Pac-Man "cheats"

[Herbarius]

Here on AtariAge two "cheats" for Pac-Man are listed:

 

Move through walls

Enter the warp tunnel and quickly and repeatedly press Up, Down while inside. Make sure Down is the last direction pressed before Pac-Man re-appears to wipe across the screen. You may move Pac-Man up and down through the walls, but will not be able to move from side to side.

 

Unlimited lives

Eat a ghost on maze 1, two ghosts on maze 2, three ghosts on maze 3, and four ghosts on maze 4. Then, press Up, Down, Up and intentionally lose a life.

 

So, just for some fun I tried both, but they don't seem to work at all.

 

The first one about moving through walls isn't really precise... How often are you supposed to repeat pressing Up, Down? I guess you're supposed to enter the bottom warp tunnel, because it says to press down before Pac-Man reappears... Or should you enter the upper warp tunnel and then press Up,Down a couple of times but exit the upper tunnel again? It's not like it's a timed delay that you stay off-screen, but in fact by repeatedly pressing Up,Down while in the warp tunnel you could stay there forever, because you can actually change direction in the warp tunnel. However I tried both variants and I could not move through any walls.

 

The one with unlimited lives isn't really easy to pull off, however I switched into an easy mode and followed the instructions... First maze, eat only one ghost, second maze eat two, third maze eat 3 and in the fourth eat 4. Then I moved Up, Down, Up and waited for the ghosts to catch me... To try if it worked I intentionally ran into the ghosts until all my lives were depleted and... Game Over... I tried this a couple of times already, didn't work in any attempt... Maybe you have to finish level 4 first and on level 5 move Up, Down, Up and let yourself be killed? Didn't try that yet.

 

 

So, what about those cheats (or merely exploits). is it a joke and they don't actually work? Am I doing anything wrong?

Edited April 29, 2009 by Herbarius

[Dauber]

I remember doing the tunnel warp before, but terribly unintentionally. Every time I tried it I lost a life because there was usually a ghost somewhere down the middle. The warp, btw, is pretty fast.

[IHATETHEBEARS]

Agreed. The "moving through the walls" thing does work. I did it many times - usually unintentionally.

 

As for the unlimited lives, I've never heard of that. It doesn't seem real to me. Has anyone ever done it?

[Nukey Shay]

There is nothing in the program that would keep track of how many "ghosts" were eaten from energizer to energizer. It's a single ram location that is cleared each time you eat a new energizer. The same goes for input...the program keeps track of the current stick status only, and has no provision for keeping track of multiple directions across multiple frames.

 

And "the real game" isn't hidden in the cart either

 

 

But it is possible to get all 4 of them stuck in the tunnel...bouncing in and out for the duration of the current level (i.e. you are basically invincible as you eat the remaining dots, since none of them chase you). IIRC, that is due to an unconditional branch failing.

[Herbarius]

But it is possible to get all 4 of them stuck in the tunnel...bouncing in and out for the duration of the current level (i.e. you are basically invincible as you eat the remaining dots, since none of them chase you). IIRC, that is due to an unconditional branch failing.

 

Yeah that happened to me once, it was quite funny...

 

Also I think if you enter the warp tunnel from one direction and a ghost at the same time enters it from the other direction you won't die (and neither will the ghost if you're "under the influence" )...

Edited April 29, 2009 by Herbarius