When people think of the worlds most famous video arcade game ever made, they refer to the name “Pac-Man.” However, the term Pac-Man is used loosely because when people use this name, and if they are trying to find a Pac-man arcade game to purchase for their business or home, what they are really thinking about is the second version of Pac-Man, meaning its predecessor, the video arcade game, Ms. Pac-Man. However, even though Pac-Man was an overnight success, and one of the most popular and ICONIC arcade games of all time, it is Ms. Pac-Man is the arcade game that people remember playing the most! But there were other versions of Pac-Man that were less popular but were extremely fun arcade games. Here is the Pac-Man countdown!
Pac-Man arcade game:
Pac-Man is a maze chase video game. The player controls the eponymous character through an enclosed maze; the objective of the game is to eat all of the dots placed in the maze while avoiding four colored ghosts — Blinky (red), Pinky (pink), Inky (cyan), and Clyde (orange) — that pursue him. When all the dots are eaten, the player advances to the next level. If Pac-Man contacts a ghost, he will lose a life; the game ends when all lives are lost. Each of the four ghosts have their own unique, distinct artificial intelligence (A.I.), or "personalities"; Blinky gives direct chase to Pac-Man, Pinky and Inky try to position themselves in front of Pac-Man, usually by cornering him, and Clyde will switch between chasing Pac-Man and fleeing from him.
Placed at the four corners of the maze are large flashing "energizers", or "power pellets". Eating these will cause the ghosts to turn blue with a dizzied expression and reverse direction. Pac-Man can eat blue ghosts for bonus points; when eaten, their eyes make their way back to the center box in the maze. Eating multiple blue ghosts in succession increases their point value. Blue-colored ghosts will flash white when they are about to turn back into their normal, lethal form. Eating a certain number of dots in a level will cause a bonus item, usually in the form of a fruit, to appear underneath the regeneration box, which can be eaten for bonus points.
The game increases in difficulty as the player progresses; the ghosts become faster and the power pellets decrease in duration, to the point where the ghosts will no longer turn blue and edible. To the sides of the maze are two large "warp tunnels", which allow Pac-Man and the ghosts to travel to the opposite side of the screen. Ghosts become slower when entering and exiting these tunnels. Levels are indicated by the fruit icon at the bottom of the screen. In-between levels are short cutscenes featuring Pac-Man and Blinky in humorous, comical situations. The game becomes unplayable at the 256th level due to an integer overflow that affects the game's memory, rendering this level unbeatable.
Ms. Pac-Man arcade game:
Ms. Pac-Man is a 1982 maze arcade game developed by General Computer Corporation and published by Midway. It is the sequel to Pac-Man (1980), and the first entry in the series to not be made by Namco. Controlling the titular character, the player is tasked with eating all the pellets in an enclosed maze while avoiding four colored ghosts. Eating large flashing “Power Pellets” will cause the ghosts to turn blue and flee, which can be consumed for bonus points.
General Computer originally made the game as a modification kit for the original Pac-Man, titled Crazy Otto. Following legal action with Atari, GCC was forced to present the project to Midway, the North American distributor of Pac-Man, before release, who purchased the project. Multiple names were considered for the game, including Super Pac-Man, Miss Pac-Man and Mrs. Pac-Man, before the final name was chosen for being easier to pronounce. Namco president Masaya Nakamura helped design the character of Ms. Pac-Man and collected royalties for each arcade cabinet sold.
Ms. Pac-Man was acclaimed by critics for its improvements to the original gameplay and female protagonist, some labeling it as superior to Pac-Man. It has been listed among the greatest video games of all time and one of the most successful American arcade games ever made. The game's success inspired several ports for home consoles and handheld systems, as well as numerous sequel and remake games, spawning a Ms. Pac-Man spin-off series. The rights to the game are owned by Namco's successor company.
Jr. Pac-Man arcade game:
Jr. Pac-Man is an arcade game, released by Bally Midway on August 13, 1983. It is based on Pac-Man and its derivatives but, like Baby Pac-Man, and Pac-Man Plus, was created without the authorization of Namco. This was one of several games that eventually led to the termination of the licensing agreement between Namco and Bally Midway in 1984.Unlike prior games in the series, the maze in Jr. Pac-Man scrolls horizontally.
The gameplay of Jr. Pac-Man is very similar to that of its predecessors: The player controls the eponymous Jr. Pac-Man (who wears an animated propeller beanie), and scores points by eating all of the dots in the maze, while four ghosts chase him around the maze and attempt to kill him. The player can eat an energizer to turn the ghosts blue, making them vulnerable for a short period of time, and allowing the player to eat them for extra points. Once the maze is cleared, a new maze is presented and the gameplay continues.
The mazes are now two times the width of the monitor and scroll horizontally. A total of seven mazes appear throughout the game, and five of them have six energizers instead of four, but none of them have tunnels that wrap around from one side of the screen to the other. As in the previous games, bonus items (such as tricycles, kites, and balloons) appear in each round, starting above the ghost regenerator and moving around the maze as in Ms. Pac-Man. As an item encounters dots, it changes them into larger dots that are worth 50 points instead of 10, but they also slow Jr. Pac-Man down more than regular dots as he eats them. If an item has been out for long enough and then encounters an energizer, it will self-destruct, taking the energizer with it. If Jr. Pac-Man should die, all larger dots will disappear from the maze, except if t
here are only a few lefts, which revert to their original smaller size.
The game's intermissions center around the developing relationship between Jr. Pac-Man and a small red (female) ghost named Yum-Yum (who is apparently the daughter of Blinky). The ghost Clyde was renamed Tim.
Super Pac-Man arcade game:
Super Pac-Man is the fourth title of the Pac-Man series of games, released in Japan on August 11, 1982 and North America on October 1, 1982, and it is the fourth starring Pac-Man himself. It is also the second game to be created by series originator Namco, as Ms. Pac-Man (the second in the series) and Pac-Man Plus (released a few months before Super Pac-Man) were created without Namco's involvement, therefore making this game the first official sequel in the Pac-Man series.
Sound and gameplay mechanics were altered radically from the first two entries into the Pac-Man series—instead of eating dots, the player is required to eat keys in order to open doors, which open up sections of the maze that contain what in earlier games were known as "fruits" (foods such as apples and bananas, or other prizes such as Galaxian flagships), which are now the basic items that must be cleared. Once all the food is eaten, the player advances to the next level, in which the food is worth more points. In earlier levels, keys unlock nearby doors, while as the player progresses through the levels, it is more common for keys to open faraway doors. Pac-Man can enter the ghost house at any time without a key.
In addition to the original power pellets which allow Pac-Man to eat the ghosts, two "Super" pellets are available and will turn Pac-Man into Super Pac-Man for a short time. In this form, he becomes much larger, can move with increased speed when the "Super Speed" button is held down and can eat through doors without unlocking them. He is also invulnerable to the ghosts, who appear thin and flat to give the illusion of Super Pac-Man "flying" over them. He still cannot eat them without the help of the original power-up. When Super Pac-Man is about to revert to regular Pac-Man, he flashes white. The Superpower can then be prolonged by eating a power pellet or super pellet, if available.
A point bonus can be scored if Pac-Man eats a star that appears between the two center boxes while assorted symbols flash inside them. Usually, one symbol stops while the other continues until the star is eaten, a life is lost, or too much time elapses. If the star is eaten when two symbols match, the bonus is 2000 points for any match, and 5000 points if the matching symbols are the same as the level being played. Otherwise, the bonus is like the award for eating a ghost, which is 200, 400, 800 or 1600 points, depending on the level. (On some versions, higher levels might pay out the 2000 or 5000 points no matter what the symbols are).
Bonus levels appear at intervals. Here, the player is presented with a maze full of food items and must eat them all to collect the points on a countdown timer. Pac-Man appears in Super Mode throughout the stage, and there are no ghosts.
Baby Pac-Man arcade game and pinball machine:
Baby Pac-Man is a hybrid maze and pinball game released in arcades by Bally Midway on October 11, 1982. The cabinet consists of a 13-inch video screen seated above a shortened, horizontal pinball table. The combination fits into roughly the same size space as an upright arcade machine.
The development of Baby Pac-Man was not authorized by Namco. It was designed and released entirely by Bally-Midway (as were Pac-Man Plus, Jr. Pac-Man, and Professor Pac-Man), which eventually led to Namco canceling its relationship with Bally-Midway. 7,000 units were produced.
Video mode
Play begins on the video screen, where the player controls Baby Pac-Man through a maze. Play mechanics are like Pac-Man in that the object is to navigate the maze while gobbling dots and avoiding ghosts. In contrast to earlier games in the series, Baby Pac-Man's maze starts with no energizers, which allow Baby Pac-Man to eat the ghosts. Instead, there are two vertical chutes at the bottom edge of the screen, which suspend video play and transfer the game to the pinball table when the player travels down either of them.
Pinball mode
The pinball section operates as a traditional pinball game in which the player hits targets with a metal ball using two button-operated flippers. The player may earn energizers, gain new fruit bonuses, and increase tunnel speed, all used in the video mode. When the player fails to keep the ball in play, the game resumes on the video screen, but with the chutes closed. The player must then be caught by a ghost or clear the maze to reopen the chutes. The game ends when the player runs out of lives.
Multi arcade games with 4,000+ games in one machine like but not limited to; Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Super-Pacman, Jr. Pac-man, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Metal Slug games, Street Fighter games, Asteroids, Space Invaders, Defender and more!
Virtual Pinball Machines:
See the Vpin video pinball machine with 2,000+ games like; Baby Pac-Man pinball, Black Hole, Street Fighter, Comet, Dark Knight, Pinbot and many more!
Slot machines:
Real casino slot machines, once used in the top casinos in Las Vegas like; IGT Game King, IGT slots, Bally slots, and WMS slot machines!
Jukeboxes:
Rock-Ola nostalgic bubbler jukeboxes; CD jukeboxes, vinyl-45 jukeboxes, and the famous Rock-Ola Music Center digital downloadable jukebox!
