Ms. Hack is yet another fantastic game put out by the late Atariage user and programmer Nukey Shay. This game was adapted from one of his own hacks named “Hack’Em”. The idea here was to make a more arcade-perfect version of Ms. Pac-Man, which is was arguably the most popular arcade game of all time. Interestingly Ms. Pac-Man itself started out as a hack of Pac-Man. It was later embraced and adapted into an official title by Namco back in 1982. Ms. Pac-Man introduced a female version of Pac-Man and added many new level designs. It also introduced several gameplay enhancements including; multiple warp tunnels; dancing fruit; improved ghosts patterns and new sound effects. Ms. Pac-Man went on the become the most successful selling arcade cabinet in the United States. This game was a phenomenon. Which is why it was an excellent choice of game to create a hack of. This is sort of risky since Atari already produced an excellent version of Ms. Pac-Man for the Atari 2600. Many regard it as their favorite game on the console. So this is a huge undertaking. How do you improve upon an already great game? I don’t know, how about starting with improving the graphics & sound, adding a title screen, and adding a whole slew of new game options? Even though I have a harmony cartridge, I enjoy the game so much, I paid somebody to place it onto a cartridge for me. For the purposes of this review, the version of the ROM I am using is dated on the title screen as “8/19/2009.”
In addition to an improved version of Ms. Pac-Man, this cartridge also contains three additional game modes, Ms. Hack 2!, Ms. Attack! and Ms. Attack 2!, making this a super value cartridge and a super value review.
Ms. Hack title screen. This is an extremely nice addition and greatly appreciated.
There is a real nice title screen included and used for all four game variations. The title screen itself includes a couple of nice animations. The stationary ghosts are animated to the left of their names. The ghost names are neatly right justified. The “C” in “Ms. Hack!” is animated to look like a Pac-Man chomping and Ms. Hack herself makes an appearance flowing in from the right side of the screen followed by the four ghosts. When she gets all the way to the left and eats the power pill, all the ghosts turn blue and reverse direction with Ms. Hack in hot pursuit. As she eats each one of them, their point values are displayed. The power pill and wafer point values are also displayed. After consuming all four ghosts, she reaches the end of the screen, and an in-game demo begins. Each time you press “Game Reset” on your console, it cycles through the various game modes, starting the in-game demo over.
In “Ms. Hack!”, the ghost names all retain the same names as their arcade counterparts.
Name Color Description
Blinky Red Blinky, is the most aggressive of the ghosts, look out…
Pinky Pink Pinky, just a little less aggressive than Blinky
Inky Light Blue Inky more or less moves around “randomly” in the maze
Sue Brown Sue like Inky pretty much moves “randomly” in the maze
By continuing to press “Game Reset”, you will find there are a total of four main mazes or what I am calling “Game Modes”. “Ms. Hack!” is the first such Game Mode.
Ms. Hack!
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“Ms. Hack!” – Map 1 – Cherry Map, oops Pinky got you…
The maze layout mimics the traditional arcade Ms. Pac-Man maze pretty closely and plays like it. One minor difference, in the Arcade version, the circular areas are filled in (rather than looking like eyeballs at the top of the map in the first maze for example). You have a total of four power pills, one in each corner. There are four ghosts and you have a fruit that appears on each level. In “Ms. Hack!”, the fruit dances randomly around the maze rather than remaining stationary in the center of the map. Upon eating the fruit all of the ghosts are “energized”, turn blue, and can now be eaten. The fruit appears two times per map. After completing a level, or losing a life, you must press the fire button to resume play.
“Ms. Hack!” – Map 2 – Orange Map, energized blue ghosts
“Ms. Hack!” – Map 3 – Pear Map
“Ms. Hack!” – Map 4 – 4th Banana Level
Once you have completed a map, you will advance to a new fruit level, the amount of time the power pills last (blue time) has been slightly reduced and the ghosts become slightly faster. To reach a new map you must complete a few of the fruit levels. After you reach and pass the fourth map (the banana map), some of the old maps show up but with a different color. Also, the fruit randomizes, and the image below abbreviating random, “rnd” shows up on the top right of the screen.
Note: Below are the fruit images. Some of these fruit levels must be played multiple times before advancing to the next fruit.
The images for the point values for consumed ghosts are listed below:
Ms. Hack 2! (PLUS MODE)
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“Ms. Hack 2!” Map 1 – or “Ms. Hack squared!”? Same layout as “Ms. Hack!” Map 1, but colored green.
By pressing “Game Reset” and switching to the first all green wall map, you will find “Ms. Hack 2!”. The only obvious difference being the walls are now green. You will quickly realize the real difference after eating a few power pills, some of the ghosts do not turn blue. This is called PLUS mode. Every time you eat the fruit in the center of the map the ghosts are energized as if you ate a power pill, with one minor exception, they turn invisible while still roaming the map. This effectively means you have to mentally track the invisible ghosts and try to figure out where they are in order to eat them. They remain invisible until they begin flashing. You also have the added bonus of the score being doubled for each consumed ghost, an extremely nice incentive to do well with the fruit. In this game mode, it is hard to tell but the ghost patterns are slightly more aggressive. When you consume a power pill, the ghosts stay blue for a shorter period of time. The ghosts have additional detail added to their heads, little apple stems or flags.
Sometimes after eating the first power pill, you will notice the entire maze disappears, all you see are the fruit, the ghosts, and Ms. Hack herself. At this point, you are still constrained to the walls, so you must navigate from memory until you eat all the ghosts or until the power pill wears off.
“Ms. Hack 2!” Map 2 – Same map “Ms. Hack!” Map 4, but colored purple
“Ms. Hack 2!” Map 3 – Same map “Ms. Hack!” Map 3, but colored blue
“Ms. Hack 2!” Map 4 – Same map “Ms. Hack!” Map 2, but colored orange
“Ms. Hack 2!” after consuming a power pill, where are my walls, wafers?
The disappearing wall effect seems to happen “randomly” after a consuming power pill. It also seems to happen at “random” for the rest of the game. For that matter, which ghosts turn blue upon eating an energized wafer also appear to be random in my best estimation. Nukey Shay has said these effects are not actually random but do follow preset patterns.
Ms. Attack!
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This game mode plays exactly the same as “Ms. Hack!” in that it has traditional Ms. Pac-Man / Ms. Hack rules where the power pill always turns all ghosts blue and the fruit just gets consumed and has no special powers. This was supposed to be one of the Pac-Man PLUS modes, but I do not believe it was fully implemented. The only difference besides the mazes being slightly different that I noticed is the fruit patterns do not follow the map’s wall boundaries. All the maps are the same as “Ms. Hack!” game mode 1 except the order and colors have changed.
“Ms. Attack!” – Map 1 – Same map “Ms. Hack!” Map 3 but colored orange
“Ms. Attack!” – Map 2 – Same map as “Ms. Hack!” Map 1 but colored light blue
“Ms. Attack!” – Map 3 – Same map as “Ms. Hack!” Map 1 but colored brown
“Ms. Attack!” – Map 4 – Same map as “Ms. Hack!” Map 4 but colored purple
Ms. Attack 2!_(PLUS MODE)
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This is the PLUS version of “Ms. Hack!”, the same rules as “Ms. Hack 2!”. To repeat a little, when you consume the power pills, not all of the ghosts will necessarily turn blue. When you consume the fruit, all four ghosts are energized but disappear from view until they flash. Consuming them will reward you with a double-point value bonus.
“Ms. Attack 2!” – Map 1 – Same map as “Ms. Hack!” Map 3, but colored green
“Ms. Attack 2!” – Map 2- Same map as “Ms. Hack!” Map 4 but colored purple
“Ms. Attack 2!” – Map 3 – Same map as “Ms. Hack!” Map 1 but colored light blue
“Ms. Attack 2!” – Map 4 – First banana map – Same map as “Ms. Hack!” Map 2 but colored orange
“Ms. Attack 2!” after consuming a power pill
It might not be obvious, all of the maps have been recycled in the alternate game modes with the maps starting in a different order and are colored differently. I am pretty sure this was done to conserve memory and to squeeze in the intermissions.
Intermission screenshots:
“Act 1 – They Meet” – Part of first intermission sequence displays after first Strawberry level
“Pac-Man enters the screen from the left side being chased by Inky. Ms. Pac-Man enters from the right side being chased by Pinky. As the two of them are about to collide, they quickly move upwards, causing those two ghosts behind them to collide and disappear. They face each other at the top of the screen, and a heart appears above them” — Excerpt from Strategy Wiki
“Act 2 – The Chase” – Part of the second intermission sequence, Blinky gets snagged on
a nail. This sequence plays after the first apple level completion.
“Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man are seen giving each other a playful chase. One of them chases the other across the screen in one direction, and they then take turns alternating who chases who and in what direction across the screen. After three turns, they have a pause before chasing each other twice more across the screen at a faster speed.” — Excerpt from Strategy Wiki
Part of the third intermission sequence, the stork delivers Jr. Pac-Man
This sequence takes place after the 3rd, 7th, and 11th banana levels (or rounds 9, 13, and 17)
“Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man anxiously await the arrival of a stork, who flies overhead with a bundle. As the stork is about to pass over them, he releases the bundle, which drops to the ground in front of Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, and opens up to reveal a baby Pac. This intermission would later serve as the introductory sequence to Jr. Pac-Man.” — Excerpt from Strategy Wiki
Gameplay:
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You are rewarded with a free Ms. Hack after attaining a score of 10,000 points. This is the only free Ms. Hack rewarded unless it is possible to roll the score at which point I would assume you could earn another free Ms. Hack. Once you lose all Ms. Hacks, the game is over, your final score is displayed at the top of the map and upon pressing the fire button, you start all over from the same level you left off on.
Speaking to the graphics in these games, overall they are pretty good. I love the detail of the word “Go” appearing at the beginning of each game in the map center, but it seems to me there should have had an exclamation point added to it. I would have liked the power pills to be larger and round, but at least they are flashing on and off in the corners. By now, I am so over the fact that the dots are represented by long Wafers. I hardly notice it anymore. The fruit is nicely detailed making it easy to discern. You have a limited time frame to consume the fruit before it dances off the map. The ghosts have nice detail and are actually animated as they move. You cannot however tell which way their eyes are moving. When you eat a power pill, the ghosts turn blue and have a frown face, nice detail. On the PLUS game mode types, the ghosts all have flags or stems above their heads. When you eat the ghosts, their point value is displayed, also a nice detail, and they turn into little eyeballs that are animated in a sort of a wiggly fashion which is better than nothing, but you cannot tell which way they are looking as with the Arcade version. The mazes look great and they flash after level completion. The number of available Ms. Hacks, your score, and the current level are all displayed on the top row as opposed to the bottom row. The ghost cage is great and the ghosts bounce up and down until released.
Love the “game over” images… The one at the top switches between
game-over and the player score. Attention to detail…
The sounds in all four games are excellent! There is a nice introduction song. The background “siren” is present, although not really a siren here. The sound for eating wafers are spot on. There is a pretty good sound for eating the power pill. When you eat a ghost, there is a nice sound effect that plays. There is a nice sound effect for the eyeball returning to the ghost cage. When you die, there is a sound effect. There is a satisfying sound played when you eat the fruit. There are three intermission sequences which have music that mimic Arcade Ms. Pac-Man.
Game Sounds:
The left difficulty switch controls the ghost intelligence. In setting “A” all four ghosts are as aggressive as the red ghost. In difficulty “B”, all the ghosts except for the red one move randomly around the maze. The right difficulty switch controls the speed of Ms. Hack. In position “B”, she is faster, the wafers do not slow her down. In this mode, Ms. Hack is always faster than the ghosts. Since faster equals easier, this is the mode I prefer to play in. You can alternate between the Game Modes and the number of ghosts on each map, simply by repeatedly pressing “Game Reset” on your console. Pressing the “Game Select” button will switch between all the fruits on a given map, slightly increasing difficulty along the way. The TV Type switch actually pauses the play so that you may take a bathroom break. This is a nice feature to have since, in my opinion, that switch is highly under-used.
Game Start
Background Siren
Eating Wafers
Eating Power Pill
Eating Ghost
Dancing Fruit
Eyeballs returning
Eating Fruit
Dying
First Intermission
Second Intermission
Third Intermission
Glitch Intro
Glitch Intro 2 (Switching difficulty while the Intro song plays then pressing a joystick button)
Notes:
If you toggle any switch beside the TV Type Switch, the current game will be reset. This will prevent you from switching the speed and or difficulty on the fly and would combat at least that form of cheating.
Either joystick can be used to move Ms. Hack!
Pro tip:
Nukey Shay shared with us a sort of an Easter egg, more of an undocumented feature:
if you hold up on both controllers when starting a game, you will begin at level 254 (just a little split-screen development thing I left in…level 255 features a simulated rollover bug).
You see, Arcade Ms. Pac-Man would not render properly on level 256 making it unplayable. It looks like Nukey Shay has emulated this defect and given us a way to check it out without having to play all 255 levels!
Arcade Ms. Pac-Man – The 256th “Split-Screen” level. However, there are
other bugs on prior levels that can prevent access to this screen .–Source link
Simulated 256 level bug: You can consume all visible wafers, but you cannot complete the level
Observed Glitches (on real hardware):
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Switching the difficulty any time during gameplay will cause the game to start over, however, the introduction song will sort of play slowly, until either the fire button is pressed or the game begins.
Pause Mode inversion: If you start the game with the TV Type Switch set to “B/W” the game will start normally. The pause feature will then be activated upon switching back to “Color”. This is the opposite of normal.
On the Plus Mode game types, when the ghosts are energized, their skirts sometimes “hang over” the bottom wall a little bit
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Pull up your skirts, ghosties…
Not a glitch: On the “Ms. Attack!” and “Ms. Attack2!” game modes, the dancing fruit does not properly navigate within the boundaries of the on-screen maze. Nukey Shay has said this was intentionally done to more closely mimic the “Ms. Pac-Man Plus” game.
To me, even though the name of this game is “Ms. Hack!”, this is not just a hack, I consider it a whole new homebrew version of Ms. Pac-Man. I would have killed to have had this cartridge back in the ’80s. This is definitely an improvement on Atari 2600 Ms. Pac-Man and it has more than one game mode. It actually contains four distinct games.
The “Ms. Hack 2!” / “Ms. Attack 2!” game types, represent a new twist on the classic Ms. Pac-Man, throwing in a few surprises along the way. Again, these are the PAC-PLUS game modes. These game types further extend the playability, adding many more hours of Ms. Pac-Man-style fun.
I prefer this game over “Hack’Em” probably because Ms. Pac-Man is just a much better game than Pac-Man. All of the improvements, the additional mazes, dancing fruit, etc., combine together to make for a terrific upgrade to Pac-Man. Playing “Ms. Hack!” with the right difficulty set to “B” is a blast! The boost in speed sort of ruins me for any other slower modes. I have to give a lot of credit to the late Nukey Shay for putting all of this together. I love it when programmers take the time to add sufficient polish to their products. That’s what he has been done here. This is an excellent hack combining four separate games on a single cartridge.
Highly recommended.
*****
References
My review of Hack’Em
