Pac-Man retrospective: When a Man becomes a Boy | Game Boy Works
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- Опубліковано 4 жов 2024
- NOTE: After uploading this video, I discovered Pac-Man on Game Boy contains a hidden full-screen option, which would somewhat mitigate my criticisms of the game. Unfortunately, since I'm currently traveling and don't have access to video recording equipment, I can't amend the video. Expect a revised look (along with a second chance for Palamedes) once this "season" of Game Boy Works ends.
Namco buries the axe with Nintendo long enough to bring its classic maze-chase arcade hit to Game Boy, and the results are… mixed. A strong game gets a slow, cramped rendition here. It's playable, yes, but this icon loses a few vital details in the process of squeezing down to fit Game Boy's limits, which means this is far from the definitive handheld take on Pac-Man… something that was true even back in the day. - Ігри
![Game Boy World #040: Space Invaders [Taito, 1990] & Space Invaders [Taito/Nintendo, 1994]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/GAyt8NI9u9c/mqdefault.jpg)
![Game Boy World #040: Space Invaders [Taito, 1990] & Space Invaders [Taito/Nintendo, 1994]](/img/tr.png)
There's an option to shrink the maze on the title screen. I think you press up/down.
The "ai" of the ghosts is one of my favorite stories from the early days of game design.
I oddly wanted this Game Boy port once, having been newly popping a cork for retro games. This was in 2004, I was in high school, and Pac Man Vs is what got me into retro video games.
3:53 Nice job phasing through that ghost right there. I've had that happen before, and I never knew why that happened, but I was thankful it did!
The care you put into the research of a game with this troubled history of ports all to lead up its release as a sub par version on the GBA is something I truly respect.
Man, why didn't they add stripes/checkerboard/bright/full color ghosts to see which is which?
I'd imagine the slower pace of the game was deliberate, taking into account how blurry moving pixels on the OG Game Boy were and how small its screen was in general. There also was an alternate full screen mode if you pushed a certain button combination, but it had its own issues because the graphics were microscopic.
Thankfully the later Game Boy Color enhanced version completely eliminated the monochrome ghosts issue, and also had Pac-Attack as an additional game to play!
Pac-man is an brilliant arcade game and I will play the game boy version. 😀👍🎮
The funny thing was I did NOT know of Namco until I got this game for Christmas in 1991. (Yup, I stupidly thought Bally/Midway originally made the game; I was wrong.)
Now my one regret is they didn't quite legitimize their own name in the US as well as Taito, Nintendo, Konami and Data East did back in the day, thinking Midway and Atari were good enough...
Moot point now, especially when they merged with Bandai...
One thing's for sure, the Game Boy version of "Lock & Chase" did the on-screen scrolling much better.
I was pretty happy with this at the time. It actually felt like the game it was a port of, and at the time, that was a pleasant surprise.
You can totally switch it to full screen, my dood :0
Also, I know this certainly isn't the finest version of PAC-MAN, but I can't help but love it, it was one of my first Game Boy games, and the first version of PAC-MAN I ever owned
Micaiah the Otaku Gamer [HybridAngelZero] In the description for the video he mentioned that he did discover that fact it but was unable to edit the video itself since he was travelling this week and didn’t have access to editing equipment.
Mr. JH Ah, okay! I usually check descriptions, go figure this would be the one time I didn't xD
Thank you!
I love this! You admitted and explained your oversight (full-screen mode). People still comment about it because of _their_ oversight (not reading the first line of the description.) chuckles!
It almost seems like you've trolled them!
Meh, this was one of a few GB games I actually played when I was a kid, and I didn't find anything too bad with it...but then again, my very first video game ever was an LCD Pac-Man game, so I guess anything would have been an improvement over that, realistically, but then again, if I had to pick up one of them and play right now...I'd choose the LCD one. :/
I'm actually pretty sure that this was the first version of PacMan that I ever played, but I guess that goes for many of those arcade conversions
They did at least colorize the ghosts in the remake for GBC. On the other hand it is otherwise identical to this. Thank goodness Namco Museum is on Switch?
Ah, pity you missed that hidden full screen, looking forward to a revised video. Still, the sluggish controls and uncoloured ghosts are evidence that this game could have been better.
“Pac-Man as a game concept is hard to improve on.” Doesn’t mean they haven’t done it before. *looks at Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Mania, and Pac-Man Arrangement*
Thank you for your brave service in protecting the world from casual generalizations.
Jeremy Parish All in a day’s work for a Pac-Man fanatic.
You literally press to the right on the dpad at the menu to show the full maze
I still can't get over just how oversized Pac-Man looks in the NES version (and, in turn, this GB one, too).
There is a way to get a full screen Pac-Man, press left or right on the start screen, and a "1/2" symbol should appear
King Koleyolis III He is aware, look at the description.
One of quite a few ports of this game in my collection, and honestly, I don't mind the screen scrolling bit as I play Pac-Man for fun, and not competitively. Ms. Pac-Man, on the GB, as well as the GBC versions of the Mr and Ms I also have, and I happen to like those too, even if they share a similar issue (handheld Super Pac-Man on the GBC after all). The only version of Pac-Man I dislike, is the first one I owned as a kid, the A2600 abomination.
Last year, I've got a package containing a Pac-Man game for the Game Boy and when I played it on my Game Boy Color, it was so good I got addicted to it. There are only a few problems with the game. Sometimes, even when you get the power-up, you go through the enemies, meaning the ghosts, and the controls are sometimes delayed, but not all the time.
So, I also ordered the Game Boy Color version from Ebay last year and it still hasn't come, so it must have gotten lost in the mail. If I ever get that version, I would love to find out if Namco (Bandai Namco Entertainment nowadays), has fixed the bug issues on it.
I remember playing this one, but not being super-impressed with it. I also remember finding the alternate screen size option, but I don't remember the trigger being that cryptic. I must've looked it up or something.
Looking forward to the revisit later. Maybe as a bonus, you could talk about the Game Boy Color version.
Great summation of this port. You’re right that it was a missed opportunity for a better game, as with Lock ‘n Chase. Having said that, I wonder whether or not it would have paid off for Namco to mess with the formula very much. It seems that, until more recently, with PAC-MAN Championship and similar efforts, most of Namco’s experiments with the formula have been far less successful than the original game. Indeed, only Ms. PAC-MAN has seen the kind of success that the original game garnered, and technically, that wasn’t even a proper sequel. The sublime simplicity of the original game is its main selling point, and probably the biggest reason for its lasting success and appeal. Still, it’s impossible to say, with any certainty, if a reformulated PAC-MAN game would have been received any better on the handheld.
Should have mentioned the 2 player VS mode which was more fun
I played a ton of this version of the game as a kid, but I can't say I've noticed issues with it until now. I'm sure hit detection was an issue for me plenty of times playing it, I was just too young to care.
the title is a metaphor of the new pacman?????
They still offered a scrolling screen even a decade later on the Namco Museum on GBA, I don't understand why (outside of technical limitations) NAMCO thought that a scrolling screen would be a good way to experience Pac-Man
Heck, you don't need buttons to play Pac-Man. They could have had a rotate option on the GBA, like the Lynx/WonderSwan/Switch.
The GBA port offers both so you can choose between big, clear sprites, but not seeing all of the maze, and seeing all of the maze, but with tiny, harder-to-see sprites. I think it's a good compromise. I personally liked seeing all of the maze version.
The special color edition is worth a play.
The saddest thing about this video getting replaced with a re-upload is that it will no longer have an upload date on the anniversary of (what google claims is) the game's release
there is a way to change the game to half the size of the graphics but you get a fullscreen on the title screen press left or right
I'm not sure I could get over the bad collision. And that's too bad, everything seems good if you take into account hardware limitations.
Guillermo Sotelo I recalled people saying similar things about the NGPC version. I assume it happened with more frequency than on the arcade where it was still possible but somewhat rare but don't know how common it was compared to here. Looks like it's most common on turns which isn't too surprising based on what I know about Pac Man collision engines
the_muteKi I saw some, not much, on the arcade version that came with Namco Museum for GC. So you might be right.
Game Gear had plenty of quality ports in its library. (Bust A Move, Ristar, Wonder Boy III, Road Rash, and Fatal Fury Special are all shockingly well done.) It's a shame the exclusives were not anywhere as impressive as Game Boy and because of that most outsiders think the whole system is trash.
u can make the game full screen by pressing left or right on the title screen and there’s an updated gameboy color version with all accurate color
This was a great antidote to the politics of last week's episode.
When did Pac-Man become an Orkan?
Everyone, remember to read the description before commenting :v
I don't think this port is too slow compared to the original Arcade version. There's a faster Arcade version, but IIRC, that's a hack.
I was basing my comparison on the NES version and the Namco Museum Switch version!
That's fair.
that full-screen option isn't all that hidden. next time read the instruction manual, yo (;
3:52 wtf you didn't die there?
Yeah, like I said, it seems like they made collision detection VERY generous in order to compensate for some of the issues here.
still laughing at this title
There's nothing wrong with being a Pac-Man ripoff, Pac-Man is itself a ripoff of Space Chaser after all.