| Ms. Pac-Man | |
|---|---|
The North American Ms. Pac-Man cabinet |
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| Developer(s) | Bally/Midway / General Computer Corporation |
| Publisher(s) | Bally/Midway / Namco |
| Engine | Pac-Man |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Release date(s) | 1981 |
| Genre(s) | Maze |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players, alternating turns |
| Cabinet | Upright, cabaret and cocktail |
| Arcade system | Namco Pac-Man |
| Display | 19 inch Raster, Vertical orientation, 224 × 288 |
Ms. Pac-Man is an arcade video game produced by Midway as an unauthorized sequel to Pac-Man. It was released in North America in 1981 and became one of the most popular video games of all time, leading to its adoption by Pac-Man licensor Namco as an official title. This game introduces a female protagonist, new maze designs and several minor gameplay changes over the original game.
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The gameplay of Ms. Pac-Man is largely identical to that of the original Pac-Man. The player gathers points by eating dots and avoiding ghosts (contact with one loses a life). Power-pellets or energizers change the ghosts, which reverse their course and can be eaten for bonus points. Fruit bonuses can be consumed for increasing point values, twice per level. As the levels increase, the speed and difficulty increase as well.
There are, however, some notable differences:
As in Pac-Man, the game has a bug in the subroutine that draws the fruit, which renders the 256th level unplayable. However, the game also has other bugs that cause it to crash or become unplayable much sooner, making it impossible to reach the 256th level without an emulator.[1]
Ms. Pac-Man was originally conceived as an enhancement kit for Pac-Man called Crazy Otto, created by programmers employed at the General Computer Corporation (GCC).[2]
While Crazy Otto was under development, GCC settled a lawsuit with Atari over their Missile Command conversion kit Super Missile Attack. Part of the settlement terms barred GCC from selling future conversion kits without consent from the original game manufacturer. Rather than scrapping Crazy Otto entirely, the programmers decided to show it to Midway, Namco's American distributor of the original game. Midway had become impatient in waiting for Namco to release its next Pac-Man game (which would be Super Pac-Man), and were enthusiastic that such a game had come to their attention. They bought the rights to Crazy Otto, changed the sprites to fit the Pac-Man universe, renamed the game Ms. Pac-Man, and released it into arcades.[3]
After the game became wildly popular, Midway and GCC undertook a brief legal battle concerning royalties. The Killer List of Videogames notes that the game was accomplished without Namco's consent, causing both companies to eventually turn over the rights of Ms. Pac-Man to Namco. Ms. Pac-Man was reportedly the first of a series of unauthorized sequels that eventually led to the termination of the licensing agreement between Namco and Midway.[2] GCC co-founder Doug Macrae has disputed stories that the game was manufactured without Namco's blessing, claiming that then-Namco president Masaya Nakamura had even provided feedback over character artwork during the game's development.[3]
Ms. Pac-Man was later released on the third Namco Museum game; however, there is no mention of it in Namco's official archives (including the archives on all of the Namco Museum releases).
In 2001, Namco released an arcade board featuring both Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga in honor of the 20th anniversary of both games with the subtitle "20 Year Reunion / Class of 1981". It also features Pac-Man as a hidden bonus game. The later 25th Anniversary Edition allows all three games to be selected at the main menu.
Like many other games of its era, Ms. Pac-Man has been ported to many platforms.
The titular character of Ms. Pac-Man is a central figure in the Pac-Man animated TV series, where she is named Pepper and is Pac-Man's wife.[9]
Arcade cabinets have made appearances in a number of other series: in the episode "My Own Private Practice Guy" of the TV show Scrubs, The Todd comments "Oh, Ms. Pac-Man I would sex that bow right off your head. Eat those dots you naughty, naughty girl." Dr. Kelso is also an expert at the game, with an impossibly high score of 40,000,000.[10] Similarly, in the Weeds episode, "A Modest Proposal", the character Andy Botwin buys a Ms. Pac-Man cabinet. He anthropomorphises the ghosts, and also uses sexual language, though with Sue as the target, saying, "Come here Sue, you filthy little ghost whore!".[11]
Ms. Pac-Man is referenced by a number of Fox programmes. In The Simpsons episode "I Married Marge," Mr. Burns can be seen playing Ms. Pac-Man while he says "That's it... That's it... Come closer... [gobbles a power pellet] Muhahaha! Ironic isn't it. The hunter has become the hunted! Hahahaha!!".[12] In Family Guy, during the episode "Meet the Quagmires," Peter is shown playing Menstrual Ms. Pac-Man when he and Brian go back in time to the 80s.[13] Futurama's episode "Anthology of Interest II" has a video game-inspired segment, in which the character of Ms. Pac-Man appears after her husband, "General Colin Pac-Man", is killed by a laser bolt from a Space Invader. She appears to sob over Colin's dead body. Fry then asks Amy to "tend to the Widow Pac-Man".[14]
Comedian and talk show host Tom Green owns a Ms. Pac-Man arcade machine which can occasionally be seen during episodes of Tom Green's House Tonight, and was featured in an episode of The Jace Hall Show.[15]
In the 1992 movie Wayne's World Wayne Campbell (played by Mike Myers) asks what is the difference between Pac-Man & Ms. Pac-Man is "really". Noah Vanderhof says she had a bow in her hair making Wayne telling him to "get out of town".
In the Drawn Together episode "Gay Bash", Xandir meets Pac-Man (with whom he is friends) at a gay party. Believing Ms. Pac-Man to be his ex-wife, Xandir tells him to keep his gay secret between them (as Ms. Pac-Man is best friends with Xandir's girlfriend). However, it is revealed that Ms. Pac-Man is actually Pac-Man in drag.
In the series Friends, season 8, episode 12, "The one where Joey dates Rachel", Phoebe gives a Ms. Pac-Man arcade machine to Chandler and Monica for their wedding. Then begins a competition between the three of them over the game.[16]
In 2009, Game Informer put Ms. Pac-Man 10th on their list of "The Top 200 Games of All Time", saying that it "trumped [the original Pac-Man] in nearly every way".[17]
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