Jr. Pac Man
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| Jr. Pac Man | |
| Missing image Jr._Pac_Man.png Screenshot Jr. Pac Man | |
| Developer: | Namco |
| Publisher: | Midway Games |
| Release date: | 1983 |
| Genre: | Retro/Puzzle |
| Game modes: | Up to 2 players, alternating turns |
| Cabinet: | Standard |
| Controls: | Joystick |
| Monitor | |
| Orientation: | Vertical |
| Type: | Raster, standard resolution |
| Notes | |
| None | |
Jr. Pac Man is an arcade game released in 1983 by Midway Games. It is a sequel to Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man.
Gameplay
The gameplay of Jr. Pac-Man is largely identical to that of its predecessors, with a few differences.
- The maze is now three times the width of the display. The maze will scroll left and right as Jr. Pac-Man travels through it, and it is possible for ghosts to be off-screen sometimes.
- There are now seven different mazes. They all now have six energizers (except for the last two, which only have four energizers). There are no longer any "warp tunnels" at the edges of the maze.
- Each prize (known as "fruit" in Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, though none of the prizes in this game are fruit) appears from offscreen, and as it roams the maze, it turns any dots it touches into larger dots worth 50 points but which slow Jr. Pac-Man down quite a bit. If a prize wanders for long enough without being eaten, it will "kamikaze" itself into an energizer, destroying itself and the energizer.
There are also a few cosmetic differences. The character controlled by the player is now Jr. Pac-Man, resembling a small Pac-Man with an eye and a propellor beanie. There are new sound effects including new music at game start and a new "death" sound. All game text is now in a lower-case anti-aliased font.
The prizes are, in order of appearance:
- Tricycle
- Kite
- Drum
- Balloon
- Train
- Cat
- Glass of beer
There are three new intermissions:
- "jr. meets yum-yum": Jr. sees an alien ghost and leaves his yard to play. Blinky approaches. Ms. Pac-Man eats an energizer from her garden to rescue Jr.
- "the gift": Jr. brings a red balloon to the alien ghost. They meet on a bridge. Blinky watches from behind a bush.
- "they escape!": Blinky traps Jr. between himself and the alien ghost. Ms. Pac-Man appears and Blinky leaves to chase her, while Jr. and the alien ghost leave together in the other direction. Hearts appear around them.
Home versions
Because of the video game crash of 1983, Jr. Pac-Man was not widely made available in home versions. An Atari 5200 was complete except for the intermissions, but it was not released. The ROM image for this game has been made available online and can be played with an emulator.
A port of Jr. Pac-Man to the Atari 2600 was released in 1987.
External links
- Jr. Pac-Man's entry on the Killer List of Videogames site (http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=J&game_id=8246)
- ClassicGaming.com entry on Jr. Pac-Man (http://www.classicgaming.com/pac-man/Pac-Games/JrPacMan/)