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Nam-Cap "marquee".png

Once you have opened the app of Studio Piña Games's 2013 Pac-Man spoof game Nam-Cap on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, you will be treated to a photograph of the game's fictitious cabinet (presumably an original Pac-Man which has been customized by the game's designer Keith A. Erickson) as that introductory text from the main page appears letter-by-letter to its right; once the screen has faded out, it will perform a spoof RAM test before going into attract mode. The text "DEBT 0" ("debt" is the opposite of "credit") is seen in the top-left corner of the screen with the manufacturer name "OCMAN" to the right of it (read it backwards!) - and below that, it states that a pellet is worth 50 points while a flashing heart is worth 10 (however, Nam-Cap can't collect the latter). The kings' names and nicknames shall then appear at the bottom of the screen and you will be shown a short demonstration (with the text "WORK BEGAN", which is the opposite of "GAME OVER", below Nam-Cap's starting box) which will help you get the hang of the game if you are a novice player; once you have tapped the ¢52 "Pull to Accept" button, the text "1980 OCMAN ©" shall appear on the screen with the text "BONUS NAM-CAP FOR 10000 PTS" (which is false, as she will not receive an extra life until 50000), "ONLY 1 PLAYER" and "PULL START LEVER" (the opposite of "push start button") below it. If you tap the ¢52 "Pull to Accept" button again the third text shall change to "1 OR 2 PLAYERS" - and once you've tapped either of the two start buttons the game will start (with the text "ABLE??", which is somehow the opposite of "READY!", above Nam-Cap's starting box).

NC Maze.png

Nam-Cap starts each round in the box at the centre of the maze with enough energy to lay 25 pellets, while the kings start in the four corners (Gutless: bottom-right, Ennui: top-left, Friendly: top-right, Zippy: bottom-left); Player 1's score is displayed above the text "1OUT" in the bottom-left corner of the screen ("out" is somehow the opposite of "up"), while the highest score on the iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch to date will be displayed over the text "LOW SCORE" to its right ("low" is the opposite of "high") and Player 2's score will be displayed above the text "2OUT" in the bottom-right corner. The current round is also displayed in the top-left corner of the screen by up to five special enemies, while Nam-Cap's remaining lives are displayed in the top-right corner - and whenever Nam-Cap "de-crowns" a king to gain enough energy to lay 32 more pellets (they are worth 200, 400, 600, and 800 points if "de-crowned" in succession) he'll run back to his home corner to get the new crown that's appeared there (and leave a flashing heart behind which takes a while to disappear). If one of the other kings should collect this heart before it disappears, it shall turn them all red with rage, and Nam-Cap yellow with temporary weakness as the heart in her starting box is instantly broken; if you are close to the starting box, you should head back there until Nam-Cap returns to her normal purple colour, but if you are not, you should only move when you absolutely have to (as she'll re-eat any pellet she passes over). However, every pellet Nam-Cap re-eats while weakened will result in another 50 points when she eventually lays another one in the place it occupied.

Every time Nam-Cap lays 80 and 180 pellets, the current round's special enemy will enter the maze through either of the warp tunnels; these enemies can kill her even if she is her normal purple colour, and shall try to find the quickest possible path to her, before eventually leaving through either warp tunnel again, if they do not manage to kill her. However, much like the kings, they can't enter Nam-Cap's starting box, so if you are close to it, you can just head back to it until they leave the maze - and after every eighth round, the cycle starts over again (they'll also not return to the maze if Nam-Cap should lower the number of pellets in it to under 80 or 180 while temporarily weakened, but later raise it back up again). Once Nam-Cap has filled the maze with 278 pellets, she will proceed to the next round (which is exactly the same as the previous one, only with a different type of special enemy); this game also has three intermissions (which are directly adapted from those of the original Pac-Man and do not make that much sense as a result):

  • Intermission 1: Gutless runs into view from the left side of the screen being chased by Nam-Cap; seconds later, an enlarged Nam-Cap runs into view from the right side of the screen being chased by the now-"de-crowned" (but still normal) Gutless. This intermission is shown after Round 2.
  • Intermission 2: The "de-crowned" Gutless runs into view from the left side of the screen towards a new crown again being chased by Nam-Cap; once he has put it on, he runs off the right side of the screen as Nam-Cap dies without an explanation. This intermission is shown after Round 5.
  • Intermission 3: Gutless runs into view from the left side of the screen, once again being chased by Nam-Cap; seconds later, Nam-Cap runs into view from the right side of the screen wearing Gutless's crown and blinks to players twice. This intermission is shown after Rounds 9, 14 and 18.

The game will continue until Nam-Cap runs out of lives, either from being caught by the kings while enraged or by the special enemies; because the score display does not "roll over" at 1000000 points like that of the original Pac-Man did, there is an added incentive to keep people playing for long periods of time, but when Nam-Cap eventually does lose her last life the aforementioned text of "WORK BEGAN" will appear below her starting box (featuring that text "ONE PLAYER" or "TWO PLAYER" above it in a two-player game, depending on whose turn it was, even though it had originally appeared below it at the start of the game). The game will then go back into attract mode - however, it will not exit until you decide to close the app.