Jr. Pac-Man
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Jr. Pac-Man | |
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| Developer(s) | Bally Midway |
| Publisher(s) | Bally Midway |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Release date | 1983 |
| Genre(s) | Retro/Maze |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players, alternating turns |
| Input methods | 4-way Joystick |
| Cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade system | Namco Pac-Man |
| CPU | 1x ZiLOG Z80 @ 3.072 MHz |
| Sound | 1x Namco WSG (3-channel mono) @ 3.072 MHz |
Jr. Pac-Man is an arcade game released in 1983 by Bally Midway. It is based on Pac-Man and its derivatives, but is not officially part of the Pac-Man series — along with Baby Pac-Man, this game was created without the authorization of Namco. This was one of the games that eventually led to the termination of the licensing agreement between Namco and Midway.[citation needed]
[edit] Gameplay
The gameplay of Jr. Pac-Man is largely identical to that of its predecessors, with a few differences. The maze is now two times the width of the display, and a virtual camera pans left and right along the maze to follow Jr. Pac-Man, sometimes resulting in the ghosts being off-screen. A total of seven mazes appear throughout the game, and unlike previous Pac-Man games, none of the mazes have tunnels that wrap from one side of the screen to the other.
As in prior games, bonus prizes appear in each level. (These prizes were called fruits in Pac-Man, but none of the prizes in this game are fruits.) Similar to Ms. Pac-Man, prizes appear in the middle of the maze and bounce around for a time, but as a prize encounters dots, it changes them into larger dots that slow Jr. Pac-Man down but are worth more points. If not eaten beforehand, a prize self-destructs with an energizer (also known as a "power pellet"), taking the energizer with it.
There are also a few cosmetic differences: The main character is Jr. Pac-Man (who wears a propeller beanie); Clyde, the orange ghost, is now called Tim; and the game's graphics and sound have been updated, including a lower-case anti-aliased font for scores and game text. The game's intermissions center around the developing relationship between Jr. Pac-Man and Yum-Yum (apparently the daughter of Blinky).
Like Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, Jr. Pac-Man has a kill screen: when the 146th screen is reached, the maze is invisible and there are no dots to eat, effectively preventing the player from completing the level.
[edit] Home versions
Between the effects of the video game crash of 1983 and the unauthorized status of this game, the only sanctioned port of this game was released for the Atari 2600 in 1987 with a 1984 copyright date. It is generally considered a faithful port of the arcade game, especially given the console's limitations. A version for the Atari 5200 was nearly completed, but was never officially released. A ROM image for this game can be played with an emulator.
A similar game called Pac-Jr. was released as a minigame in the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis version of Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures in 1994. This version is an official release by Namco and bears only a passing resemblance to Jr. Pac-Man, playing much more like Ms. Pac-Man instead.
[edit] External links
- Jr. Pac-Man at the Killer List of Videogames
- Jr. Pac-Man at MobyGames
- Jr. Pac-Man guide at StrategyWiki
- ClassicGaming.com entry on Jr. Pac-Man
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