Following the success of Namco's arcade game Pac-Man in the early 1980s, bootlegs of the game would quickly start being produced and released no later than 1981, a year after the original arcade game was released. The extent of the changes in these bootlegs vary, ranging from basic graphical hacks to complete overhauls of the maze layouts and gameplay. Many of these were marketed as "Enhancement Kits", which were chips that modified the game after being installed, but didn't count as piracy. As a response to these bootlegs, Midway would release Pac-Man Plus.
This page aims to cover all known bootlegs of the original Pac-Man arcade game. Games which are simply built on top of the hardware used for Pac-Man, such as Crush Roller/Make Trax and Pengo, do not belong here.
Hangly-Man[]
Gameplay.
Hangly-Man (ハングリーマン) is a hack of the Japanese version of Pac-Man. Released in 1981, this game is credited to a company only referred to as "Nittoh". It changes the overall layouts of the mazes and renames Puckman (Pac-Man) to “Hangly Man”. The game's title is likely a mistranslation of "Hungry Man" from Japanese. Legal action was taken against the game by Namco.[1]
Overview[]
The major difference from the original Pac-Man game is that the first two boards and every even-numbered board after that are slightly altered versions of the original maze. The third board and every odd-numbered board after that are not mazes at all, but contain only the ghost house, the board's boundary outline, and the pills, arranged in straight vertical and horizontal lines.
To access these levels, the player must eat four ghosts after eating a power pellet on level one. After that, every power pellet eaten turns the maze black until the power pellet wears off. And then the odd maze appears at level three. On these levels, in addition to the horizontal sideways left–right escape passage, there is also a vertical one connecting the top of the screen and the bottom, which the ghosts cannot enter. If the player moves Pac-Man to anywhere in this passage, and then pushes the joystick to the left or right and holds it; the Pac-Man will become stuck in that position, and the monsters cannot catch him, even if he is far enough out that they can touch him. But as releasing the joystick frees him, one cannot leave the game running with this method. Also, there are no walls anywhere in the maze, so Pac-Man can go anywhere, but the monsters are restricted by the walls depicted in the other levels.
Hacks[]
- Caterpillar
- Barracuda - Uses sprites from Piranha. Released by a Canadian company known as Coinex.[2]
- Buccaneer - A hack which turns Pac-Man into a pirate, the ghosts into skulls (Bones, Mad Dog, Scar Head, and Crow respectively), and the fruits to money/treasure. Developed by a company known as Video Research.[3]
- Ghostmuncher
- New Puck-X - A hack which slightly changes the scoring system.[4]
- Scandalman - Two versions of this hack exist, Newpuc1 and Newpuck2. The first one changes the dots to hearts and replaces the blue ghost sprites with the "naked" sprites. The second one has fruits appear in the intermissions to act as a fortune teller and it also slightly changes Pac-Man's speed. Some versions of the game replace the game over text with "MADE BY KAMIYA". Blinky is named Nantonaku (Crystal) as a reference to the novel and Clyde is "NUKARUMI - MICHAN".[5]
- A Pac-Man bootleg that simply changes Pac-Man to the head of the cartoon character Popeye the Sailor, referred to as "Popeye-Man" in MAME, is also derived from Hangly-Man. While the ROM of this bootleg in MAME retains credits to Nittoh, it is unclear who the actual creators of the hack are.[6]
Streaking[]
Title Screen
Streaking is a hack of Pac-Man released in 1981 by Shoei, a Japanese company who would bootleg games and sometimes license them to be released in other countries. The game would later be released two other companies in the United States as Streaker and Stripper.
In the game, the player controls a female streaker who has to collect all the dots on screen. Starting completely naked, she picks up clothes while avoiding police officers which replace the ghost. A fatigue meter is also added, which kills you upon it going empty. The power pellets now warp the player across the screen like portals. The game features a completely different maze. Despite the very inappropriate premise of running around as a female streaker evading cops, the game isn't known to of caused controversy.
Oddly, this game runs on the same hardware as many Galaxian-hardware based bootlegs such as Ghostmuncher, and is completely compatible with them. This game is sometimes miscredited as being the first game with a female protagonist.
Streaking was featured in a scene in the 1983 film Joysticks, a movie technically licensed by Midway, as Greydon Clark (the director) requested to use Pac-Man's imagery and requested to a yet-to-be-released game, Satan's Hollow.[7]
Caterpillar[]
Title Screen
Caterpillar is a hack of Pac-Man based on Hangly-Man released in 1981 by a company known as "Phi". The only changes in this hack compared to Hangly-Man are that the maze is now colored a bright red, the ghost cage now has a spider web, and Pac-Man and the ghosts are changed into a caterpillar and spiders respectively.
The four ghosts are renamed to Harry, Sabrina, Charlotte (a reference to the children's book, Charlotte's Web), and Webster. The scoring system for eating the ghosts is now 225, 450, 900, and 1800 points instead of the original 200, 400, 800, and 1600 points. The music used in the cutscenes is also changed. The bonus items now also feature holes inside of them, possibly a reference to the 1969 children's book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Unlike most "Enhancement Kits", Caterpillar comes with a new marquee, bezel, and CPO.[8]
Pac-Man (Galaxian Hardware)[]
Title Screen
Pac-Man is a conversion of the game of the same name to Galaxian's more easily produced hardware. It was released in 1981, by a still currently unknown company.
The game plays virtually identical to the original game, but due to Galaxian's weaker hardware, many changes were made. The color palette for most sprites in the game is more warm/strong and are completely different. The ghosts now use their alternate names and are yellow, red, red, and pink respectively. Inky, the blue ghost, doesn't even have eyes/eyelids.
Many of the sound effects and songs sound significantly worse, as they use Galaxian's standard audio. A few of the sound effects are even taken from it, such as the sound when eating a ghost. All parts of the HUD are either built into the maze or are on top of it.
This hack was released by Leisured and Allied as Ghostmucher and was commonly bundled with Uniwar S and Galaxian. It was also included in 4 Fun in 1 with modified graphics and music.
Piranha[]
Flyer
Piranha is an extensive hack of the original Pac-Man arcade game produced by "GL" and released in the United States by U.S. Billiards, Inc. in 1981. This is the first known Pac-Man bootleg produced by GL, and would later be used as the base for another game by them the following year - Abscam.
In this hack, Pac-Man is replaced with a piranha and the ghosts are now nameless octopus, with all four retaining the original colors of the Pac-Man ghosts and only being referred to by numbers on the attract screen. The score values for the octopus (ghosts) are also different compared to the original game. Octopus 1 (Blinky) gives the player 300 points, Octopus 2 (Pinky) is worth 700 points, Octopus 3 (Inky) is worth 1,200 points, and Octopus 4 (Clyde) is worth 2,000 points. Pellets and energizers are now referred to in-game as "bait" and "powerbait" respectively, with the sprite for the latter being changed and the items now offering 20 and 100 points respectively.
While the main gameplay is identical to that of Pac-Man, the most notable change in this game is the maze layout, which significantly differs from the maze layout used in the original Pac-Man by changing the tilesets and featuring more open space and a unique arrangement of pellets (bait). The special items are also changed to thematically fit the hack and offer different point values.
Both a version released as an "Enhancement Kit" and a separate cabinet were made. The main difference between these versions is that the title screen is more basic and the ghosts are still largely unmodified.[5]
Titan[]
Title Screen
Titan is a hack of Pac-Man released by NSM (and likely developed by the same "GL" company) in 1981. The hack is directly built off of Piranha, which was released earlier the same year.
In the hack, you play as an alien who collects "Platinum" in a space-themed map while avoiding 4 astronauts which replace the 4 ghosts from the original game. If you eat "Uranium", you get the ability to chase the astronauts and eat them. The bonus items are now diamonds and other gems. Due to the new maze layout, the ghosts can sometimes get stuck in a part of the maze for a certain period of time, normal or eaten.
The only difference between this and Piranha is the maze layout and the sprites. Oddly, the flyer for the game depicts the ghosts as Aztec people, the player as the astronaunt/spaceman, and the ghost cage as the Pyramid of the Sun.[9]
NSM was a German company who also had the license to officially release Pac-Man in Germany.
Cute-See[]
Flyer
Cute-See is a relatively unknown hack of Pac-Man released by Update Kits Inc. in 1982. Little is known about the hack, but from the flyer describes the game as an advanced hack of Pac-Man similar to Joyman and possibly built off a version of Hangly-Man. The maze now features 6 exit holes, eating a power pellet makes the maze disappear, and some levels don't have a maze.
Starting around 1983, Midway would file a lawsuit against Update Kits Inc. over the "Enhancement Kit". During the trial, the company would suspiciously disconnect the 5E/5F chips from the board, thus not displaying any of Pac-Man's graphics (or sounds), but instead, original ones which are described to be simple colored shapes. Midway ultimately lost the lawsuit against the company.[10]
Abscam[]
Title Screen
Abscam is a Pac-Man hack based on the FBI's controversial Abscam sting operation. It was developed by GL and published by U.S. Billiards in 1982. The game itself is directly based on their previous hack of Pac-Man, Piranha, released a year prior.
In this game, the player controls a United States senator, presumably Harrison A. Williams (who was convicted during the Abscam operation), in place of Pac-Man while avoiding FBI cars (ghosts) and collecting as much money (pellets) as possible. Energizers are now named “influence”, which use a sprite of a green dollar sign and causes the FBI cars to turn into money bags.
Compared to the Piranha hack, Abscam features new graphics and maze layouts to reflect the politically charged/satirical nature of the game. The ambience that plays during gameplay, and the sounds used for eating a power pellet, and losing a life are also changed. This game is otherwise near identical to Piranha.
Joyman[]
Title Screen
Joyman is a hack of Pac-Man released by an unknown company in 1982.[11] It heavily changes most of the sprites in the game and adds a new maze with a gimmick.
In this hack, you control an unidentified yellow blob instead of Pac-Man and try to eat all the pellets on screen while avoiding the ghosts (which now resemble alien cyclops). Like the original game, eating a power pellet turns the ghosts blue and allows you to eat them. The hack adds a new gimmick which allows you to go through several gaps in the maze walls. When you lose a life, the walls on that side will close. Most of the sound effects and music is changed.
The bonus items are also changed, but they bizarrely are changed to a horse, a Christmas tree, a 2-headed bird, a rabbit, a sailboat, a car, a yellow face, and a shield respectively.
See also[]
- List of console games converted as arcade machines
- List of alternate titles of pirated Arcade games
Reference List[]
- ↑ https://onitama.tv/gamemachine/pdf/19810901p.pdf
- ↑ http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/dettaglio_mame.php?game_name=baracuda&search_id=
- ↑ http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/dettaglio_mame.php?game_name=bucaner&search_id=
- ↑ http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/dettaglio_mame.php?game_name=newpuckx&search_id=0
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 https://umjammercammy.neocities.org/pacfun
- ↑ https://forums.atariage.com/topic/240093-what-game-is-this-arcade-marquee-from-pac-man-popeye-pop-man/?tab=comments#comment-3288842
- ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085764/trivia/?ref_=tt_dyk_trv
- ↑ https://www.arcade-museum.com/Arcade/caterpillar
- ↑ http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/download_file.php?tipo=mame_current&codice=titanpac&entity=manual&oper=view&filler=titanpac.pdf
- ↑ https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/564/741/1407761/
- ↑ http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/dettaglio_mame.php?game_name=joyman&arcade_only=0&autosearch=1
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