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.
Tag Archives: maze
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.
Gyroscope, ZX Spectrum
Published by Melbourne House in 1985, Gyroscope is an unashamed rip-off of Atari‘s classic arcade game Marble Madness.
Death Mask, Amiga CD32
Death Mask was developed by Apache Software and published by Alternative Software in 1994. It was released on the Amiga and CD32 and is something of a Doom clone; although one that is split-screen multiplayer.
Fernandez Must Die, Commodore 64
Tony Crowther‘s 1988 tribute to Commando and Ikari Warriors, Fernandez Must Die is a scrolling shooter with military overtones.
Bombuzal, Commodore 64
Bombuzal is a critically-acclaimed puzzle game designed/coded by Tony Crowther and David Bishop and published by Image Works in 1988.
In it you play a small, green blob whose job it is to dispose of all the bombs on a level. To explode a bomb you must be standing on top of it and hold down fire, and – once triggered – you can then walk away from it in whatever directions are available.
Zig Zag, Commodore 64
Written by Tony Crowther and published by Mirrorsoft in 1987, Zig Zag is a weird and wonderful isometric shoot ’em up where you fly a wedge-shaped ship around a maze collecting crystals.
Son of Blagger, Commodore 64
The 1984 sequel to Blagger, Son of Blagger is different to its parent in that this time the platforming is done within a large, scrolling landscape, rather than the Manic Miner-style, single screen stages of the first game. It is basically the same game engine as another Tony Crowther game: Wanted! Monty Mole.
