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With the Great Videogame Crash of 1983, a lot of completely
finished games for the systems of the day - the Atari 2600, the Atari 5200,
the Colecovision, and the Intellivison were left unreleased due to the company making
it going bankrupt, the game system it was devloped for being killed, or just due to
companies deciding that video games were now just unprofitable.
Among the fatalities of the Atari 5200 was this game, Jr PacMan - which is a nearly arcade-perfect (or as well as the 5200 can handle it) port of the acrade game. Literally, all this game needed was a box and it was a commercial product - it was fully completed. |
Note that the maze of the first level is arcade perfect. |
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On almost every level except graphics, this port is arcade perfect.
The mazes for level one and two are identical to those in the arcade game - even the
scrolling is intact. All of the gameplay elements that were in the arcade are in this
version as well - the 6 powerup pellets, the random moving item, the psychotically
intelligent ghosts, the fact that the ghosts move faster than you, the random moving item
that makes the dots big so they slow you down, and the random moving item also eats power
pellets.
Needless to say, you gotta eat that item as quickly as possible - in the picture to the right, it is the bicycle that is turning the dots large. |
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And, in usual Pac Man form, once all the dots are eaten, the maze
begins flashing and you move onto the next level.
I'm not gonna describe the gameplay basics, because quite honestly, if you don't know how to play Pac Man, let me bid you "WELCOME TO EARTH, ALIEN VISITOR!" because everyone knows how to play Pac Man - it ain't exactly rocket science. The only thing missing from this game seems to be the cutscenes - which really isn't that great of a loss since this version has a pause button to rest your wrists. Give it a try if it's your thing. |
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Personally, I despise this game. There's nothing wrong with the game itself, but just like the arcade game, I just suck at it - the ghosts are way too smart and gang up on you almost instantly. There are a few minor bugs in the game, but they're nothing to write about - occasionally you will pass through a ghost - I'm sure that's something a lot of people will be complaining about. However, it's a perfect arcade port - so if you like Pac Man, give it a try. |
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