Pac-Man is a video game which was launched by the company Namco in 1980 in Japan. In the same year a few months later it was also launched in the United States of America. The Pac-Man has remained one of the most popular video games since its release. The character of the game was designed by a Japanese game designer named Toru Iwatani. He designed the yellow colored character while he was eating pizza. Namco wanted to create a game that both the genders could play so the makers of the game attempted to add elements of food. One such element in the game is the cookie like pellets. They managed to create a game which was violence-free and added features which would attract as many girls as boys. Namco was successful in what it wanted and Pac-Man became the favorite game of both boys and girls.
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History
The game was originally named Puck-man in Japan, but prior to its release in the United States of America, it was changed to Pac-man. Two years later in 1982, Ms. Pac-Man was released. It is a sequel of Pac-man and is quite similar to its predecessor, but has the lead character as a female instead of a man. Pac-Man was so famous that many people had started to create different versions of the original game. One such version was Ms. Pac-Man. Ms. Pac-Man was an unofficial game and was not a product of Namco but later after Ms. Pac-Man became famous Namco made it its official game.
Download a Ms. Pac Man ROM here
Ms. Pac-Man differs from Pac-man on the basis of a few things. Firstly, it has a female protagonist as mentioned above. Secondly, it has more colors added in its design and thirdly it has incorporated a few changes in the way the game is played. In 2009 Ms. Pac-Man got the number 10 spot in the list of the “Top 200 Games of All Time”. This list was compiled by the magazine Game Informer. Other famous video games included the Sega Rally which was published by Sega. This was also an arcade game like Pac-man and included racing with different cars on different tracks.
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Gameplay
The female protagonist in the game earns points by eating pellets. The game also features a Power Pellet also known as the energizer which helps the pie-shaped character earn extra points. Ms. Pac-Man has to avoid the monsters. If the character gets into contact with the monsters, then the character loses a life. The energizer turns the monsters blue allowing Ms. Pac-man to eat the monsters in order to earn extra points. Extra points can also be earned by eating bonus fruits. With every new round, the speed of the game increases and so does the difficulty level. The energizer also becomes less rewarding as the duration of the monsters being blue and being able to be eaten decreases.
Mazes/Themes
Ms. Pac-Man has 4 different mazes each of which appears in a different color or theme. Levels one and two have a pink theme whereas levels three to five have a light blue colored maze. Through levels six to nine a brown maze appears and from ten to fourteen the theme changes to a dark blue color. These themes are completely different from those found in Pac-Man. To make Ms. Pac-Man easier than its original version it has solid colored walls to make players to see the paths more clearly. This is absent from the original Pac-Man which does not have a solid colored outline.
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Monsters
The game has many monsters which include Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Sue. The red one is the Blinky, the pink one is Pinky as the name suggests. Inky is cyan i.e. it has a greenish blue color and lasts but not the least the Sue is the orange color monster. All of these monsters have a different behavioral pattern. They move randomly so that players are unable to understand where the monsters will move. Players, therefore, remain unclear and do not get used to the pattern’s monsters follow in the maze. Ms. Pac-Man also has a warp tunnel feature which makes the game more exciting and fun. A warp tunnel is a video game feature in which the character of the game can leave one side of the game and appear on the other side of it. It is also known as the wrap around the feature and it makes the gaming area on the screen unbounded. The bonus fruits that help players get extra points do not appear in the center of the game.
They appear at random points usually making the female protagonist switch places through the warp tunnels. The fruits may also appear on one side and then move to another through the tunnels. The fruits also appear randomly like ghosts. Each fruit helps the player earn different values of the points. The range of points is from the highest point awarder banana giving you 5000 points to the lowest yielding pair of cherries giving you only 100 points. The strawberry yields 200 points, orange yields 500, pretzel wins 700. The third highest rewarding fruit is the Apple and the second highest is the Pear with 2000 points. On getting in contact with the monsters the female protagonist spins and falls and loses a life. The original version of the game i.e. Pac-Man did not spin and folded in on himself.
To play this game online you can go here
http://www.free80sarcade.com/mspacman.php
Fun Facts about Ms. Pac-man
There are a lot of interesting fun facts about Ms. Pac-Man.
- The game was designed in a way to get women into gaming. A lot of people have different interpretations of the theme of the game.
- Some say that the food elements of the game were added to attract women because they love food while some say that Ms. Pac-man gets followed by violent men and the female protagonist tries to capture them.
- Ms. Pac-man has gotten a lot of recognition all around the world and a lot of people consider it as equal and as popular as its predecessor the Pac-man.
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Conclusion
Ms. Pac-Man is a classic online video game which has been popular since its release in the early ’80s till this date. Ms. Pac-Man is considered by some players to even be better than its original version Pac-Man. Ms. Pac-Man aimed to attract females to play video games and therefore included the female protagonist and added color to the original theme. Ms. Pac-man is easier to play and is one of the most played games online and is definitely worth a shot for those who have never played it.
References
http://mentalfloss.com/article/63019/11-fun-facts-about-ms-pac-man