Ms. Pac-man Rant

[tyranthraxus]

I finally ran across this version in a bar about a month ago. I got

400,000 but the top score was over 500K. It is a cheat but it was

pretty awesome going so far. I saw animations I had never seen before

and would have done better but I got a little cocky at times. There was

a few things that messed me up. There was one point where the game

slowed right down and another time where eating a power pellet didn't

make the ghosts blue at all. I prefer the original but this sped up version

was a lot of fun after years of getting beat.

[geosteve]

the local arcade here has a nice condition Ms. Pac cabinet with the Pac Man ABC kit installed, all 8 games can be either regular speed or fast, and it keeps the 10 high scores too (for all games not each). the #1 score is over 800K.

 

best part, it's cheap to play - 1 token, sold at 8 / $1.00

[Dav]

This multi is better than the 2bit, and it's cheaper as well.

 

http://home.everestkc.net/mdoyle/multipac.htm

[hepcat]

Update.

 

OK, I finally did it. After 8 years, I finally broke my high score on Ms. Pacman last night. It was kind of a let down because my old high score was 232,000 and my new one is only 234,000. I got a banana on level 20 and lost my last man almost immediately afterward.

 

Still, I am confident that dramatic increases in this score are only weeks, not years away this time. I’ve been working very hard on grouping the monsters for the past month or so and it’s starting to pay off. My average scores have increased as follows:

 

–I’m almost always finishing the apple board with over 70,000 points. A couple nights ago, I got 76,000 just one 1600 point monster away from perfection.

 

–I usually have over 110,000 by the end of the banana board, and around 140,000 by the end of level 9. Previously, I was very happy to have over 100,000 and 120,000 by the end of levels 7 and 9 respectively.

 

I’ve been following the guide created by Don Williams and the “Bozeman Think Tank.” Parts of it are not entirely clear, but you can find some additional help over at the Twin Galaxy forums. Thanks to the guide, I can now get all 4 monsters on the top left and right energizers on the orange and lavendar boards (levels 6-9 and 14-17). I don’t do this every time, yet, but I know the technique works. As for the bottom right energizer, I haven’t gotten that one to work correctly because the orange monster keeps breaking off from the group for some reason. I’m working on my own technique for getting all four monsters on the bottom left energizer and am getting better at it every day.

 

I haven’t starting trying to group the monsters on the junior boards yet. I’m going to keep working at the orange boards for now and start on the junior boards in a few weeks.

 

One problem with trying to group the monsters is that you get careless. I’m losing 2 or 3 men by the time I reach the junior boards right now, meaning that one more slip up ends the game. As I get better at grouping and make it to higher levels with all 4 men, I’m hopeful I’ll be able to break 270 or 280K.

 

I wanted to wait until I got a higher score to post a recording, but if anyone wants to see last night’s game, I’ll post it later. It’s very tedious though; it took about an hour and 10 minutes to reach 234K. You will see me make many dumb mistakes and try grouping the monsters many, many, MANY times before it actually works.

 

More updates as events warrant.

 

–Jason

[PacManPlus]

Very cool, man

[Christophero Sly]

Nice!

[hepcat]

I started a new thread in the Emulation section where I'll be posting my Ms. Pac-man videos. Enjoy!

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=77470

 

--Jason

[hepcat]

My wife and were in San Francisco a couple days ago and had lunch at Fisherman's Wharf. Afterward, I spotted the "Musee Macanique," which contains dozens of old mechanical entertainment machines, player pianos, pinball machines, etc. They also had several 80's classics, including two Ms. Pac-man machines. Both of them had the speed up chip. It saddens me that future generations of gamers are going to be misled into thinking that this profit driven bastardization of Ms. Pac-man is the real thing.

 

Other than that, my vacation was great!

 

(And yes, I know I just bumped a thread started in 2003...)

[Dauber]

The regular non-speed-up version ALSO isn't "the real thing" -- all Ms. Pac-Mans are hacks of Pac-Man that Namco refused to recognize.

 

As for me....give me the "turbo" version any time. The original is too slow for me. Plus, on a standard three-life-plus-bonus machine, I cannot, for the life of me, reach the fourth (dark blue) maze. Turbo, though, I've gotten up to 760,000 points.