Written by Marco Leal and first released in 2023, Pac-Man Arcade on the ZX Spectrum is about as close as you could possibly get to the original Pac-Man, without using voodoo.
Tag Archives: Pac-Man
Pac-Man, Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 version of Namco‘s classic Pac-Man is notorious for being terrible… And it is truly rubbish… The animation of Pac-Man himself is awful, the ghosts flicker horribly*, the transition from a vertical maze to a horizontal one has not been well-handled, and the general all-round authenticity of the game is highly questionable…
*= Which is why I’ve chosen to alter some of these grabs, to give a better representation of the game, as seen on-screen.
Pac-Man, ColecoVision
***CANNED GAME***
A game that should need no introduction: Pac-Man is one of the most popular video games, and one of the most popular video game characters, of all-time. Unfortunately, this ColecoVision port of Pac-Man never made it market and was cancelled before release. Thankfully a completed prototype of the game exists and has been leaked online, and it’s better than most other ports on competitor machines.
Alien, Atari 2600
This adaptation of Ridley Scott‘s classic film Alien was published for the Atari 2600 in 1982 by Fox Video Games. It has two significant distinctions: 1. it was the first ever officially-licensed video game to be based on the Alien series, and 2. it is probably the worst film-to-game adaption I’ve ever seen or played in my life…
Snapper, BBC Micro
Snapper is Acornsoft‘s 1982 tribute to Pac-Man on the BBC Micro. It was written by Jonathan Griffiths and is considered to be one of the best unofficial Pac-Man clones ever made. On any 8-bit system.
Pac-Mania, Archimedes
Luckily for Archimedes owners they have an almost perfect conversion of Namco‘s classic Pac-Mania – aka the Pac-Man who can jump – and it’s an excellent game. It was developed by Krisalis Software and published by Domark in 1991.
Pac-Land, Atari Lynx
Pac-Land on the Atari Lynx is a rather excellent conversion of Namco‘s classic 1984 arcade game of the same name. It features pretty much all the good things about the influential coin-op, including the cute, colourful graphics, smooth scrolling, and challenging gameplay.
Pac-Man, Arcade
Known as “Puck Man” in its native Japan, and renamed as “Pac-Man” in the West*, this 1980 video game is one of the most iconic brands ever created in the history of the human race. And I’m not being funny here – Pac-Man is actually seen by historians as exactly that: instantly recognisable to most people and indelibly fixed in our consciousness.
Haunted Hedges, ZX Spectrum
Haunted Hedges is Derek Brewster‘s early ZX Spectrum ‘adaptation’ of Pac-Man, released by Micromega in 1983.
Time Bandit, Atari ST
Time Bandit was first released in 1983 for the TRS-80, but is far better known for its 16-bit versions on the Atari ST and Amiga. These were released later, in 1985, and featured vastly improved graphics.
The King of Grabs 