Pac-Man/Versions

Apple II
Developed by Atarisoft in 1983. Originally written by Brian Fitzgerald and released as Taxman by H.A.L. Labs. Atari first threatened to sue Fitzgerald and H.A.L., but later bought the program and re-released it as Pac-Man.

Atari 2600
Developed by Atari in 1981, the official Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man is considered by many to be the worst Pac-Man conversion made. The only bonus prize is a vitamin that appears beneath the ghost pen periodically. Rather than strecth the maze as in other versions, the Atari 2600 implementation turns the maze on its side, so the tunnels are at the top and the bottom. An extra life is granted every time the board is cleared, regardless of points. The cartridge features eight variations by presenting the player with four choices for the ghost speed, and two choices for the player's speed. The ghosts' behaviors are broken down as a permutation of smart/dumb, and slow/fast. More details about the differences between the arcade version and the Atari 2600 version can be found on Wikipedia.

Atari 5200 & 400/800/XL/XE
Developed by Atari in 1982. Even though Atari dropped the ball when it came to the 2600 version, the Atari 8-bit line of computers was treated to one of the most accurate conversions available. The only thing glaringly different is that Inky is green instead of blue, the Galaxian prize was changed to the Atari logo, and the maze is stretch out to fill up the television screen. Every other aspect of the game is faithfully reproduced, including the intermissions. The Atari 5200 version is identical, with the exception of the controls being difficult to use.

ColecoVision
Developed by Atarisoft in 1983 but unreleased. The prototype rom was discovered and released to the public. The port is extremely accurate, possibly surpassing even Atari's own 8-bit conversion (which, it has been suggested, is the reason it was not released.) See below for information about Opcodegames' homebrew cartridge entitled Pac-Man Collection.

Commodore 64
Developed by Atarisoft in 1983. This version is nearly identical to the Atari 8-bit conversion. It was later re-released by Thunder Mountain.

Commodore VIC-20
Developed by Atarisoft in 1983. Due to the resolution of the VIC-20, this version features a simplified maze. Commodore and HAL Laboratory released a game for the VIC-20 called Jelly Monsters which was a more faithful conversion of Pac-Man... however, Commodore was forced to halt sales of the game due to copyright violations.

Fujitsu FM-7
This version of Japan-only conversion of Pac-Man for the Fujitsu FM-7 home computer was released in 1984. To account for the difference in screen size, the maze was rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise. The speed is considered somewhat slow.

Game Boy
Developed by Namco in 1991. You can choose between two views when you play, a full sized view that scrolls, and a half sized view that fits the whole screen. All of the ghosts are the same color, and therefore indistinguishable by sight alone.

Game Boy Color
Developed by Namco in 1999. This is a color corrected version of the original Game Boy conversion. Other than the addition of color, the gameplay is identical to the regular Game Boy's. It does, however, come included with a GBC conversion of Pac-Attack which is a Tetris variant.

Game Boy Advance
Pac-Man was included by Nintendo as part of its Famicom Mini/Classic NES series and released in 2004. This game plays nearly identically to the NES conversion, with the exception that the sprites appear larger than the maze, but in reality it is the maze that has been shrunk to fit the screen. However, prior to this release, Namco had published the Pac-Man Collection, first in the U.S. in 2001, and later in Japan in 2002. This version contains a far more arcade-accurate version of Pac-Man along with three other Pac-Man games. The only reason to buy the Classic NES version would be if you were a die-hard fan of the NES version over the arcade version, or if you wanted to complete your Classic NES collection.

Intellivision
Developed by Atarisoft in 1983. The maze isn't quite perfect and the gameplay is a little slow. Despite that, Atarisoft developed a rather accurate port for the Intellivision. The ghosts' behavior is remarkably faithful to the arcade version, despite the simplified maze, and the disc controllers are unexpectedly responsive. The sound is also particularly close, and even the intermissions are included.

MSX
Developed by Namco in 1984. This is the first home conversion directly developed by Namco for any other system. It pioneered the use of a reduced maze with the correct aspect ratio and score display on the side that is still in use today by Namco's classic compilation disks and the TV Plug N' Play games.

NeoGeo Pocket Color
Developed by Namco in 1999. You can choose between two views when you play, a full sized view that scrolls, and a half sized view that fits the whole screen. All aspects of gameplay are faithfully reproduced. This version is so accurate in fact, that many of the arcade patterns will actually work with this version. The only drawback is the controller's tendency to hit diagonals. To offset that, the cartridge is shiped with rubber rings that restrict the movement of the joystick to 4 directions.

NES
Developed by Namco in 1984. This version takes the formula established by the MSX version and corrects many of the color issues that were due to graphical limitations of the MSX. Due to the reduced size of the maze, there are fewer dots to eat, but the rest of the game play mechanics are faithful to the arcade version. In the United States, Namco's port was licensed to Tengen and released in 1987. After Tengen was sued by Nintendo, Namco rereleased the title, side by side with a Ms. Pac-Man release, in 1993.

The NES version fixes some issues from the arcade version. There is no kill-screen or known split-screen, the keys just continue. The score has a millions digit, so it could go up to 9 million plus. The final repeating maze is actually the 10th key, not the 9th key, and there are no screens where the ghosts don't blink. The ghosts basically circle their area, and only the red ghost comes after you. That means gameplay could be indefinite.

PC
Developed by Atarisoft in 1983. It was later re-released by Thunder Mountain.

Sega Game Gear
Developed by Namco in 1990. You can choose between two views when you play, a full sized view that scrolls, and a half sized view that fits the whole screen. All aspects of gameplay are faithfully reproduced.

TI-99/4A
Developed by Atarisoft in 1983.

Windows 9x
Developed by Microsoft as part of Microsoft Return of Arcade (1996) and Microsoft Return of Arcade Anniversary Edition (2000). Unlike most other versions, this was entirely reprogrammed to simulate the original, rather than being based on the arcade version's code. The menus contained the original's dip switch settings.

Xbox 360
Microsoft made Pac-Man available for download on the Xbox Live Arcade for 400 points. It is very arcade accurate, and contains achievement points that can be earned for completing certain tasks or stages.

This version does have some major changes from the arcade version. There are 256 levels which you can select from once you complete them, and no split-screen. The levels just keep repeating, and start at cherry, and go back through the keys (along with the intermissions). The difference is that the energizers do not make them turn blue, so it's no blink boards. Basically you keep using your 9th key pattern until you quit, or lose all your lives.

In 2007, Microsoft conducted a world wide Pac-Man World Championship contest, sponsored in part by Quiznos.

Nelsonic watches
Nelsonic created a line of digital watches that were capable of playing video games, including Frogger and Q*Bert. Due to Pac-Man's popularity, Nelsonic distributed two versions of Pac-Man at two different price points. The lower priced watch, which is more common, featured a set of four direction buttons to direct Pac-Man with. The gameplay is based directly off of the Tomy handheld game featured below, and features a shortened version of the handheld's maze. As such, Pac-Man can only eat dots when moving to the left, and never to the right, a common criticism of this version. It features sound, high score saving, and an alarm feature that plays Dixie. The more expensive version features not one, but two LCD layers, one for the watch, and one for the game. It also features a tiny joystick for the controls. The gameplay is fairly faithful, however Pac-Man must eat a maze full of strawberries with two bananas serving as power pills, and a star as the bonus. There are two sets of tunnels positioned in each corner that wrap to the opposite corner. There are two games variations, one where the maze is static, and one where the maze changes slightly throughout gameplay. The watch went through a few design changes, most notably a change from a knob type joystick to a flatter joystick into which a stick could be inserted. Like the button version, it also features sound, high score saving, and an alarm feature. The joystick version also features an on-screen date, day of the week, and seconds display. Both watches' scores max out at 1999 at which point the game immediately ends.

Coleco table-top
Before Coleco launched the ColecoVision, it manufactured a series of table-top games based on several popular arcade games. These table-tops were designed to look exactly like miniaturized arcade machines that you could take home and play. Naturally, the game play wasn't spot on, but it was rather close, given the limitations of the technology. The Pac-Man table-top featured two joysticks that allowed for head-to-head play. The player would initiate play by pushing the joystick in one of four directions, with each direction dedicated to a different mode. There was a demo mode, a single player mode, and a two player head-to-head mode. There was a fourth mode called Eat & Run that featured vastly different rules. In Eat & Run, Pac-Man started in the ghost pen and had to eat as many power pellets as he could before returning to the ghost pen to collect a bonus. All other modes were faithful to the original gameplay. The game featured loud, harsh, almost squealing sound effects that could not be disabled or lowered, and were frequently cited as the game's worst feature. Other Coleco table-top games include Galaxian, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Ms. Pac-Man, Zaxxon, and Donkey Kong Jr. (which was directly licensed from and manufactured by Nintendo).

Tomy handheld
Tomy launched a handheld in Japan based on the arcade game's original name of Puck-Man. This handheld is flatter and wider than other table-tops that were available. In this version, Puck-Man is always animated facing left. As a result, the rules of this handheld stipulate that Puck-Man can only eat dots as he proceeds to the left. Moving to the right causes Puck-Man to merely pass through the dots. Two power-pellets, and a pair of parallel escape tunnels complete the set of features. Cherries appear as bonuses and the left button must be pressed while Puck-Man is next to it to collect it. Only three ghosts chase Puck-Man through this version.

Entex head-to-head
Although not as popular as the Coleco table-top version, presumably for the Coleco version's asthetics, the Entex handheld is slightly more faithful to the arcade version. It also allowed for two players to play head to head against one another, with one person as Pac-Man, and another player as the single ghost on the playfield. In the one-player mode, the player may select how many ghosts are chasing after Pac-Man, either 2, 3, or 4. There are four power-pellets, one in each corner, and a single tunnel in the middle of the playfield. The game features sound which can be switched off. Ultimately it was discontinued due to a licensing dispute with Coleco.

Atari 2600
Because so many people were disappointed by the official Atari 2600 version (which was written in only 4KB of code), some hackers have tried to make up for the lack of a proper Pac-Man conversion. Many people have succeeded in bringing a more faithful version of the game to this system, mostly by hacking existing games. The following is a list of four interesting contributions, in order of least accurate to most accurate.
 * Note that many of the above screenshots have been doctored to display Pac-Man, all four ghosts and all four power pellets in a single frame, which does not occur during real play.

Atari 7800
AtariAge.com forum member PacManPlus has hacked the original Ms. Pac-Man rom in to, not only Pac-Man, but a number of Pac-Man related projects like Pac-Man Plus, Hanglyman, Ms. Pac-Attack (a hack of the original Ms. Pac-Man arcade that altered the maze layouts), a multiple maze version called Ultra Pac-Man. He has collected all of these hacks into one cartridge entitled Pac-Man Collection. PacManPlus did more than just alter the maze and colors, he's updated the graphics and taken many beta tester's suggestions in to consideration to make the most accurate conversion possible.

Bally Astrocade
Bally released a conversion of Pac-Man for their Astrocade console. While they owned the arcade rights to Pac-Man, they did not own the home console rights, so they changed the name of the game to Muncher, and then ultimately did not release it for commercial sale. It is extremely accurate despite the poor resolution ability of the system, and features the maze in the correct aspect ratio.

Colecovision
Opcode Games, developer of new titles for the Colecovision system, has developed a homebrew cartridge that includes versions of Pac-Man, Pac-Man Plus, and Ms. Pac-Man, with the aim of making them as faithful to the original arcade versions as they can possibly be. Despite limitation on the display resolution permitted by a television set, the conversions are considered to be quite accurate and well made.

Commodore 64
Munchy is a Pac-Man clone that contains a remarkably accurate maze arrangement and dimensions. The ghosts even possess properly animated eyes. The fruits differ, and the ghost behaviors aren't perfect, but it is a remarkably accurate conversion, possibly even surpassing the official Atarisoft version in appearance. Definitely a superior clone in an incredibly crowded field.

Commodore VIC-20
While Atari had the rights to release Pac-Man for computers in the United States, HAL Laboratories had the rights in Japan. They created this version of the game which was clearly more accurate than the Atarisoft version. Commodore changed the name to Jelly Monster to avoid legal problems, but Atari still tried to pressure the game out of the market.

Odyssey2
Magnavox developed the famous "Pac-Man game that wasn't Pac-Man" called K.C. Munchkin. K.C. was blue and was chased by three ghosts. He had to gobble up 12 dots (4 of which were power pellets) that wandered endlessly throughout the maze. As K.C. ate each dot, the rest sped up. K.C. only had one life in the game, and he didn't have a long life on the shelf either after Atari sued Magnavox over K.C.'s similarity to Pac-Man and won.