Ms. Pac Man

Ms. Pac-Man is a popular arcade game released by Midway Games in 1981. The sequel to Pac-Man, it is considered by many fans to be superior to its predecessor. It was also one of the more successful of early arcade games as its sales record is still unmatched.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Ms. Pac-Man is largely identical to that of Pac-Man, with a few differences.

• There are now four different mazes, with different colors and "filled-in" walls (compared with the original Pac-Man's hollow walls). Each maze has two pairs of "escape tubes" connecting the right and left sides of the maze. The maze is changed after each of the first three intermissions.
• The monsters have pseudo-random movement, which precludes the use of patterns to beat each board.
• The two "fruits" on each level now enter through one of the escape tubes, wander around the maze for a while, then (if not eaten) eventually leave through an escape tube.

There are also a few cosmetic differences. The character controlled by the player is now Ms. Pac-Man, resembling Pac-Man with eyeliner, lipstick, a bow, and a dimple. The orange monster Clyde has been replaced by Sue, identical in appearance. There are new sound effects including new music at game start and a new "death" sound.

There are three new intermissions:

1. "Act 1 – They Meet": Pac-Man is chased by Inky, Ms. Pac-Man is chased by Pinky; the monsters bonk heads, the Pacs escape, and a heart appears between them.
2. "Act 2 – The Chase": Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man chase each other quickly across the screen five times, with more speed each time.
3. "Act 3 – Junior": A stork drops off a bundle containing a tiny Pac-Man.

History

Ms. Pac-Man was originally conceived as a hack of Pac-Man called Crazy Otto, created by programmers under employ at the General Computer Corporation (GCC).

The programmers, surprised at the quality of the game they had created, showed it to Midway, Namco's American distributor of the original game. Midway had become impatient in waiting for Namco to release their next Pac-Man game (which would be Super Pac-Man), and were enthusiastic that such a game had come to their attention. They bought the rights to Crazy Otto, changed the sprites to fit the Pac-Man "universe," renamed the game Ms. Pac Man and released it into arcades.

After the game became wildly popular, Midway and GCC undertook a brief legal battle concerning royalties, but because the game was accomplished without Namco's consent, both companies eventually turned over the rights of Ms. Pac-Man to the parent company, fearing a lawsuit.

Home versions

Like many other games of its era, Ms. Pac-Man was ported to many home computer and gaming systems. It has also been included in Namco's, Microsoft's and Atari's late 1990s series of classic game anthologies.

The Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo ports of Pac Man featured 4 different maze-sets: the original arcade mazes, bigger mazes, smaller mazes, and "strange" mazes. It also had a "Pac-Booster" option which let players make Ms. Pac Man go much faster, making the game much easier. Both versions also let 2 people play simultaneously, with Player 2 as Pac Man, either cooperatively or competitively .

External link

• ClassicGaming.com entry on Ms. Pac-Man
• Ms. Pac-Man entry at KLOV.com