Pac-Man

[Linndrum]

Pacman sucked, I was a child who was addicted to video games and I still hated it. When I finally played the arcade game I expected it to be trash too but was actually surprised that it was fun.

[AW127]

It was often mentioned here (also by myself), that the original "Pac-Man" version of the Atari VCS-2600 differs pretty strong from the Arcade version. In 99% of the cases, when this happens, the users could be sure, that the console-version would be not as good as the Arcade version then.

 

The funny thing here is - for me personally, there is one game which also differs alot from his Arcade forefather, but which i even liked more, than the Arcade version and this is "Phoenix". I also like the Arcade original of this game, but i prefer the Atari VCS-2600 version. Maybe a matter of taste, cause the Arcade version has better graphics (of course) and also more is going on when you look at the screen. But the Atari-2600 "Phoenix" plays so clean, smooth and precise that nearly every shot i make there, find its target.

 

So, also such a case can happen, that a player prefers the console version over the original Arcade one. But it's the exception of course and "Phoenix" is the only Atari-2600 game, which comes to my mind, from which i can say this.      I often asked myself, why i like especially THIS game so much and play it over and over again, in all those years and decades. Can not exactly say it, but i have big big sympathy for the simple, effective, stylish, clean look and gameplay of this game.

 

Okay, i know this is the "Pac-Man" and not the "Phoenix" thread, i just thought my entry could fit here, because of the mentioned "differs alot from the Arcade original" problematic. Just to show, that there CAN BE exceptions from the rule "when differs from Arcade original, it MUST be worse then..." rule. But like i said, this is a rare case and normally people WANT, that a port plays and looks like the Arcade original, cause the name of a game which comes from the Arcade, then pointing the way this game then should look and play in the different ports on the home-consoles or home-computers.

[NE146]

55 minutes ago, AW127 said:

So, also such a case can happen, that a player prefers the console version over the original Arcade one. But it's the exception of course and "Phoenix" is the only Atari-2600 game, which comes to my mind, from which i can say this.

Oh I've always said I tend to prefer the 2600 version of Ms. Pacman over the arcade version. If I had both in front of me I'd pick the VCS one to play as it just has more charm to me.. and I'm not exactly a slouch at the arcade version either.  

 

I also like 2600 Crystal Castles a little over the arcade version, but they're pretty much 2 separate games for all it matters. 

[Cynicaster]

It's weird how the pendulum swings.  Atari 2600 Pac-Man and ET were ruthlessly bashed for years, but these days, it seems almost de rigueur to defend them.    

 

Atari 2600 Pac-Man was the 2nd video game I ever played or saw in my life, so I do have a small soft spot for it, and I will play it for a few minutes once in a long while.  But if I step back and try to be objective, I can definitely see it's a shit game by almost every measure.  It's nowhere near the worst on the system, but probably in the bottom half, IMO.

 

 

[zzip]

On 10/5/2019 at 2:10 PM, AAA177 said:

Pac-Man, in hindsight, really wasn't that bad of an adaptation.

yes, it was

 

On 10/5/2019 at 2:10 PM, AAA177 said:

Atari was doing its best

No they weren't.   Atari's own Ms Pac-man proves they were capable of doing much better.

 

On 10/5/2019 at 2:10 PM, AAA177 said:

No different than being able to enjoy a band years after its entire catalogue is at one's disposal...if I went from Hard Day's Night to A Day in the Life

That's a completely different phenomenon,  Pac-man is like being told you are going to see a Beatles concert, and when you get there, this imposter band shows up with out-of-tune instruments and off-key singing attempt to play and sing Beatles songs.

 

I had seen plenty of 2600 arcade translations that were less than arcade perfect,  but I could appeciate them for what they were and new the system was limited.    2600 Pac-man is the only one that broke my heart because it felt like they didn't even try to get it right. 

[zzip]

On 10/7/2019 at 10:04 AM, NE146 said:

 

Here's an angle that I think was lost over the years.  Atari had a pre-release commercial on TV meant to build up hype and it showed gameplay shots of ARCADE PAC-MAN in action! The commercial went something like "This is the smash hit game Pac-Man (showing the arcade version) and it is coming only to the Atari VCS" .. basically. So it totally made people feel that at least a 'pretty-good' approximation of the game was being made. I remember myself thinking that it might be possible that we were looking at the actual 2600 game and maybe miracles would happen. At the very least it would be something like it (I had visions of what I might realistically expect as something similar to the hacks we have now). 

 

Anyway, unless things have changed there is zero evidence of this commercial online today.. but it was there. Whether it was made by an over-eager marketing department who knows, but the bottom line had they kept it low key it might have been more accepted on its own merits as you are stating. However the history is Atari were guilty themselves of ginning up the hype and the ultimate disappointment.

 

Even worse, when they made 5200 commercials to compete with Colecovision,  they made a commercial that said "This is Pac-man on the Colecovision"  (and shows 2600 Pac-Man running under the expansion module), and this is Pac-man on the 5200..

 

So they made a commercial basically saying that 2600 Pac Man was garbage, and somehow blamed Coleco for it ?

[zzip]

On 11/11/2019 at 3:51 PM, NE146 said:

I also like 2600 Crystal Castles a little over the arcade version, but they're pretty much 2 separate games for all it matters

That's an interesting one because it deviates so much from the arcade version,  but I still liked it because I could tell they tried.    The game plays the same as the arcade, it's just that the levels look different.   The 2600 never did seem to handle isometric perspective well.

 

2 hours ago, Cynicaster said:

It's weird how the pendulum swings.  Atari 2600 Pac-Man and ET were ruthlessly bashed for years, but these days, it seems almost de rigueur to defend them.    

my opinion has never changed.  Always hated 2600 Pacman.  But defended ET from claims it was the worst game ever.    There are so many worse games than ET on the 2600. 

[Rom Collector]

Pac-Man show the corporate greed that made Atari (deservingly) crash and burn. I quote Frank Zappa's album title "we're only in it for the money"