Pacman 8K review by Nukey Shay (Hack of Atari Pac-Man)
Pac-Man 8K opening screen with animated chomping “C” and barely perceptible ‘8k’ embedded in the first character, ‘P’
This review needs to be told from the point of view of what this game really is. It is a hack of the Atari 2600 video game Pac-Man. Generally a hack takes an existing video game and makes a couple of tweaks to achieve the intended result. That is what the late Atariage user, and programmer ‘Nukey Shay’ has done with this game. There are many such hacks of Pac-Man, but this is one of the better ones. Pac-Man on the Atari 2600 was widely considered to be a disappointment. In fact so many people returned their copy of Pac-Man that Atari eventually ended up burying their unsold stock in a landfill in New Mexico along with other games like ET. The Extra Terrestrial. This really is a shame, because with what ‘Nukey Shay’ had done with this hack, maybe history could have been different. I know that is a bit of a stretch, considering the original Pac-Man was a 4K cartridge and this one is 8K, but who knows what could have been?
More title screen with randomly changing background colors
When you first power on the game, you are presented with the fabulous title screen, with giant yellow “PAC-MAN” written across the screen with “2005” right below. The “C” in PAC-MAN is animated to look like Pac-Man for a few seconds before displaying the introduction map screen. Before you start play the ghosts are visible, randomly moving around on the map, and you will see “PAC-MAN 8K” written at the bottom center. Once you start play, you will notice the color scheme has changed completely to match the arcade version, black background with blue walls. There are black lines cut into the walls, which help it resemble the arcade version. The Pac-Man actually faces properly in all four directions of travel with the animation of him chomping away. He has no eyeball! When he reaches a wall or corner, his mouth continues chomping rather than remaining open as it does in the arcade. The fruit bonus, actually looks like fruit, in the center of the map. When the fruit is consumed, the point value is displayed in its place. The fruit and its point value indicator does disappear briefly while Pac-Man is consuming ghosts. The ghosts themselves are way easier to see and they are animated. If you look closely, their image changes based on their direction of travel. Once the ghosts are consumed, their eyeballs meander their way back to the ghost cage. As they do so, their eyes look in the direction of travel. You can clearly make out their individual colors, which was difficult to discern on Atari 2600 Pac-Man.
Single player game with fruit showing, an apple…
The available Pac-Men are displayed on the bottom left side for single player mode, and on the bottom right in two player games. In two player mode games, play is alternated between player one and player two. Player one uses the left joystick ports and difficulty switches, player two use the right ones. In two player games, a second (red) status bar is displayed. In single player mode the available Pac-Men are green and in two player games, the available Pac-Men are red for player two. The active player is indicated by the animation of all available Pac-Mans which is shown on the bottom row. This game in general just looks more like Pac-Man.
Two player game, notice the extra score line, current player one, green,
Is animated, hence the closed mouth, bottom left.
You will also notice the greatly improved sound effects. The song at the beginning of the game more closely mimics the arcade. The background siren has been added. In the beginning levels it is playing slowly and in successive levels the siren ramps up its speed. When Pac-Man consumes a power pill, there is a nice sound effect. There is an improved sound effect for consuming the ghosts. The sound effect for consuming fruit was not improved however. There is no sound effect for earning your one and only spare Pac-man, which occurs after 10,000 points.
Game Sounds
The gameplay itself closely mirrors the Atari version of Pac-Man. The warp tunnel is present at the top and bottom center. There is no visible indication of what level you are on, until the fruit appears in the center that is. The scoring has been completely revamped mimicking the Arcade scoring more closely.
You are rewarded with the intermission animations sequences after completing the strawberry level, first apple, first Galaxian and first key levels. “Blue time” is also increased following the intermission as it does in the Arcade versions. There is a lot of flicker / Jumpyiness, when played on real hardware. The music is not quite as good as the arcade and the intermissions cannot be skipped.
First Intermission following strawberry level. Jittering occurs on real hardware.
Part of second intermission sequence, Blinky gets snagged on a nail.
This sequence plays after the first Apple level completion.
Part of the third intermission sequence, Blinky lost his shell, is now a slug?
This sequence takes place after the first Galaxian and first key level completions.
Being that this is a hack of Atari 2600 Pac-Man, I was able to reproduce the following table out of the manual that came with the game. This chart will allow you to see the difficulty and make quick decisions for the appropriate game type.
I did find what I believe to be an error on the chart and in the official Atari 2600 Pac-Man manual. Game mode 2 does not feature a slow Pac-Man, instead, I have determined, he is a fast Pac-Man. So here is the correction to the two affected rows:
Looking at the chart you will notice game types 3 and 7 are oriented toward children, since these are the easiest game modes. However do not be fooled by this, the difficulty ramps up quickly after a few levels are completed.
Conversely for those who want a nice challenge, game modes 2 and 6 feature the “running ghosts”. The manual states game mode 6 is the most challenging. The difficulty switches control the duration of the power pills. In position “B” they last longer than in position “A”.
Glitch
I have observed while going through a warp tunnel with “blue time”, a ghost was coming through the opposite side. Pac-Man passed right through the ghost, no harm, no foul.
Conclusion
Pac-Man 8K is the game that Atari should have produced in the first place. It’s too bad so many corners had to be cut they ended up releasing such a pathetic version of Pac-Man. Having said that, I did purchase the original Pac-Man in the 1980s and wore it out, all the same. I definitely would have appreciated this version in much the same way I do today, although back then, I would have played this game exclusively, probably for several months. ‘Nukey Shay’ put a lot of work into this hack and added a lot of detail that was missing from the original. Could all of these minor tweaks added together, right a sinking ship? I think so, I really do. If you want to play the original version of Pac-Man on the Atari 2600, slip in this hack instead and do not look back. Staying true to the Atari original but at the same time also staying true to the arcade version.
Highly recommended.
*****
