Pac & Pal/Gameplay

Controls

 * Joystick: Use the joystick to direct Pac-Man around the maze. Hold it in direction that you want Pac-Man to go before he can turn that way, and he will turn as soon as he can.
 * Fire Button: This button can only be used while Pac-Man is powered up after eating a power item. Until he returns to normal, you can press this button as many times as you like.
 * 1 or 2 Player Buttons: Push these buttons to begin a one or two player game.

Pac-Man
Once again, you control Pac-Man as you guide him through the maze. Pac-Man's goal is to gobble up every target item behind the gates. There are two instances of an item in each round of the game that will power Pac-Man up, by turning him blue and making him slightly larger. He must avoid contact with the four ghosts unless they are temporarily stunned by Pac-Man when he fires at them while powered up. Pac-Man is not invincible while powered up, so he must still avoid contact with any ghosts who are not stunned. He is capable of turning around corners faster than the ghosts, so you should make as many turns as possible when the ghosts are on his tail. The number of extra lives that Pac-Man will receive depends on the cabinet's dipswitch settings, but he will typically receive one extra life at 30,000 points, with the possibility of getting a second extra life at 80,000 or 100,000 points, and an additional possibility to get even more, after every 80,000 or 100,000 points thereafter.

Miru & Chomp Chomp
Depending on which version of the game that you play, your pal will either be the mysterious green girl Miru, or Pac-Man's pet dog Chomp Chomp from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon. They behave identically. Once one or more items have been unlocked, Miru (or Chomp Chomp) will head towards the freed item and try to take it. They will move at half speed as they drag the item behind them. Their goal is to bring the item into the ghost regenerator. You can stop them from stealing the item by eating it before they get to the ghost regenerator. You'll lose the perfect bonus if the succeed in bringing any items in to the ghost regenerator, but there is no other penalty. There is one behavior that you can count on in order to collect the items from them. They will always cross over underneath the ghost regenerator, and enter it from the opposite side. So if they pick up an object, on the left side of the screen, they will cross beneath the regenerator from left to right, and approach the regenerator's entrance from the right. Pass beneath the regenerator at this time to get the item back from them, before proceeding to continue on.

The ghostly quartet
The familiar ghosts are back, but this time they aren't even properly introduced. Regardless, they basically behave the same. The red ghost, Blinky, shadows Pac-Man's trails. The pink ghost, Pinky, tries to stay one step ahead of Pac-Man. The cyan ghost, Inky, will usually turn away if you take him head on. And the orange ghost, Clyde, does his own thing for the most part. The ghosts' behavior is a little more random than in the original Pac-Man so patterns can not be relied upon. Much like in Super Pac-Man, the ghosts will also exhibit a "stutter" behavior from time to time where they seem to shake in one spot briefly, before continuing on. This can sometimes save your life if you are being persistently chased, or it can cost you a life if you are following behind a ghost too closely. Even when Pac-Man is powered up, he can still be killed by a ghost.

Stunned Ghosts
When Pac-Man eats one of the stage's signature items, he becomes powered up, and can fire a beam or effect of some sort at the ghosts. Any ghost that touches this beam will become stunned for a number of seconds. During that time, they appear and animate differently, and you can safely pass through them. They begin to flash in their original color when the stun begins to wear off. Shortly after, they will return to normal and continue to pursue you.

If the player's timing is right, it is possible to stun a single Ghost more than once, awarding an additional 1600 for every successful stun after the fourth. While difficult to accomplish, if all four ghosts are stunned twice during a single powered-up session, the player will have scored 9,400 from eight consecutive stuns.

Cards & Power Items
In order to clear each round, Pac-Man must eat every item found behind the gates. And in order to open the gates, he must flip over every card. Flipping over one card unlocks one predetermined item in the maze. You can only flip over three cards at maximum before you must eat one of the items behind the gates. You can not flip over a fourth until one of the items is eaten (or brought in to the regenerator by Miru or Chomp Chomp). There will always be two instances of a power item on each round, found on either side of the maze just below the ghost regenerator. These items will power up Pac-Man. All items (Galaxian Flagships, Rally-X Red Cars, Trumpets, Snowmen, and Pac-Replicas) give Pac-Man the same power, essentially. The different effects are mere cosmetic.