Battle of the Ports - Pac-Man (パックマン) Show
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Wow, this was a big one to cover. Pac-Man has so many ports plus loads of unofficial ports too. Let's take a look at a load of them.
Time Code
00:24 - Arcade
02:29 - Atari 2600
03:59 - Atari 2600 (4k remake)
04:55 - Atari 5200
05:35 - Atari 8Bit home computers
05:58 - Apple ][
06:39 - MS Dos
07:13 - Intellevision
07:58 - Commodore 64
08:26 - ZX Spectrum
08:59 - Amstrad CPC
09:32 - Famicom
10:04 - Gameboy
10:37 - Gameboy Colour
11:01 - Neo Geo Pocket Colour
11:39 - Game Gear
12:12 - MSX
12:38 - Colecovision (Prototype)
13:15 - BBC Micro
13:43 - SNES
14:16 - Atari ST
14:53 - Coleco tabletop
15:43 - Tomy Tabletop
16:49 - Java Logo
17:13 - All versions side by side
Enjoy!
I must admit F%CK-MAN would've drastically changed this iconic character's fortunes. We would've gone from Buckner & Garcia's classic hit to N.W.A.
FUC-MAN 🤣
F**kman sounds like a Hardcore Gabber alias tune lol
Amstrad's version says Pacman, but the Pacman sprite is actually Mrs. Pacman and even the intro song is from Mrs. Pacman.
it also has the floating fruit
@@unknown_guy5366 yep
So simple, and so amazing.
Also, it's pretty strange on how Atari made their own 2600 version a load of crap, but most of the other versions they made are rather decent.
Well, this tells us a lot about how much Atari cared about software quality back then. This was clearly a sign of things to come on the 8 and 16 bit computers with US Gold churning out mountains of bad conversions aimed at capitalizing on the license's public awareness.
The naive could have thought that Atari, a pioneer of the arcade video games, would have put more effort into releasing a quality conversion but alas, any seasoned player of that era would tell you that most companies would happily go for the lowest possible effort with the greatest return on investment, quality be damned.
SCRacing2017 'Cos that VCS/2600 crap was published by jerks like Ray Casar.
Because Tod Frye was a novice at the time and Atari didn't care about how good it was, so they churned that crap out for sales
I wonder if Atari will change when they make their uh... come back in the next 2 years maybe.
This is why I'm done with consoles.
Let us appreciate the fact that both the MSX and CPC (although non official) aren’t Speccy ports but actual good games.
Any time the MSX and CPC game isn't a Speccy port is a joyful one. 👍
The Gameboy and Gameboy Color versions do have an option to play the game without a maze scroll, but you have to hold select when starting a new game.
StarboyGC actually you move the D-pad left or right to choose your option
That screen with all the versions side by side is actually a little frightening, so many versions! Also, really funny how you stick it to Mario!
F***man.... has possibilities....
Gotta love the James Pond 2 BGM on the unlicensed SNES port. I love that game. Also Pac-Man of course XD
Thank you for the ear worm that is the sound of Pac Man starting in the 2600 version. I played so many hours of that game as a kid.
😅 You're welcome.
How bad some original ports compared to later indie/homebrew versions really shows how much better some games could've been if they weren't rushed, which they often only had several weeks to finish them back then.
The trouble with the 5200 version is that you had to use the 5200 controllers which are not well suited to the game at all.
Very true. Although these days there are alternatives.
(Also, HAL Labs did a semi-official port to the VIC-20 called "Jelly Monsters" outside Japan. I don't know if Satoru Iwata was involved with this one like with their Galaxian port. I say semi-official because it was only official in Japan.)
Commodore 64 is from Atarisoft, similar to the 5200/400/800 versions.
Hey Retro Core, I have to say you that actually Pacman got an official version for the Amstrad, Ms-Dos and Super Nintendo. The Amstrad it’s a direct port from the C64 version, the Ms-Dos is pretty similar to the Amstrad and C64, but with more modern graphics and worse music. The Super Nintendo version was in PAC-MAN 2, both Snes and Genesis versions. You can play it with a code or just go to the arcade that it is located on the city and you’ll see the machine, then you can play it. You can also play Ms PAC-MAN on the SNES version, but on the Genesis one it’s PAC-MAN Jr instead of Ms PAC-MAN. That would be all. I love you Retro Core!! Thank you so much for doing this PAC-MAN video!!!
Thanks for the info, Luis Emilio. I'll remember about the SNES Pacman 2 for when I cover MS Pac-Man.
That 2600 version was the first game I ever owned.
I'm sorry
Pac man is always the most games that has been ported
I mean every original game gets ported lots of time
I remember the hype about Pac-Man coming to the Atari VCS. There were television commercials, magazine articles and advertisements, posters in all the retail stores that sold the Atari console, and estimates of how many MILLIONS of dollars Atari was going to make with the one-two punch of Space Invaders and Pac-Man. All that hype evaporated/vanished like a fart in a hurricane.
In the early 80s there were quite a few wristwatch Pacman (and clone) games, as well. A friend had one with a little joystick that popped off the strap and plugged into the watch face. They were all crap, but it was pretty novel to have a video game in a watch at the time.
I remember a LCD Pacman game watch from the 80s. Some kid in school had one. It wasn't the joystick one from what I remember though. Kids these days have it good when it comes to mobile gaming 😁
Keith Fulkerson Do you know about K.C. Munchkin?
13:16 - I'm glad you included this as it often gets forgotten (and is actually one of the better ports), but interesting that this version. The more commonly known version is called 'Snapper' by Superior Software , which supposedly, ran into legal issues and was later re-released with the main 'Pac Man' character redrawn as a yellow fruit-like creature. Still played well, though.
The PS1 version is a port, not emulation.
You sir are a madman for taking on this task, and I salute you for another well done video.
Thanks Ken. Yep, I was mad taking this one on.
The Namco Museum Plug N Play version by JAKKS PACIFIC, INC. of Pacman looks really original, but the sounds play different.
However you can also play the original Pac-Man game (1980) in other supporting games that were included like Pacman World Trilogy, Pac N Roll, Pacman Museum, Pacman Party.
I see "Battle of the Ports: Pac-Man" and I'm like "Oh good, guess I'll order some takeout for this sixty five hour episode"
Hehe, in the original cut it was pretty long. It wasn't fun to watch though so I edited it down quite a lot.
I'd be interested in seeing that original cut, personally.
Some of the ghosts in this French release look like SpongeBob
Actually, that version of Pac-Man for the C64 is official, it was produced by Atarisoft, which is probably why it follows the look of the Atari 8-bit ports in the layout dept.
Yep. I owned the boxed version back then. It is an official port. but not great. considering the state of the ports in 1983 it was better then nothing.
I bet. At least it was "official" and/or "licensed", that was all that mattered in a sea of clones. Parker Brothers got in on the act with their own software company providing a number of arcade titles to multiple systems as well.
Parker Brother's port of Q*bert for the C64 was pretty spot-on.
Were any of the original Atarisoft games released outside North America? I know they had a few titles for France and the UK, but I'm not sure I've ever seen PAL versions for any of their games.
I wouldn't be surprised if they hadn't had time or resources necessary to convert them over for some systems.
When Atari ported games to other systems: Actually attempted to make something decent
When Coleco did the same thing: Intentionally sabotaged ports
There are also two versions of Pac-Man on NES, just like Ms Pac-Man. Both saw a Namco port, and a Tengen port.
I love that intro music in the unofficial ST version of the game.
God damn, that homebrew 2600 version has spot on sound effects! Impressive
Hell yeah, you know it's a good week when you get 2 Retro Core videos in 3 days, keep up the awesome stuff Mark :)
If I didn't have to go go work you'd have more 😁
Coleco Tabletop: AHH!! MY EARS!!
The Atari VCS was the first console I ever got to play. A friend of mine was given it as a present from his uncle and one of the games with it was Pac Man. This was about 1988 and I loved that Pac Man, it wasn't until years later I found out that it was pretty much universally dispised. I still don't think it's as bad as many people try to make it out to be.
When it's Retro Core: watch full ad, like, comment.
Thanks, Jeremy. That's much appreciated.
It would've been nice to have seen the Bally Astrocade version. Programmed under the name "Pac-Man" but changed by release time to "Munchie" after fighting Atari for the rights (at the time) to release a "Pac-Man" for a home console. I actually have one of the original dev carts that is programmed to say "Pac-Man" while it was just finishing development.
Over 20 ports, for one single game.
That's vile. Like, that has to be the most I have ever seen.
I think Tetris and Space Invaders may be more.
There is a CPC version that runs the arcade emulator.
Actually needs the original roms in the disk to be present before the compile.
It is arcade perfect.
The Arcade emulated on the CPC? Now that is cool.
Yes, also there are space invaders and phoenix too like this.
There is a version for the Color Computer 3 that uses the original ROM. It's a combination emulation and translation from the original CPU to the 6809.
Never heard of that computer but seems like a great accomplishment with that totally different cpu!
Amstrad has a Z80 so arcade games with the same cpu or 8080 can be ported easily.
The magic comes later though as it has 4 colours in mid resolution and no sprites.
weird how this was possible since both the arcade and the cpc were based on the same z80
2:24
At least it's better than what Tweeterman (Ian) got.
If I can recalled correctly, his copy had a faulty glitch in where the ghosts gets stuck the doors, meaning you can complete the game without being caught! 😂
Now that's quite unique 👍
Just imagine if Atari had developed a 4k version of PacMan for the 2600 back in the day. It might have prevented the North American crash & history could've been quite different today.
Guernicaman the official 2600 version was 4kb IIRC, but was rushed. The unofficial 4kb version has the benefit of not being rushed and benefits from being programmed long after all the undocumented programming tricks homebrew programmers use has been discovered.
Plus, Pac-Man also sounded more like the original pronunciation so it was changed even back in Japan.
9:22 this is just Ms. Pac-Man
Saw title, thought to myself “ There must be a billion ports of this 😁”
Yep. Most I didn't even cover.
The Atari VCS version of "Pac-Man" must have been rather special despite it being one of the worst games for the console, since a lot of TV shows and movies ended up using sound effects from the game in some way as well as the Atari 2600 of "Donkey Kong". ;)
It's a TV Trope. Every Video Game is 2600 Pac-Man.
WOW!!! So many ports of Pac-Man, Mark! You did a wonderful job making this video! Can I give you a big old hug?
Hehe, thanks. It did take a while to make.
Another great comparison as always, Mark! I liked PacPC 2 more, due to the fullscreen mode it and Ms. PacPC had. Ran at an odd 58Hz refresh. For some reason, the Atari 8-bit version (like all AtariSoft versions aside from Apple) lacked the intermissions. The Apple port had it, but was modified from a clone called Tax-Man. Now actually, the C64 had an official port by AtariSoft, which was later rereleased on a dual-system flippy disk by DataSoft, and later a standard floppy by Thunder Mountain. You showcased the AtariSoft one in PAL mode, but like the cart version on Atari 8-bit, there were no intermissions.
NGPC, not counting what was on Pocket PC, PalmOS, and MS Return of Arcade, was truly the first arcade-perfect version in regards to all the tricks used for patterns and such. Try hiding on the right side of the "T" under the ghost pen!
On the Apple II I had Taxman and Gobbler, but never had the real Pacman...
Waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka.
Allie-RX EIY EIY AAAYOO WUWU
Allie-RX Tasty.
Goes the Pac-Man
By 6:11, I realized how glad I am that they changed the name to Pac Man.
The C64 Pac-Man was a port of the Atari 5200 and released by AtariSoft. It was re-released by Thunder Mountain after Atari imploded.
And there also a port for Vic 20 and IBM PC :) , both also released by AtariSoft.
0:16 ...ohh my god...Dude i imagine the amount of work you had to assemble all those versions on this video
Yep, it was very time consuming.
Fun fact: pacman's sprite was modeled after a pizza with a missing slice
in the gameboy and gameboy color versions of the game, you can press right on the title screen, and you'll see a "1/2" next to "1 player". Now the entire maze fits onto the screen. The sprites are obviously tiny, though.
Speaking about unofficial versions - I would totally recommend CHamp Pac-Em, as well as other unlicenced "clones" from Champ series made by John W.Champeau in 1996/97 (they're all available for free). Very nicely done clones (my favourite is Champ Kong), and at the sime time - one of the many examples of resourcefulness of PC gamers community.
Yes, yes, yes. The games of that guy are great. BTW he also did a incredible homebrew port of Ladybug on the 2600.
There are also two bootlegs based around the MSX version, although the only things they changed were the name of the ghosts, as well as Pac-Man's sound effect when he hits an enemy (in the first one he says "OH NO!", whereas in the second version, hilariously, he says " OH SHIT!").
Champ Games were awesome - good call!
I first played Pac-Man on the Atari 2600 so was the version i was fond of even liked the donk-donk sound of him eating wafers.
The Namco version with the joystick you plug into the telly is the version i play the most now.;)
Is that plug'n play version the Arcade ROM?
Probably some kind of official rom emulation, has a few other games too, galaxian and rally X.
The Coleco TT gave me nightmares, thank you Retro Core, i ♥ you
😁 you're very welcome.
I strongly suspect the Atari 2600 version was intentionally screwed up in order to make the 5200 look better than it was. I have no proof of this but it is NOT unheard of. Look at the Donkey Kong ports as an example of intentionally messed up ports.
That is a possibility.
The toy company Epoch also released their own version of Pac-Man under license from Midway and Coleco (Coleco held the rights to handheld versions of Pac-Man at the time). It was called Epoch-Man and featured a very odd design for Pac-Man on the box. www.gamepodunk.com/uploads/gallery/album_115/gallery_3_115_176060.jpg
I honestly want to see Pac Attack in an episode even though there is no arcade port. There is one for the Philips CDi called Pac Panic. And there is the one from Pac Man World 2.
The platforms are SNES, CDi, Genesis, PS1 for Namco Anthology 2, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Gear, Game Boy Advance in Pac Man Collection, (PS2, Xbox, GameCube are all the same in Namco Museum or Pac Man World 2), ios, and Virtual Console on both Wii ans Wii U.
Some day in the future that will happen once I've exhausted all of the arcade to home ports.
Fun fact: Pac-Man on the Apple II was not actually originally developed by Atarisoft, it was originally a game called "Tax-Man" by HAL Labs (not to be confused with HAL Laboratory of Japan). Oh, and the C64 version shown here is the official Atarisoft port as well.
The guys who made Kirby and Super Smash Bros.
Cool video
Who can imagine that an unknowed game like this have so many ports??? XD
I played a lot to the Famicom one and to another unofficial Amstrad port
Geez glad that ZX spectrum port passed me by back than, so bad. I wouldn't be surprised if it was coded in BASIC, it's way too slow for ~4 MHz Z80 CPU.
I remember playing an entirely ASCII-based Pacman on my dad's old MS-DOS 3.X PC way back in the late 80s. Since it was one of exactly two games available on that machine and the other was the original Leisure Suit Larry (which I wasn't supposed to know about :P) I played the hell out of that port...
Lol, playing lesuire suit Larry as a kid would have been one of those taboo moments for sure.
The scrolling version on the neogeo is what they should have done for the Gameboy. Get rid of the bar on the right side, add a simple HUD on top and eliminate horizontal scrolling.
Atari had tried to stop Commodore selling Jelly Monsters, as it was so close to Pac Man, can't remember if successful, but they did stop Bug Byte selling Vic-Men
You might know this, but there were official ports of Pac-Man on the SNES and Genesis, in Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures. It's locked away from a collectable, I believe, or getting instant access with a password. For Japan on the SFC, it's "PACMANP". For everywhere else on the SNES, it's "PCMNDPW". For Genesis/Mega Drive, it's "PCMNoRG".
Yes, a few people mentioned this once the video went out. If only I had known before hand :(
You can also play Pac-Man on the Palace Arcade Mini Arcade Machine from HASBRO that was presented in the Netflix series Stranger Things 2.
Nice.
@@RetroCore, BTW, have you ever heard Stranger Things?
I will confess that in my city the Arcadias were just beginning when I acquired my Atari 2600 which I first met Pac-Man in this version which was my first videogame after the Pong, which I did not lie I thought the most beautiful game graphically and funny in my life at age 7 ... years later I knew version 5200 and those that followed .... I admit that the game is inferior and far from the original, but still has a heart in my nostalgia and I play a game you must in an emulator..
I can imagine the 2600 version having a lot of nostalgia for many.
30th Anniversary of Pac-Man (1980-2020)
Very nice video and fun to watch.
Glad you enjoyed it, Kurt.
There's a version on the Commodore C16 that's well worth checking out, confusingly called Pacmaina. As well as being a great (but hard) version of the game, it also has four 'H' symbols as well as the power pellets which can warp you to another part of the maze at random.
I saw that too but didn't bother booting it up due to it being called Pacmania. Oh well.
The Neo Geo Pocket Color port actually controls fantastically on real hardware, and has one bonus no other home port has (as far as I'm aware of) - a 4-way joystick. The game came with a plastic restrictor ring that fit into the case around the digital thumbstick and restricted it's diagonal movement. It's still my preferred way to play it at home; I keep the NGPC at my desk.
Your footage also isn't representative of its framerate.
I owned the C64 port of pac-man (and by owned I mean a buddy at school gave me a disk with all the Atari Soft games) and it was by Atari-soft. Along with Donkey Kong and DKjr.
At 0:25 The Ghosts names are in Japanese.
There was a game for the Apple II called Snoggle that had the maze turned on its side.
I love, love, love the Pac-Man games. Ms. Pac-Man is my favourite out of the 'classic' games but I've always had a place in my heart for Pac-Mania and Pac-Land. It's a bit of a shame that today's Pac-Man is kinda more of a Pac-Teen but what can you do? At lease we still get great games like Championship Edition once in a while. :)
Oh I agree. Championship edition is an excelent game. I've played an awful lot of that on the 360.
Those sound effects. It's like when Anton Ego tastes the ratatouille in the Pixar movie.
Atari Did in fact release an official port of Pac-Man for the Commodore 64.
I was pretty sure that the SNES/Super Famicom and Sega Genesis/ Mega Drive had an official port of Pac-Man found in Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures/ Hello Pac-Man. Also, the Google logo includes 2-player co-op where a 2nd player controls Ms. Pac-Man using the WASD keys if the insert coin button is clicked while a single player game is running.
Yeah, you're right other viewers have also mentioned that.
The Gameboy port also has a full screen mode. I believe you press Select at the title screen to enable it.
There are a lot of ports to mention, like one to the TI-83, but it would be nearly impossible to talk about every version, official or not.
Absolutely right. Just covering the ones in this video took a whole week.
There's a Pac-Man bootleg for the MSX where the names of the Ghost Monsters are changed and Pac-Man swears when he dies.
Lol, cool. Never knew about that.
@@RetroCore Here's some gameplay footage of it.
th-cam.com/video/6pMER0NOKO0/w-d-xo.html
I like it because it is a dutch port. And it plays very well and the speech is very good!
Still have nightmares about the 2600 version. And don't get me started on the 5200 controllers............. Bad times with Atari. Very bad times
We've seen Scott Pilgrim enough times to know the Puckman story.
I've never seen it 😭
For the DOS version i would've recommended Pac-Em it is a faithful unoficial port that also has a"Champ Mode"(named after the ones who made the port called Champ)that adds new gimmicks to the maze. but it's ok if you can't cover some versions since from what i heard,there's more than 100 versions of Pac-Man out there! For the next video i would like to see a good Pac-Man clone called K.C.Munchkin(or just Munchkin as it was called in the UK)since it does have a small amount of versions out there, but maybe not enough to make a Battle of the Ports video, oh well. i definitely enjoyed this video.
Pac-Mania on Amiga was my favourite.
The wow wow wow wow sound make me feel sick 😵
Well the Apple 2 version of pacman also released under the name Taxman what can be seen in one of AVGN game reviews
Quick tip for pacman on GG AND GB/GBA.
PRESS LEFT OR RIGHT TO SET STANDARD FULL SCREEN (1/2)
Regarding the MS DOS version, I played an unofficial port called "PC-man", by Greg Kuperberg back in the day. Really a nice port and way better than the pc port shown here.
I was obsessed by this game back in the day. On weekends i would play it at the seaside arcades and in the week i could play it at the local supermarket (gateways) where they had this and a Galaxian. Both of these cabinets were not originals and the pacman had an annoying habit of turning itself off. This usually happened just after you put your 50p in ( 10p a go or 6 games for 50p) and you would lose your 50p :( Of course the staff would never believe you when you said you had put 50p. I used to get £1 pocket money so a 50p loss was quite upsetting.
Wow, is Gateway still around? I went home to the UK last Christmas but don't recall seeing any Gateway stores.
That is a bummer about losing your money on a faulty cabinet. Especially when you only had £1 per week. I remember those days.
@@RetroCore no it changed to somerfield and went bust about 10 years ago.
Bummer 😕
There is iOs/Android version that is emulation or a port, is free, and worthwhile.
The Apple ii version is actually a graphics hack of tax-man, a pac-man bootleg.
The Apple II Port Was Also Known As Taxman.
I'm honestly surprised the unlockable versions in Pac-Man 2 for the SNES and Genesis weren't here since they weren't emulated. Oh well.
Probably because I didn't know about them.
Did you know Worlds Smallest did an Arcade Cabinet of Pac-Man you can play?
No, I did not know that. How small was it.?
I am S00000000000000000OOOOOooooooooooooooo glad that you censored the f word
A great effort. There are at least eight games on just the Spectrum alone called Pac-Man, covering Pac-Man fully would be more of a video series than a single episode.
As far as I recall, Atari and Atarisoft decided to crack down on clones in the first half of the 80s, the story goes that they would intimidate bedroom programmers who had released clones of popular arcade games with threats of legal action.
Since these were just guys working out of their bedrooms, programming as a hobby they would often be scared into handing over their source code, then Atarisoft would rebrand the game as an 'official' conversion. It's likely the Spectrum version might have started life as a clone called something like Munch Man. I'm pretty certain the Apple II version featured in today's video started life as Tax Man, then Atarisoft got hold of the source code and made it official.
It's a good thing publishers can't throw their weight around like that anymore. Imagine how much source code Id could have commandeered off of Doom clones, essentially getting their game ported to most platforms for free.
*edit*
After a bit of searching, I'm pretty certain that the 'official' Spectrum version of Pac-Man was originally a clone called Z-Man before Atarisoft sent a few threatening letters.
Oh wow, Atari were real shits. So basically they stoll bedroom coders work then sold it to make money. That's awful.
Awesome video!!!!! :D
One thing to take into account with the Atarisoft home micro versions..
Just how arrogant and blind Atari were to the UK market.
No compromise for the sake of cost they said and put the ZX Spectrum version out on cassette for the eye watering figure of £14.99 🤤
Pacman is on every system known to man kind. Or some form of Pacman so that's alotta ports.
There are so many Pacman clones on the ST and STE that you can easily lose count. I think that the best is Crackman followed closely by Crapman, and let's not forget, Pacman on E's.
Oh, I actually tried Pacman on Es. Deffinetly a product of the 90s.
There is an official Atarisoft version for C64 and Vic-20.