Pac-Man on the 2600

[brianwolters]

I was wondering if any one wanted to share their memories of waiting and then first playing Pac-Man on the 2600?

 

I used to call the Atari 1-800 number once a week to get updates on the release date. I always got the same woman and she would say "Pac-Man will be released in March."

 

In my 6th grade class, I created a poll to have people guess what would be included on Pac-Man. I asked if the song, the cartoons between levels, and sounds would be included. Most had faith it would.

 

Well, the day came and my mother took me to Sears (I got stuck with the Tele-Games version) and I brought it home and my first reaction even before starting was "what is this"? Regardless, I spent hours playing it. It is hard to believe how good Jr. Pac-Man was on the 2600 when seeing this version.

[+johnnywc]

I recall scribbling a full page ad on the back of one of my notebooks in 7th grade declaring the glorious event... "Pac-man - the Arcade Game!" "Coming to the Atari VCS on March 2!!!" (or whatever date it was)

 

I do remember actually getting Pac-man and playing the heck out of it. I do remember asking questions like - why is the maze blue and orange? How come I only get 1 point for eating a dot? Why is there a wafer instead of fruits? Why doesn't Pac-man turn when I move up and down? Are those ghosts different colors? Why is the tunnel on the top and bottom? Why is the game making that horrendous noise every time I eat something?

 

Oh well...

[Cassidy Nolen]

I always thought it was a little slow, and the song sorta stunk, but I loved it as a kid. It is only as a collector that I recognize what a horrible port it was.

 

quote

etc.. But whether or not it is a good game doesn't matter. Atari called it Pac Man.  

 

My thoughts exactly.

 

Cassidy

[brianwolters]

I remember and friend of mine and I hit reset on Pac-Man over and over again and that stupid song started to found really funny. What was that susposed to be? It is no where near the original song.

[NE146]

brianwolters, You probably know about this already, but have you seen "A Better Pacman"?. You can read about it at the Author's homepage too

 

It's the 2600 Pacman that we DREAMED the original would be before the dissapointment.. music and all

[King Atari]

Well, I remember hurrying home with the cart in my hand, I excitedly ran inside, turned on the TV, put in the cart, and anxiously flipped the switch, only to exclaim..."What the H*ll is this?!?!". I couldn't believe they didn't care enough to even make the backround black instead of blue. Still, I played the thing for hours.

 

quote

 It is hard to believe how good Jr. Pac-Man was on the 2600 when seeing this version.  

 

That's only because it was released in 1986, when they were trying to rival the NES, and putting everything they had into the games (graphics-wise, at least). It's interesting to note that the title screen states the date as 1984. It must have been held off after the crash. "JR..." is certainly my favorite, "MS..." is a close second.

[The Night Phantom]

I still had birthday money burning a hole in my pocket when I spotted Pac-Man for sale in a local drugstore. Despite my long anticipation of the game, I didn't cave in immediately; I did some budgeting and soul-searching before forking over the $41 and change on a subsequent visit. I was very nervous and excited: not only was I getting Pac-Man for the home, but I was buying a video game with my own money for the first time ever!

 

When I got it home, I played it and played it...I tried really hard to like it. I couldn't bring myself to face my disappointment. I wonder how many people went into psychotherapy because of that benighted cartridge.

 

Years later, I got back into classical videogaming and discovered my mother had thrown out everything she had pledged to keep for me. So, I had to reacquire consoles and games. Despite the bad taste in my mouth VCS Pac-Man leaves, I had to re-acquire it, too. I never play it for fun; I play it to remind myself of those bad feelings of long ago and let out the sorrow and the anger.

[Adrian M]

As disappointing as the game was for me back in 1982, there was still something about this simple one-screen game that kept me playing and playing it throughout the early 80's. Maybe it was just the fact that I finally had a version of Pac-Man all my own that I could play whenever I wanted without paying 25 cents per play.

 

I agree. It was pretty bad and it almost seems like the developers WANTED the game to be different from the arcade version in every possible way, from the screwed up tunnels, to the startup song, to the point scoring system! Did Namco insist that Atari do this in much the same way that Coleco intentionally crippled its 2600 games? It's entirely possible!!

[MattG/Snyper2099]

There is a story I heard that Pac-man was origionally coded as an 8K game and the reason the one that was released was so crappy is because the programmer, Tod Fyre had to re-program it to be released as a 4K cart in like one week. Atari didn't want to scrap all those 4K chips it allready had prepared already and so, the game was released as it is. I wonder if this game still exists in some prototype form somewhere if it really is true? Don't know how accurate this info is but I know more than one person who agrees that this is what happened. Al? Can you confirm this? Anyone? Is Tod Fyre still around?

[slapdash]

What Tod told me is that he was told it was to be a 4K game, so he coded it that way. He said that towards the end he'd come up with a nice kernel for 8K, but management didn't want to go to 8K (probably for reasons of cost) so he was stuck with 4K. He brought up Ms. Pac-Man, saying something to the effect of "of course it looks better; they were able to use 8K, but I wasn't".

[Atari-Jess]

and also we must remember, Todd doesn't like pacman.

[moycon]

A few things I remember about Pac-Man as a kid when we first got it.

Was that

a.) Is was nothing like the acade version (obviously)

b.) When Pac-Man ate a ghost...It sounded like he was saying "f*ck you".... Well actualy it was more like... "buck you"

 

Still I played the hell out of it then... And no I havent a clue why...It really is trash.

[Lost Monkey]

I remember waiting sooo impatiently for Pac Man...

 

Then when it finally came out... Words could not express my disappointment; I was 12 years old, I was the only one of my group of friends who had an Atari 2600 and everybody was expecting me to come up big for them with the newest, baddest, phat-est game around.

 

Atari 2600 Pac Man misrepresented Namco's game so well it really should have been released separately from an actual Pac Man release and entitled "Pac Man De-Evolution".

 

The game itself really isn't so bad. I know that as a kid (when it was one of the few titles I had), I spent a lot of time on it, developing patterns etc.. But whether or not it is a good game doesn't matter. Atari called it Pac Man. For all the common elements, they could have called Slot Racers and Dodge-Em "Pac Man" as well.

 

I honestly feel that Atari's arrogance in releasing that version of Pac Man has not been rivaled to this day.

 

Does anyone have a timeline from around the time of the release of Pac Man (IE. featuring the release of other consoles, games etc.) that may shed some light on why Atari was in such a blind hurry to release Pac Man?