Jr. Pac-Man Intellivision Review
Background:
Released in 1983, the arcade version of Jr Pac-Man, was one of many sequels to the hugely popular video game Pac-Man. The assumption being that Jr. Pac-Man is the son of Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man. Jr. Pac-Man introduces many new gameplay changes and challenges. Jr. Pac-Man is the first Pac-Man game in which the maze is larger than the viewing area, requiring the screen to scroll in all directions. Another key difference between this game and prior versions is the lack of warp tunnels which will teleport you from one side of a maze to the other. Jr. Pac-Man for the Intellivision is a brand new homebrew game published by Intellivision Revolution in 2017 and was initially released at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is essentially the same as prior Pac-Man games. You control Junior with your controller disc, allowing four directions up, down, left, and right, navigating your character through the enormous maze, eating up dots, power pills, and bonus items along the way. Controlling the game is fairly easy and I did not have much of a problem using the Intellivision controllers. In single-player games, you can control Junior with either controller. You are hunted by four aggressive ghosts, Inky (blue), Blinky (red), Pinky (pink), and Tim (orange). Yes, one of the original game designers narcissistically changed the name of the orange ghost from Clyde to Tim. Why not? You still have to avoid the four ghosts, but instead of random fruit appearing in the center of the maze, you have to chase your bonus items around the map. As they slowly creep around the maze in a fixed pattern, they transform the small dots, originally worth 10 points, into larger dots, called donuts, worth 50 points. Junior takes longer to consume donuts, effectively slowing his movement momentarily. If the prancing bonus item happens to reach a power pill, it will self-destruct destroying the power pill, a FIRST for a Pac-Man style game. So they must not be completely ignored, besides, you are granted a nice bonus for eating them. Of course, eating a power pill turns all the ghosts blue for a short period of time indicating Junior can eat them. The amount of “blue” time reduces at you progress to further levels. The manual explains the mazes are designed to be more difficult on the later levels.
Mazes 6 and 7 only have four power pills rather than 6. Also, should you surpass level 7 the maze starts back at level 4 at which point you loop through mazes 4 through 7 until the game ends. When the game ends an image of Junior displays with the words “Leader of the Pac”. At first I thought this was a high score indicator, but that’s not the case. It displays every time the game ends. On the back of the Jr. Pac-Man box is the following excerpt:
“The Leader of the Pac is here! Enjoy the giant maze playgrounds while chasing down candy dots. Do your best to avoid the nasty bullies that will stop at nothing to catch you. You have a lot of ground to cover while trying to gather up your toys. Have Junior eat the power pills at just the right time, and you will have the bullies on the run!”
The bonus items are shaped differently from round to round bearing resemblance to a tricycle, kite, drum, balloon, train, kitty, and even a frosty root beer mug. A level is cleared when all the dots on the maze including the donuts and power pills have been consumed.
There are a total of seven maps in the standard version of Jr. Pac-Man. However, in this port, the game designers have included an entirely new set of seven additional maps as well as snowy/icy map variations. This is an Intellivision exclusive feature and it really adds to the game replay value.
Speaking of the gameplay options, what helps to make this port of Jr. Pac-Man so great are its various configurability modes and options. The title screen allows you to select between one or two-player modes. It allows you to select between three different title modes; Arcade Mode, which looks a lot like when you first power on an arcade cabinet version of Jr. Pac-Man, Atari Mode, which resembles the Atari 7800 version, and Mattel mode which looks like what we have come to expect from an Intellivision starting screen. The game options are where it’s at. You can change the free Junior bonus score, which by default is 10,000 points. It can be increased to 15,000, 20,000, or 30,000. I have observed this game awarding you a free Junior more than one time in a game. In my opinion, this should be an optional setting for those that find one free Junior too difficult. In an email correspondence with the game’s publisher (who goes by the name “Rev” on the Atari.io forums), he stated this was intentional to make the game have a broader appeal.
You can adjust how many lives you start with. The default is 3, but it can be increased to 4 or 5. You can enable fast junior. This is the game mode I prefer to play in. You can also select between your various level types, more on that in a bit. The game even allows you to select your starting level, one through seven, which is a really nice touch. You can cycle through and listen to all of the games sounds using the Sound Test option. To begin the game, from the Main Menu choose one of the three modes Arcade, Atari or Mattel and press any side button on either side of your controller. If no keys are pressed, after a few seconds you will see an animated story take place showing the stork making a “special delivery to Mr. and Ms. Pac-Man”, followed by a few seconds of self-game play.
The game can be paused by simultaneously pressing one and nine on the keypad.
Level Modes:
There are a total of four different level modes. Standard Normal, Standard Snow, Extra-Normal Levels, Extra Snow. Each mode has seven levels. Standard and Standard Snow have the same level designs or patterns with snowy or icy tweaks. They look like small icicles hanging down or attached to the walls of the maze. In this mode, Junior and the ghosts have been modified and are wearing Christmas caps. “Rev” indicated to me, that with few exceptions, ALL Intellivision Revolution games have some sort of snow or ice feature — something which I had not noticed.
Scoring:
Dots are 10 points, Donuts are 50 points. Power pills are worth 50 points. The ghost point values mimicked those of the original Pac-Man, the first ghost consumed awarding 200 points, second 400, third 800, and forth 1600.
The Bonus items can be very valuable, especially on the later levels. They make their rounds two times on each map. Here are their point breakouts:
On Level 1, the “tricycle” is worth 100 points, level 2 the “Kite” is worth 200, Level 3 the “drum” gets you 500, level 4 the “Balloon” 700, Level 5 the “train” is worth 1,000, Level 6 the “Kitty” is worth 2,000, and level 7 the “Root Beer” is worth 5,000 points.
Intermissions:
In keeping with the arcade version, Jr. Pac-Man has included three sets of intermissions that show up after completing rounds two, four, and six respectively. This was a nice addition. “Rev” has said this feature was initially not going to be included with the game. I am certainly glad they took the extra time and effort to include them. It makes a big difference. These mini-movies are a terrific break from the gameplay and each one tells its own story. Each intermission plays a catchy tune as well. Tip: The intermission movies may be skipped by pressing “1” on the keypad. There is an issue with this which I’ll discuss later.
Intermission 1 – “Junior meets Yum-Yum”. In this scene, Ms. Pac-Man and Junior are taking a walk when they see Blinky and Yum-Yum on the other side of a white picket fence. Junior gets a chance to have a brief encounter with Yum-Yum before Blinky gets a little too close, at which point Ms. Pac-Man eats a power pill. This action puts a frown on Yum-Yums face, turns her and Blinky blue and everyone flees the scene.
Intermission 2 – The scene is titled “the gift”. Here Junior leaves his house carrying a red balloon. He travels down the way to the ole bridge covering a small pond with ducks, where Yum-Yum is waiting. As they meet, Junior gives Yum-Yum the balloon. Blinky can be seen lurking in the background behind the bushes.
Intermission 3 – “they escape”. This scene takes place where scene two left off, with Junior and Yum-Yum chilling on the bridge. When suddenly Blinky jumps out of the bushes to attack Junior. This frightens Junior causing him to jump and Yum-Yum to release her balloon. Not to worry, here comes Ms. Pac-Man to the rescue. At this point, Blinky goes after Ms. Pac-Man. The “kids” make their escape in the opposite direction. It then shows the two of them together surrounded by exploding hearts.
Strategy:
The manual lists the following “Tips for Success”, and they are all surprisingly good:
• Eating dots slow Junior down, and eating donuts slows him even more. When you need speed, head for the corners and empty parts of the maze.
• Power pills are good for more than scoring points. They make the ghosts change direction when you need them to!
• Each ghost has a unique personality and behavior. Get to know them so you can outsmart them.
• Listen to the game sounds. They’ll let you know what’s happening in parts of the maze that aren’t visible on the screen.
• Let the bonus objects transform the dots into donuts for a while so you can gobble up the extra points.
• Keep Junior moving to stay ahead of the ghosts. Anticipate your turns and press the Disc early for fast and efficient cornering.
Graphics:
I love the way the game scrolls smoothly in all four directions. The next thing that strikes me is how well all of the colors were put together. All of the game levels have their own unique color scheme. The Jr. Pac sprite himself look real good and he has the animated spinning propeller cap. There’s a nice “arcade accurate” death animation. On the snow levels, the icy stalactites and mites are present, the dots resemble ice cubes or slow flakes, and they also took the time to change out the Pac and ghost sprites to have more of a Christmas theme, all excellent touches. I love how they included all the different modes for Arcade, Atari, and Intellivision title screens. As I have not seen this before it may also be an Intellivision exclusive feature. The power pills also flash nicely.
For some reason, whether technical or just game designers choice, the games score, count of remaining Juniors, and current level indicator are NOT displayed on the screen while playing. Those specifics are displayed upon level completion or upon losing a Junior. I found this odd the first time I played. When the score does display, it is shown at the top center, with the lives remaining displayed bottom center with the level number adjacent in brackets to the right.
Sound:
I love the sound effects of Jr. Pac-Man. There is a background siren effect. A sound for eating the dots as well a different one for consuming the donuts. A sound effect for when the bonus item is walking somewhere on the map. A nice sound for when the power pill is consumed. There is an amusing sound for when the bonus item destroys your power pill. There is a sound for consuming the ghosts. There is a ringing bell sound for the free Junior award. I really like the death sound effect.
In addition to sounds alone, there’s also some cool music that plays when you start the game and when the intermissions play.
The built-in sound test feature is a welcome surprise addition that I have never seen present in any other Pac-Man game, making it what I believe to be another Intellivision exclusive feature. To activate this feature, the top button of either side of the Intellivision controller selects the sound number while the bottom button plays the sound indicated.
For all the fun I am having playing Jr. Pac-man, it is not devoid of a few problems.
Bugs:
I am going to give a quick disclaimer. When I mentioned some of the issues I am about to cover to “Rev”, he stated he had not seen them before. So maybe there’s something up with my Intellivision, I don’t know. But what I do know is that if some of these issues are verified, I am certain they will release a corrected ROM version. All of the video and gameplay for this video was captured from my Intellivision which is a Radio Shack Tandy Vision one. Your mileage may vary. The first bug I encountered essentially renders the two-player mode games unplayable.
There is a pink box that can appear on the maze blocking your path. I have seen two of these boxes appear on the same maze. This may have been some sort of a debugging remnant. Once activated it will sometimes appear even when you switch back to single-player games.
On more than one occasion I have observed pre-mature maze completion in two-player games.
Several times I have observed Junior going completely through a ghost without dying, and not even while cornering. This happens more frequently than you would think.
Skipping the intermission sequence by pressing “1” on the keypad will skip the movie animation moving you on to the start screen, but it will not stop the music from playing making you wait until the song has completed before beginning game play. The exception being it does not happen when you begin a new game, instead, you must wait for a different tune to play.
After using the “Sound Test” option from the title screen menus, playing a continuous sound, and then starting a game, sometimes you will hear that sound still playing in the background for a few seconds before the game begins.
Criticisms:
First off, I really enjoy playing Jr. Pac-Man on the Intellivision. Having said that I really wish there was a way to see my score on the screen while playing. I think this issue could have been alleviated had they included the option of allowing you to press a button on your controller to temporarily display the score while you are playing.
Next, I feel the gameplay speed or pacing seems just a little too slow as compared with ALL other versions I have played. Now you do have the option to use “Fast Jr.”, which I prefer, but the drawback with this option is he is too fast as compared to the ghosts, in my opinion, making this option too easy, behaving more like a cheat mode. Also in the slow mode, I believe the ghosts should be a tad more aggressive. Agree or disagree please let me know.
One last thing, I noticed in my gameplay the intermissions would repeat once you passed level seven. If you are that good, you probably don’t need to keep seeing them.
World Record(s):
As this is a fairly new release, I was unable to locate any official World Record or even high score posting on the Highscore.com website.
Packaging:
Jr. Pac-man comes packaged in a bright yellow box. On it is a really nice 3D image of Jr. Pac-Man bursting out of the game’s maze riding a tricycle. It’s the same imagery used in the arcade cabinet and nearly identical to the Atari 2600 artwork. Included within the box is the game’s manual which contains the same image with some additional text added onto it. The cartridge has a standard end-label with “Jr. Pac-Man” printed in a yellow font with a red border. The artwork on the overlays contains an image of Jr. Pac-Man, walking mid-stride, sporting blue pants, red & white sneakers and white gloves, with the blue and red ghosts following close behind.
The back of the box lists the following game features:
• For one or two players
• Includes all 7 original arcade levels, plus 7 exclusive new levels.
• Choose your lives, starting levels, and bonus lives.
• Watch the story unfold during the intermissions!
• Additional start modes and ice level options.
Easter Egg:
When playing on level 6 on the extra bonus map, you will see the name “REV” displayed prominently on the map.
Ports:
This game having originated as an arcade classic, in addition to the Intellivision, has been ported to the Atari 2600, Commodore 64, and MS. DOS platforms. There have been prototypes and homebrews developed for the Atari 5200, 7800, and Atari 8-bit family of computers.
Podcasts / Other Video Review coverage:
I located a couple of podcasts covering the various versions of Jr. Pac-Man. The original “No Quarter” arcade podcast, episode 24. The Atari 7800 Homebrew Podcast by Sean Courtney, episode 6, covers Jr. Pac-Man. Sean by the way happens to hold the current world record for arcade Junior Pac-Man on turbo mode. Then there’s the Atari Bytes Podcast episode 77, which covered the Atari 2600 version of Jr. Pac-Man. There are not a lot of youtube videos covering this version of Jr. Pac-Man, but Willie from Arcade USA has a great sneak peek video covering this game.
Conclusion:
Intellivision Revolution has done it again. They have managed to publish yet another great new game for the Intellivision platform while at the same time adding their own flavor, raising the bar. The multiple gameplay options, level selector and modes, title screen mode selectors, Intermissions, Intellivision exclusives, all add to the replay-ability of this game. I especially enjoy the Fast Jr. mode, so much fun.
You can currently purchase a complete in-box copy of Jr. Pac-Man on the Intellivision Revolution website store. It comes beautifully packaged, includes the cartridge, manual, and two controller overlays. It can be had for $55 plus shipping.
The ordering website is:
www.intellivisionrevolution.com/store
I want to thank “Rev” for being gracious and answering my questions. The ROM for Jr. Pac-Man is not currently available but “Rev” has indicated he may release it next year for free. Go check out Jr. Pac-Man for the Intellivision and support the homebrew community whenever you can. This game is a blast to play, and although it does have some of its own issues, I still recommend it.
****
Youtube Description:
This is my review of the recently released homebrew Jr. Pac-Man for the Intellivision.
No Quarter Podcast coverage of Jr. Pac-Man
http://monsterfeet.com/shows/noquarter_024.mp3
Atari 7800 Homebrew Podcast coverage by Janitor Sean:
http://fab4it.com/homebrew78/?name=hbh_episode006.mp3
Sean Courtneys Jr. Pac-Man World Record:
http://www.twingalaxies.com/showthread.php/153157-Arcade-Jr-Pac-Man-Points-Turbo-Speed-451-080-Sean-Courtney
Atari Bytes Podcast coverage of the Atari 2600 version:
http://ataribytes.libsyn.com/episode-77-jr-pac-man
Willies Sneak Peak video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jg4tY-t07Y&t=105s
Youtube Original Post Date: 11/21/2017
