Battle of the Ports - Pac-Mania (パックマニア) Show

[@speedysandisk78]

No sprite flicker on actual Amiga hardware. Probably an emulator issue.

[@RetroCore]

Seems the was an issue with the emulation I was not aware of. Sorry about that.

[@NightSprinter]

Retro Core Yeah, when my PAL A1200 had a working floppy drive, I can attest to this issue happening when I set it to boot in NTSC res. The C64 version is even BUGGIER on an NTSC C64 or C128. Even the graphics are a smidge scrambled.

[@rafaellima83]

I really thought he was playing on NTSC because the music is too fast. Lots of Amiga games glitch or don't work at all if you run them on NTSC. The display updates in a different rate on NTSC, and many games do tricks that are syncronized to the display update, so they won't work with a different rate.

[@jesuszamora6949]

@@NightSprinter If you still have your system, maybe put a gotek in it?

[@NightSprinter]

Rafael Lima Yeah, I would say about 90% of the gaming library for both the Amiga and Atari ST and C64 are PAL region. Hence why it running faster and glitchier. In a few rare cases, the game will not run at ALL (C64 Xevious and C64 DK by Ocean).

[@lcalvom]

Pac-mania was the first game I ever played at the arcades when I was a little boy. It's a masterpiece!

[@SomeOrangeCat]

I LOVE Pac-mania! And there's even a Pac-mania skin for Pac-Man 256!

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Damn!

[@greenknight9000]

22:51 *_OH THAT'S A B E A U T I F U L COMBO RIGHT THERE_*

[@Bloodreign1]

I've managed to get a few versions of this game over the years, I still remember seeing it in arcades back in the day, one of my cities malls had a cabinet in it. NES Sega Genesis (bought it and the NES version at the same time) Namco Museum 5 PS1 (the only Japanese version of the game I own) Namco Museum Mega Mix Wii Namco Museum PS2 Namco Museum 50th Anniversary PS2 I hear one of the PS2 Pac-Man World games has it as well, perhaps a 7th version is on the horizon if I purchase the two PS2 Pac-Man World games, already have the PS1 original.

[@SockyNoob]

That's gotta be one of the best conversions to the Spectrum ever. Surprised it could pull it off at all.

[@ryzmaker11]

Pac-Mania is 1 out of 3 games that I used to introduce a friend into video games, the others were Columns and Puyo Puyo, all on Mega Drive. I thought these were great choices to do so, all are ludic games, easy to get into yet challenging at the same time. And we had lot of fun! But he ended preferring Puyo Puyo the most, that he kept playing thereafter, when he was alone, so I can say that my mission to make him enjoy video games was accomplished ;) (and not much later on, we were playing Halo co-op on Xbox! ^^ but that's another story...) Anyway Pac-Mania on Mega Drive is a nice port with pretty good visuals, excellent sound FX/music and responsive controls with tight turnings (very important in such games). Also, as I like to say, a system's library is not complete without at least 1 classic Pac-Man game and the Mega Drive has my two favorites: Ms. Pac-Man and Pac-Mania! :) About the others ports... Atari ST version is the one I grew up with back then and I had good times with it. Also it's nice how they took advantage of the HUD bar to bring a playfield presentation similar as the arcade version "tate" screen orientation, same with the ZX Spectrum or MSX2 versions. A shame that the Amiga version has such flickerings and also apparently not that responsive controls cuz otherwise it seems pretty good. GBA port is too zoomed-in but lot of GBA games are plagued by this problem due to the system's limited resolution. Lastly it would have been cool if the Namco Museum serie was also released on Saturn... And now, what about a Ms. Pac-Man video? :)

[@RetroCore]

I used to used Puyo Puyo 2 and Power Smash on the Dreamcast to get my wife in to gaming. It worked for a while but she lost interest after a few months.

[@Retriku]

Funny enough in the MSX 1 and Amstrad CPC version, when Pac-Man eats a power pellet, the audio lowers itself. This is because the Speccy 128k version used the internal speaker/CPU for sound effects and the AY chip for the music (48k version only used the beeper for sound effects), so when Pac-Man ate the power pellet in the Speccy version, you could hear the beeper make hissing noises while the ghosts are vulnerable for a brief period of time. But because the devs were so effin' lazy, and the fact that the MSX and CPC have no internal beeper speaker like the ZX Spectrum, they used the same Spectrum code for the AY music (no surprise as they share the same sound chip) and couldn't have been bothered to remove the code for the "faint audio" while Pac-Man ate a power pellet in the MSX and CPC versions. One for the history books of laziness, lads and gals!

[@RetroCore]

Classic! That's good old lazy sods euro game coding from the 80s right there 🤣

[@andy6576]

The Sprite flicker you see in the Amiga port does NOT occur in the real game, so either you have a bad crack, or more likely it's an emulation issue, although I'm emulating and don't get any flicker. The Amiga port is superb and better than the arcade original. Not something that happened often...

[@RetroCore]

Seems the was an issue with the emulation I was not aware of. Sorry about that.

[@rafaellima83]

Yeah, there's no flicker on the Amiga version and while it's a very good port, it's one of those magical Amiga games where the Amiga fanboys suddenly become blind and start yelling "Better than the arcade" (Golden Axe, Silkworm and Toki are other games where this happens... also people thinking Xenon 2 is anything but utterly crap). I don't think I ever see this happening but around the Amiga users scene :D :D :D Yeah, it's nice to have a wider screen, but the graphics are way dumbed down and with less colors for the ghosts (To be honest it looks like the scrolling Bitmap uses just 8 colors!) the ghosts AI is completely borked making the game, as mentioned, too easy.... It's a very good port, but in no way this is better than the Arcade version.... and anyone without Amiga Lover Goggles can see that. Still love my Amiga a lot though :)

[@andy6576]

Wow...so I voice one opinion on ONE arcade port and suddenly I'm a fanboy? Tell me; how do you cope with those sections of life in which it _isn't_ possible to patronise and pigeon-hole people? What do you do when you CAN'T attach a simple label? Does your brain explode? I agree that "Xenon II" is shit, I never liked it. The same applies to both versions of "Toki". "Silkwork" is meh, SWIV is much better. "Golden Axe" is certainly better in the arcade. So...did I miss anything? "Pac-Mania" on Amiga is FAR better than arcade (I use Mame so yes, I'm very familiar with both). If you can't handle an opinion that differs from your own, that's your issue, not mine.

[@rafaellima83]

Hey hey, calm down :) I just talked about (trying to be amusing) how in Amiga circles people ALWAYS go about "Pacmania amiga is better than arcade","Golden Axe amiga is better than arcade", etc. This is nonsense that appears on Amiga circles frequently. I just can't see how Pacmania amiga is better than the arcade... like I said, except by the resolution being different, everything else is worse than the arcade version.I agree the Teque/Krisalis guys did a pretty good job there (and even though they were awesome on the 8 bits machines, they screwed up a few times on Amiga). But yeah, reading again what I wrote, I can see how I could have sounded kinda.. arrogant. Sorry 'bout that. Silkworm is a better game than Swiv IMO. Silkworm port was very good on Amiga but *not* better than the arcade (and if you look you'll see a lot of Amiga fans saying the Amiga version is better... mostly for the same reason they say Pacmania is better, it has a higher resolution than the arcade one). I do like Swiv too, but I don't think it could stand against better designed shmups (those usually made in Japan :D). On Amiga, the best vertical shmup is Mega Typhoon, shame so many never played it, as it was released so late on Amiga's life.

[@andy6576]

Regarding "Pac-Mania", I LIKE the fact that it's easier than the arcade. Home ports _should_ be, because they're not designed to take your money like arcade games. I also prefer the overall colour palette (despite the lower number of colours). I never liked "Mega Typhoon" but that's mainly because I really don't like bullet-hell schmups, they're just not my thing. My favourite Amiga vertical shmups are probably "Banshee" and the ancient "Battle Squadron". Regarding what is said in 'Amiga circles'; I couldn't care less as I have no time for such things. All systems have blindly faithful followers, leave 'em to it. Their are STILL amiga owners who use an Amiga for general use today, including internet etc. I don't see the point.

[@marcocorona3842]

I remember it in my C64. A very good game.

[@fulgenzio1973]

Amazing game, a simple but great update to the classic formula. I played a lot the Amiga version.

[@magnumforcemopar402]

What...The spectrum managed to have the character sprite yellow and not background color. Best game yet on that turd.

[@stoicvampirepig6063]

LOL...speccy bashing!!! Just like the good old days...:)

[@magnumforcemopar402]

StoicVampire Pig it demands it like a tiger handheld.

[@kexthekool2682]

The only reason why it was popular was because of the bedroom coder and the fact that code was released in magazines, mostly being bootlegs of Ocean Software games like Hunchy, a clone of hunchback.

[@TorterraJayeon]

Oh hey, I remember this game! I had the Pac-Man Collection on the GBA that I played when I was younger. Never knew it was an 80s arcade game until now. Yeah, the zoom-in on the GBA version is kind of an issue in hindsight, you can’t see where the ghosts are until they’re close by. Either way, it’s nice to rediscover this game and learn about its history and the interesting looking ports!

[@robertlucas1892]

i guess im asking the wrong place but does someone know a way to log back into an instagram account..? I was stupid forgot the login password. I would appreciate any assistance you can give me

[@ibrahimjesse3008]

@Robert Lucas instablaster =)

[@robertlucas1892]

@Ibrahim Jesse I really appreciate your reply. I got to the site thru google and im in the hacking process atm. Takes quite some time so I will reply here later with my results.

[@robertlucas1892]

@Ibrahim Jesse It did the trick and I actually got access to my account again. Im so happy:D Thank you so much, you saved my ass :D

[@ibrahimjesse3008]

@Robert Lucas No problem =)

[@ShieldNCP]

The third round from Pac-park and Sandbox Land on the NES version had some gorgeous colors.

[@faqndo9605]

As far as I'm aware, the Zeebo was conceived as a low cost gaming console, with most games released being mobile ports of the time. For this reason, and the fact that you could get a PS2 with better games for a lower price, it didn’t get too far.

[@RetroCore]

You are 100% correct.

[@Sonictheoofhog4]

Technically, the Tengen ports are official because Tengen has a part of Namco in it, but also a part of Atari.

[@sonicmario64]

Finally, a ZX Spectrum version of an arcade port that doesn't suck! ;)

[@RetroCore]

They are out there. Just far and few between.

[@AlessandroGrussu]

@@RetroCore Much more than "few and far between" actually... Green Beret, Chase HQ, R-Type, Gryzor, Spy Hunter, Midnight Resistance, Karnov, Bomb Jack, Operation Wolf, Operation Thunderbolt, Pang!, Combat School, Arkanoid, Arkanoid II, Gauntlet, Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands, Flying Shark, Super Hang-On, WEC Le Mans, Star Wars, Rolling Thunder, Ghouls N Ghosts etc. (needless to say I absolutely disagree with several of your views 😜😁)

[@SockyNoob]

And doesn't sound like farts!

[@iXien]

It's an old battle of the ports but really interesting. On a real system in PAL/50hz, the game is perfectly smooth in 50fps with sprites/bonus perfectly displayed and music plays at the good speed. Developed by Krisalis for Teque, what explains why this conversion is so nice, this version is really impressive with an overscan display that completely feel the screen in PAL/50hz with a display area of 340x288. Yeah, 340x288, just huge and so smooth. The Archimedes version (based on the Amiga one) is nice but not offering the same overscan screen. The X68000 conversion is very impressive as usual but the choice of keeping a vertical play area like on arcade with black borders as the screen is horizontal is a real mistake in my opinion. If we have to notice some minor flaws, with a 4096 color choice on Amiga colors would have been nearer to the original like on X68000 and the lack of one of the musics is a total mystery but it's a great conversion that offers a better screen area than the arcade as home screens are not vertically positionned 😅. I find the difficulty curve well balanced to enjoy the second loop and be able to see the real end part. This version is really lovable. Let me be clear. I'm not saying the Amiga is brillant here, because the game is pretty easy to convert. There is not much on the screen, few different sets. In short, nothing very difficult. But for once, and it's quite rare to note it, an arcade conversion was created on the Amiga by a team that made the right choices so that the game, obviously less beautiful than the original version, is as pleasant to play or maybe even better in terms of gameplay. Of course arcade version remains the best, and by far, but If you have to play on a conversion, it can be the Amiga version for once as it is a great port, maybe even better this time in terms of gameplay than the Sharp X68000 and the Playstation versions that are really impressive but a bit ruined by a so little play area imo 😉

[@alexsartandgameschannel3883]

2:30 I like that the lives appear right as the music ends

[@pacman1051]

Love You Retro Core! We Love Pac-Mania So Much!

[@Charlie-Cat.]

I love Pac-Mania Mark. I played the arcade plenty of times to which I wanted to own them when they were available for the home market. I personally have the Playstation and GBA versions as of now. I still take them out once in a while. But its always a blast playing them very time I do. Well done as always bro. Keep up the great work. Anthony...

[@RetroCore]

I do like Pac-Mania a lot too. I'm t was one of my favourite games as a young boy.

[@johns6265]

I'm going to speculate a bit and suggest that Pac-Man had to gain a jump move in Pac-Mania to try and offset the disadvantage of moving to a scrolling play field where you could no longer see what all the enemies were doing. It's an 'escape' for when enemies that you couldn't see and anticipate manage to corner you. Anyway, another great episode. At the very least, it's reminded me that I've got the the Playstation and GBA versions of Pac-Mania forgotten in storage somewhere.

[@solarflare9078]

Haha, yeah. The Mega Drive port is pretty dire looking for the system it's on, HOWEVER, I give the sound praise for one reason: It didn't use the GEMS driver. Software Creations would use it on their later MD ports, but since GEMS didn't exist then, we get decent renditions of the arcade tunes here as well as a nice mix of FM music and PSG SFX

[@solarflare9078]

Did I say Software Creations? FACK! I MEANT SCULPTURED SOFTWARE

[@bambibambibambi4543]

The mega drive is my favorite

[@bambibambibambi4543]

I also made my own sprites of the characters from pac mania

[@SockyNoob]

The Genesis version has the sounds of a darn Adlib or Soundblaster lol. Absolutely killing it with those FM synths.

[@hpalvz]

Loved the Speccy version back in the day, it was really great!

[@felipegcs]

Hernán Álvarez There is a russian hack with different music (magnetic fields II )...it's even better

[@hpalvz]

I always played it on a 48 K so no music for me, only sound effects...

[@RetroCore]

It's got really funky music. I like it.

[@spacefractal]

Also Pacmania is a PAL game on Amiga and using overscan. Its one of the rare game that is very good port. Yes im also liked this version more than Arcade, despite sound and graphics is much better on Arcade.... Mightbeen extractly because its easier? And yes im newer liked Spectrum in the early day, but im do must say Spectrum version is also VERY cool and cool music too!!! This is that way Spectrum 128 shall been used when done property. And no. Im was not a Spectrum, but a C64 fan that time.

[@RetroCore]

Yeah, quite a few people mentioned about the Amiga version being a PAL release. I wasn't aware of it during the time of filming.

[@Eric_Malbos]

For the Amiga version, one day if you do a remaster, it could be nice if you could amend your comment as there are no sprite flicker issue in reality because it was related to your emulator, it seems be fair to the great and hard work of the programmers Pete Harrap and Shaun Hollingworth who made one of the rare excellent arcade ports on Amiga. Besides, your battle ports are fantastic videos !

[@RetroCore]

If I do a remake, I'll be sure to address that.

[@Laserdreamz]

Recall being blown away by the Acorn version and was also amazed a game by Namco (albeit via a third party) had made it onto such a system! Granted I was probably 11.

[@RetroCore]

Yeah, I must have been about 11 at the time too. I remember a racing game in it called E-Type that was cool. I need to try that out again.

[@SuperKokuJin916]

Shame how the Amstrad port turned out. Rainbow Islands should've set a new standard from then on... I just noticed that the max ghost munching bonus is 7650. 765=ナムコ=Namco. It's the little things like this that I love the most! I am such a nerd!🤓

[@RetroCore]

Wow, that is quite nerdy but also interesting. Thanks for pointing that out.

[@willrobinson7599]

Think teque software did the amiga version and for once wasnt a crappy st port. Think it ran full screen and nice smooth scrolling

[@japhreal]

I remeber playing on the PlayStation emulator on the library and I was happy because I turned a library computer into a arcade

[@RetroCore]

Cool. That's one way to get young people in to the Library.

[@japhreal]

I feel like namco show some respect to pac mania cause they reused the music for super smash bros, pac man and his ghostly adventures, pac man vs DS I feel like that namco realize that pac mania was gonna be the future

[@RetroCore]

I like pacmania but most seem to dislike it a lot.

[@TheMadTanuki]

Regarding the ST port, the game was tailor-made for 50hz Pal systems and here is running at 60, it makes everything faster, but played on a Pal machine it plays nice. There is also a fan-made STe port which is particularly nice featuring graphics from the Amiga version, a more vertically oriented play area (more similar to the arcade) and with music and sound effects playing simultaneously. It would have been a great commercial STe release ^^

[@Frikinautas]

Pac-Mania: one of the first games I rented for the MD. I know it looks mediocre, but it was my first Pac-Man experience, and as such I have a soft spot for it. Happy to see that the dear ol' Speccy had such a nice version: I would have liked to play it.

[@RetroCore]

There's a hack for the Mega Drive Pac-Mania which uses the Arcade graphics. It looks so much better. It's just a shame the retail one wasn't as well made as the hack.

[@Frikinautas]

Retro Core Might as well get it then. Thanks for the heads-up.

[@bambibambibambi4543]

Actually yeah the Sega Genesis version was actually pretty good

[@alexq2930]

This series keeps getting better and better.

[@RetroCore]

Thanks Alex!

[@rafaellima83]

MSX has 2 verisons.. an MSX 1 version which is identical to the Spectrum one (100% identical, even down to music and framerate), and the MSX 2 version featured here. I actually had both, but I played the MSX 1 version a lot, like you said, it was incredibly fun to play.

[@RetroCore]

Hey, that's cool to know the MSX 1 got a port of Pac-Mania too. I wasn't aware of that one. Was it a European only release? Seems like it would be with it being a Speccy port.

[@rafaellima83]

It, I'd guess it was european only. AFAIK it was hadled by the same guys who made the Spectrum port... and while being, well, a Spectrum port, it was actually pretty good. I played it a lot. It's funny to me because I got it together, on the same disk, with another game that was basically a rip-off of Pacmania called "Mad-Mix" (Made by spanish Team Topo-Soft - and also a Spectrum port). While it added a lot of stuff to the game (stuff like pacman becoming a tank that could shoot at ghosts or a hipoppotamus that could stomp ghosts or a beetle that would put pellets on screen again so you had to eat it or the level would never end, etc), it wasn't so tight-designed as Pacmania.... Pacmania felt like a simplier game, but it was actually more fun to play. (Though Mad-Mix was fun too :D )

[@RetroCore]

Madmix sounds like a real crazy game. I should check that out sometime.

[@rafaellima83]

Yeah, do it, It's kinda fun too. There was a sequel too, but I didn't play it too much. I think Madmix also got a C64 and Atari ST versions (probably a CPC one too), and I remember in some regions the game had a tie-in license with Pepsi, and it was called "Pepsi Challenge" or something like that.

[@rafaellima83]

You know, you have to recognize it's amazing all those computers ports were made by the EXACTLY SAME GUYS, Pete Harrap and Shaun Hollingworth. Spectrum, Amstrad, Amiga, C64, MSX 1 (not featured here), all made by them. The Atari ST is the only one I am not sure it was made by them, but I'd guess it was. Even though its obvious they re-used code on all versions, it's still amazing they managed to do all those versions of the game and, except by the CPC version, didn't screw up any of them.

[@RetroCore]

They sure did take on a lot but I would say their best work was on the speccy. Very good effort for that system.

[@rafaellima83]

I believe it's where they had more experience. I remember a lot of speccy games by Pete Harrap and Shaun Hollingworth.. the former made the Monty games while the later is kinda of a legendary UK coder, he made a shitload of stuff for many different systems.

[@rafaellima83]

The Amiga version of Pacmania is very celebrated by Amiga fans ,and many times regarded as "Better than the arcade" (as people already said here). Though Amiga fans say the darndest things, like "Golden Axe on Amiga is the best home port", "Xenon 2 is the best shoot'em up ever", "Final Fight amiga port was pretty good" and so on :D :D :D

[@RetroCore]

Yeah, Amiga fair 's can be a bit blind with passion at times. I do admit my review of Pac-Mania here was flawed due to running it in NTSC but even if it was running in PAL mode with the right speed and no flickering I trully do fail to see how it's better than the Arcade. It sounds worse, looks worse and had controls no better than the Arcade. How is it better I wonder?

[@rafaellima83]

I don't get it either. But this comes from a user base that believes Xenon 2 is a great game. Like you said, blind with passion :) I love my Amiga a lot and I kinda consider myself an Amiga fanboy, it's my machine in my collection.... but I don't lose my sense over it :D :D

[@GeovaneSanciniSR]

WOW, an X68000 port not made by Dempa? That's new for me. (for those with "oh, this, this and that ports were not made by Dempa", IT'S A BLOODING JOKE)

[@ArtificialOrangeStudios]

Great choice of game for this one

[@MistaMaddog247]

I really like Ben Daglish's rendition of the arcade music, especially on the ST port I had. Most arcade perfect one I owned was on the GBA but it's so hard to go back to that after playing Pac-man Arrangement Mode...

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Not wishing to be upstaged by Grandslam, US Gold put out it's clone, Pepsi Mad Mix Challenge, but at a quid cheaper 😁

[@RetroCore]

Lol, but yeah, a quid when your a kid is a lot. Or at least back then it was.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

I used to play the NES port a lot from a video store I rented it at! I didn't care that it wasn't licensed at all!

[@RetroCore]

Yeah, not being licensed isn't an issue. Tengen games were pretty interesting on the NES.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

I used to rent a few of these like Road Runner.

[@PacManEntertainment2]

The Genesis port got awesome music

[@LorenzoNetworkLLC]

12:29 I don’t know about you, But The Amiga’s First cutscene music is creepy

[@SKiNT3ASTWOOD]

there is an unlockable version in pac man world 2 , ps2, xbox , gamecube. i forgot to say how to unlock, you do this via the tokens you earn, there is also orginal pacman, ms pacman, pac attack also.

[@RetroCore]

That's cool. In this day and age that unlockable would be a paid for Dlc :(

[@SKiNT3ASTWOOD]

It would be a £3.99 loot crate.

[@philmason9653]

The detail that most stood out to me here was whether they got the dots going into Pac-Man's mouth, or just had them disappearing underneath him as he passed over them. That was so distracting & immersion breaking in the Mega Drive version.

[@marioghernandez4960]

Never thought this day would come, but I'm happy it finally did.

[@RetroCore]

Glad you enjoyed the show.

[@zemaj0]

Great video I used to love the Atari ST version never knew it was on the Archimedes night to remember the Archimedes been in the corner of the computer room at school surrounded by BBC computers

[@RetroCore]

Yeah, just like my school. One Archimedes and about 20 BBC micros.

[@daishi5571]

+Retro Core In ~1993 The school I worked had around 20 Arc's at least 60-70 BBC B's with around 20 in storage and about 4 PCs and 30 brand new Macs. In 94 (just as I quit) all orders of new Arcs had been canceled (not my decision), BBC's had been reduced to ~40 including storage (I had to stand in the skip with a sledgehammer smashing all the retired systems) we added ~10 PCs, 20 Macs and 6 power Macs (that no one wanted) because the IT director had the hots for Macs.

[@Sakf504]

the Zeebo port looks surprisingly nice, wasn't expecting a good port on a very underpowered console.

[@RetroCore]

It has a reasonable version of Ridge Racer too.

[@keithbeesting]

Loved this on the Amiga back in the day and best of all it wasnt the usual straight ST port. Never knew about the X68000 version will give it a try.

[@RetroCore]

The X68000 version is fantastic. Easily the best home port out there. Even better than the PlayStation due to the higher resolution it runs at.

[@chunkycjw]

Thought this looked amazing back in the day, had a kind of early CGI look to it. The Sharp X6800 version wins again.

[@RetroCore]

I bet the character models were CG based renders.

[@turrican3839]

This is the real Pac-Man 2, screw whatever that other game was.

[@RetroCore]

I consithis to be the true Pacman 2 as well.

[@CFalcon030]

There is an unofficial port for the Atari STE you could have checked. It is pretty good that one. BTW, are you sure the Amiga issues aren't due to emulation? And also, if the music is too fast on the ST you are playing at 60Hz, and not at 50Hz PAL.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Still Pac-Mania on the Amiga at 60Hz seems a lot more tolerable to me!

[@MistaMaddog247]

I can play ST games at 60hz with no problem but then again I had the NTSC version so that's what I'm used to. Also the refresh rate depends on the emulator used. Steem uses the desktop's rate (usually 60hz) while Hatari is locked at 50hz. So Hatari is better for UK users but I prefer Steem for the 60hz & reduced sharpness on full screen mode.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

MistaMaddog247 Reminded of the C64 version of Paperboy that also sounded a tad better in 60Hz, at least for the music over here than it is to see gameplay vids online running at it's usual speed.

[@iwanttocomplain]

I really liked the Atari ST version. I think it has an amazing colour palette.

[@retrovideogamejunkie]

02:27 that ghost went q-bert on pacman ass

[@RetroCore]

Haha, is sure did.

[@retrovideogamejunkie]

i said the same when ghost started to jump ...

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Ahh! My FAVORITE game!

[@RetroCore]

It sure is a classic.

[@earlduran6419]

Does the PAL version of Atari ST version doesn't sped up or what?

[@dazsly]

The zeebo port looked great. I've never heard of that machine :-)

[@RetroCore]

It's a pretty cool device that even had 3D games such as Ridge Racer and Need For Speed.

[@laxy643]

@@RetroCore actually the zeebo and wanted to destroy the wii, xbox 360 and ps3 but it didnt go well for the console

[@gio048]

Cool game😎Love the song🙂

[@kenwheeler3637]

I play the Genny port most of the time, which is a very enjoyable version. The side panel graphics on the Zeebo was a great idea, having the ghost display their status between blue and normal. Mark, you seemed to be having a bit of difficulty with the controls on this one. What type of controller were you using or were you using the keyboard?

[@RetroCore]

For the emulated versions I was using a Xbox 360 pad apart for the ST version were I used the keyboard. The MD version I played via my Everdrive so that used a standard MD controller.

[@pop2uno]

I remember seeing the zeebo promoted during the saturday morning cartoon block here in México. You had to buy prepaid cards like the xbox live points to buy the games and the console is now very expensive to get, specially if it still has resident evil 4. Great research, sir.

[@RetroCore]

Is it possible to still get games for the Zeebo? I know that the main service is long gone but maybe there's an underground group providing dowoading?

[@lurkerrekrul]

Just wanted to add my voice and say that the flickering ghosts in the Amiga version are exactly what happened when I got a pirated copy and ran it in NTSC. Once I switched to PAL mode, the sprites were perfect.

[@RetroCore]

Wish I had know that before making this video.

[@Sonictheoofhog4]

I grew up playing the GBA version I had Pac-Man Collection on my Wii U and I played the HECK out of that

[@CaspisSinclair27]

I guess I see what the Atari ST port was trying to do by covering half the screen to match the arcade's aspect ratio. It might not have been a great port but I like it when devs don't just copy others. I have a feeling if I played Pacmania when it came out I would keep forgetting you can jump.

[@RetroCore]

It is nice that the devs went for the correct aspect ratio but it's a shame they didn't try a little harder. There's an unofficial port which is much nicer on the ST.

[@daishi5571]

I don't believe the devs did that to look closer to the arcade, as much as not wanting to scroll as much of the screen (the scroll is rather smooth). I base this on known ST scrolling issues and that while the aspect looks approximately correct the amount of playfield shown is smaller than the arcade. I don't believe this is the best they could have done as I have seen some demos on the ST that are quite impressive, and the core logic of this game is rather basic. Edit (just found this) I know this isn't exactly relevant to what was shown but there is an unofficial STe version (released in 2013 and again in 2015 with additional touches) that has full-screen scrolling and the playfield is on par with Amiga/Archimedes version, fantastic work.

[@dumiclumic4423]

Atari ST version looks so cool surprised for me.

[@gamingmadster]

I'm just glad the PS1 Port isn't bad. Except about the graphics getting messed up but it's not in the real game anyway. Good port for the PS1.

[@fernandocollazo8705]

Just to mention, european computers play at 50hz, japanese computers always play at 60hz

[@RetroCore]

Yep, that's what caused the error with Pac-Mania. It was running in NTSC mode when it should have been running in PAL mode :(

[@TheRacingOtaku]

Why does the Amstrad CPC keep getting waterdown Spectrum ports? I do honestly find it very, very lazy when developers take a Spectrum port of a certain game, make little to no changes to it, put it on a different console, and call it a day.

[@RetroCore]

Exactly why you said, lazy developers. Sadly back then companies were not interested in quality most of the time when it came to European game ports.

[@mastersproutgamer9327]

You may not have known this, but Pac-Mania was eventually included on the Arcade Archives lineup thanks to Hamster.

[@RetroCore]

Yep, I knew that.

[@fernandocollazo8705]

The Amiga version doesn´t flicker at all, it´s your emulator configuration that causes sprites to flicker. And MSX2 version seems to have the same screen area but with more colors than Atari ST one.

[@WeskerSega]

There's a graphics hack for the Mega Drive version by fusaru which gets all the sprites from the arcade version and also cleans most of its graphics/color issues. The game looks much better that way and you should check it out. That proves the lazy effort done by Sculptured Software which was typical when they handled Mega Drive conversions from arcade games. It also shows a lot in their Mega Drive version of The Punisher. They probably had a grudge to the system or something because they did much better looking efforts when doing SNES conversions from arcade games like the Mortal Kombat series and even though the Mega Drive version of Mortal Kombat 3 was handled by them, that one probably looked decent because they probably converted it from the SNES version.

[@RetroCore]

Sculptured Software sucked bit time. I'm very interested in checking out the hacked version. Any idea where I can find it?

[@WeskerSega]

Sure. Google "pac-mania romhacking fusaru" and you should easily find it.

[@davidfernandezsabio3844]

Played the arcade a lot back in the day.I hadn't the CPC port but I was able to see on the magazines.A shame that it's a lazy Speccy port.Impressive the X68000 port.Thanks for the video.

[@RetroCore]

I feel that the CPC could have been as least as good at the MSX version in terms of colour at least.

[@CriminalCrimson]

X68000 did it again... i was about to say "finally Zeebo won a battle of the ports"... then X68000 did it again...

[@glenaitken9403]

There is absolutely no sprite flicker on the Amiga! 😆 must be an emulation issue.

[@RetroCore]

You're right!

[@white-dragon4424]

Anyone know why the Japanese version has more levels?

[@hardwiredxs]

Weirdly I don't remember sprite flicker on the amiga. Quite frankly I loved both tge c64 and Amiga versions. Good size play area and smooth enough. Very entertaining...

[@RetroCore]

Seems the was an issue with the emulation I was not aware of. Sorry about the.

[@Juganawt]

For me, the Amiga version of Pac-Mania was my favourite. After all, it's the one I grew up with, but I gotta say....... ...Mad Mix Game on the C64 and ZX Spectrum is more fun than Pac-Mania.

[@DIASTCartoons]

I grew up playing the Gameboy Advance version. I did not have that many Gameboy Advance games growing up because I preferred playing GameCube games more. I did get the link cable accessory to play some GameCube games that required it. I only recall having 4 games for the system, but Pac-Man Collection was the game I played the most until I bought Namco Museum Vol. 5 a few years after selling my Gameboy Advance and games away.

[@RetroCore]

You may not have had many games but at least you had some quality titles :)

[@DIASTCartoons]

Retro Core you are mostly correct. I also had Mario Kart Super Circuit, Ice Climbers (part of NES/Famicom Classics series of GBA ports released for the 20th anniversaries of the Famicom and NES), and a game based on an American TV show called the Fairly Odd Parents (that one did not hold up).

[@gingataisen]

How the hell did developers get away with porting unlicensed versions of games?

[@RetroCore]

Make them n China? I know what you mean though. Some of the Euro ports look like crap Chinese "originals".

[@jesuszamora6949]

Talking about the NES game? Namco was part of Tengen (along with Atari Games). They made their own "key" for the 10NES chip, which allowed them to release unlicensed games. Funny how Atari Games ended up in a better place than Atari Corp, returning to Warner with the buyout of Midway while Atari Corp was dismantled after the Tramiels left, and now just being a name used by Infogrames to scam people.

[@vebxenon]

There was also a MSX 1 version, just a ZX conversion. And there is a homebrew conversion to Atari STE computers, which is great :-)

[@RetroCore]

Sadly I wasn't aware of the MSX 1 version :(

[@James-fo8rf]

Great video! 15 platforms reviewed, is that a new recorded? Thanks.

[@RetroCore]

Hmm, not sure. I know Bubble Bobble was a big one. Maybe it's on par with that.

[@marioghernandez4960]

I think there's a way to make World 6 selectable, but I don't know exactly how you can do it. How?

[@luisemilio1143]

Retro Core, I want to tell you something interesting from the MSX 2 version. In my opinion I liked for few reasons, it’s the extended version (23 levels instead of 19), the music was good, not too good but ok, and I was capable to finish the whole game. Actually there is an option that I used during playing the game that helped me a lot, you actually can change the speed of the playability faster or slower!!! In the very first levels I speed it up and on the last ones I slow it up. So if you were also disappointed for the speed it plays, you can play faster, I can show you any day.

[@RetroCore]

Some good info I was not aware of on the MSX2 release. Thanks for sharing.

[@ManuelBilderbeek]

So, how can you change the speed? What option do you mean?

[@luisemilio1143]

Manuel Bilderbeek I mean that while you are playing the game there is an button in the keyboard in which you can change the speed of the game, it is from 0 to 9, the very first level has a speed of 5, and the last ones has between 0 and 1. If you put between 0 and 2 it will be faster, between 6 to 9 it will be slower. The bad thing is that I don’t remeber which button was but it is between the F1 or other, I think it was F5, you should try it, it helped me a lot to finish the game

[@luisemilio1143]

Ok so I played again the game and I found the button for changing the speed :) So you just start playing the game and to change the speed you just press Masc, the button that it is between mayus, Q and A, and I recomend you to search for a page called WebMSX, it alows you to run every MSX or MSX2 rom online

[@ManuelBilderbeek]

Ah, you can just press the TAB key and you'll get a menu to set up the speed. I never knew this myself, thanks!

[@tpg7650]

I love Pac-Mania! Although the some the other ports of Pac-Mania need some fixing music. For example the Amiga Version of Pac-Mania Music sounds good on each stage, but Sandbox Land Music has the same music. The some others ports of Pac-Mania that has a same music as Block Town, Expect for the Arcade, NES, Sharp X68000, Mega Drive/Sega Genesis , GBA, MSX2, Zebbo, and J2ME.

[@atari-staffroom]

Pacmaniia is awesome. Search out the Atari STE only (unofficial) version to see what the STE can do with it.

[@RetroCore]

I'll have to. I'm sure the ST can do much better than the official release.

[@magnumforcemopar402]

Nes tengan is not official.

[@Midwinter2]

The Amiga version of this game is brilliant - but for some reason gets misrepresented. It uses full screen overscan, updates at 50 frames per second - and unlike whatever the hell is going on in this video - does not flicker at all. I had this on my old Amiga 1000 when it came out. There were zero technical problems. Also, the opening levels started out slow and easy, the later levels were VERY fast. A superb use of the Amiga's hardware.

[@white-dragon4424]

I've got a theory that all ports of the period would be lacking, even if the machine had all the power needed to do a 100% perfect conversion, because the makers of the arcade version wouldn't want people to stop going to the arcade. All these home versions are sneaky adverts for the arcade machine.

[@madsceptictrooper6803]

I like how how Pac-Man's animation looks very good on ZX. CPC and C64 are pretty disappointing. Amiga and Acorn Archimedes ports are very good. Atari ST port should have been better than Master System port. I'm glad MSX 2 port is made in Japan rather than in UK, though Namco didn't really try to make the port work in any creative way. Nintendo can be proud of me for not liking Tengen NES ports in general. Master System port is solid. Pac-Mania was actually ported to MD by Sculptured Software and it's also their only game on the console not to use GEMS but their own sound driver. Zeebo port is pretty nice. Playstation port is very likely the best as Namco was the huge supporter of the console.

[@NightSprinter]

Another great episode as always, Mark. Shame none of the Euro computer ports had the music for Sandbox Land. Wonder why that is? Also, did any Euro computer port other than the C64 and Amiga have the music for Jungly Steps? I have the Amiga version as well, but my A1200 is in need of mass repairs and upgrades. And yes, Mark, you DID have it on good authority the PS1 version was reprogrammed. As mentioned, of note for Vol. 5 is that you could play it (along with Legend of Valkyrie and Dragon Spirit) in TATE mode.

[@RetroCore]

I guess the Euro Ports didn't have the sandbox music due to the developer being too lazy to compose it. Either that or they had no time. It's kind of common for Euro computer ports to not bother with the music much. I'm not sure if all the Euro ports did have the correct BGM for Jungle Steps stage. I never got to that stage in some of the Ports :( too many yo get through for a full on game each time.

[@NightSprinter]

Retro Core Understandable. Once you got to Sandbox Land (and later Jungly Steps) the speed of the ghosts (ESPECIALLY Sue and Blinky) and the ability the Commons (renamed to "Funky" for the green ones and "Spunky" for the black/grey one) to jump during those two worlds made it stupid-hard.

[@turrican3839]

I hope you 2 are happy to know that just last year, somebody made a cover of Sandbox Land in the vein of the Amiga soundtrack, in addition to a better rendition of Block Town and Pac Park ​@@NightSprinter

[@NightSprinter]

@@turrican3839 Ooh?

[@LuigiMario79]

16:10 There’s a hack that improves the graphics.

[@bland9876]

The jungle steps (world 4) music is not in the Game Boy Advance version instead it uses block town's (world 1) music

[@jesuszamora6949]

Maybe it's just poorly optimized for PAL, but I thought the Genesis one was fine, apart from the WTF choice for the first level's color palette.

[@RetroCore]

There's a colour hack that not only improves the colours but also changes the crappy sprites for the Arcade ones. It looks a million times better.

[@marioghernandez4960]

I'm kinda curious to know. Does Galaga '88 have any other home ports beside the PCE version?

[@RetroCore]

No idea. Maybe not.

[@marioghernandez4960]

You should check when you get the chance.

[@GameGameHeaven]

Man, back in the day I played the hell out of the Mega Drive version. Although it looks better in my memory. :D

[@RetroCore]

Yeah, I thought that too. Was quite shocked at how crappy it actually is.

[@augerinoskaiafas]

Nice job. But you must do more research for the European home computers. The Atari ST port (and generally ALL Amiga and ST games) are intended for use in PAL land. So you must set your monitor refresh rate at 50Hz or multiples of that and then you will get correct speed for music and gameplay.

[@somari3490]

Pac mania (along with professor pac man and pac man jr) is one of the only pac man games i didn't play on an original arcade cabinet Tho i had the genesis version, it isn't bad but it could have been better

[@riversarcadereview385]

i had the NES version and found it VERY good

[@okayokey]

What is the “secret maze”

[@bhirawamaylana466]

The best ways when everyone ask sequel, one of that example is this pac-mania, and maybe some port is crappy but after see the arcade pac-mania the only one we can complain is either the stupid programmer or the limit of the machine

[@RetroCore]

I agree, especially on the Programmer point. There's an unofficial Atari ST version that's much better that the official version shown in this video.

[@metalcoola]

I love Pac Mania, especially Amiga version, it is one of my favorite games off all time :) I can also confirm screen flickering and music problem is an emulation issue.

[@RetroCore]

Seems the was an issue with the emulation I was not aware of. Sorry about that.

[@williamwilliam9993]

Hey mark the x68000 version made by sharp/SPS software