Pac Man Arcade

[rhindlethereddragon]

The shoddy "Pac Man" on the 2600 is often cited as the catylist for the video game crash. Well as bad as that one was, "Pac Man Arcade" is a perfect example of somebody "making something right". The game is just about perfect. It's what Pac Man should have been in the first place.

 

Which got me to thinking: what IF this version had been released in 1981 on the Atari 2600? Would history have turned out slightly different? Would the Atari had a few more GOOD years left? I couldn't see anybody back in 1981 being anything but delighted with "Pac Man Arcade" (a fairly recent Atariage release).

[Nukey Shay]

No, because by the time that the game was released, the home console market was already headed to a serious downswing. There's more factors at play here whether or not a game is "good" (and that aspect had minimal effect in the big picture anyway). Atari's Pac-Man was their biggest seller, and that wasn't enough to alter the coarse of the crash-diving console market. Much bigger problems were the market saturation, waning consumer interest, squandered profits both inside and outside of the corporations, and the lack of a stable/reliable business model (everything up to that point was based on the fickle whims of the public...no safeguard in place at all). So what ultimately DID happen was that too many producers stuck their fingers in the pie to try to grab a share. So profits go from fair to worse (especially considering reckless R&D spending that most of them were guilty of). The console market was fractured beyond repair to support it's dwindling slice of consumer dollars (who were already putting more interest...and more importantly their dollars...into other markets. Cheaper home computers being one of them). Stores had preordered HUGE lots to gear up for what was anticipated to be another record year (prompting OEMs to produce them) were stuck with no prospects to sell those games to. That's unsold games, not "an unsold title". Per retailer agreements with the OEM's, some were fortunate enough to get back at least a minimal share of what they put in...by returning or outright cancelling their preorders. So the OEM's were stuck with unsold finished goods cluttering up vast warehouses. What stores couldn't drop the price on quick enough was ultimately returned for minimal credit or scrapped. No first-party OEMs but the biggest players (i.e. ones that already had established...and unaffected...home computer user bases) are able to survive the shakeout. 3rd-parties that also played by those unstable rules also dried up. In the meantime, investors continue to abandon most support (and ALL new interest) in the entire market and leave it to rot.

 

 

No game could "save" the console market of '82...they didn't use business practices that lent itself to be saved.

[lucifershalo]

this topic makes me wonder something:

(I know nothing about the programming process so...)

do all the homebrews created now possible then?

I mean, do the programmers use new tools that were not available then or not?

[Nukey Shay]

Of course. Emulation probably being the most important contribution. Coupled with faster cross-platform processors that can assemble a binary from text files in not even a fraction of the time it used to take, programmers can see the results of their work almost immedaitely...rather than the slow process of burning an eprom and testing it on the real deal for every change that needed to be verified.

 

In addition to that, programming methods themselves have evolved. Just as with most anything, stuff is done a certian way until somebody comes along and does something different. The library of "something different" is ever increasing. I'd say a pretty good share of modern games take advantage of certian unknown or uncommon methods (and it's difficult enough to guess at who was inventor of a given method for most of them)...so that you could point to pretty much any modern homebrew and say "that game could not have existed in the VCS's heyday" for certian.

[lucifershalo]

interesting to know

and also to think

when people are comparing new version of a certain game

even if for sure pac man could have been better

at least, "Ms pac man like" better

[Nukey Shay]

BTW Pac-Man Arcade (or at least a game very much like it) could have existed...IIRC 2 other programmers mention seeing Frye's work...which was similar to Ms.Pac-Man's kernel...before Atari's management killed the option to use bankswitching.

 

 

It still wouldn't have helped the console industry, tho. Maybe more-positive word-of-mouth would have helped sell an additional million or so units? Who knows? But investor support was no longer there.

Edited July 5, 2009 by Nukey Shay

[rhindlethereddragon]

BTW Pac-Man Arcade (or at least a game very much like it) could have existed...IIRC 2 other programmers mention seeing Frye's work...which was similar to Ms.Pac-Man's kernel...before Atari's management killed the option to use bankswitching.

 

 

It still wouldn't have helped the console industry, tho. Maybe more-positive word-of-mouth would have helped sell an additional million or so units? Who knows? But investor support was no longer there.

 

Why would management have been against bank switching?

[Lord Helmet]

The shoddy "Pac Man" on the 2600 is often cited as the catylist for the video game crash. Well as bad as that one was, "Pac Man Arcade" is a perfect example of somebody "making something right". The game is just about perfect. It's what Pac Man should have been in the first place.

 

If you think that's good...check these out:

 

Hack 'Em

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...st&id=61452

 

Pac-Man 4k

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...t&id=121302

[Nukey Shay]

Neither one of those could have been programmed back in 1981 tho (as mentioned above). Both games use methods that were virtually unknown at the time...in addition to using illegal opcodes (which was not acceptable back in the day).

 

 

@rhindle

Not "would"..."was". Frye pitched it to them, and they flat out refused to allow the program to be above 4k.

 

AFAIK...the main excuse was cost. It was cheaper to produce a 4k run than 8k (and this falls in line with management's treatment of programmers at the time...which was "do it or we'll just get somebody else"). Management had a pretty strong case against it, due to the cost of the Midway license to produce the game (and because the game only featured 5 moving sprites in an unchanging maze...Maze Craze had no problem even with random mazes).

 

The other distinct possibility was resources. Supposedly, Atari only had one bankswitching workstation at the time (summer to winter '81). If this workstation was occupied putting the finishing touches on their first banked game (i.e. Asteroids), there wouldn't be time to allocate to begin creating Pac-Man there. I dunno if this was the case at all, tho...still trying to figure out the programming timetable that games were written in. The only thing that is certian (confirmed by other programmers) is that Frye was in the middle of designing a multisprite flicker kernel for the title when this suggestion was refused. Said kernel would have occupied too much of the addressable 4k...so it was scratched and redesigned to use primitive flicker when the bankswitching request fell though.

Edited July 7, 2009 by Nukey Shay

[atx4us]

The shoddy "Pac Man" on the 2600 is often cited as the catylist for the video game crash. Well as bad as that one was, "Pac Man Arcade" is a perfect example of somebody "making something right". The game is just about perfect. It's what Pac Man should have been in the first place.

 

Which got me to thinking: what IF this version had been released in 1981 on the Atari 2600? Would history have turned out slightly different? Would the Atari had a few more GOOD years left? I couldn't see anybody back in 1981 being anything but delighted with "Pac Man Arcade" (a fairly recent Atariage release).

 

I was a HUGE fan of Pacman in its heyday. I remembered waiting in line with my quarters at the local 7-Eleven store for my turn at the arcade machine. I was so happy to find out that Atari was coming out with Pacman for the 2600. I remembered that it was sold out in my area so I had to wait for the next shipment. I slapped down $50 for my cartridge - that was a lot of money for me back then working at minimum wage (~$3.10/hr) for a local restaurant. I thought now I can finally play as much Pacman as I wanted to at home. So much for great expectations though, it was such a let down for me to see what I actually got. What a disappointment - a rip off! I couldn't take it back once it was opened per the store return policy. I got stuck with it and HAD to learn to like it. But, I became very wary of Atari from then on. From there, I moved on to getting my Atari 800 computer which I still have. I was much happier with the Pacman version for the Atari computers.

 

I just gave Pacman Arcade a try. I didn't know anything about it until today. Man, I would have been so happy if this were the version that I shelled out $50 for. Better late then never I guess. Great job RK!

[racer raul]

The shoddy "Pac Man" on the 2600 is often cited as the catylist for the video game crash. Well as bad as that one was, "Pac Man Arcade" is a perfect example of somebody "making something right". The game is just about perfect. It's what Pac Man should have been in the first place.

 

Which got me to thinking: what IF this version had been released in 1981 on the Atari 2600? Would history have turned out slightly different? Would the Atari had a few more GOOD years left? I couldn't see anybody back in 1981 being anything but delighted with "Pac Man Arcade" (a fairly recent Atariage release).

 

I was a HUGE fan of Pacman in its heyday. I remembered waiting in line with my quarters at the local 7-Eleven store for my turn at the arcade machine. I was so happy to find out that Atari was coming out with Pacman for the 2600. I remembered that it was sold out in my area so I had to wait for the next shipment. I slapped down $50 for my cartridge - that was a lot of money for me back then working at minimum wage (~$3.10/hr) for a local restaurant. I thought now I can finally play as much Pacman as I wanted to at home. So much for great expectations though, it was such a let down for me to see what I actually got. What a disappointment - a rip off! I couldn't take it back once it was opened per the store return policy. I got stuck with it and HAD to learn to like it. But, I became very wary of Atari from then on. From there, I moved on to getting my Atari 800 computer which I still have. I was much happier with the Pacman version for the Atari computers.

 

I just gave Pacman Arcade a try. I didn't know anything about it until today. Man, I would have been so happy if this were the version that I shelled out $50 for. Better late then never I guess. Great job RK!

 

You were not alone my friend... till this day I hate looking at the cart for the way it made me feel when I got it as a kid.

[devwebcl]

The shoddy "Pac Man" on the 2600 is often cited as the catylist for the video game crash. Well as bad as that one was, "Pac Man Arcade" is a perfect example of somebody "making something right". The game is just about perfect. It's what Pac Man should have been in the first place.

 

If you think that's good...check these out:

 

Hack 'Em

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...st&id=61452

 

Pac-Man 4k

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...t&id=121302

 

Besides these two clones, there are any other attempt of Pacman?

[Nukey Shay]

Ebivision's original game (that I stole for Hack'Em)?

[devwebcl]

Ebivision's original game (that I stole for Hack'Em)?

 

Ok. I just realized that Hack'em is a hack from Pesco.

Pac-Man 4k is original?

[youki]

You should all read the book "Racing the beam : The Atari Video Computer System "

 

here at Amazon

 

It is very interresting and you will know why Pacman 4k is how it is.

 

One major error done by Atari was to produce 10 millions Pacman cartridge when the park of machine was 10 millions. They expected that the popularity of pacman will make people by the console.

 

The result, they "only" sold 7 millions of cartridges... it resulted extremly big loss for Atari.

[Nukey Shay]

Ok. I just realized that Hack'em is a hack from Pesco.

Pac-Man 4k is original?

 

 

No, AFAIK it was just called Pac-Man...tho most probably refer to it as Ebi-Pac or something so as not to confuse it with Atari's game. I took that and altered it to make Hack'Em. Pac-Man 4k is a new homebrew that Dennis Debro is still working on currently.

 

 

One major error done by Atari was to produce 10 millions Pacman cartridge when the park of machine was 10 millions. They expected that the popularity of pacman will make people by the console.

 

The result, they "only" sold 7 millions of cartridges... it resulted extremly big loss for Atari.

This is why I love the internet...so much misinformation.

 

Pac-Man was a mega-seller (the biggest in Atari's history)...one of the only titles keeping the 2600 in the black for a spell. There is no single reason why Atari produced as many as they did - it was a combination of things. First and foremost was to offset the cost of the license. Atari had a multi-platform agreement with them, so it wasn't viewed as a problem (whatever losses happened on one platform could feasibly be recouped on another). A footnote should be said that Atari was well aware of clone consoles appearing, as well (i.e. no longer producing games for the 2600 alone...but the 2600, it's revisions, the Gemini console made by Coleco, and "pass-through" adaptors that allowed more advanced machines access to the 2600 library).

But the other MAJOR factor was forecast and speculation. In the early days of producing games, everybody was following the same bad practice of taking everything that vendors demanded as gospel (before the crash, this was viewed as solid advice...produce everything that stores wanted since everything is flying off shelves). So what happens when you get too many companies producing them...and all of a sudden, they are collecting dust on store shelves due to waning customer interest in the market? One of the biggest house-of-cards upsets in history. Stores start returning unsold product for OEM credit (some fresh from the factory without even being ON a shelf)...stores that "guaranteed" sales months earlier - which in turn drove the factories to produce higher numbers. And it wasn't just Pac-Man being returned...but everything and anything. The existing 2600 userbase kept it on life support for the rest of the decade, tho. Everybody else was sunk...Coleco, Mattel, you name 'em. If they weren't also producing titles for the home computer market (like Activision), they kissed their collective asses goodbye.

 

 

And thus ends the fable of how Pac-Man killed the Intellivision

[youki]

This is why I love the internet...so much misinformation.

 

I didn't find this information on the net , but on different books talking about video history . the last one i read his : Racing the beam and i think it is also mentionned in : The Ultimate History of Video Games. (so of course may be author of these books took information from the net , but i doubt)

 

They are certainly a combination of thing that made Atari produce so much cartridge. But i think one of them is that they expected that pacman would have increase console sells.

 

And yes, Pacman was a mega seller that generated mega loss for Atari. Even back in time , i think that was cleary a "not clever" marketing decision , It was just a dangerous bet .

[devwebcl]

Thanks a lot, now I have everything clear.

Btw, that book looks interesting, I didn't pay attention when was released.

 

Greetings,

 

Devwbecl

[Nukey Shay]

I didn't find this information on the net , but on different books talking about video history . the last one i read his : Racing the beam and i think it is also mentionned in : The Ultimate History of Video Games. (so of course may be author of these books took information from the net , but i doubt)

Books can get history mixed-up sometimes

 

 

They are certainly a combination of thing that made Atari produce so much cartridge. But i think one of them is that they expected that pacman would have increase console sells.

Neither here nor there...I think that is pretty much expected of all "killer app" titles (Asteroids, Centipede, etc. included). Atari had a leg in front compared to competitors and 3rd-parties...because their foothold in the console market (the largest one in America, mind you) as well as the computer market (not the largest...but across the spectrum of hardware manufacturers) pretty much insured a title's success. They wouldn't exactly release a title that was expected to stifle hardware sales, right?

 

 

And yes, Pacman was a mega seller that generated mega loss for Atari.

The mega loss was already going to happen with or without Pac-Man. As far as marketing is concerned, the port is still viewed as a success story. Maybe not quite as successful as they anticipated it to be...but well enough that it sold decent numbers following the crash. It's not just the 2600 port that they had under their belt...but a big-name title for all hardware. I don't think that anybody expected the home console market to fall as deeply and sharply as it did. Based on earlier experience, the market should have bounced back...but the fact is that too few consumers were interested in consoles when newer, cheaper home computers offered so much more.

 

 

Even back in time , i think that was cleary a "not clever" marketing decision , It was just a dangerous bet.

How they did things in general was the dangerous bet. Mass-production gone wild with no safety net. The industry took it's bloody nose and learned from that experience...some better than others. Atari still had a few goofs for the future. To the companies that folded completely because of the market crash, well, better luck next time. "We'll...meet again...don't know where...don't know whennn..."

 

 

Meanwhile, the ripple effect of the market crash was barely felt in other regions of the world. Nintendo's console division was as strong as ever...and probably expected nobody to compete with when they geared up to reach outside of the East. Following the other blunder by Atari, of course...which was not teaming up with them when offered the chance. And they DID have a safety net in the form of the lock-out chip (so no matter who marketed the titles, the 1st party gets their cut of the profit).

 

 

The modern template is just to do whatever necessary to sell the hardware (even at a loss). Then make up the difference in software sales.

Edited August 4, 2009 by Nukey Shay

[sandmountainslim]

"Pac Man Arcade" is a perfect example of somebody "making something right". The game is just about perfect. It's what Pac Man should have been in the first place.

 

Two things would make Pac Arcade just about perfect and that would be if someone could hack it so that the red monster is the aggressive on rather than the blue monster and if someone would hack the Galaxian ship into the game as a fruit.

Maybe one of the AA Hack Squad will be willing to take up that challenge.

Wp