Oh, hey, I did that artwork in the background at 0:15 onward! It's based on the official promotional material of Ms. Pac-Man that started cropping up around three years ago (?), but with facial features modified to match her past appearances. I also did the recolors. :)
@@RetroCorequick question: why didn’t you show Scroll Mode in Namco Museum? (GBA) I mean wouldn’t it make sense to show it since you showed Tengen/Digital Eclipse version of Ms. Pac-Man?
18:35 The PS1 port of Ms. Pac-Man can also be played vertically if the monitor supports being tipped on it's side like the arcade ones. Many Namco Museum ports for the PS1 supported this feature.
I think I have a version of Ms. Pac-Man for every single console I have as well as my Android tablet, my phone and my computers! This is an absolute classic.
I think the Atari 5200 version was emulating the arcade version which also had a slower 1st stage gameplay. If I remember correctly (it has been a long time since I've played a 5200), the game speeds up after you complete that 1st screen. Great review by the way, thanks!
This is an epic comparison. Before clicking on the video I guessed there would be 20 ports, but I fell far short of the mark. I have to say, the ports that don't show the entire play field at all times are a non-starter for me, even if the sprites look nicer. I prefer the ports that retain the game's original feel and don't force you to guess where all the ghost monsters are located at any given time. Great video.
It’s funny, I remembered the zoomed in view on the GBC port as matching the arcade graphics exactly, yet the maze walls are clearly thinned down. GBC Ms Pac-Man was my go-to game to play on the porcelain throne back when I was at uni. It’s a shame they didn’t take advantage of the Dreamcast’s higher resolution to give us a 1:1 port of the arcades graphics, that said the original was 224x288 so it wouldn’t have been possible to do a 2x scale (except on PAL TVs).
The VIC-20 port honestly doesn't look too bad given what its running on. Composite mode on the PC was an interesting trick that took advantage of the blurry nature of composite , and while I do think the colours are nicer in composite mode, there is something to be said about the super sharp RGB monitors that IBM had at the time.
Love it. Great version. If I had to have 1 complaint though it would be how the screen needs to scroll up and down. It's kind of nice having the entire game on the screen at once, like say the Atari 7800. But all the extra options on the Genesis port really keep it interesting for longer.
I dont mean to be off topic but does anyone know a trick to log back into an instagram account..? I somehow forgot the login password. I would appreciate any help you can offer me.
Nice video as usual :) Unfortunately no port to any of the machines I had when I was a child. Well, I had a Mega-Drive, but who wanted to play Ms. Pacman on the 90s? I mean... it was TIME FOR KLAX.
@@RetroCore I actually had a schoolmate who had a copy of Ms.Pacman for the MegaDrive. I am pretty sure it was his dad who bought it for him though, and he actually hated it.
It took Namco a long time to come to terms with the fact this "hack" was much better than their official sequel to Pac Man. btw, nice job on fitting all of those versions on one screen ;)
On GBA's Pac-Man Collection you could choose between a fullscreen or scrolling mode for Pac-Man. I'm sure the same applies for Ms. Pac-Man on Namco Museum for GBA.
I'd actually rate this as a better port than most of the scrolling ones...Ms. Pac-man is the kind of game where you want/need to see the whole screen (even if that means the graphics don't look as nice)...i'll take gameplay over graphics any day of the week.
@@RetroCore Yup, it is true. As far as I am aware, this was also a thing for the GBC version (I might be mistaken as I hadn't played that one personally).
I always liked the Genedrive/Megasis version the best, as it had the awesome "Pacboost" button and simultaneous two player co-op (and competitive) modes.
One thing I remember about those Coleco tabletop game commercials was that they rarely, if ever, showed screen shots of the tabletop games. Some kid would be playing a full size Ms. Pac-Man machine and "Arcade Guy" would zap it into the tabletop version right into the kids hands. Kid says "Thanks Arcade Guy!!" and runs off with it. Rinse and repeat with Frogger, Galaxian, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, etc, without showing any actual gameplay screen shots. But it didn't matter, those games were The TIT'S back in the day!
I'm a happy chappy when Retro Core uploads. I have the MD version and let me tell you, it is pure bliss to play it with a Six button controller. It's so smooth yet precise
I love these long episodes for the early arcade classics and their multitude of ports. I have actual copies of most of these Ms. Pac-Man ports. One of my all time favorites for sure. I miss the days where every system's version was so different than all of it's competitors.
Uh, lil' update, and you MIGHT want to adjust the video accordingly. The GBA version of Namco Museum DOES let you choose between zoomed in and full screen. To zoom in, you press B at the main menu instead of A. Just thought I'd mention it before you get... Less reserved people mentioning it a billion times.
Currently there are 2 ports for GBA, the one you showed has the option of a scroll screen or a full screen (option also present in the Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man versions for Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Gear), while the other one is from the Namco Museum 50th Anniversary, which is only shown in full screen and the apparent emulation (if you can call it that), it shows a lot of flickering on the screen (defect present in all games of that compilation).
A classic improvement of a classic one. I hate the versions that doesn't show all the screen, I can't see what are they doing that tricky ghosts! Mpf! Good job Mark! It was a big rounded yellow BotP xD
Great video, as usual. Your reference to the Daleks in the Apple segment caused me to have the phrase “Exterminate! Exterminate!” going round in my head for an hour afterwards 😀
The SNES version was also published by Williams entertainment (or wms industries) who formally owned Midway. And sound samples are from the arcade. I love it.
Great episode featuring a great game. I had a lot of fun with the 2600 version and some great 2-player fun on the Genesis, though I'm still not completely on board with the graphics changes on that one over 2.5 decades later. Sometimes I'm okay with it; sometimes I hate it. ha.
Just an FYI...Tengen is actually the Atari Games (arcade) computer/console software division, since they couldn't use the "Atari" name for non-arcade use, since that was Atari Corp.'s domain after their split up in 1983.
I have a soft spot for the C64 port since I had it as a kid on a floppy, but I have to say I also really like the version found on Ms. Pacman Maze Madness on the N64 as well, but of course it must be played with a Retro Fighters N64 controller lol.
Ooh yay, Ms. Pac-Man! Ohai again Mark! Honestly I prefer Ms. Pac-Man over the original as you mentioned that it looks more colorful, IDK why but it feels good to look at.
It's also much better game design, as with original Pac-man (at least the original arcade version) you just had to learn the proper patterns/routes of the maze and you can't lose (as the ghost's AI has routine patterns), where as with Ms. Pac-man the ghosts have random behavior (so you can't ever just follow a set route to win, you'll always have to just out strategize the ghosts).
my favorite ports pre playstation xbox emulation eras are in the order atarti 7800 Mega Drive/Genesis Tengen and Atari 2600. IMHO the 2600 really shows off how gameplay is more important than one to one graphics. Love that version.
@@RetroCore along with Pac-Man, I guess why my username is based on the same name as the game. Along with other channels such as Ms. Pac-Man Entertainment and Pac-Man Entertainment 2.
7:07 Surprised Diskman got away with that Fuhrer part :) Pac Man World 2 also had Ms. Pac Man as unlockable bonus (As well as couple other Pac Man games)
That's a hacked/pirated copy. These were quite common back then. The person that cracked the code and shared it would always insert their hacker name as well as greetings and tributes to fellow hackers on the intro screen.
That is 100% right. Personally I used to love watching the cracktros. Snes had some great ones. I think the last console I saw them on was the Dreamcast.
Great job ! The version I had first was the one for Gameboy, but I played it on the Advance :P so I had some colours as a bonus. Also not having a CDI is not an issue, you do own so much stuff for the gaming I think you are not missing much
Huh, missing the GBA version from Namco museum 50th anniversary, has Ms. pac man, but with better sound and can play with full screen, vertical screen( "almost" perfect) and horizontal with scroll And the NDS in the Namco museum DS (plays horizontal or vertical)
As stated at the start of the video, versions that are just emulating the original arcade rom aren't included. Namco Museums from 50th Anniversary onwards emulate the original arcade rom.
If you push B when selecting the gameboy advanced version then you get a scrolling screen and can eve use the L and R buttons to scroll the screen without having to move up there
Ms pac man was bloody popular where i live along side with the original pac man For some reason whenever i go to an arcade i always found a bootleg version of ms pacman where it plays way faster than it should, and for some reason all the ghost had a green color Sure a true classic
Oh God, I hate myself for even making this comment. This video was massive, and I don't even want to think about how long it took to make it, but the 2001-2 Namco Museum releases on PS2, GC, and XBox actually has ports again instead of emulation. Apparently so do the Namco Museum PSP releases. That said, good on you for getting through as many as you did. I always forget about that table top game. My parents bought me one of those after I had been in hospital when I was really little. I played the crap out of it. The C64 and 2600 versions, too.
Really, I read at a few places that those versions were emulated. Bummer if they weren't as the should have been on this video. Oh well, in a way I'm glad since this took two weeks to put together 🙂
Arcade, Mega Drive, Lynx. That covers most of the unique mazes. NES, GBC, and Game Gear added covers every unique Maze, to my knowledge. But for every variation of the originals, you also need 2600, and Pac-Man 2, which have significant remixes to the level design of their original maps. Although the Coleco TT version also looks like a unique variation
Great work! Lots of great versions to choose from here for a change. I am secretly disappointed that Tiertex never got a crack at Ms. Pac-Man considering that there are so many ports, you just know they'd do something special to foul it up.
By the way, the GBA version has a scrolling mode, I think you forgot that. And the graphics are exactly the same as the arcade. And in PAC-MAN is exactly the same thing, but it appears on PAC-MAN Collection
For the next couple Battle of the Ports videos, you should do the following: Sonic 3D Blast WWF In Your House Spider-Man (2000) Tomb Raider (1996) Sonic Adventure (1 and 2) Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety (SNES, Mega Drive and PC) WWF WrestleMania (1992) WWF European Rampage Tour Dr. Doom's Revenge
Horward Scott Warshaw said that even when Atari's 2600 coders were getting amazing things out of hardware (asteriods, Missile Command, Ms Pac-Man etc), Atari's marketing people said they were not good engineers, because they could'nt make the games look like the arcade versions...as he put it: 'People who knew nothing of our tools and technology, who contribute precious little value to the process judged us harshly and pissed us off'. Quote from Carla Meninsky: 'we'd spend weeks coding up these amazing tricks and getting more out of the machine than anyone had ever though possible and the marketing guy would take one look and ask-'can't you make the ball round?'....."
15:24 Probably helps to remember this wasn't THEIR game to start with, they're only obligated to keep it around since it was popular elsewhere in the world!
Honestly, the Tengen NES release of one of my favorite releases on the system, with the added mazes, the turbo button and the multiplayer. With the SNES, SMS and MD versions being tied with in quality, IMO.
Great stuff Mark! Btw I’m searching for an arcade fighting game where one of the stages start off by a lens flare (I think it’s by a beach). Can’t remember if it’s a King of Fighters or Street Fighter came. I saw it in one of your videos here.
Have to say I love this game. Played the Mega Drive/Genesis version a lot as a kid and it's a really great version. Beyond the ZX Spectrum, VIC-20 and GBA versions most here seem pretty great ports. I'd say the one that impresses me the most is the Commodore 64 version, mainly as it sounds very close to the arcade thanks to the amazing SID chip and the looks are nice and colourful when you consider that many C64 games can look a little washed out by comparison.
@@timoheinonen9570 I have played it. It's awful, the animation is choppy and Ms. Pac-Man does not control well at all. Terrible port, and that's not me dissing the ZX Spectrum as I know the machine can do much better.
@@matttheshadowman2790 I need to disagree, I still have it on my speccy and it pays just fine. Unlike many of the versions shown here Ms Pacman controlls brilliantly, you can even press to change direction before arriving at the corner you want to take just like in the arcade, without having to press the direction at the exact time you reach the corner which is what happens in many of the versions shown here. Plus the fact that it shows the entire playfield, makes it a winner in gameplay over each and every version that scrolls, resulting in not seeing where the ghosts are.
If you had any idea what was happening to produce the audio on the Apple II version, you might have been a little easier on it. It's playing digitized audio during gameplay on a system that doesn't support interrupts.
Yes, I know that but it still sounds awful and quite funny. I'm sure if the developer had the time (or skill?) they could have worked around the limitations.
@@RetroCore The audio sounds like it does *because* the developer had the skill. :-) Most apple ii games have little or no background audio. It's like the 48k spectrum that way, where you have to bit-bang the 1-bit speaker manually. Thank you for being fair to the PC version (composite graphics). Not all PC games were utterly terrible :-) (I hope you never do Side Arms, the PC version is just embarrassing)
I would have liked the MD & SNES ports of Ms. Pac-Man as I played the speeded up arcade game ast my college rec room during the early 90's. (The SNES version should get bonus points for using sampled arcade sounds.) Also enjoyed the GBC version along with other arcade & NES ports...which was why I got the GBC in the first place. Plus I actually thought the PSX versions "were" emulated because they looked (on a CRT at least) the same as the arcade games. And yes I even played them in Tate Mode...
Surprised HotGen's SunPlus-hardware port from the 5-in-1 Jakks Plug N Play isn't included here, despite being official and well known. Still a good video.
You may be referring to either AtGames Namco Blast or the 30th Anniversary Pac-Man P&P, which both use emulations. Jakks used to use a system on a chip for their consoles, and had another dev code games for them.
A bit of a correction on Ms. Pac-Man on GBA. (Namco Museum, 2001) You can set the screen to scroll. It looks better than Full Screen. However, It plays choppy.
I remember back in the Day I had an Apple II and a lot of the Atarisoft games, Ms. Pac Man was one. I loved that computer like a few in the UK love their ZX Spectrum. So as long as I didn't need quarters I was good.
@@RetroCore Dig Dug, Mario bros., Robotron 2084, Jungle Hunt from Atarisoft. Burger Time was another fave (keyboard allows tighter control of movement and I got far in that game).
Ms. Pac Man was one of the first arcade games I played as a kid, and I still play it occasionally at my local bowling alley in their arcade room. It's really sad and disappointing to know that Namco can't even put in the extra effort to make their home ports of Ms. Pac Man any good. Tengen clearly does a much better job with their version of the game. I may need to grab the Genesis version when I get the chance. Thanks for another great episode.
actually you could choose to scroll over full screen in the namco museum gba port. did you actually play these? or did you get footage from other videos. because hey look identical to other videos.
I played them. The footage can't be identical to another video. As for the screen size option I wasn't aware of that. It's not stated on the title screen. I guess you need to do a button combination or change something in the options.
Yeah, the Namco NES port is such a letdown, especially given what it goes for online. I stick to the Tengen version. Also, another unofficial DOS version is by JROK (who is now known for the encoder boards used in arcade superguns to play on TVs) called "Ms. Pac-PC". Basically an arcade-perfect clone (even offering the speedup enhancement), and a 288x224 fullscreen mode, if your VGA monitor and card supported it. Lastly, the MegaDrive port is one of the games that does NOT like the 6b controller. As long as it is not an IR one, the player must hold down Mode when booting up. Otherwise, you cannot go through the gaps in the maze.
@DejaVoodooDoll Not a problem at all, man! Quite a few games prior to about 1993 or so have issues with six button controllers and sticks. I know one of the nastiest surprises is with Forgotten Worlds/Lost Worlds: as soon as you start a game while in 6B mode, automatic Game Over.
Fwiw the JAKKS Pacific 'Ms Pac-Man' TV game units are an official port. (Those aren't emulation based devices) It just so happens we have been emulating them recently (they run on a SunPlus architecture and the game is coded from scratch just like any other port)
Ah yeah, having dealt with shipping costs to get similar things out of Japan recently I can fully understand that being a problem. Just letting you know for your own record keeping anyway. I think it's an interesting part of the history of some of these Namco classics, after this point pretty much all new releases are simply emulated so it's one of the final times they were actually ported instead. For some of the other games they were actually ported twice for these units, to different architectures; the original 'NAMCO' unit JAKKS release (Pac-Man, Galaxian, Rally-X, DigDig, Boscocnian) was to a much weaker piece of hardware (W65C816S? based CPU, looks like single scrolling plane + sprites and primitive sound) so are nowhere near as faithful as the ports to the SunPlus hardware (which started with said Ms PacMan unit) Anyway, that's an aside, I do really like seeing all these videos of ports of a game in one place :-)
I'm a bit sad you didn't elaborate on what was wrong with the Spectrum version, because it looks like a hell of an improvement over Pac-Man on the platform.
@@RetroCore I'll give you the sound, though again, better than the Pac-Man one. Not a high bar, I know. I'll have to find a good speccy emulator and try it out to see about the response. Still, it DOES seem like Atarisoft didn't give two pints of piss about that system.
I was going to post the same thing, it's a decent version and a big improvement over the original Pac-Man port which used character-based movement whereas this uses per-pixel movement, which isn't that easy to do on the Speccy. Also it shows the whole maze unlike versions on more capable machines. Maybe Mark got fed up covering so many ports!
@@RetroCore ZX Spectrum port is certainly not sluggish and responds well to controls. Maybe you should stop making claims if you have problems with emulation and get real machine instead.
lmfao 7:48 *"KWAA-k-KWAA-k-k-KWAAAAAA..."* wtf it's like some really BAD techno... xD 9:26 Someone I knew had this one. I never got to play it because of their *_overprotective_* mom...lol 12:35 I remember this one fondly. It was the first home port I played outside of the arcade. :) 15:11 I wish I still had this one. I loved it on GBC (negative colors make for a fun experience). 16:03 I never had this one though. 16:46 I had this one too back when I had my first GBA. Namco Museum is one of my top 100 arcade to home games. 17:32 Ah, one console the AVGN loves to hate, lolz 18:10 Damn, the audio is way outta sync... -_- 18:20 Namco Museum vol. 3. Good times. 19:24 It's still good. Plus you can use the thumbstick. 19:45 Looks fantastic to me anyway. There is a modern PC version that is licensed though. I'm guessing you missed it. It's fine. Pretty sure it's on Steam, and if not, it might be on GoG. I played Ms. Pacman before I played Pacman, and Pacmania before Ms. Pacman on the NES. lolz Yup my first true foray into Pacverse was Pacmania... xD "Let's go have fun with Pac-Man! Let's go to Brick Town!" lolz
Oh, hey, I did that artwork in the background at 0:15 onward! It's based on the official promotional material of Ms. Pac-Man that started cropping up around three years ago (?), but with facial features modified to match her past appearances. I also did the recolors. :)
Nice, thanks for making the art. No idea where I got it from. Probably some random Google Search I would imagine.
@@RetroCore Haha, yeah, doesn't surprise me. I posted it on Smashboards and explained the inspirations for each color.
Fun fact: the Atari versions (2600, 5200 and 7800) were all developed by General Computer Corporation, the original arcade developers.
Nice. Good info.
would explain why they are fantastic ports.
@@RetroCorequick question: why didn’t you show Scroll Mode in Namco Museum? (GBA) I mean wouldn’t it make sense to show it since you showed Tengen/Digital Eclipse version of Ms. Pac-Man?
18:35 The PS1 port of Ms. Pac-Man can also be played vertically if the monitor supports being tipped on it's side like the arcade ones. Many Namco Museum ports for the PS1 supported this feature.
Nice. This is the version I have and had no idea
@@Lightblue2222 I believe it's in the "Dip Switch" settings.
www.mobygames.com/game/playstation/namco-museum-vol-3/screenshots/gameShotId,403909/
@@Lightblue2222 It fills the whole screen and plays very close to the original.
@@ChristopherSobieniak very cool
@@Lightblue2222 And this is why it's a shame it was only on the PS1 when they did it.
I think I have a version of Ms. Pac-Man for every single console I have as well as my Android tablet, my phone and my computers! This is an absolute classic.
I think the Atari 5200 version was emulating the arcade version which also had a slower 1st stage gameplay. If I remember correctly (it has been a long time since I've played a 5200), the game speeds up after you complete that 1st screen. Great review by the way, thanks!
Yes it was a tad slower but not that slow the c64 and PlayStation versions are the best
This is an epic comparison. Before clicking on the video I guessed there would be 20 ports, but I fell far short of the mark. I have to say, the ports that don't show the entire play field at all times are a non-starter for me, even if the sprites look nicer. I prefer the ports that retain the game's original feel and don't force you to guess where all the ghost monsters are located at any given time. Great video.
It’s funny, I remembered the zoomed in view on the GBC port as matching the arcade graphics exactly, yet the maze walls are clearly thinned down. GBC Ms Pac-Man was my go-to game to play on the porcelain throne back when I was at uni.
It’s a shame they didn’t take advantage of the Dreamcast’s higher resolution to give us a 1:1 port of the arcades graphics, that said the original was 224x288 so it wouldn’t have been possible to do a 2x scale (except on PAL TVs).
The VIC-20 port honestly doesn't look too bad given what its running on. Composite mode on the PC was an interesting trick that took advantage of the blurry nature of composite , and while I do think the colours are nicer in composite mode, there is something to be said about the super sharp RGB monitors that IBM had at the time.
The vic-20 port is indeed pretty reasonable qiven the power of the system.
The Mega Drive version has a special place in my heart. Still have it
Love it. Great version.
If I had to have 1 complaint though it would be how the screen needs to scroll up and down.
It's kind of nice having the entire game on the screen at once, like say the Atari 7800.
But all the extra options on the Genesis port really keep it interesting for longer.
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I somehow forgot the login password. I would appreciate any help you can offer me.
@Flynn Blaine instablaster :)
@@flynnblaine3955 scam 😒
@@stetsonizaiah4165 scam 😒
Nice video as usual :)
Unfortunately no port to any of the machines I had when I was a child.
Well, I had a Mega-Drive, but who wanted to play Ms. Pacman on the 90s?
I mean... it was TIME FOR KLAX.
Awww, Ms. Klax-Man?
@@adamhenry6793 I'd play that game.
@@rafaellima83 I would too!
Absolutely. I always wondered who the hell would buy Pac-man on the 16bit consoles.
@@RetroCore I actually had a schoolmate who had a copy of Ms.Pacman for the MegaDrive.
I am pretty sure it was his dad who bought it for him though, and he actually hated it.
A monumental effort in capture and emulation thanks Mark, seeing all those different versions running at the end is a real joy.
It took Namco a long time to come to terms with the fact this "hack" was much better than their official sequel to Pac Man. btw, nice job on fitting all of those versions on one screen ;)
That was quite the challenge for me and for the PC when it came to encoding that section of the video.
another good one Mark. This one brings back memories, Ms.Pac-man and Pac-man were some of my favorite games when i was a kid. Thank you.
You're welcome.
Commodore 64 port will always have a special place im my heart!
7:31 So, this is the soundtrack to my nightmares. Neat.
On GBA's Pac-Man Collection you could choose between a fullscreen or scrolling mode for Pac-Man. I'm sure the same applies for Ms. Pac-Man on Namco Museum for GBA.
I wasn't aware of that :(
@@RetroCore I was just about to post that, but Nicholas NRG beat me to it.
I'd actually rate this as a better port than most of the scrolling ones...Ms. Pac-man is the kind of game where you want/need to see the whole screen (even if that means the graphics don't look as nice)...i'll take gameplay over graphics any day of the week.
@@RetroCore Yup, it is true. As far as I am aware, this was also a thing for the GBC version (I might be mistaken as I hadn't played that one personally).
@@RP_Williams Not to mention that I fail to see how it looks worse than the Lynx version, especially when played on real hardware.
I always liked the Genedrive/Megasis version the best, as it had the awesome "Pacboost" button and simultaneous two player co-op (and competitive) modes.
Genedrive/Megasis, lol. I like it.
He should of mentioned the extra features in the Sega Genesis version, 2 player co-op is an excellent addition.
One thing I remember about those Coleco tabletop game commercials was that they rarely, if ever, showed screen shots of the tabletop games. Some kid would be playing a full size Ms. Pac-Man machine and "Arcade Guy" would zap it into the tabletop version right into the kids hands. Kid says "Thanks Arcade Guy!!" and runs off with it. Rinse and repeat with Frogger, Galaxian, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, etc, without showing any actual gameplay screen shots. But it didn't matter, those games were The TIT'S back in the day!
I have to admit, as a kid they were amazing compared to the LCD games that were the only real viable alternative.
An excellent video as always; Thanks for being so thorough! LOL @ the term "Happy Chappie". Had no idea there was a CDI port - that's really cool.
Hehe, my dad's mate always used to say Happy Chappie 😁
I'm a happy chappy when Retro Core uploads.
I have the MD version and let me tell you, it is pure bliss to play it with a Six button controller. It's so smooth yet precise
It's been a while since I used that phrase 😅
@@RetroCore still makes me a happy chappy ;)
Wait. I have the game and it doesn't even work with a 6-button pad. Gotta hold MODE when turning on the system to put the pad in 3-button mode.
@@jesuszamora6949 yeah, that's what I did, I just prefer the 6 button Dpad over the 3 button dpad.
@@DanielAyy Gotcha.
05:31 The ZX Spectrum version has a copyright by Kodak of all companies?
I love these long episodes for the early arcade classics and their multitude of ports. I have actual copies of most of these Ms. Pac-Man ports. One of my all time favorites for sure. I miss the days where every system's version was so different than all of it's competitors.
Ahhh. After a work week, I enjoy watching a good old fashioned battle of the ports.
Thanks, Sky Man. This show actually took two weeks to put together.
My all time favorite lady!! Thanks for another great video Marc!
No worries. This was a big one to cover though,
Retro Core - no doubt. Lots of editing as well as disk swapping/cartridge swapping!!!!
Amazing video, Happy Easter!
Oh, I forgot ot was Easter. That's something which doesn't exist here in Japan.
Uh, lil' update, and you MIGHT want to adjust the video accordingly. The GBA version of Namco Museum DOES let you choose between zoomed in and full screen. To zoom in, you press B at the main menu instead of A. Just thought I'd mention it before you get... Less reserved people mentioning it a billion times.
I'm afraid I can't update this video as I've since deleted the Master files but thanks for the info.
What a huge job that you had :) , as always, great video!
Yep, this one took two weeks to put together.
My first exposure to Pac Man was Ms. Pac Man on the SNES. Not even kiddin' :V
That one with the weird faces?
@@adamhenry6793 Yep
@@kaihedgie1747 Sure, It'd be fun.
Another great video🖒 such great memories. Thank you
Currently there are 2 ports for GBA, the one you showed has the option of a scroll screen or a full screen (option also present in the Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man versions for Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Gear), while the other one is from the Namco Museum 50th Anniversary, which is only shown in full screen and the apparent emulation (if you can call it that), it shows a lot of flickering on the screen (defect present in all games of that compilation).
Also, there's a roblox version of the game; and also called "Mz. PAAC MEM" as a joke game as a port!
A classic improvement of a classic one. I hate the versions that doesn't show all the screen, I can't see what are they doing that tricky ghosts! Mpf!
Good job Mark! It was a big rounded yellow BotP xD
Thanks, Javier.
Great video, as usual. Your reference to the Daleks in the Apple segment caused me to have the phrase “Exterminate! Exterminate!” going round in my head for an hour afterwards 😀
Hehe he, nice 😂
I had the SNES version...Booooy...Playing a competitive match against my family was a Joy!
The SNES version was also published by Williams entertainment (or wms industries) who formally owned Midway. And sound samples are from the arcade. I love it.
Great video as always. Also amazing how Tengen made a better port for the NES/Famicom than Namco did.
The reverse was true for Rolling Thunder, though.
Probably because Namco didn’t originally make the game and thus didn’t care for it the same way they did some of the others.
@@Darknight0681 probably
Another great video, Boss.
Congrats e thanks for dedication.
And thank you for watching!
16:59 Actually there’s an option to use a scrolling maze, which uses the bigger graphics from the arcade
I really like these videos because they remind my of drawing.
Interesting pass time for the videos to remind you off.
So many versions ! Nice!
Love it!
The Apple II was the first version I played, has a special place.
You should do Galaga next, then Galaxian, later Frogger
this was helpful. thank you
You're welcome.
Great episode featuring a great game. I had a lot of fun with the 2600 version and some great 2-player fun on the Genesis, though I'm still not completely on board with the graphics changes on that one over 2.5 decades later. Sometimes I'm okay with it; sometimes I hate it. ha.
Namco didn't put effort of the ports because I think the arcade version didn't permission to Namco I guess.
Just an FYI...Tengen is actually the Atari Games (arcade) computer/console software division, since they couldn't use the "Atari" name for non-arcade use, since that was Atari Corp.'s domain after their split up in 1983.
Ms. Pac-Man is the first Echo Fighter in gaming history.
What do you mean?
@@SockyNoob In Smash slang, Echo Fighter is an alternate skin. Ms. Pac-Man game is an unauthorized clone, so it makes sense.
I have a soft spot for the C64 port since I had it as a kid on a floppy, but I have to say I also really like the version found on Ms. Pacman Maze Madness on the N64 as well, but of course it must be played with a Retro Fighters N64 controller lol.
I didn't know there was another version for the N64. Bummer! I would have added it if I knew.
@@RetroCore It's no different than the one you showed to be honest
Ooh yay, Ms. Pac-Man! Ohai again Mark! Honestly I prefer Ms. Pac-Man over the original as you mentioned that it looks more colorful, IDK why but it feels good to look at.
O, Hai, Clásikū.
@@adamhenry6793 Ahoy!
@@Clasiku Hey!
It's also much better game design, as with original Pac-man (at least the original arcade version) you just had to learn the proper patterns/routes of the maze and you can't lose (as the ghost's AI has routine patterns), where as with Ms. Pac-man the ghosts have random behavior (so you can't ever just follow a set route to win, you'll always have to just out strategize the ghosts).
Awesome vid. Subbed. I'm a huge fan of the Atari 2600 version. It was one of the first home console games I ever owned.
Thanks for subscribing, Hitman GFX.
my favorite ports pre playstation xbox emulation eras are in the order atarti 7800 Mega Drive/Genesis Tengen and Atari 2600. IMHO the 2600 really shows off how gameplay is more important than one to one graphics. Love that version.
Thanks
You're welcome
The TI99 version looks so good!
It is. Quite a nice version.
@@RetroCore along with Pac-Man, I guess why my username is based on the same name as the game. Along with other channels such as Ms. Pac-Man Entertainment and Pac-Man Entertainment 2.
7:07 Surprised Diskman got away with that Fuhrer part :) Pac Man World 2 also had Ms. Pac Man as unlockable bonus (As well as couple other Pac Man games)
That's a hacked/pirated copy. These were quite common back then. The person that cracked the code and shared it would always insert their hacker name as well as greetings and tributes to fellow hackers on the intro screen.
That is 100% right. Personally I used to love watching the cracktros. Snes had some great ones. I think the last console I saw them on was the Dreamcast.
Might have to give the C64 port a play after work tonight.
C64 is a fun console!
@@adamhenry6793 Very much so!
Great job !
The version I had first was the one for Gameboy, but I played it on the Advance :P so I had some colours as a bonus.
Also not having a CDI is not an issue, you do own so much stuff for the gaming I think you are not missing much
The only thing I'm missing by not having a CD-i is being ridiculed :p
The official Namco version of Ms. Pac-Man was also released in the US on the NES, though much later than the Tengen version.
I wasn't aware of that.
Huh, missing the GBA version from Namco museum 50th anniversary, has Ms. pac man, but with better sound and can play with full screen, vertical screen( "almost" perfect) and horizontal with scroll
And the NDS in the Namco museum DS (plays horizontal or vertical)
Wait, what? I thought the DS release of Namco Museum was canceled!
Well, how about that, lol
As stated at the start of the video, versions that are just emulating the original arcade rom aren't included. Namco Museums from 50th Anniversary onwards emulate the original arcade rom.
If you push B when selecting the gameboy advanced version then you get a scrolling screen and can eve use the L and R buttons to scroll the screen without having to move up there
Ms pac man was bloody popular where i live along side with the original pac man
For some reason whenever i go to an arcade i always found a bootleg version of ms pacman where it plays way faster than it should, and for some reason all the ghost had a green color
Sure a true classic
Tengen NES version is the best!
That cdi port was trippin.xDD
Woo hoo! Picked up a copy recently for cheap. they’re averaging $15 loose.
11:09 Maybe the dislikes is due to this play. Ms PacMan "missing" the four ghosts.
Oh God, I hate myself for even making this comment. This video was massive, and I don't even want to think about how long it took to make it, but the 2001-2 Namco Museum releases on PS2, GC, and XBox actually has ports again instead of emulation. Apparently so do the Namco Museum PSP releases. That said, good on you for getting through as many as you did. I always forget about that table top game. My parents bought me one of those after I had been in hospital when I was really little. I played the crap out of it. The C64 and 2600 versions, too.
Really, I read at a few places that those versions were emulated. Bummer if they weren't as the should have been on this video. Oh well, in a way I'm glad since this took two weeks to put together 🙂
@@RetroCore They're just ports of the PS1 version anyway, so you're not missing out on too much.
My god, man. You were totally triggering my OCD by not eating those ghosts when you had plenty of chances to!
Arcade, Mega Drive, Lynx. That covers most of the unique mazes.
NES, GBC, and Game Gear added covers every unique Maze, to my knowledge.
But for every variation of the originals, you also need 2600, and Pac-Man 2, which have significant remixes to the level design of their original maps. Although the Coleco TT version also looks like a unique variation
Great work! Lots of great versions to choose from here for a change. I am secretly disappointed that Tiertex never got a crack at Ms. Pac-Man considering that there are so many ports, you just know they'd do something special to foul it up.
That explains why the Ghosts look odd 😂
By the way, the GBA version has a scrolling mode, I think you forgot that. And the graphics are exactly the same as the arcade. And in PAC-MAN is exactly the same thing, but it appears on PAC-MAN Collection
For the next couple Battle of the Ports videos, you should do the following:
Sonic 3D Blast
WWF In Your House
Spider-Man (2000)
Tomb Raider (1996)
Sonic Adventure (1 and 2)
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety (SNES, Mega Drive and PC)
WWF WrestleMania (1992)
WWF European Rampage Tour
Dr. Doom's Revenge
12:07 Mmm, Tiertex were actually behind this port, but they were not credited or mentioned during the whole game
14:33 And other thing, PAC-MAN was also added to that game. (It reminds me to the NES version)
Wow. maybe they didn't want to tarnish their reputation for making crap.
Horward Scott Warshaw said that even when Atari's 2600 coders were getting amazing things out of hardware (asteriods, Missile Command, Ms Pac-Man etc), Atari's marketing people said they were not good engineers, because they could'nt make the games look like the arcade versions...as he put it:
'People who knew nothing of our tools and technology, who contribute precious little value to the process judged us harshly and pissed us off'.
Quote from Carla Meninsky: 'we'd spend weeks coding up these amazing tricks and getting more out of the machine than anyone had ever though possible and the marketing guy would take one look and ask-'can't you make the ball round?'....."
Lol, that's just the sort of things suits would say. While I'm not in the games industry I have heard such stupid crap in the past.
15:24 Probably helps to remember this wasn't THEIR game to start with, they're only obligated to keep it around since it was popular elsewhere in the world!
Honestly, the Tengen NES release of one of my favorite releases on the system, with the added mazes, the turbo button and the multiplayer. With the SNES, SMS and MD versions being tied with in quality, IMO.
Great stuff Mark!
Btw I’m searching for an arcade fighting game where one of the stages start off by a lens flare (I think it’s by a beach). Can’t remember if it’s a King of Fighters or Street Fighter came. I saw it in one of your videos here.
Ah, that will be Real Bout Fatal Fury Special.
Retro Core thanks a bunch mate!
Have to say I love this game. Played the Mega Drive/Genesis version a lot as a kid and it's a really great version. Beyond the ZX Spectrum, VIC-20 and GBA versions most here seem pretty great ports. I'd say the one that impresses me the most is the Commodore 64 version, mainly as it sounds very close to the arcade thanks to the amazing SID chip and the looks are nice and colourful when you consider that many C64 games can look a little washed out by comparison.
Have you even played the ZX Spectrum version yourself? I think not, as it actually plays at least as good as the other versions.
@@timoheinonen9570 I have played it. It's awful, the animation is choppy and Ms. Pac-Man does not control well at all. Terrible port, and that's not me dissing the ZX Spectrum as I know the machine can do much better.
@@matttheshadowman2790 I need to disagree, I still have it on my speccy and it pays just fine. Unlike many of the versions shown here Ms Pacman controlls brilliantly, you can even press to change direction before arriving at the corner you want to take just like in the arcade, without having to press the direction at the exact time you reach the corner which is what happens in many of the versions shown here. Plus the fact that it shows the entire playfield, makes it a winner in gameplay over each and every version that scrolls, resulting in not seeing where the ghosts are.
nice video. i own Namco Museum vol. 3. brings back memories. also do ya have plans to do Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness as well?
It's definitely a candidate for a future show but there's no plans to cover it any time soon.
@@RetroCore good to know :)
If you had any idea what was happening to produce the audio on the Apple II version, you might have been a little easier on it. It's playing digitized audio during gameplay on a system that doesn't support interrupts.
Yes, I know that but it still sounds awful and quite funny. I'm sure if the developer had the time (or skill?) they could have worked around the limitations.
@@RetroCore The audio sounds like it does *because* the developer had the skill. :-) Most apple ii games have little or no background audio. It's like the 48k spectrum that way, where you have to bit-bang the 1-bit speaker manually.
Thank you for being fair to the PC version (composite graphics). Not all PC games were utterly terrible :-) (I hope you never do Side Arms, the PC version is just embarrassing)
I think I have done side arms :)
@@RetroCore My condolences!
Slight correction. It was released in America in 1982 but the Japanese version was 1981, the same year as Galaga, the sequel to Galaxian.
Good point. Thanks for the post. I normally go off of the Japanese release dates.
The GB versions can be run in scaled mode too. Can't remember how - think it was Select at the title screen.
Retro core when is battle of the ports show 268
Botp is released every Saturday.
I would have liked the MD & SNES ports of Ms. Pac-Man as I played the speeded up arcade game ast my college rec room during the early 90's. (The SNES version should get bonus points for using sampled arcade sounds.)
Also enjoyed the GBC version along with other arcade & NES ports...which was why I got the GBC in the first place.
Plus I actually thought the PSX versions "were" emulated because they looked (on a CRT at least) the same as the arcade games. And yes I even played them in Tate Mode...
I always though all the PlayStation Namco Museum games were emulated but it turns out that they're not.
Surprised HotGen's SunPlus-hardware port from the 5-in-1 Jakks Plug N Play isn't included here, despite being official and well known. Still a good video.
They are emulations of the arcade ROM, not port. They're also impossible to find here in Japan.
You may be referring to either AtGames Namco Blast or the 30th Anniversary Pac-Man P&P, which both use emulations. Jakks used to use a system on a chip for their consoles, and had another dev code games for them.
A bit of a correction on Ms. Pac-Man on GBA. (Namco Museum, 2001)
You can set the screen to scroll. It looks better than Full Screen. However, It plays choppy.
Bummer. I guess that's wh the default is the full screen look.
Who has more ports ported, doom or ms.pacman
Official, Ms Pacman. Unofficial it is doom, most likely.
It's good to be a gameboy collector. I love that version.
I remember back in the Day I had an Apple II and a lot of the Atarisoft games, Ms. Pac Man was one. I loved that computer like a few in the UK love their ZX Spectrum. So as long as I didn't need quarters I was good.
The Apple ll had quite a lot of pretty cool ports I think.
@@RetroCore Dig Dug, Mario bros., Robotron 2084, Jungle Hunt from Atarisoft. Burger Time was another fave (keyboard allows tighter control of movement and I got far in that game).
Do I really have to say anything about this timeless classic Mark? 8^)
Anthony..
It’s Sad That Ms. Pac-Man Is Not In Pac-Man Museum+.
License issues I believe.
There's a way to make the maze larger in the Gameboy Advance version, but it cuts off most of the view area just like in the GB/GBC version.
Ms. Pac Man was one of the first arcade games I played as a kid, and I still play it occasionally at my local bowling alley in their arcade room. It's really sad and disappointing to know that Namco can't even put in the extra effort to make their home ports of Ms. Pac Man any good. Tengen clearly does a much better job with their version of the game. I may need to grab the Genesis version when I get the chance. Thanks for another great episode.
Me too
19:06 “the smeary graphics”
this is why I *absolutely despise* bilinear antialiasing
actually you could choose to scroll over full screen in the namco museum gba port. did you actually play these? or did you get footage from other videos. because hey look identical to other videos.
I played them. The footage can't be identical to another video. As for the screen size option I wasn't aware of that. It's not stated on the title screen. I guess you need to do a button combination or change something in the options.
damn mark too much ports here good stuff but what will be the next one will it be home ports or the same old arcade to home ports formula?
Hmm, still deciding what to release next. I'm pretty busy so maybe a smaller one. Shadow of the Beast is coming soon though.
Retro Core
What about House of the Dead 2 ? There shouldn't be too many ports and you did the first part many, many, many moons ago.
Retro Core
What about House of the Dead 2 ? There shouldn't be too many ports and you did the first part many, many, many moons ago.
Yeah, the Namco NES port is such a letdown, especially given what it goes for online. I stick to the Tengen version.
Also, another unofficial DOS version is by JROK (who is now known for the encoder boards used in arcade superguns to play on TVs) called "Ms. Pac-PC". Basically an arcade-perfect clone (even offering the speedup enhancement), and a 288x224 fullscreen mode, if your VGA monitor and card supported it.
Lastly, the MegaDrive port is one of the games that does NOT like the 6b controller. As long as it is not an IR one, the player must hold down Mode when booting up. Otherwise, you cannot go through the gaps in the maze.
The Tengen version of NES Ms. Pacman is so much better than Nam,co's effort. In fact every port by Namco is lacking any features.
@DejaVoodooDoll Not a problem at all, man! Quite a few games prior to about 1993 or so have issues with six button controllers and sticks. I know one of the nastiest surprises is with Forgotten Worlds/Lost Worlds: as soon as you start a game while in 6B mode, automatic Game Over.
The official NES version kinda looks like the version from a mini console I got for Christmas from my sister last year.
These videos kick ass!
Thanks!
Fwiw the JAKKS Pacific 'Ms Pac-Man' TV game units are an official port. (Those aren't emulation based devices)
It just so happens we have been emulating them recently (they run on a SunPlus architecture and the game is coded from scratch just like any other port)
We can't get the JAKKS Pacific units in Japan. I'd have to import one which to be honest would be a waste of money once shipping was added.
Ah yeah, having dealt with shipping costs to get similar things out of Japan recently I can fully understand that being a problem.
Just letting you know for your own record keeping anyway. I think it's an interesting part of the history of some of these Namco classics, after this point pretty much all new releases are simply emulated so it's one of the final times they were actually ported instead. For some of the other games they were actually ported twice for these units, to different architectures; the original 'NAMCO' unit JAKKS release (Pac-Man, Galaxian, Rally-X, DigDig, Boscocnian) was to a much weaker piece of hardware (W65C816S? based CPU, looks like single scrolling plane + sprites and primitive sound) so are nowhere near as faithful as the ports to the SunPlus hardware (which started with said Ms PacMan unit)
Anyway, that's an aside, I do really like seeing all these videos of ports of a game in one place :-)
Can't tell what's worse: The Spectrum's fart fest sounds or the demonic Apple II port
I played the Genesis version before the SNES version a few years later when i was a kid.
I'm a bit sad you didn't elaborate on what was wrong with the Spectrum version, because it looks like a hell of an improvement over Pac-Man on the platform.
It doesn't feel right when playing. It's also sluggish to respond and sounds awful.
@@RetroCore I'll give you the sound, though again, better than the Pac-Man one. Not a high bar, I know. I'll have to find a good speccy emulator and try it out to see about the response. Still, it DOES seem like Atarisoft didn't give two pints of piss about that system.
I was going to post the same thing, it's a decent version and a big improvement over the original Pac-Man port which used character-based movement whereas this uses per-pixel movement, which isn't that easy to do on the Speccy. Also it shows the whole maze unlike versions on more capable machines. Maybe Mark got fed up covering so many ports!
@@RetroCore ZX Spectrum port is certainly not sluggish and responds well to controls. Maybe you should stop making claims if you have problems with emulation and get real machine instead.
lmfao 7:48 *"KWAA-k-KWAA-k-k-KWAAAAAA..."* wtf it's like some really BAD techno... xD
9:26 Someone I knew had this one. I never got to play it because of their *_overprotective_* mom...lol
12:35 I remember this one fondly. It was the first home port I played outside of the arcade. :)
15:11 I wish I still had this one. I loved it on GBC (negative colors make for a fun experience).
16:03 I never had this one though.
16:46 I had this one too back when I had my first GBA. Namco Museum is one of my top 100 arcade to home games.
17:32 Ah, one console the AVGN loves to hate, lolz 18:10 Damn, the audio is way outta sync... -_-
18:20 Namco Museum vol. 3. Good times.
19:24 It's still good. Plus you can use the thumbstick.
19:45 Looks fantastic to me anyway.
There is a modern PC version that is licensed though. I'm guessing you missed it. It's fine. Pretty sure it's on Steam, and if not, it might be on GoG. I played Ms. Pacman before I played Pacman, and Pacmania before Ms. Pacman on the NES. lolz Yup my first true foray into Pacverse was Pacmania... xD
"Let's go have fun with Pac-Man! Let's go to Brick Town!" lolz
Ah, that modern PC version is just Arcade emulation, not a port. So, unfortunately it can't be added to the video.
@@RetroCore I knew it. I thought it was too good to be true. Ah, well...