00:00the best-selling VCS game of all time
00:03makes its controversial debut as we look
00:05at the tale of atari's Pac-Man
00:17there are a handful of games that truly
00:19Define the VCS platform
00:211977's combat and video Olympics
00:23provided solid mission statements that
00:25this machine would take the Arcade Hits
00:27of the day and make top-notch versions
00:29available at home immensely successful
00:31Space Invaders home conversion put the
00:33platform on the map in 1980 turning it
00:36from a modest success in a small scale
00:38home video game Market into a world
00:40beating success story in turn exploding
00:43the entire home video game industry into
00:45a force to be reckoned with
00:46other console exclusives like Adventure
00:49and third party releases like Kaboom
00:51showed off what the machine is capable
00:52of with unique game Concepts and today
00:55we have Pac-Man Far and Away the most
00:57hotly anticipated and best-selling VCS
01:00game ever produced and one with a
01:02certain reputation today
01:05we can rip the bandage off early here
01:07the Atari VCS version of Pac-Man only
01:10resembles the coin-op original and the
01:12broad Strokes at best it was considered
01:14merely fine in its day and its stock has
01:17only fallen in the years since but why
01:19was this game such a massive hit and why
01:21did it Miss the mark for that we have to
01:24take a step back to the origins of
01:25pacmania namco's initially unassuming
01:281980s smash arcade game Pac-Man
01:32credit where it's due first up a fair
01:34bit of this comes from historian Ethan
01:36Johnson and the research he put into the
01:37Pac-Man birth of an icon book by Tim
01:40lapatino and arjan terpstra that he
01:42consulted on with that book being a
01:45singularly excellent source on the
01:46history of the gaming character
01:48if you're unfamiliar with the original
01:501980 coin up game Pac-Man puts players
01:52in the shoes of a little yellow circle
01:54with a mouth named Pac-Man who must
01:56wander around a maze eating all the dots
01:58while avoiding ghosts that are chasing
02:00after him the only time the ghosts are
02:02vulnerable is when Pac-Man eats one of
02:04four large dots in the corner known as
02:06power pellets at which point they change
02:08color for a few seconds and allow you to
02:10get bonus points by eating them too
02:12bonus items pop up every soak in the
02:14center of the screen and every few
02:16stages there's a little cinematic
02:17that'll play to reward your skills
02:22Pac-Man was not Designer toru iwatani's
02:25first video game though that goes to
02:26Namco summer 1978 release GB a paddle
02:30pinball game that features the same ball
02:32and pedal mechanics as atari's hit
02:33breakout in a Playfield reminiscent of a
02:36pinball table unfortunately for Namco
02:38Space Invaders debuted that summer and
02:41quickly overtook breakout and breakout
02:43style clones as the big games in the
02:45game in space iwatani designed two
02:47follow-ups Bomb b and cutieq but it
02:50became clear that this particular game
02:52design was no longer in the Zeitgeist
02:53and that GB in particular was too
02:56difficult for most people to pick up and
02:58so in 1979 iwatani started working on a
03:03Pac-Man is not the first maze Chase game
03:06to see popularity in Japan Sega
03:08gremlin's coinop title head-on published
03:10in April 1979 was a major success in the
03:13region head on features the player
03:15trying to collect all the dots in a
03:17concentric maze while a
03:18computer-controlled car tries to Ram
03:20into them the players can't change
03:22direction but they can shift it to
03:24different lanes and change speed to try
03:26and avoid the computer
03:27head-on was popular enough to be cloned
03:29both in the coin up space and at home
03:31including atari's own Dodge him and
03:33while no one at Namco has ever confirmed
03:35it including iwatan it's hard to imagine
03:37that it was not an influence on what
03:39would become Pac-Man certainly the folks
03:41at Sega Gremlin thought so Frank
03:43fogelman the head of Gremlin mentions in
03:45Ken horowitz's book the Sega arcade
03:47Revolution that when Gremlin was looking
03:49for a buyer which ended up being Sega
03:51they had met with namco's President
03:53masaya Nakamura well a deal never ended
03:56up being struck fogelman said Nakamura
03:59was particularly interested in head-on
04:00during her visit playing the in
04:02development version well into the
04:03evening iwatani's telling of the core
04:05idea of Pac-Man eating food in a maze
04:08doesn't feature Nakamura at all but
04:10rather him throwing ideas around with a
04:12few of his developer co-workers for
04:14actions that could involve food
04:17we do know a few other influences led to
04:19the creation of Pac-Man the common Story
04:21Goes that iwatani was inspired by a
04:23pizza missing a slice in the 1986 book
04:26programmers at work iwatani said this
04:28was only half true rather Pac-Man is
04:30based off the Japanese kanji for Mao
04:32kuchi which is square he opted to round
04:35off the corners resulting in the
04:36circular shape that has become iconic
04:38the design may have also been influenced
04:40by 1970s eating toys such as Mr mouth
04:43but there's no Clear Connection there
04:46as for the ghosts iwatani stated in the
04:48birth of an icon book but the designs
04:49were influenced by the Japanese manga
04:51series obake no kyotaro which came out
04:53when he was a Schoolboy there he said
04:55ghosts are cutesy and friendly and he
04:57wanted to ensure that the ghosts in
04:59Pac-Man were cute rather than scary
05:00rather than be absolutely Relentless the
05:03watani's team opted to design the ghosts
05:05ago after the player in waves of attack
05:07and Retreat basing her unique movements
05:09off the player's own actions thanks to
05:11an algorithm designed by The Game's
05:12programmer shigeo funaki this allowed
05:15for what became known as pattern play or
05:18as long as the player repeated the same
05:19movements the ghosts would always behave
05:21the same allowing those who had
05:23memorized patterns to always clear a
05:25maze without being hit by a ghost
05:27after multiple iterative passes that saw
05:30some ideas stick around such as the
05:31tunnels to Warped the opposite ends of
05:33the maze or the central ghost nest and
05:36some that didn't make it such as Pac-Man
05:37being able to shoot projectiles the game
05:40was beginning to resemble what we all
05:41know and recognize today as Pac-Man
05:45the game saw a location test on May 22
05:481980 with a full release that August in
05:50Japanese coin op locations according to
05:53research by historian Keith Smith a
05:55location test was done in a lounge area
05:57near a movie theater in Shibuya where it
06:00proved most popular with women in
06:01slightly less popular with men
06:03Pac-Man took about a month and a half
06:05for unit sales to begin to pick up
06:07dramatically to the point where Namco
06:08struggled to Source Parts according to
06:10interviews mentioned in the birth of a
06:12Nikon book by all reports Smith wrote in
06:15his unpublished book all in a color for
06:17a quarter Pac-Man was moderately popular
06:19to begin with which made it come across
06:21as an unassuming title for American
06:23companies to license out when Namco
06:25began shopping it around Amco felt that
06:28another maze Chase game rally X was the
06:30big game out of that Pac-Man King and
06:32balloon and tank battalion and Scouts
06:35from Midway Atari and game plan all
06:37considered Pac-Man interesting but
06:38likely too cute for the American Market
06:40in the end Midway ended up licensing
06:43rally X and Pac-Man for Western release
06:45changing its name from the Japanese Puck
06:47man to Pac-Man and showcased it in
06:50October during the amusement and music
06:51operators of America show in Chicago
06:54even there Pac-Man's reaction was rather
06:56low-key with games such as Battlezone
06:58berserk and Defenders stealing its
07:00Thunder playmeter wrote that Pac-Man was
07:02cute and had more depth than first
07:04appears but that the sound effects were
07:06a drawback that could get annoying over
07:07time under the licensing agreement
07:10Valley Midway and Namco would split the
07:12profits 50-50 a division that wound up
07:14putting Namco in a very good position
07:18domestically Namco was able to move
07:20about 15 000 Pac-Man cabinets with
07:23another few thousand exported to other
07:25countries in Europe and Asia strong
07:27numbers for the time but below the 30
07:29000 that the company was trying to
07:30manufacture and enough to Mark Pac-Man
07:32as only a reasonable success in its own
07:37Pac-Man's success in the US on the other
07:39hand cannot be overstated the reaction
07:41from players was very robust once units
07:43started hitting American locations in
07:45December by February it had been dubbed
07:47a hit game by Distributors with Midway
07:49selling through its initial 5000 unit
07:51production run as the game proved to be
07:53a massive success Pac-Man Simplicity
07:56visual appeal and cutesy theme all came
07:58together to bring a new peek to the then
08:00ballooning fan of coin Out video games
08:03Pac-Man alongside other monster Hits
08:05like asteroids helped bring arcade games
08:07into a variety of venues liquor stores
08:09and grocery markets to restaurants and
08:13Midway was considered a good partner for
08:15Japanese companies since it had robust
08:16manufacturing and distribution networks
08:18but Pac-Man strained even that
08:21in September 1981 Valley Midway
08:23announced that they'd sold 60 000 of the
08:25arcade units so far and expected to hit
08:27100 000 by the end of the production run
08:29smashing records set by Space Invaders
08:32and asteroids historian Keith Smith's
08:34research suggests ultimately around 96
08:37000 units were produced by the company
08:39very close to those expectations Midway
08:42looked for new avenues to push Pac-Man
08:44according to product manager Bill Adams
08:46midway's co-founder Henry Ross was
08:48Pac-Man nuts and encouraged the company
08:50to do more with the license this led to
08:53Pac-Man's inclusion in the kickman coin
08:55game and several Pac-Man sequels
08:57published by Midway under license from
08:59Namco such as Pac-Man plus Ms Pac-Man
09:02Junior Pac-Man and Baby Pac-Man
09:05Namco meanwhile produced a couple more
09:07Pac-Man sequels of its own in this era
09:09notably super Pac-Man also licensed to
09:12Midway but due to the original game
09:14never exploding in Japan like it did in
09:15the US the appetite doesn't appear to
09:17have been there on the Namco side to
09:19really exploit Pac-Man as heavily as
09:21Midway would elsewhere
09:24and exploit Midway did its licensing
09:26agreement with Namco allowed it to sub
09:28license out a wide wide array of Pac-Man
09:30merchandise to combat bootlegging from
09:33coin-up games to everything else as long
09:35as Namco received its customary 50 50
09:39Midway licensed out Pac-Man themed
09:41clothing board games a TV show plush
09:44toys and of course the Pac-Man Fever
09:46music album by Buckner and Garcia this
09:49was the height of pacmania and in a lot
09:51of ways the height of the video game
09:52arcade machine space in the US
09:55and in April 1981 Atari secured a
09:59license directly from Namco to produce
10:01home computer and console versions of
10:02the game with both companies making
10:04public announcements as such in the fall
10:06this agreement also included the home
10:08rights to namco's galaxian which Atari
10:11started releasing home versions of later
10:12in 1982 and it made Namco an official
10:15distributor of atari's Coin App products
10:19Atari did not disclose how much it paid
10:21for those Pac-Man home rights but by
10:23October had already committed 1.5
10:25million dollars to promoting and
10:28advertising their home version and had
10:29already booked more than one million
10:31orders for the VCS cartridge by the end
10:34print ads started running after
10:36Christmas that proclaimed Atari was
10:37bringing Pac-Man home early in 1982 to
10:40defend this Prime Market in these
10:42Investments Atari proved to be extremely
10:44litigious prior to their own games
10:46coming out when similar gobble games
10:48started emerging elsewhere
10:51most notably we have Sierra online's
10:54computer games gobbler and jawbreaker
10:56both of which were very clearly copying
10:58Pac-Man as close as they could
10:59reasonably get gobbler was more or less
11:02a straight clone of Pac-Man and
11:03successful one Sierra sold approximately
11:061 000 copies a month while it was on the
11:08market which were strong sales for the
11:10niche of Apple II games jawbreaker
11:13featured some changed graphical elements
11:14in a revised maze but was otherwise
11:16quite similar to Pac-Man and was sold on
11:18the Atari 8-bit computer line both it
11:21and the arcade original 1 Arky Awards in
11:231982. Atari joined by Midway eventually
11:26sued though ultimately the matter was
11:28settled out of court after their
11:30infringement claims were thrown out
11:31jawbreaker did eventually make it to the
11:34VCS albeit with significant changes
11:39courts were slightly less kind to
11:41another console maze Chase game
11:43magnavox's Casey munchkin according to
11:46court documents and several interviews
11:48that developer Ed averitt has done in
11:49the years since magnavox's North
11:51American head of video game development
11:53Mike stalp requested averitt write a
11:56Pac-Man Style game after the two men had
11:57seen the game in action at an airport
12:00was not a Magnavox employee but rather
12:02an independent contractor who had by
12:04that point written about 21 games for
12:06the Odyssey 2 Hardware as parent company
12:08North American Phillips didn't want to
12:10delve too deeply into the video game
12:12Market in the console's first few years
12:15Magnavox pursued getting the official
12:17Pac-Man license but was told it was
12:18unavailable so Everett further tweaked
12:20his in-development version to ensure it
12:22was unique enough to avoid legal
12:24averitt has said that the marketing
12:26Folks at Magnavox asked him to tweak it
12:28further in some ways to make it closer
12:30to Pac-Man while changing other details
12:32such as the colors to continue to
12:34differentiate it Casey munchkin debuted
12:37in November 1981 months before atari's
12:39own home versions of pac-manstered
12:41coming along and was a major success for
12:43the company becoming its fastest selling
12:45Odyssey 2 title and the first real
12:47killer app for the machine at the end of
12:491981 Magnavox announced that Casey
12:52munchkin had sold more copies in its
12:54short time on the market than the
12:55company had sold of all its Odyssey 2
12:58cartridges in 1980. naturally this Drew
13:01atari's ire and they took Magnavox to
13:03court over the game claiming it violated
13:05their copyright and seeking damages and
13:07the removal of the game from store
13:10taking a step back Casey munchkin is
13:13clearly not the same game as Pac-Man
13:14expert witness and games journalist Bill
13:16Kunkel noted as much in his own musings
13:19on the topic from 2003 number of dots on
13:22the screen are reduced to about a dozen
13:23and the dots move around the maze
13:25speeding up as the player eats them the
13:27ghost equivalent number three and while
13:29there are still power pellets they too
13:31drift around the maze finally the game
13:33features multiple maze designs including
13:35invisible ones and the ability to design
13:37albeit not save your own it's a maze
13:40Chase gobblegame like Pac-Man but it's
13:42certainly not Pac-Man
13:44the district court in Chicago ruled in
13:46favor of Magnavox refusing to block
13:47sales of the game and ruling that Atari
13:49was unlikely to succeed on the merits as
13:52no code algorithms or anything else of
13:54the like have been copied this Victory
13:56caused Phillips to recognize that there
13:58was real money to be made investing in
13:59video games and began to staff up the
14:01Odyssey 2 team with in-house developers
14:03and more marketing dollars
14:05Atari appealed the ruling to the 7th
14:07Circuit Court which put the injunction
14:09blocking sales of Casey munchkin into
14:11effect in March 1982 Atari had shifted
14:14tactics to arguing that the look and
14:16feel of the two games was why it was
14:18infringing out maneuvering magnavox's
14:20attorneys the court did not actually
14:22rule that Casey munchkin infringed on
14:24atari's copyright but Atari got the
14:26outcome it wanted Magnavox could no
14:28longer sell new copies of Casey munchkin
14:30in the U.S though stores that still had
14:32copies in stock could continue to sell
14:35Magnavox unsuccessfully appealed to the
14:37U.S Supreme Court to try and get the
14:39injunction lifted and the actual court
14:41case over copyright returned to the
14:43district court but never actually was
14:44resolved due to the video game Market
14:46essentially imploding
14:48favorite would go on to write a sequel
14:50Casey's crazy Chase which is further
14:53differentiated from Pac-Man by the
14:54presence of the drata pillar as the
14:56object to eat instead of doubts given
14:58how well Casey munchkin itself sold the
15:01game is not particularly hard to find
15:06and this brings us to the VCS home game
15:08itself if you'll recall from the various
15:11arcade conversions we've seen in this
15:12series rarely do the home versions match
15:14up to the arcade Originals one to one
15:16rather each one involves the developer
15:18reflecting on what the most important
15:20aspects are of the coin op title and
15:22implementing those to the best they can
15:24within the hardware constraints they're
15:26working under with mid-1970s games
15:28ported the VCS you could get a pretty
15:31good approximation in play if not
15:32visually look at David Crane's Canyon
15:35bomber Brad Stewart's breakout or at
15:37riddles Indy 500 as examples fighter
15:40games required a lot more compromises
15:43Space Invaders is generally considered a
15:45great Port but it is missing quite a few
15:47aspects of the arcade original such as
15:49the number of Invaders In the bunkers
15:50and the shot counting aspect that
15:52gaining high scores on the arcade
15:56Missile Command looks great but its
15:58missing airplanes missiles that split in
16:00midair and two of the bases asteroids
16:03replaces the sharp vectors of the arcade
16:04game with colorful blobs that don't move
16:06quite as dynamically as they do in the
16:10quite a few of these make up the Gap by
16:12adding in varying game modes and options
16:13but overall this was the expectation on
16:16the part of designers and players don't
16:18expect Perfection but expect something
16:20that kind of plays like the game you're
16:21dropping quarters into and indeed this
16:23was the expectation that developer Todd
16:28Pac-Man was the first time Frye had
16:30attempted making a game for the VCS
16:32Hardware having previously worked on
16:34atari's unreleased breakout handheld and
16:36the reasonably solid Atari computer
16:38conversion of asteroids in an interview
16:40with Marty Goldberg and Kurt vandell fry
16:43explained that he took the game on as
16:44Atari had a bulletin board of available
16:46projects and the other newest game
16:48Defender had already been claimed by
16:50fellow Dev Bob polaro contrary to
16:53internet myth-making fry said that he
16:55had a regular development time frame to
16:57work on the game and given that his boss
16:58Dennis Coble had him on probation he
17:01knew he had to get Pac-Man working on
17:02the VCS properly and on time
17:05wow from May 1981 through September fry
17:09put together the game we know today and
17:11made the design choices that seem odd in
17:13hindsight but made sense to him at the
17:15time fry didn't like the minimalistic
17:18color scheme used in the arcade and so
17:20inspired by Stewart's asteroids HomePort
17:22and Rick Morris Space Invaders
17:24conversion decided to change the colors
17:26used to make the game more visually
17:28interesting in his eyes
17:30if I have problems implementing the maze
17:32So He adjusted the warp tunnels to the
17:34top and bottom of the screen while
17:35keeping the other core elements the
17:37ghost house in the center the bonus
17:39items appearing underneath it and the
17:41power pellets in the corners
17:43as much as with asteroids and Missile
17:45Command before I got around the vcs's
17:46Sprite limitations by flickering the
17:48ghost Graphics so that they'd be drawn
17:50on alternating frames an effect that
17:52makes them more well ghostly on a CRT
17:55but can make it difficult to see when
17:57they're vulnerable after eating a power
17:58pellet crucially fry recognized that the
18:01ghosts in the arcade game moved on an
18:04algorithm based on how the player moves
18:05and so we wanted to ensure that the home
18:07version is similarly had pattern play
18:09like its arcade predecessor indeed the
18:12ghosts here will always make the same
18:13moves based on what the player does see
18:16develop Untouchable patterns for this
18:18home version just as you could be arcade
18:21there is one more feature that fry felty
18:24absolutely needed to include and which
18:25probably hurt the final game more than
18:27any other decision and that was making
18:29VCS Pac-Man 2 player
18:31for I felt that because the arcade game
18:33had a two-player option it was necessary
18:35to include this in the home game he also
18:38just thought it was fun to have two
18:39people playing the game at once but
18:41keeping track of two players game States
18:43means using up a lot of the vcs's very
18:45paltry memory limiting its availability
18:48to the other parts of the program
18:50towards the end of the game's
18:51development cycle Fry's bosses
18:53approached him of a potentially revising
18:55Pac-Man to use the larger 8K cartridge
18:57which had been newly utilized to
18:59accommodate the asteroid's Home Port but
19:02fry felt that by that point the bigger
19:03issue was not cartridge space but memory
19:05as such moving his code to the 8K
19:08cartridge space might have reduced some
19:10of the ghost flicker but it would have
19:11been very tricky to code and ultimately
19:13he tossed out the ideas being too
19:15difficult at that stage in development
19:18tellingly the other two Pac-Man games on
19:20the VCS Ms Pac-Man and Junior Pac-Man
19:23are single player Affairs using larger
19:25cartridge sizes from the jump so the
19:27timing of Pac-Man's creation and that
19:29design Choice likely played the biggest
19:31factors into why the game turned out as
19:36booting up this VC Pac-Man the
19:38differences are glaringly obvious the
19:40ghosts don't really have their own
19:41personalities or really anything to
19:43differentiate them they're all the same
19:45color they all sort of lazily try to box
19:49a horizontal edges of the maze get
19:50particularly weird and twisty with the
19:52central region being a bit planar to
19:54maneuver through the core elements are
19:56all still here such as the bonus item
19:58and the power pellets and each ghost
20:00eaten per pellet increases in value the
20:02score values aren't the same here as
20:04they are in the arcade the fourth ghost
20:06for example will only net you 160 points
20:09instead of 1600 and the bonus item is
20:12only ever worth 100 points clearing a
20:15maze takes you straight to another round
20:16with an extra life and slightly faster
20:23the various game options adjust how fast
20:25Pac-Man and the ghosts move and the
20:27difficulty switches will adjust how long
20:28bonus items appear on screen and how
20:31long the power pellets last
20:33the standard children's mode is here
20:35once again providing a painfully slow
20:36Pac-Man and ghosts to ensure the
20:38youngest players have a fair challenge
20:41well the core Pac-Man experience isn't
20:43quite here these options do allow you to
20:45get a pretty good challenge out of this
20:47cartridge to balance out the fact that
20:48it feeds you extra lives like candy it's
20:51not Pac-Man as an arcade rat would know
20:53it but it's a perfectly fine maze game
20:56the problem ultimately may be that fry
20:58straight a bit too far from what people
21:00were expecting from a Pac-Man home
21:02conversion with his color choices and
21:03design decisions lesson seen a couple
21:06years earlier with Rob Phillips Atari
21:088-bit Space Invaders Port which was more
21:10of a clone than a conversion but
21:12reiterated here on a much grander scale
21:16given how hot Pac-Man was running in
21:18coin op spaces Atari knew Pac-Man was
21:20going to sell extremely well on the VCS
21:23the cartridge was a subject to a massive
21:25advertising campaign early in 1982 and
21:28Atari estimated selling 7 million copies
21:30in 1982 and to be clear the myth that
21:33Atari produced more copies of this game
21:35than there were VCS units is not
21:38for reference the best-selling VCS game
21:40by this point was Space Invaders based
21:43on internal Atari record keeping they'd
21:45sold a bit more than 4.2 million copies
21:47of that by the end of 1981. so to say
21:50that expectations were high for Pac-Man
21:52maybe an understatement Atari expected
21:55this to sell like hotcakes and they were
21:56not wrong based on many many examples of
22:00local newspaper reporting in early
22:02editions of the video takeout newsletter
22:04Pac-Man flew off shelves and it was nigh
22:07impossible to keep any stock for more
22:09than a couple of days
22:11Atari promoted April 3rd as Pac-Man day
22:13with events in 26 cities across the U.S
22:16and local retailers promoted Pac-Man
22:18merchandise and tournaments with the VCS
22:20version to get people in the door
22:21throughout the spring
22:23atari's own internal sales tracking
22:25indicates the company sold 7.2 million
22:28copies of Pac-Man through 1982. right in
22:30line with expectations and less than the
22:32total number of VCS units and homes
22:34according to the book they create worlds
22:37Atari had produced and sold more than
22:395.1 million VCS units by the end of 1981
22:42with another 12 million sold over the
22:46that said retail trade merchandising
22:48read an article in October where a shop
22:50owner in Knoxville reported that while
22:52Pac-Man was still selling pretty much
22:53one to one with VCS units after the
22:56initial surge the demand wasn't quite
22:58there as consumers who really wanted the
22:59game had gotten their copies
23:01he also added that Pac-Man Fever in
23:03general seemed to have leveled off not
23:05long after with other Pac-Man
23:06merchandise sales falling off as well
23:08billboard reported in January 1983 that
23:11Pac-Man had indeed seen a sail search
23:13for the Christmas season mainly to new
23:14VCS owners electronics Industry trade
23:18weekly television digest also reported
23:20in December that Pac-Man sales flattened
23:22out after the introductory surge so it's
23:24likely that the bulk of that 7.2 million
23:26came within the first few months of the
23:28game's release but a decent number were
23:30still moving late in the year I will
23:32also note that this predates any formal
23:34return policy by Atari so even if people
23:36weren't enthused about Pac-Man the game
23:38was not being returned in any real
23:44a retail reception was hot the critical
23:47reception more mixed Bill Kunkel and
23:50Ernie Katz the two major pillars of
23:52video game reviewing at the time were
23:53thoroughly unimpressed writing in the
23:55June 1982 edition of video that those
23:58who quote can't evaluate Pac-Man through
24:00Lover's Eyes unquote
24:03we're likely going to be disappointed
24:04they list off its shortcomings and it
24:07lacks the cute bells and whistles of the
24:08arcade original or any attempt to mimic
24:11the sound cues of the Namco cabinet nor
24:13the visual cues of which direction the
24:15ghosts are going based on their eye
24:17lines on the flip side they recognize
24:19that those just looking for a mace Chase
24:21game in the vein of Pac-Man would likely
24:22be satisfied and praised the Artistry of
24:27they did not mince words in the
24:28electronic games review in the June 1982
24:30Edition either writing that it neither
24:32looks nor sounds like the original
24:34devoid of the charm of the arcade
24:35machine but at least they add there is
24:37now a gobble game on the VCS
24:40others had their own takes that were a
24:42little less harsh Kim Humphries of the
24:44News Tribune out of Fort Pierce Florida
24:46noted in an article that home games
24:48frequently look worse than their arcade
24:50counterparts but that while Pac-Man
24:52junkies may be appalled by the VCS games
24:54visuals it played similarly enough that
24:56they could forget about it Frank QB
24:59wrote in the Winner's book of video
25:00games that while the game is different
25:01from the arcade version the inclusion of
25:03pattern-based play meant that Pac-Man
25:05aficionados could enjoy developing
25:07strategies for this home conversion
25:09without needing to spend any quarters
25:11Peter Boyer writing for the Los Angeles
25:13Times indicate that the general
25:15consensus is that Pac-Man for the VCS
25:17was the biggest disappointment since
25:19Ford's etzel car due to its array of
25:21differences though noted that given that
25:24the other Atari home conversions also
25:25fall short of lofty expectations but
25:28this isn't a particularly strong
25:29argument to make against those they've
25:32never really stepped foot in an arcade
25:33at the time where the domain of
25:36teenagers than smaller children
25:38in late December as Atari started its
25:40press run before the winter Consumer
25:42Electronics Show amidst a disappointing
25:44earnings report Warner CEO Manny Gerard
25:46mentioned that he was somewhat less than
25:48thrilled by some of the coin op
25:50conversions coming out of Atari an
25:52oblique reference most likely to the VCS
25:58so the VCS version's reception was mixed
26:01to say the least but Atari did take full
26:03advantage of its home rights by porting
26:05Pac-Man to a slew of Home computers and
26:07even a few other consoles the Atari
26:108-bit version released in April hewed
26:12much more closely to the arcade original
26:14this was developed by Joe Ellison for
26:16the developer Rocklin Ellison having
26:18come to rocklin's attention after
26:20developing a Space Invaders clone Deluxe
26:22Invaders and selling it to them
26:24according to an interview with K savits
26:26either retire your Rocklin had a Pac-Man
26:28arcade cabinet delivered to his
26:30apartment allowing him plenty of time to
26:32learn the rules for the ghost's behavior
26:34and he read about the patterns used by
26:36the ghosts to hunt for Pac-Man himself
26:38and was able to use that insight to
26:40craft his conversion over the course of
26:43the program uses the computer's custom
26:45character set function to mix and match
26:46colors to better imitate the arcade game
26:48and make the maze background as Harry
26:51didn't pay Rocklin all that much for the
26:52game only twenty five thousand dollars
26:54according to savits but it was a
26:56Prestige project for Ellison and Rocklin
26:58that led to the company getting some
27:00additional Atari projects down the line
27:01Allison noted that he didn't even get
27:04paid half of that for his work on the
27:05cartridge and wondered if part of the
27:07budget went towards the Pac-Man cabinet
27:10this version was the basis for a 5200
27:13conversion released later that year
27:15which had some bug fixes in additions
27:17such as the intermissions and new sound
27:18effects thanks to developer James
27:20andreasen Atari in turn ended up making
27:23Pac-Man the pack-in title for the 5200
27:261983 as well though the system's mushy
27:29joysticks can make maneuvering through
27:30the maze more difficult than it should
27:34in late 1983 Atari published a version
27:36for the intellivision that does a great
27:38job of carrying the play and the style
27:40of the arcade original to the platform
27:41even the odd and television controller
27:44doesn't work against it very much the
27:46developer Mike Winans worked at Mattel
27:48as a game developer and notably wrote
27:50the excellent in television conversion
27:52of Lock and Chase a maze Chase game in
27:54the vein of Pac-Man after Atari poached
27:56Winans and a few other developers from
27:58Mattel and aph for their Atari soft
28:00initiative he was the Natural Choice to
28:02work on this version of Pac-Man
28:04according to Winan's interview with the
28:06intellivision Aries podcast
28:08of the intellivision division at Atari
28:10former and television Dev Russ haft
28:12worked with another hire Mark Kennedy to
28:15build their own on cartridge OS dubbed
28:17the mCP to avoid any legal issues with
28:20Mattel and simultaneously set their new
28:22staff to work on a variety of arcade
28:24conversions that Atari held the license
28:26to while not an ideal development
28:28environment the crew is under a very
28:30tight timetable to get atari's initial
28:32and television offerings out in time for
28:34the 1983 holiday season
28:36known as the three golden titles for
28:39Atari of centipede Defender and Pac-Man
28:41they were all home conversions of major
28:43coin op titles at the time in between
28:46development of the mCP heft worked on
28:48the sound design for Pac-Man while Eric
28:50Wells wrote the graphics all while
28:53Winans developed the game itself
28:55weinen said that Pac-Man was very well
28:57understood by the point he started
28:58working on his version from the patterns
29:00and ghost mechanics to graphical
29:02elements and bonus items he said that
29:04Kennedy had helped him put together a
29:06Randomness element to the ghost's
29:07movements to prevent pattern play but
29:09that option was shut down by Atari
29:11management who insisted that patterns be
29:13repeatable on the intellivision version
29:14which he found tricky to implement
29:16properly Winans had time to work on
29:18fine-tuning the speed in the ghosts but
29:20the production time was too tight to
29:22really tweak it further or add anything
29:25meanwhile Mattel went after retari and
29:27the developers with a lawsuit to try and
29:29stop them from releasing those games
29:32this didn't work out for Mattel as the
29:34trio of games made it out that December
29:36the lawsuit was dismissed and the
29:38following January Mattel Electronics
29:41Atari continued selling its games for a
29:43while into 1984 before selling its Old
29:45Stock and the game programs themselves
29:47to intv which formed from former Mattel
29:50staff to continue supporting me in
29:53intv ended up licensing Pac-Man itself
29:56and producing additional copies of
29:57atari's game in the late 80s due to its
30:02felico Vision Port which went unreleased
30:04due to the Home console markets meltdown
30:06in atari's own woes was nearly completed
30:08and the file has been floating around
30:10online since the late 90s this port is
30:13also incredibly faithful you can find
30:16solid officially licensed ports
30:18published by Atari on slew of Home
30:19computers such as the Commodore 64 The
30:22ZX spectrum and the Apple II where it's
30:24already took an existing unlicensed
30:26clone tax man and had it republished
30:29with the Pac-Man branding Todd fry may
30:32have produced a compromised VCS version
30:34due to the combination of design choices
30:36and Hardware limitations but certainly
30:38Atari and its developers were more than
30:40happy to take advantage of more capable
30:42Hardware to produce as accurate a home
30:44version as they could elsewhere
30:47and those were just the licensed
30:49conversions the Valley Professional
30:51arcade hosted two different Pac-Man
30:53clones one of which was in development
30:55for a 1982 release by astrocade this
30:58version was written by Midway developer
31:00Bill Adams known for coinop games like
31:02Satan's Hollow and Tron and is
31:04remarkably accurate to the original game
31:06in terms of maze layout sound effects
31:08graphics and even ghost Behavior Adam
31:10said at the southern fried Game Room
31:12Expo in 2016 that Dave nutting
31:14Associates a Skunk Works game
31:16development division of Bally Midway by
31:18this point had been working on it and
31:20had Adams write the games a favor to him
31:22Adams finished the game only for them to
31:24discover Namco had sold the home license
31:26to Atari which ended up putting Adams
31:29out about 11 million dollars in an
31:31anticipated royalty split
31:33initially advertised for 1982 is munchie
31:36the game never made its way artificially
31:38that said a copy made its way into
31:40Enthusiast hands and was promptly copied
31:42and sold Through The Arcadian newsletter
31:44and an independent retail stores like
31:46ABC Hobbycraft in Indiana under a few
31:49different names interestingly Adams
31:51added the code he wrote for it was
31:53reused for the Baby Pac-Man hybrid
31:54pinball video game machine was the
31:57professional arcade Hardware was by
31:58Design quite similar to midway's Arcade
32:00Hardware at the time he was paid for his
32:03code tables and the DNA staff modified
32:05the patterns and used it to finish the
32:07the other maze man has some key
32:10differences in graphics and Maze design
32:11but otherwise plays very similar to
32:13Pac-Man at the expense of having no
32:15sound the author of this game has
32:17remained Anonymous to avoid any legal
32:19issues and has never come forward
32:21in recent years unlicensed Homebrew
32:23developers have brought Pac-Man to
32:25platforms that it never appeared on back
32:26in the day such as the RCA Studio 2 the
32:29ColecoVision the Atari 7800 and even the
32:37as for the VCS version of Pac-Man the
32:40game stuck around for practically the
32:41rest of the vcs's life as a solid seller
32:43Atari sold another 684
32:47569 copies in 1983. a smaller number
32:51likely from the combined factor of the
32:52bottom falling out of VCS game prices
32:54and atari's decision to begin packing
32:57the game alongside combat for new VCS
32:59units sold that year
33:01sales were up and down and the
33:02platform's Twilight years peaking in
33:041989 with 61 685 copies sold from 1986
33:09to 1990 the game sold about 123 000
33:12units these are well below what it
33:14sequels Junior Pac-Man and his Pac-Man
33:16were selling but were still substantial
33:18for an older VCS title with all years we
33:22have data for Pac-Man ended up selling
33:24through approximately 8 million copies
33:26it absolutely mind-boggling number that
33:28wouldn't be matched until the NES ERA
33:30with games like Super Mario Brothers 3
33:32and Tetris Todd fry certainly did well
33:35off the royalties for the game becoming
33:37a millionaire almost overnight Frank
33:39claimed Goldberg and vendell that
33:41Pac-Man may have been a factor in Atari
33:42offering royalty shares to its
33:44developers to prevent them from
33:45abandoning ship for third parties like
33:47Activision and iMagic as he himself had
33:49been planning to leave the company and
33:51had said as much to his bosses before
33:53receiving that offer
33:56Pac-Man is looked at nowadays as the
33:58harbinger of the video game market crash
34:00in the US but that's kind of an unfair
34:01argument the game is not a fantastic
34:04home conversion and many many copies
34:06were produced those copies were selling
34:09at least early on and once it became a
34:11pack in title everyone buying a VCS in
34:131983 was getting it too
34:15driver remarked in his December 1982
34:17comments for CES that Pac-Man's release
34:19may have been mistimed as third-party
34:21arcade ports just Frogger and Donkey
34:23Kong were selling very strongly and
34:25Atari had only one arcade Port released
34:27in the latter half of the Year August
34:29berserk Additionally the company faced
34:32increased competition from other
34:33Publishers from the middle of the Year
34:34onward a time that Pac-Man could have
34:36dominated had that initial surge taken
34:39place for later in the year
34:40that said atari's major issues stem from
34:43poor product tracking to Distributors
34:44and retailers ordering far more games
34:47than there were demand for
34:49neither of which seemed to necessarily
34:50have been an issue for Pac-Man at least
34:52through the spring and summer
34:54Pac-Man may not have been an amazing
34:55game but it's called the death of an
34:57industry is a bit much
35:00that's for fry by the time Pac-Man had
35:02reached shelves he said he was deep into
35:04work on the sword Quest Series where he
35:06has described himself as the creative
35:07force behind the project ultimately
35:09writing fire world the second of the
35:11planned four-part series of VCS games
35:13and starting work on the unreleased air
35:15World which would have concluded it
35:18with the benefit of hindsight on Pac-Man
35:20however fry told Goldberg and vendell
35:22that he probably would have matched up
35:23the colors used in the arcade instead of
35:25changing them in a 2018 interview with
35:28the arcade attack Retro Gaming podcast
35:30fry mentioned that he had developed a
35:32technique that would have minimized
35:33flicker usage in Pac-Man only flickering
35:36Graphics when more than two characters
35:37around the same line but ultimately
35:40decided that it would have been harder
35:41to implement at the time of the
35:43interview he felt like it would have
35:44been worth the extra month of effort to
35:46reduce the flickering that permeates his
35:48outside of that however Brian said that
35:51he was happy with how the VCS version of
35:52Pac-Man turned out and is adamant that
35:54keeping the two-player mode was a fair
35:57foreign it does seem likely that Pac-Man
36:00is effectively the Line in the Sand for
36:02VCS coin up conversions
36:04of atari's other two coin-up conversions
36:07that came out afterwards Defender and
36:09berserk Defender and development
36:11concurrent with Pac-Man is the only one
36:13that really takes liberties with the
36:14core concept of the arcade game albeit
36:16in a way that's still seemingly
36:20Gerard CS remarks indicate that Atari
36:22had refocused on coin op conversions for
36:241983 and much like berserk all of these
36:27much more closely resemble their arcade
36:28predecessors than something like Pac-Man
36:30it's very possible though speculative
36:33that the critical reception to Pac-Man
36:34increased competition in third parties
36:36and more capable systems like the
36:38ColecoVision and with 8K cartridges now
36:41being available for developers that
36:43atari's developers felt more pressure to
36:45be as accurate as possible to The
36:47almost all of these were developed by
36:49the remarkable teams at General computer
36:51Corporation Miss Pac-Man Galaxy and
36:54jungle Hunt and centipede for example
36:55but even those that weren't like for
36:57Avatar and Mario Brothers are still
36:59magnificent Feats for the hardware
37:02even if Pac-Man wasn't the Catalyst for
37:04this change it's still the demarcation
37:05point for the end of developers doing
37:07their own thing with coydop conversions
37:09until the NES era whether or not that's
37:12a good thing in this case depends on how
37:14much you like Todd Fry's weird little
37:16take on the muncher genre
37:36next time we storm some barns
