Pac-Man

n/a

Pac-Man

System(s): PC-8801, PC-8001 mkII, PC-6001 mkII, PC-8001 mkII SR, PC-8801 mkII SR, PC-9801 VX

Publisher: Dempa Micomsoft

Wiz

Developer: Dempa Micomsoft

Wiz

Licensor: Namco

Genre: Action

Number of players:

1,

1-2 (alternating)

Release	Date	RRP	Code
JP (cassette)	1983	¥3,5003,500	DP-3101055
JP (disk)	1983	¥5,8005,800
JP	1985	¥5,8005,800	DP-3101104


JP	1984-08	¥3,5003,500	DP-3102-231
JP	1985	¥6,8006,800	DP-3101070


JP	1984	¥3,0003,000	DP-1020


JP	1992-11-13	¥7,2007,200	300121

Non-NEC versions
Arcade Apple II Atari 2600 Atari 5200 Atari 8-bit family Commodore 64 FM-7 Game Boy Game Boy Advance Game Gear Intellivision MSX Neo Geo Pocket Color Nintendo Entertainment System Famicom Disk System IBM PC MZ series MZ-1500 MZ-2000 X1 TI99/4A VIC-20 ZX Spectrum

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Pac-Man (パックマン) is a 1980 arcade game developed by Namco. It became incredibly successful to the point that it saw ports to consoles of the time and continues to see ports — made in-house, officially licensed, and homebrew — to today's systems. Ports have been made to various NEC computer systems, with the PC-9801 VX port handled by Wiz and other ports handled by Dempa Micomsoft.

Gameplay

The "Ready!" screen at the start of a new game in the PC-9801 VX version.

The basic goal of Pac-Man is to eat all the dots (or pellets) in a maze, avoiding ghosts. Pac-Man will automatically move forward in the direction that the keys are pressed until he reaches a wall, but can freely change direction by pressing a different direction. By eating one of four Power Pellets in the corners of the maze, all of the ghosts will become frightened and turn blue, Pac-Man is able to eat the ghosts as well for a short period to earn bonus points. Ghosts start from a "ghost house" in the center of the maze and will respawn from the center of the screen after being eaten.

Levels are completed once all the dots are eaten, and extra points can be achieved by eating fruit that periodically appears beneath the ghost house. As the player progresses further through each level, the game's speed increases and the Power Pellets get less effective at making the ghosts vulnerable. Every few levels the game will display brief, comical cutscenes featuring Pac-Man and Blinky. The game ends when all lives are lost from being caught by the ghosts.

Ghosts

Each of the four ghosts have a specific quirk in their AI and will pursue Pac-Man differently from one another. As all NEC ports were only released in Japan, Japanese names are used here, with Western names in brackets where available. Sprites displayed are from the PC-9801 VX version:

	Akabei (Blinky)
	Character: Oikake (Shadow)
	Blinky is always the first ghost out and will chase Pac-Man directly. After a certain number of dots are eaten, he will receive a boost in speed.
	Pinky
	Character: Machibuse (Speedy)
	Pinky targets the four tiles in front of Pac-Man, attempting to ambush him.
	Aosuke (Inky)
	Character: Kimagure (Bashful)
	Inky's movement is relative to both Pac-Man and Blinky's. He will try to position himself in front of Pac-Man, but will give chase if Blinky is close to Pac-Man.
	Guzuta (Clyde)
	Character: Otoboke (Pokey)
	Clyde alternates between trying to chase Pac-Man when far away, and largely ignoring him if he is close to him.

Scoring

Dots: 10 points

Power Pellets: 50 points

Ghosts: Various points depending on how many are eaten with a single Power Pellet:

1st ghost: 200 points
2nd ghost: 400 points
3rd ghost: 800 points
4th ghost: 1,600 points

Fruit: Various points depending on the fruit:

Cherry: 100 points
Strawberry: 300 points
Orange: 500 points
Apple: 700 points
Melon: 1,000 points
Galaxian: 2,000 points
Bell: 3,000 points
Key: 5,000 points

An extra life is awarded at 10,000 points.

Versions

Due to the limited colours available, some of the ghosts use different colours across the various NEC ports as opposed to the arcade version and other ports - Clyde is green in most of the ports, while Pinky is sea green in the PC-8001 mkII version and magenta in other versions. The PC-9801 VX version is the only NEC version where all four ghosts' colours are accurate to the arcade version.

Physical scans

PC-8801 version

PC-8801, JP (cassette)
Cover

PC-8801, JP (disk)
Cover

PC-8801 mkII SR version

PC-8801 mkII SR, JP
Cover

PC-8001 mkII version

PC-8001 mkII, JP
Cover

PC-8001 mkII SR version

PC-8001 mkII SR, JP

PC-6001 mkII version

PC-6001 mkII, JP
Cover

PC-9801 VX version

PC-9801 VX, JP
Cover

References

Sega Retro has more information related to Pac-Man