the level to follow him. In addition, the player can press a button to cause Pac-Man to jump, allowing him to evade most ghosts by jumping over them. However, Pac-Man cannot jump over the gray ghost as well as Pac-Man having to jump early.
Joining Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde from the original Pac-Man is Sue (purple), a ghost who homes in on Pac-Man's direction and will follow him around, and two new ghosts (green and steel gray) that jump whenever Pac-Man jumps. (It is hinted through the game's intermissions that the names of the new ghosts are Funky and Spunky, or "Common" and "Grey Common" in the Japanese version, though this is never made completely clear.) In later stages, larger numbers of ghosts appear in a single stage. Also, bonus objects in this game not only include traditional point-scoring fruits, but also power-up items that can have random effects, such as doubling the point values of ghosts or causing Pac-Man to move much faster than normal.
The game takes place in four environments: Block Town (made up of Lego-like building blocks), Pac-Man Theater (a 3D version of the original Pac-Man maze), Sandbox Land (walls are made up of pyramids), and Jungly Steps (appearing as pathways with no railings, resembling a set of steps that rise toward the back of the maze). The game has a limited number of levels, after which the player is shown a brief ending and production credits, and is prompted for his/her initials if he/she has placed on the high score list. The number of levels varies by version. DIP switches in the game can be set to make the game endless.
[edit] Ports
Pac-Mania was ported to the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Mega Drive/Genesis, Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Master System, Sharp X68000, ZX Spectrum, MSX, and the RISC OS operating system for the Acorn Archimedes. Teque Software developed the majority of these and were published by Grandslam Entertainment. The Amiga and Atari ST won the Golden Joystick award for Best 16 Bit Arcade Conversion. Many of these ported versions are considered to be easier than arcade version. The Amiga version features advanced graphics and a soundtrack that has been rearranged for digitized instrument samples by Ben Daglish.
An accurate arcade emulation of the North American version of Pac-Mania appears on Namco Museum 50th Anniversary, and the Game Boy Advance's Pac-Man Collection. Although the one on the 128-bit Namco Museum and Namco Museum Volume 5 also includes a port of the arcade game, they are more based on the Japanese version, as evidenced by its lack of a high score screen and its inclusion of a continue feature. See the article Namco Museum for a chart of games, including Pac-Mania.
[edit] Production
- For a total of ten years, Pac-Mania for the Nintendo Entertainment System was the only Nintendo version of the game available. In 2002 it was one of the games included in Pac-Man Collection for the Game Boy Advance. Later, in 2002, the Arcade version was re-released and included as an unlockable in Pac-Man World 2. In addition to that being the second release on a Nintendo system, Pac-Mania in Pac-Man World 2 was actually the very first official Nintendo version of the game (the NES version was from Tengen).
[edit] External links
- Pac-Mania at the Killer List of Videogames
- Pac-Mania at MobyGames
- Soundtrack of Amiga version (LHA file can be played with Deliplayer, a free music player for Windows)
- Pac-Mania at the Internet Movie Database
- Pac-Mania at World of Spectrum
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