It's Critter Time!

YO YO YO YO YO

WHAT IT IS, MOTHERFUCKERS?!



Also general Pac-Man thread wooooo

Hey Pac-Man, what's up?

Pour one out for poor Pokey



[sub]Saved this one in *2005* and "Jim Davies" gets the actor so unless it was him, idk where it came from[/sub]

I hope they remake World 3 eventually. That's the one I actually have nostalgia for ! Pretty much the only PSP game I enjoyed before selling it and getting a DS instead.

A Metroidvania based on the Secret Level episode on Pac-Man

I’m curious about it actually

Ever wondered why it's always Ms. Pac-Man at the arcade? I don't think I've ever seen a Pac-Man cabinet IRL, it's almost universally Ms. Pac-Man in my experience.

EcoHound wrote: Fri Aug 01, 2025 5:57 am A Metroidvania based on the Secret Level episode on Pac-Man

I’m curious about it actually

Played this and it's an exceptionally mid Metroidvania with all the coatings of a Pac-Man game but none of the spirit.

hanalei wrote: Fri Aug 01, 2025 8:01 am Ever wondered why it's always Ms. Pac-Man at the arcade? I don't think I've ever seen a Pac-Man cabinet IRL, it's almost universally Ms. Pac-Man in my experience.

It's likely because Ms. Pac-Man was the creation of the NA distributor at the time Midway (well GCC was but that was at behest of Midway) so they saw more of the profits from it.

The history of Ms. Pac-Man is a fascinating story of theft, bullshit, and bizarre licensing agreements and the fact that Namco just straight up unperson'd her is both hilarious and tragic at the same time. Thanks AtGames.

Finally, Pac-Man 2!

*Quietly pushes Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures carts under the couch*

Mixi Blacksand wrote: Fri Aug 01, 2025 12:19 pm Finally, Pac-Man 2!

*Quietly pushes Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures carts under the couch*

This is a space of Pac-Man 2 glory. We do not need to hide our right opinions that Pac-Man 2 is good.

THE GOAT

Pac-Man 2 Pac-Man is a funny little guy whose plight torments me... for it is my failings that lead him into suffering

flaxenPhoenix wrote: Thu Jul 31, 2025 5:03 pm YO YO YO YO YO

WHAT IT IS, MOTHERFUCKERS?!



Also general Pac-Man thread wooooo

god, I remember playing the PC version of Pac-Man World 2 (of all versions) back in the day, so this announcement actually has me genuinely excited! Reminds me that I still need to play through Pac-Man World 1 Re-Pac. I also had the PS1 version of that one growing up back then, and I liked it a lot! But man, it gets *spicy* later on!

other than that, I like Pac-Man. He's a funny lil' guy.

hanalei wrote: Fri Aug 01, 2025 8:01 am Ever wondered why it's always Ms. Pac-Man at the arcade? I don't think I've ever seen a Pac-Man cabinet IRL, it's almost universally Ms. Pac-Man in my experience.

OG Pac Man is fully deterministic which makes it possible to just memorize patterns and get the same results every time. Ms Pac Man shuffles things up enough that doing so is unreliable.

Ends up being more fun for players too since the maze isn't always the same every time as well.

https://pacman.holenet.info/ - The Pac-Man Dossier is a real neat read about how the game works internally and its bugs.

Lolo De Puzlo wrote: Fri Aug 01, 2025 11:46 am The history of Ms. Pac-Man is a fascinating story of theft, bullshit, and bizarre licensing agreements and the fact that Namco just straight up unperson'd her is both hilarious and tragic at the same time. Thanks AtGames.

if you've got an hour, one of the original developers of Ms. Pac-Man did a really informative post mortem for GDC in 2016. This includes lawsuits with Namco over royalties and annoyances with contract law. (If a Ms. Pac-Man machine is coin operated, the creators get paid. If a Ms. Pac-Man machine requires you to swipe a card to get a credit, they do not.)

Mixi Blacksand wrote: Fri Aug 01, 2025 12:19 pm Finally, Pac-Man 2!

*Quietly pushes Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures carts under the couch*

game publishers aren't as brave as they used to be. more games should make sequels in entirely seperate genres imo! i think the gaming industry is full of cowards!!!!

Araphel wrote: Sat Aug 02, 2025 3:10 am

Mixi Blacksand wrote: Fri Aug 01, 2025 12:19 pm Finally, Pac-Man 2!

*Quietly pushes Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures carts under the couch*

game publishers aren't as brave as they used to be. more games should make sequels in entirely seperate genres imo! i think the gaming industry is full of cowards!!!!

Glances at ZUN going from an Arkanoid clone to shoot-em-ups between Touhou 1 and 2

Interesting. I gave this game a lot of my time back on the Gamecube, and it's interesting to see how the style and mechanics have been tweaked.
Looking forward to see how it handles. We've come a long way from pre-rendered video and slippery 3D platforming...

hanalei wrote: Fri Aug 01, 2025 8:01 am Ever wondered why it's always Ms. Pac-Man at the arcade? I don't think I've ever seen a Pac-Man cabinet IRL, it's almost universally Ms. Pac-Man in my experience.

When I was a little kid, Ms. Pac-Man was like the only one that was consistently available to play. There were three different arcade machines in town to play it, and all three of them were Ms. Pac-Man (although the third one was in a regular Pac-Man cabinet). I also had the Plug & Play. (Still do, actually, although it's not the exact same one I had as a kid. That one is gone after its cables got bent out of shape.) It's to the point where I actually didn't even know there WAS a Mr. Pac-Man until I started going online and searching for it on Namco's website. Up until then I had always thought that Ms. Pac-Man came first and Pac-Man was the sequel, instead of vice versa.

I also had ghost OCs at age 4 lmao. Every day I'd come home from school, grab some colored paper, and I'd cut them out into the shapes of Ms. Pac-Man and the ghosts. Then I decided that four ghosts wasn't enough, so I invented two more: Winky the white ghost and Stinky the rainbow ghost. (You can really tell where my 4-year-old mind ran out of words that rhymed with "Inky". Also, Stinky's rainbow effect was created by me cutting out six ghosts that were each half as wide as the usual one, each in a different color of the rainbow, then stapling them together.) I also did this with the Galaga ship (which ended up mostly just looking like a simple triangle, although it was longer and pointier than the actual ship in-game) and the Bejeweled gems.

Lolo De Puzlo wrote: Fri Aug 01, 2025 11:46 am The history of Ms. Pac-Man is a fascinating story of theft, bullshit, and bizarre licensing agreements and the fact that Namco just straight up unperson'd her is both hilarious and tragic at the same time. Thanks AtGames.

A while back I realized something about Buccaneer Beach from Pac-Man World 1.

Enbyeon wrote: Sat Aug 02, 2025 7:11 am

Lolo De Puzlo wrote: Fri Aug 01, 2025 11:46 am The history of Ms. Pac-Man is a fascinating story of theft, bullshit, and bizarre licensing agreements and the fact that Namco just straight up unperson'd her is both hilarious and tragic at the same time. Thanks AtGames.

The funniest thing about Namco unpersoning Ms. Pac-Man is that the character they replaced her with as Pac-Man's love interest was originally designed to be her mom. So Namco unintentionally created a narrative of Pac-Man ditching his wife to get with his ex's mother.

Mixi Blacksand wrote: Fri Aug 01, 2025 12:19 pm Finally, Pac-Man 2!

*Quietly pushes Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures carts under the couch*

I have a very vivid memory of playing Pac-Man Collection during the Northeast Blackout of 2003. It was so fucking hot and my twin baby siblings were about to turn 1 year old so we had to spend all day in my mom's minivan because it had air conditioning. I was playing the shit out of Pac-Man Arrangement and Pac-Mania. He really got me through some shit.

WRT the Ms. Pac-Man stuff, Jonii on YouTube has two very good videos about the poor woman. Really weird and interesting shit lol.

so which Pac-Man Championship Edition release is generally considered the best?
because I have access to all three games on Steam (not counting the demake of CE1 that's on Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1), and personally, I feel like I'm kinda vibing more with CE DX+ at the moment?

JarylGaren wrote: Sat Aug 09, 2025 1:16 pm so which Pac-Man Championship Edition release is generally considered the best?
because I have access to all three games on Steam (not counting the demake of CE1 that's on Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1), and personally, I feel like I'm kinda vibing more with CE DX+ at the moment?

I think my personal favorite is CEDX+ solely because it's the last one that isn't just "memorize this path until you can do it by rote"

JarylGaren wrote: Sat Aug 09, 2025 1:16 pm so which Pac-Man Championship Edition release is generally considered the best?
because I have access to all three games on Steam (not counting the demake of CE1 that's on Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1), and personally, I feel like I'm kinda vibing more with CE DX+ at the moment?

I would say either Pac-Man CEDX+ like flaxen said or if you want something with a bit of funky flavor, the NES port in Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1 is also surprisingly good and a bit of a mix between CE OG and CE DX

A collection of assorted Pac-Merch that I've accumulated over the years
The forum only allows me to add 10 photos per post, but if there's interest, I'd be more than happy to post more!!