Pac-Man - Every Game Ranked (BBC Micro)

[@trickysoft]

Another demonstration of your love for the machine and it's games, I had never seen most of these versions and some are amazing in their own ways.

[@ColinHoad]

Thanks, Tricky! I find there's always something to say about a Beeb game, even if it may not always be a *good* game... at the end of the day, a developer spent time on it and so it's worth giving it some consideration!

[@trickysoft]

@@ColinHoad I love finding out about all these games that I never even knew existed. Thanks

[@meh3247]

You had me checking out my BBC games archive, and I was pleased to find I have a copy of Snacker. Well recommended - and well said!

[@ColinHoad]

Splendid stuff! Yes, Snacker is wonderful, I'm glad you have a copy - definitely my favourite surprise of this video 😀

[@jameswelch2850]

This series is fast becoming my favourite. I love retro computer history and you're very good at explaining it.

[@ColinHoad]

Thanks very much, that's really kind of you to say! I'm enjoying making this series, too - although it takes quite a long time to make each episode, especially when there are as many variants as in this case! 😅

[@jameswelch2850]

@@ColinHoad I thought there may be 20, but not that many!

[@doctornovocalcords]

Thoroughly enjoying this series, thanks for all the hard work! I hope you'll sometimes give yourself an easier time with some less frequently made games :)

[@trickysoft]

There aren't many versions of astro blaster or even phoenix ;)

[@ColinHoad]

Thank you! Yes, I think the next entry is going to need to be a 10-or-less episode 😅

[@shieladixon]

This was excellent Colin. So far you've picked my favourite games - invaders, centipede, pacman. Once again it's great to see a real progression and I found myself really wanting to have a crack at those later ones. Particularly number 1, wow. This must be such a lot of work to put together but well worthwhile - fascinating stuff.

[@ColinHoad]

Thank you so much, that's really kind of you to say! It was quite a bit of work to put together but seeing comments like yours makes me feel it was worth it 😊

[@keyscompany]

Thank you for another most excellent round-up. I'm really enjoying this series. Must have taken ages to put together. If you go into the BASIC listing of Mechanic Mike and increase the energy to 999 it becomes doable though still a challenge. However, just as in Munchman, when you do finish the level nothing happens! You are left trapped in the maze forever.

[@ColinHoad]

Thank you very much! Well done on spotting that hack - and bug! - in the Mechanic Mike source listing. No wonder the timer is impossible to beat, the developer clearly used it to hide the fact there were no levels beyond the first one 😂

[@Colin_Ames]

Great video once again. Thanks for taking the time to play and rank these games.

[@ColinHoad]

Thank you, and you're very welcome - pleased you enjoyed it!

[@JimbobSonOfRiber]

Only the mighty Colin would be able to describe and sort 30-odd slightly different Pacmen! I salute you sir

[@ColinHoad]

Haha thanks 😂

[@PigDogBay]

Great video, really enjoyed it, going watch the space invaders one now. Thanks for putting these videos together.

[@ColinHoad]

Thank you, I'm really glad you enjoyed it enough to want to watch another one! 😀

[@cruxinc]

i absolutely love the look of late era bbc games, things like 5 on the list and nevryon look absolutely beautiful!

[@ColinHoad]

Yes, I agree - I think by the late 80s and early 90s developers were discovering new ways to achieve graphical effects and the games subsequently look quite different from the traditional Beeb look of the golden era

[@Tetlee]

Really enjoyed this round up, have played most of these but as always there's a few I've never seen Hunger Alley is quite a refreshing take. I do like wheb a clone makes an effort to differentiate. Beebmunch I've played a fair bit... Determination😬😄 Pucman looke really good! 3D Munchy I discovered myself not too long ago and really enjoy it. Similarish to the brilliant Crystal Castles, as is 3D Dotty tbh, must try that one as it looks fun. Snapman, love that green line, gives it a cool Tron style😎 Snacker I've played a fair bit of aswell, but only in recent times, brilliant game! It had to be Richard's Pacman at the too, absolutely incredible work! Perfect!

[@ColinHoad]

Thank you, I'm glad! I'm also impressed that you've played a lot of these, especially Snacker - that's the one that surprised me the most, as it's so so good 😀 All power to your elbow for having such determination with Beebmunch, it defeated me 😅 As for the #1 spot, it's a triumph - don't know how he does it!

[@MrKarateEd]

As usual Colin, a very polished and well explained video. You are rapidly becoming a master at this, or perhaps I should say you are now a master at this. At any rate, I too played Snapper as my first go and never played the Tricky version until we had it in the HSC. It's truly amazing and richly deserves #1 on you list. I've played very few of these version but I have to say, having typed in many magazine games, sometimes they can be truly horrible. Great job once again Colin...... :-)

[@ColinHoad]

Ah, thanks very much, Ed - you're very kind to say so! You've been here since the beginning so you've seen how my videos have changed over time, and I'm really pleased you see an improvement 😄 Yes, Tricky's Pac-Man is incredibly good. As for type-ins, they're very hit and miss - although the worst one of all in this list was a commercial release, unforgivable 😆

[@stevesgaming7475]

Wonderful!! This must have taken you AGES to do but it was so worth it! I loved it even though I was wrong (I fully expected Snapper to be at the top but no complaints) ....now, have a nice rest, before working on the next :)

[@ColinHoad]

Thank you! Yes, I started making it a few days after finishing the Centipede episode, so it did indeed take a while 😅 Really pleased you enjoyed the result!

[@andrewduff9178]

Thanks for the great video Colin! Gimpo reminds me a bit of the asymmetric Pacman game released with the Wii-U - nice concept. Tried Pucman: awesome! You are right, this plays exactly as expected, if you can overlook the graphics (but even there, palette switches: easy win for me). Agree with you on the pauses in Poc-Man - otherwise solid, but that is a deal breaker for me. Bio-Chip is so clever mechanically and graphically. Snacker is beautiful and smooth, with the jingles and presentation feeling really arcade like, and I agree, owning this in the day would have felt amazing. Snapper was 'my pacman' as a kid and a great game. Guessed a trickysoft coup was in the offing for first spot! Although looks thoroughly well deserved. By the way, I hugely approve of 'entering the ghost house'. One of my loves/fascinations from games I played as a child was entering areas I wasn't supposed to or maybe the designer hadn't intended (could probably be the topic for a video itself).

[@ColinHoad]

Thanks very much, Andrew, I'm really pleased to hear you gave some of these games a go after watching my video, that's great! Yes, entering 'forbidden' areas of games is a joy... the cheat in Doom that lets you walk through walls is a memorable one for that very reason 😁

[@cruxinc]

great video, really enjoyed it :)

[@ColinHoad]

Thank you! I hope there were a few here that took your fancy 😀

[@cruxinc]

@@ColinHoad oh yes, i’ll definitely be giving a few of these a go tonight! i have the displeasure of owning a copy of beebmunch, and thought it would go way lower, but compared to some of the others, it’s practically brilliant! 😄

[@cruxinc]

gimpo is one i’ll definitely by trying :)

[@James-1974]

Hi Colin! I really enjoyed this. I believe Pac 2000 was my second attempt at programming a game. Ranked number 30 😁👍

[@ColinHoad]

Oh amazing, I hope you didn't feel I was too harsh bringing it in at #30! 😅

[@James-1974]

I don't think it's harsh at all; I consider myself lucky to have reached position 30. When I got my first PC with internet access in the late '90s, I discovered the Electron User Group, which was still distributing a monthly disk to subscribers. I signed up and found a homebrew section, which inspired me to bring my BBC Micro out of retirement. Armed with the user guide, I decided to try my hand at creating my own game. I started with a bomber game, and my next effort was Pac 2000. 😂 With the support of the Stardot forum, I continued my hobby with assembly language. In my late 20s, I completed a three-year HND course in applied computing, which has greatly benefited my business career. I learned a lot from Pac 2000, as it provided me with the fundamentals. I even have another Pac-Man clone in development called Pacton! 😁

[@ColinHoad]

Wow, this is awesome to hear! Good on you for keeping the Electron spirit alive well into the late 90s. There are so many stories, too, of how these venerable old 8-bit machines gave people the incentive to get into computing - you and I both included. Looking forward to Pacton when it comes out 😁

[@BigCar2]

Only Colin Hoad can compare Pacman to the central plotline to Les Miserables. Nice!

[@ColinHoad]

Haha I'm glad somebody got the reference 😆

[@LeShark75]

Wow I remember playing Maze Eater on the Cascade Cassette 50. I used to load up the game and run the list so I could amend the layout of the maze. In fact, I used to mess around with most of the games on Cassette 50 in this way. I think I had more fun doing that than actually playing the games.

[@ColinHoad]

Perhaps that is the best legacy the Cascade Cassette 50 could hope for - a BASIC teaching tool, if perhaps not a great gaming experience 😆

[@babadoo1000]

Snapper only made number 2?! The shock made me drop my monocle! (Admittedly I’d never heard of number 1 😁). Oh, and great work as usual.

[@ColinHoad]

Haha if I'd made the video in 2019, Snapper would have won! And thank you, I'm glad you liked it 😊

[@iainlee]

Haven't heard the name Fine Fare for a long time

[@ColinHoad]

Gone the way of Happy Shopper and Safeways, alas

[@brianmartin6296]

I actually bought that Cascade 50 game tape mail order from an Ad in PCN or A&B Computing can't remember. At 13 years old and even with limited gaming experience up to that time even I recall the rock bottom disappointment I felt loading in game after game of complete crap. I think I gave up before reaching their attempted PAC man game shown here. It doesn't look quite as bad as the stuff on the rest of the tape. I must have given up before getting to that one. Great vid Colin.

[@ColinHoad]

Wow, if the Cascade "Pacman" game isn't quite as bad as the rest of the games on that tape, I'm morbidly curious to explore and see what they were all like 😄 Thanks for the kind feedback!

[@craftsmanwoodturner]

I played many, many hours of original Snapper. Great game!

[@ColinHoad]

Excellent stuff 😀

[@adamburgess1287]

Loved Snapper on my Electron :-)

[@ColinHoad]

It's a smashing game!

[@oblongscone]

Peter Jackson managed to bring the Lord of the Rings trilogy successfully to the big screen, but this achievement pales when put next to what is going on here. It's niche, but it's mesmeric.

[@ColinHoad]

Haha that's quite the compliment! Thank you 😄

[@LearnAgon]

🎉 very nice🎉

[@ColinHoad]

Thank you!

[@minionsoft]

Yay! I made it to #8 Sorry its taken me so long to getting round to watching this. But there I am, and higher up than I thought I would be :)

[@ColinHoad]

You brought Ms Pac-Man to the Beeb, thank you 😁 Love your work!

[@tarstarkusz]

I really think you should disqualify 10 line basic compos and frankly, all basic entries. The 10 line games especially are all about getting something that will run, not creating a good game.

[@ColinHoad]

I like having a variety of different types of game to review for these videos, and just because a game is written in BASIC it doesn't have to mean it's bad 🙂

[@tarstarkusz]

@@ColinHoad There are some good basic games, but they are almost never ports of arcade games. Arcade games just don't lend themselves to basic. But, I suppose if you like them, that's good enough.

[@trickysoft]

I started writing my version of space invaders in basic but have up, not because of performances, but because I found it too hard :O

[@tarstarkusz]

@@trickysoft I wrote a Space Invaders type game when I was a teenager in C64 basic. Painfully slow. Though I did write a reasonably quick version of breakout in 64 basic. But it worked much better for card games where animation isn't much of an issue and petscii graphics could make a decent card. BTW... Your work is the best.

[@trickysoft]

@tarstarkusz , thanks, I did a space invaders bird in text mode. Good job you only have to draw one invader and a few shots each frame.

[@mogwaay]

Just started watching, but its got to be Snapper at no1 surely? Right lets see how right i am... 😂

[@ColinHoad]

Haha no spoilers ;-) Resist the chapters!

[@mogwaay]

​@@ColinHoadah ha! Great run down, and may I commend your stamina for playing this many PAC man clones! Will defo check out that Bio Chips one and I think the winner is much deserved, even tho Snapper is my definitive home pacman 😊

[@ColinHoad]

@mogwaay Thank you! Up until a few years ago, Snapper would have been the runaway favourite, but then Tricky came along 😄 Do please give Bio-Chip a play, it's great fun 😁

[@edjack1993]

Hello!

[@ColinHoad]

Hi!