Baby Pac-Man - ahbeef

[@robertdecrescenzo1057]

Thank you for including my 7800 Port as part of your review. It was a very difficult port, and I did the best that I could (with help for the pinball physics). The graphics were ripped directly from the game. I had done Pac-Man ports to the 7800 before and since, so I had to include the 'classic' monster AI so that people had a fighting chance. :)

[@ahbeef]

Thank YOU for your excellent work on the port! While I did have my criticisms, I still have endless respect for the work it must have taken to develop this. Having an easily accessible version of the game to play when actual cabinets are so rare does wonders for preserving the game!

[@smashingstargamer]

i love how the game with the most ruthless and bloodthirsty ghosts stars a baby as the main character

[@RawrX32009]

I'm guessing the ghosts were trained on Epstein Island XD

[@jackiexkh]

After emulating Baby Pac-Man myself, I found that there are quite a lot of dip switch options. The "remember energizers" option isn't actually new to the 7800 homebrew, it is an option in the original. There's an option to whether free extra balls given when you score no points can be set to either be a limit of 3 or endless, explaining the discrepancy at 17:08. There's options to have the "PACMAN" columns and the extra life arrows reset or not after losing your ball. And then there are a pair of options I find just plain evil. Y'know how you can upgrade the fruit and tunnel speed? Well there's options to have them be set to level 0 at the start of the game instead of level 1. This means no fruit at all will appear and, more terrifying, _having the side tunnels completely blocked off._ Truly diabolical. Also I gotta say, after playing Baby Pac-Man so much, I've actually grown to like it quite a bit. The gameplay loop of going to the pinball to upgrade your maze is pretty fun.

[@Waylon128]

Another well written, and well edited video from the Pac Master himself. I'm actually impressed at the gimmick because I've never even thought of that concept before. It's a shame it was done so poorly that it can probably never be done again. Also, you're telling me the ghosts go SO pissed at losing to Mr. and Mrs. Pacman that they went after their kid? No wonder the Ghost AI is so ruthless.

[@ciberkid22]

It's kind of funny how the future generations of the Pac Family had a harder time with the ghosts Pacman and Ms. Pacnan didn't have much trouble, (Though Ms. Pac may be slightly harder due to different mazes). Junior had to deal with giant mazes with no tunnels, and shorter lasting power pellets, but Baby's power pellets weren't even guaranteed, and to deal with the most aggressive ghosts

[@haid3rs]

casual child cruelty

[@ZacharyDietze]

I’m glad I’m not the only one who actually doesn’t really like this game, I thought I was crazy lol. It’s a shame too because I still think combining a classic arcade Pac-Man game with a more traditional pinball table is a great idea. Such a shame that the table itself is pretty plain and that the ghost AI is atrocious though. The maze layout and graphics I don’t really mind all too much for the most part, but that AI just kills it for me. If the AI was programmed more like the original, Ms., or even Jr. then maybe the game would’ve been a little better, but as intended it’s just not fun. I really want to see someone else take this idea and make another game out of it but a lot more polished. I’m aware that other official Pac-Man themed pinball games also exist, but they’re not to the same hybrid degree as shown here. Very unfortunate. Easily my second least favorite Pac-Man arcade game, only being beaten by Professor Pac-Man. (Which is poorly programmed even for a quiz game, like wow, they *really* dropped the ball on that one)

[@ryanr27]

I love how you’ve managed to get the captive ball free despite it being designed to stay up top

[@ahbeef]

is that what that is? looool

[@riversarcadereview385]

When I played, dying didn't deactivate the power pellets also hitting the trapped ball around the loop automatically awards you that power pellet..

[@ahbeef]

yeah i have noticed some oddities when playing on actual hardware vs the emulated version i used for this video, it seems to be missing a couple of the original's features in the pinball table. hard to tell for sure though since nobody's really done a detailed write up on this game before

[@Yoda1268]

I actually own one of these machines, I, Myself, LOVE it. All my guests love it as well. Even with all it's faults, everyone I know LOVE this machine.

[@SoshiTheYoshi]

The younger they are, the harder the game is

[@Emberson-9000]

Thankfully my local arcade has this.

[@LunacialDQ]

This is a really cool concept, it's a shame the maze portion looks so bad :/ With arcades dying out I doubt we'll get another game like this anytime soon which is a big shame in my opinion. Flipping between pinball and a more traditional arcade game like Pac-Man could be amazing if done right. Wish they expanded on the idea in a sequel, thoigh I guess the commercial failure would dissuade them from doing that lol. I can't imagine making a pinball machine with an arcade game in it is all that cheap either

[@ahbeef]

yeah i totally adore the ambition in this project but for whatever reason the execution just flopped. such a shame

[@ben3759]

this guys logo is literally a burger. i subbed

[@ahbeef]

hi ben

[@SuperNintendoGameboy]

I'm a simple man. I hear Mappy music, I click like

[@AdriftLegend]

The green ghost is "Stinky"

[@ahbeef]

the whole game is stinky if you ask me!

[@SuperJustinChannel]

I have an acquired taste for this game but I will agree tenfold that the original arcade doesn't feel that well designed and it's all a step back from the other maze games of the era. Even if I'm one of the few people in the world to own a physical cabinet, I'd say it begs for a remake done from scratch, more accurately capturing the gameplay of the GCC sequels with better maze designs, more faithful and forgiving ghost AI, and more unique sounds. The arcade version uses video hardware similar to the Colecovision which, while still able to turn out good visuals from time to time (look at the MSX1, which is pretty much a supercharged Colecovision) is nowhere near as powerful as the Namco/GCC games. There's also settings to enable "Remember Energizers" in the arcade version by going into PinMAME, starting Baby Pac up by itself with no pinball portion, and adjusting dipswitches and other internal options (I don't think the dipswitches are labeled so you'll need a guide/manual for that).

[@ahbeef]

i didn't know you could adjust similar energizer switches for the arcade version, that's really cool! as much as i dislike the game, baby pac-man is one of those games i've always wanted to have a cabinet of because it's such a unique experience you really can't get anywhere else, and emulation just doesn't feel quite the same

[@elphive42]

With those sorts of center drain shots, you are generally expected to use a table nudge to save it. Again, though, that’s assuming you’re an expert at pinball who is decently skilled at nudging without causing a tilt sensor to go off.

[@carlrygwelski586]

I never knew this game had a port! To be fair it is much more fun playing the actual machine. It's a quarter eater though.

[@VJFranzK]

I will now guess - Did Bally reprogram the game entirely on their own different hardware? Instead of using the originals, licensed from NAMCO

[@ahbeef]

from what I've heard, the hardware running this game is similar to that of the colecovision, so not at all the same hardware as the original like Ms. Pac and Jr. are

[@ericeric044]

good video

[@lunarasteroidshideout]

Great review dude, mad me sub. BTW, are you doing EVERY game in the maze formula (Mania, Arrangement, Championship Edition) and the if so, how will you cover them? (will you cover Arrangement PSP since that has original ideas and content? What version of Championship 1 will you cover? Championship 2?)

[@lunarasteroidshideout]

*made

[@ahbeef]

thank you so much, i’m glad you liked it! for the Ms. Pac-Man review i started a segment called Version Versus for comparing different versions of games in one review, so all of those games will get VV episodes! check out the Ms. Pac-Man video if you wanna get an idea of what that would look like, there i compared the arcade and genesis versions against each other

[@lunarasteroidshideout]

Ah gotcha, that makes sense. Interested to see what you think on Super Pac-Man & PAC & Pal, those games are really different from the usual maze gameplay.

[@ahbeef]

well you won’t have to wait too long since i’m already working on the super video! and yeah, they are very different, it makes it kinda difficult to analyze them the way i have with these other games

[@lunamorley]

"Worst game in the franchise" Oh boy, get ready for Geo. Oh wait, it's lost media. You have been spared. Carry on. :P But in all seriousness, yeah, this is a pretty shit one. My main exposure, thankfully, has been playing the 7800 port with the classic AI mode on, which is if you ask me- the only way people should play it. However, even there I find there are things holding it back from being a good Pac-Man game. (That said I am very thankful for the port for not only making this game easier to play but also improving it). It's honestly a shame considering this idea *could* work. I feel this could be a good game with enough tweaks and redesigning stuff. Granted, having the potential to be good isn't the same as being good, but it's more credit than I'll give some of the later ones where they're not just bad in practice, but also on paper too.

[@ahbeef]

yeah geo was garbage but its offline now and i don't really count the mobile games anyway so meh. that said, i still haven't played all of the games yet so i might change my mind on that later though

[@JoshuaSchaferhund-yl9fz]

As much as I want AtGames to give up the royalty rights for Ms. Pac-Man to Namco and for Jr. Pac-Man and Pac-Man Plus to be acquired and re-released by the latter company, Professor Pac-Man and Baby Pac-Man can pretty much rot in abandonware hell for all i care lol

[@ahbeef]

as terrible as those games are, i still think every game, no matter how bad, deserves to be preserved in a playable state. baby pac-man damn would be damn near unplayable if not for the custom pinballFX table, and that would be a huge shame for people like me who love this series and want to try out every corner of it, no matter how obscure or terrible. just look at pac-man vr, that game probably sucks but i still wanna play it really badly. as of now, that just isn't possible, and that sucks

[@TeleKamptiA]

What’s the name of that arcade? I gotta check it out!

[@Sonictheoofhog4]

I don't remember Funky being in Pac-Land He first appeared in Pac-Mania

[@BenjuKatchowee]

Bapy Pac-Man

[@jackiexkh]

I wouldn't call Baby Pac-Man good, but I certainly don't think it's the absolute worst in the franchise. There's a handful of games I think are worse.

[@ahbeef]

i'm still yet to play every pac-man game, so some of the more obscure stuff like pinball advance or maybe suffering through 100% of fever will change my mind, but as of right now baby pac-man is my least favorite of the ones i've played

[@jackiexkh]

@@ahbeef Pinball Advance is pretty decent. Nothing amazing, but it's serviceable. What I believe is the worst game in the entire franchise is Pac-Man Geo, which was a mobile game that can't be played anymore, but it literally could not function. It was a terrible idea on paper and somehow they fucked up the execution of an already really bad idea. Most of the games since 2015 have been pretty shit, honestly.

[@ahbeef]

i don't really count the mobile games anyway but yeah geo was pretty shit. i played it once and, shocker, real life streets don't make for very well designed or fun to play pac-man mazes

[@jackiexkh]

@@ahbeef I typically don't count mobile games either but consider that's been the series' primary output in recent years, I don't want to just give it a free pass. Especially with how legitimately atrocious it is. But other games I think are pretty damn bad are Plus, Pac-in-Time, 256, CE2, 99. Anyway, I'm really interested to see your takes on the other games, especially Jr. Pac-Man. To me, it's similar to Baby in that it requires an unofficial method to be fun (speedup hack for Jr, classic AI in the homebrew for Baby)

[@andyanajonseph9399]

Pretty much agreed, but tbh I don't get the maze structure complaints, they're just more traditional mazes.

[@Sonictheoofhog4]

Tiny ahh screen

[@joerubi6249]

When Baby Pac-Man first came out, it looked weird enough to play it. After playing it for a few games, I quickly lost interest. The graphics looked pale and weak in comparison to other Pac-Man games and the pinball portion was not great at all. Overall, this and Professor Pac-Man were the most forgettable games in the series. I love Pac-Man and many in the series but Baby Pac-Man just did not click for me.