Developed by Namco and released into arcades in 1984, Pac-Land is a departure for the Pac-Man series because this time it’s a platform game. And a pretty good one at that.
Tag Archives: Ghosts
Jr. Pac-Man, Arcade
Manufactured by Bally Midway in 1983, Jr. Pac-Man is another sequel to the smash hit, dot-eating maze game, Pac-Man, created by Namco in 1980.
Super Pac-Man, Arcade
Unlike Ms. Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man, Super Pac-Man was developed by Namco themselves in 1982, so could be considered the first ‘official’ sequel to Pac-Man.
The fact is: it is arguably inferior to both the aforementioned Midway Pac-Man games, which is a little embarrassing. That said: it is still a decent game in its own right; maybe not quite as ‘pure’ or ‘hardcore’ as Ms. Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man, but good nonetheless.
Pac-Man Plus, Arcade
Another American Bally Midway variation of Namco‘s Pac-Man, shipped out into arcades in 1982 to take advantage of the PM craze sweeping the globe.
Ms. Pac-Man, Arcade
The 1982 sequel to the smash hit Pac-Man originally started out as a third party modification kit for Pac-Man machines, developed by General Computer Corporation, and called ‘Crazy Otto‘.
After legal action from Atari, GCC was forced to present Crazy Otto to Midway, the North American distributor of Pac-Man, who bought the game and developed it into Ms. Pac-Man.
Further complicating the story, apparently Midway did this without Pac-Man‘s original owner Namco‘s consent, which caused some licensing issues later. The truth is by no means clear, but in the murky world of video game licensing it is sometimes the case that people sell and exploit rights to products they have no right to.
Killer Watt, Commodore 64
Published in 1984 by Alligata Software, Killer Watt is a single-player, side-scrolling shoot ’em up where you fly around a cave blasting light bulbs. It was designed and programmed by Tony Crowther.
Castle Master, Commodore 16/Plus4
A 1992 homebrew conversion of the fourth Freescape game, Castle Master, coded by Tanacs Attila (aka “TGMS”), with additional graphics by P. István (aka “abcug”).
Stop The Express, MSX
Hudson Soft converted and published Stop The Express (aka Bousou Tokkyuu SOS) itself in Japan in 1984.
Stop The Express, Commodore 64
Converted from the ZX Spectrum original by Hudson Soft and published on the C64 by Commodore itself, Stop The Express is both an excellent conversion, and a great little game in its own right.
Castle Master II: The Crypt, Amiga
A direct follow-up to Castle Master, published by Incentive Software in 1990 and again using the Freescape Engine – one of the earliest 3D game engines.
