Pac-mania Arcade

[Maureen Quartaro]

PacMania[a] is a cavalier perspective maze game that was developed and released by Namco for arcades in 1987. In the game, the player controls Pac-Man as he must eat all of the dots while avoiding the colored ghosts that chase him in the maze. Eating large flashing "Power Pellets" will allow Pac-Man to eat the ghosts for bonus points, which lasts for a short period of time. A new feature to this game allows Pac-Man to jump over the ghosts to evade capture. It is the ninth title in the Pac-Man video game series and was the last one developed for arcades up until the release of Pac-Man Arrangement in 1996. Development was directed by Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani. It was licensed to Atari Games for release in North America.

Pac-Mania gained a highly-positive critical reception for its uniqueness and gameplay. It was nominated for "Best Coin-Op Conversion of the Year" at the Golden Joystick Awards in 1987, although it lost to Taito's Operation Wolf. Pac-Mania was ported to several home consoles and computers, including the Atari ST, MSX2, Sega Genesis and Nintendo Entertainment System, the last of which being published by Tengen. Several Pac-Man and Namco video game collections also included the game. Ports for the Wii Virtual Console, iOS and mobile phones were also produced.

Pac-Mania is a maze game viewed from an oblique[4] perspective and with a gameplay similar to the franchise's original installment.[5] The player controls Pac-Man, a yellow circular creature that must eat all of the pellets in each stage while avoiding five colored ghosts - Blinky (red), Pinky (pink), Inky (cyan), Clyde (orange) and Sue (purple). Eating large Power Pellets will cause the ghosts to turn blue and flee, allowing Pac-Man to eat them for bonus points and send them to the house in the middle of the stage. Clearing the stage of dots and pellets will allow Pac-Man to move to the next. Mazes scroll both horizontally and vertically, and the left and right edges of some layouts wrap around to each other. Touching a non-vulnerable ghost costs the player one life.

New to this game is the ability to jump over the ghosts, allowing Pac-Man to evade capture. Later rounds of the game introduce two new ghosts, Funky (green) and Spunky (grey), who also have the ability to jump. While Pac-Man can still barely jump over Funky, it is impossible to jump over Spunky.[5] Eating a certain number of pellets will cause a bonus item to appear in the middle of the stage, which can be eaten for points. Some of these bonus items are called Special Items, which are items from later levels, or are Red and Green Power Pellets. Red Power Pellets double the point values of blue ghosts (this bonus is lost if Pac-Man loses a life), and Green Power Pellets temporarily increase Pac-Man's speed. If the player takes too long to clear a stage, Pac-Man's jumping power begins to decrease steadily until it is entirely lost.

Four different mazes are available: Block Town, Pac-Man's Park, Sandbox Land, and Jungly Steps. Upon completing a set number of rounds in each maze, the player progresses to the next; after playing through all four, the cycle restarts. At the beginning of the game, the player can choose to start in any of the first three mazes and will earn a score bonus for choosing either Pac-Man's Park or Sandbox Land and completing the first round in it.

Pac-Mania arrived on all of the major 8- and 16-bit systems in Europe in 1988, which were Amiga and Atari ST in October, Commodore 64 later that year, and Amstrad CPC, MSX and ZX Spectrum in December. The conversions were designed and ported by Teque Software, then composed of the duo Peter Harrap and Shaun Hollingworth, and the games were published by Grandslam Entertainment.[6][7] The same company developed an Acorn Archimedes port,[8] which was published by Domark in 1991. Sharp Corporation developed and released the game for its X68000 in early 1989.[9] Namco also released an MSX2 port of the game in mid-June that year.[10]

Pac-Mania was later ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System in late 1990 and the Master System[citation needed] and Sega Genesis in 1991 by Tengen. All three were released in North America, and the latter two in Europe as well, with the Master System port published by TecMagik.[11][12] The Genesis port was outsourced to Sculptured Software.

The music from Pac-Man's Park was later used in Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures as the "power up" theme for "Pac" (the show's version of Pac-Man). The same theme, along with Block Town's music, was remixed and used in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and later Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

The core gameplay is more or less the same as the original Pac-Man. The player controls Pac-Man to eat all the Pac-Dots while avoiding ghosts. He can also get a Power Pellet in order to eat the ghosts, and can collect fruit for bonus points. When all dots are eaten, the player moves onto the next stage.

The most apparent difference in Pac-Mania is that the entire game is in an isometric, pseudo-3D perspective, which was very impressive for its time period. Pac-Man now also has the ability to jump over objects, including dots and ghosts (but not parts of the maze itself). This is a very useful move in tight situations, but it must be performed carefully.

Two new power-ups appear in the game as well, referred to as "Special Items", which appear occasionally in the center of the maze. The Pink Pellet will increase the points Pac-Man gets from eating ghosts, and will last until he loses a life. The Green Pellet makes Pac-Man go faster, but only lasts a short while.

Pac-Mania features the original four ghosts - Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde - along with Sue from Ms. Pac-Man and the newly-introduced Commons, Funky and Spunky. However, the red ghost (originally named "Blinky") is now named "Clyde", while the orange ghost (originally named "Clyde") is now "Blinky". Sue stays hot on Pac-Man's tail, unlike Clyde, who only does it in chase mode.

The first five ghosts have similar traits to their personas in Pac-Land and past appearances, while the newer Commons can jump when in Sandbox Land and Jungly Steps. Funky, the green common, is aggressive, but cannot jump as high as Pac-Man; thus, it is possible for the player to jump over them with proper timing. Spunky, the gray common, can jump just as high as Pac-Man, but is not nearly as aggressive as Funky. Unlike the other ghosts, there can be two of both Funky and Spunky, giving the player a chance of encountering a total of nine ghosts in later rounds.

Some ghosts also tend to have smarter AI when Pac-Man eats most of the dots in a stage, or during the later stages of the game. This can be seen with Blinky in Pac-Man's Park, where he becomes much more aggressive than in the previous stage.

The Pac-Mania arcade game features a rather large amount of game-controlling settings, which can cause some confusion between different variants and set-ups. This is especially problematic for home console ports, which will often be based on one random settings configuration without any option to change it. Some notable options that can be changed are:

The first world. It is made of LEGO-like blocks. Blinky, Pinky, Inky, Clyde, and Sue all show up in this world, and Funkys may appear on the second loop of the game, though without the ability to jump.

The third world in the game, taking place in a location featuring pyramid walls, a sand floor, and water surrounding it. Spunky will show up, and along with the Funkys, they gain the ability to jump in this world.

The fourth and final world in the game. This world takes place in a massive set of stairs supported by square beams. A second Spunky can show up. All Commons retain their jumping ability from the previous world.

The majority of 80s and 90s home computer ports (save for the MSX2 and Sharp X68000 releases) were produced by Grandslam, and were only released in Europe and Australia (including Australasia territories).

These versions of Pac-Mania are either listed in the public domain or are considered abandonware. Clicking the game title will lead you to a playable online version of it from archive.org (mobile compatibility may vary).

"PAC-MANIA" is an action game released by NAMCO (Bandai Namco Entertainment) in 1987.

Seven years after the birth of PAC-MAN in 1980... Finally a sensational debut in 3D!

The glutton PAC-MAN jumped to dodge the chasing GHOSTS and continued to eat PAC-DOTS today.

The "Arcade Archives" series has faithfully reproduced many classic Arcade masterpieces.

Players can change various game settings such as game difficulty, and also reproduce the atmosphere of arcade display settings at that time. Players can also compete against each other from all over the world with their high scores.

Please enjoy the masterpiece that built a generation for video games.

Product Description: Iconic arcade games, full size real-feel Arcade controls, coinless operation, and plugs into an AC outlet. Games Included: Ms. Pac Man, Galaga, Dig Dug Mappy, Rally X, Rolling Thunder, Rompers, The Tower of Druaga, and King and Balloon.

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