PacMan on the Atari 2600 | Plus Sequels and the 4k Homebrew!

[@Emceemur]

Dude, what a treat. Im a pac-maniac so Im a little biased but what a phenomenal video. That Pac 4K is tight. I didn’t know about that and I would definitely buy it. The old 2600 versions are playable but its hardly worth it. I just pop in the 7800 one. And I’ll agree, Intellivision blows ass. Not my opinion, it literally does blow ass. I’ve been through 4 of em. Absolute trash with generic games. If someone is nostalgic for it, it’s because they maybe had one as a kid and I respect that. But the fact is, it’s a turd. Inturdavision.

[@GenXGrownUp]

Man, does my heart good to see a fellow pac-maniac enjoy our little retrospective. I will say Colecovision had a far superior Donkey Kong port (was a pack-in, IIRC), but for sheer nostalgia, nothing beats the VCS in my book!

[@Emceemur]

Colecovision was a fine machine. Cut some teeth on that for sure. Mr. Do, Looping, Smurfs & Donkey Kong were just a few we played a lot of. I really don’t mean to hate on Intellivision unnecessarily, but it miffs me when someone pulls that out their ass like it was some marvel of modern technology. Every game was generic as shit. The names of the games alone could put you to sleep.

[@topsdaily_productions]

Do you have the fizz creations Pac Man LCD keyring?

[@Emceemur]

Alas, I do not.

[@topsdaily_productions]

@@Emceemur hahaha, no doubt about it considering its expensive and 100× worse than every other version of pac man

[@mikeburkhart8336]

PacMan on Atari 2600 was an example of not understanding your customers,it sold a lot but it was also returned to stores a lot. I actually found it fun because of all the different modes of play the game had. (The prize was called a vitamin.)

[@markbowman5515]

This is my favorite vintage cart. It fell way short when I was a kid but I love it now.

[@GenXGrownUp]

I played the heck out of it, despite its shortcomings. Did you see that this version was (sort of) included in the Tiny Atari 2600? kzbin.info/www/bejne/eZ_caZKwjKiMp5I

[@dlancer2k]

Ms. Pac-Man was an 8k cartridge, and Jr. Pac-Man was a 16k cartridge.

[@GenXGrownUp]

And it shows. Yet look what can be accomplished in 4K with some modern ingenuity.

[@antonnym214]

Nice reporting. All those subsequent versions were major improvements. How could they not be? I think the real problem Todd Frye had was not enough time. It had to be out by Christmas, and he had a hard deadline. It would be fair to say everyone else had more development time than Todd did. P.S. on the real arcade version, and especially the cabaret table version, I was the MAESTRO. I knew all the patterns and was good enough I didn't have to stick to them anyway. All good wishes.

[@philipdefibaugh5683]

Pacman 2600 is a nightmare that makes E.T. fun to play.

[@GenXGrownUp]

E.T. doesn't need Pac-Man's help -- it's already fun to play!

[@raykelley4585]

I'm pretty sure that Pac-Man 4K was the version included on my Flashback handheld. An impressive port, but the sprite flicker is pretty brutal. Still, when I booted it up I immediately knew it wasn't the original 2600 version. It looks way too good.

[@GenXGrownUp]

Which FB handheld was this, Ray? I have one of them and Pac-Man wasn't included on it at all.

[@raykelley4585]

The one I bought this past Christmas with 70 games built in and an SD slot. It shows a pic of the old box art, but it looks like 4K.

[@GenXGrownUp]

Roger that. Must be the newer one. I did a review of the first handheld FB unit just a few weeks ago: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hZPOinmlfZigoLc

[@raykelley4585]

Yeah, it's exactly like that one but updated with more games, I guess. Nice little unit.

[@GenXGrownUp]

I was debating getting the updated one, but with SD card expansion it hardly seemed necessary to buy the updated edition. I've got hundreds more carts right there on the card for free! Thanks for checking out GXG -- hope to see you around more in the future.

[@karasstig1207]

Excellent video. I played the hell out of pacman back-in the day, it was the only was i was able to play it. The closest arcade was far enough that it was a once a month visit at best. Now i own all three and admittedly the one i go back to most is ms pacman. Thank you for the great content

[@GenXGrownUp]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@CarrotDugTooDeep]

I was absolutely addicted to arcade Pac-Man and would spend every quarter I got my hands on in those machines. I was so excited to get the Atari 2600 version until I plugged in the cartridge. I think at that moment, I was the most disappointed that I have ever been in my life, even through to today. The build-up to the release date and the anticipation placed my expectations way too high. About 10 years later, I actually bought a full-size arcade from an amusement company for $300. I lucked out, because it was still original and had not been converted to Ms. Pac-Man. It was well used, but worked great. I still have that machine and still works. I did recap the monitor to correct a video issue. I probably would not have bought the machine if Atari had released Pac-Man 4K instead of the garbage that they released in 1982. I recently bought an Atari 400, because I remember wanting one as a kid. I knew that it at least had a version of Pac-Man that was way better than the 2600 had, but I got older and forgot about those old systems. The 400 that I got on Ebay was in pristine condition and came with Pac-Man and two other games. I was finally able to relive that childhood moment of my anticipation of the release of Pac-Man and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Atari 400 8-bit version was exactly what I thought the 2600 version was going to be back in 1982. I just wish I could have had either the 2600 Pac-Man 4K or the 8-bit versions back when I was a kid. It would have saved my parents a lot of quarters...

[@GenXGrownUp]

You're singing my song, Carrot. I graduated from my 2600 to an Atari 800 8-bit, and the console ports that came to the 8-bit Ataris were pretty great! If you decide to stick around and check out more of our content, you'll find a healthy bias toward Atari products, thanks to my childhood! 😊

[@sandal_thong]

I think Pac-Man sold over 8 million carts for the 2600, and over 5 million consoles. Maybe if they had retired the 2600 (previously called the VCS) or not released Pac-Man for it, then "Pac-Man Fever" would have sold as many computers or 5200 consoles. I think they pushed another 2 million carts by bundling them with the Combat and the 2600 consoles in 1983. Maybe a better Pac-Man might have sold another 2 million carts in 1982. Disappointment is a B****. Donkey Kong followed the same pattern: it was a must have game in 1982, used a 4K ROM, and was the no. 3 game, selling 4 million carts on the 2600. But disappointing. Atari said they expected to increase profits in 1982 by 50% but investors panicked late that year when they revised it to a 15% increase. Perhaps they didn't think people would buy good games for the 2600 from Activision, Imagic, and Parker Bros. and did expect people to buy the 5200?

[@theretrogamerfromatariland2021]

Hey actually Atari made the background and maze that color so it would redouce screen burn

[@GenXGrownUp]

Did you just "Um, actually" me twice on the same video? 😜

[@SaintLewisMusic]

That 4K remake is amazing!

[@TomJones-wi4nh]

There are multiple online interviews with the OG’s programmer where’s he’s invariably grilled (politely) over why his version was so off the mark from the original. There were the obligatory valid points around budget restrictions and time constraints, but the real problem was that he thought that selling a game that was like PacMan in spirit was more important than making a game faithful to the original. Hiring someone who didn’t have a passion to bring the real arcade experience into the home console realm did the final product no favours. This was Atari’s version of No Mans Sky. Over promise and under deliver.

[@GenXGrownUp]

I expect the financial prospect of releasing a Pac-Man port was overwhelming, but it reminds me of HSW's decision to take the assignment for a Star Castle port and morph it into Yars'. Might have been a better direction for the title, and who knows what classic we were deprived of!

[@TomJones-wi4nh]

@@GenXGrownUp YR wasn’t bad. Next to Empire Strikes back, it was one of my favourite 2600 titles. Considering what they were able to do with the Asteroids port, you’re right, it would have been too cool to see what Star Castles would have been like.

[@brianhenson4128]

I think I tried the pacmac 4g on the 2018 atrari flashback portable. Am I right? The only thing I don't like is the flickering ghost makes it hard to see on the portable. Guess I will have to try it on the TV. Luv. Your shows guys.

[@GenXGrownUp]

Oooh, was that on the 2018 portable? I have the 2017 flavor of that and didn't see it there - interesting! 😀 Glad you're watching & enjoying, Brian. Hope you'll subscribe and check out much more of our GenX-inspired content!

[@johnlewisbrooks]

I just checked how big the coding of a 4kb would be and it's about a half page of typing on notepad! We're talking EXTREME limitations

[@GenXGrownUp]

Right? It still amazes me to this day that many of our favorite games were even possible with those sorts of limitations!

[@sandal_thong]

@@GenXGrownUp I disagree with your comment at the end: "the more limitations there are, the more it forces developers to innovate...." Looking at the Magnavox Odyssey² games, it seems one developer/programmer did almost all the games, and perhaps didn't try very hard. I think it was competition between programmers that pushed the capabilities of the VCS/2600 through 1981-3. Some Odyssey² games in 1983 look better than what came before once Imagic and Parker Bros. released their games for the system. I also wonder what might have been done if games were made by a team before 1983, with a sound/music person and a graphics person. The one-person-does-it-all really hurt some releases in 1982, like Pac-Man.

[@bmkretrogaming7634]

Great video! Liked, and subscribed.

[@GenXGrownUp]

Thanks for the watch, the kind words, and your viewership! 😊

[@bmkretrogaming7634]

@@GenXGrownUp you're welcome! Whenever one of my channel's videos has content that one of your videos would be relevant to I'll be sure to include a recommendation, and a link.

[@sonicexereaper6814]

I’m glad to have grown up with original Pac-Man on PS2 with Namco Museum. But flash forward now where my young self is still learning Atari, even owning Retron 77 and 23 Atari game cartridges, Pac-man was quite an interesting specimen. I remember booting it up and man, I can already felt the disappointment to Atari gamers expecting the game to be like the arcade or like commercials. Honestly, this game wouldn’t have been bad if it weren’t for the ghosts flickering and teleporting by random frames. Also, from what I’ve learned it’s one of those games that was rushed out to meet sales, which is the same flaw that killed ET’s reputation and caused the video game crash. From what we can tell, it’s never bright to rush out games to meet a certain demand. Pac-man 4k was a great example that a good game deserves a lot of time to make it all perfect for the consumers from foundation to gameplay testing. Atari just only cared about meeting sale demands, which backfired onto their face instantly, not even Ms. Pac-Man nor Pac-Man Jr. was enough to restore the gaming industry nor Atari’s reputation. And NGL, even to this day, we still corporates that continue to repeat the same mistake Atari did, except the downside is that gaming is extremely huge and popular that rushed games continue to be swept under the rug and companies are being easily forgiven by clueless consumers. Guess gaming history continues to repeat itself throughout the following years.

[@theretrogamerfromatariland2021]

Hey just to let you know Pac-Man 4K used different tools and time to make it and even the sound used a different sound maker

[@GenXGrownUp]

I do know. Still lives within the same size constraints, though, which is pretty doggone amazing!

[@bmkretrogaming7634]

Great video! I own a copy of the original Atari VCS/2600 port myself. It's not really a bad game if one doesn't compare/contrast it to the arcade cabinet original. Will be including a recommendation, and a link to your video on my channel's review video of the original Atari VCS/2600 port Wednesday.

[@GenXGrownUp]

Cool, BMK. Thanks for watching!

[@bmkretrogaming7634]

@@GenXGrownUp you're welcome!

[@ricardomendez7803]

Great video thanks - I’ve subscribed. Can you post another link to where you got the USB Joystick please. The one in the link doesn’t work for me…unless it is for the US only?

[@GenXGrownUp]

Sure. Thanks for asking. The CX-40-styled one comes and goes, but this one stays in stock pretty well: amz.run/6rvI

[@ricardomendez7803]

Thank you

[@katmacoconnor]

“… the ghosts kind of do a little dance…” 😄

[@GenXGrownUp]

They do!

[@Andros2709]

Another strange design decision in Pac-Man 2600: all points were divided by 10.

[@philipdefibaugh5683]

This has NO intermission spots

[@GenXGrownUp]

Oh, absolutely not! 😜

[@ButterSpider3]

So true! I wanted that game sooooo bad. But when I actually got it..... I was soooo disappointed. It sucked SO BAD! worst Atari game ever. Even worse than ET!

[@GenXGrownUp]

Hey, don't be bad-mouthin' E.T.! BTW, good to see you started perusing our back-catalog, Spider!

[@HunterA158]

It was still really fun. Unlike et😂 ms pac man was a lot better

[@GenXGrownUp]

I still enjoyed ET, believe it or not!

[@pjimmbojimmbo1990]

Would have saved me from buying an Atari 800

[@GenXGrownUp]

How's that?

[@pjimmbojimmbo1990]

@@GenXGrownUp I bought the Atari 800, just to play Pac Man, in 82.

[@sandal_thong]

@@pjimmbojimmbo1990 If it wasn't available on the 2600, for instance if they planned to retire the system January 1982, then a lot of people might have bought an Atari 400, 800 or 5200 consoles just to play Pac-Man!

[@shadowsteve68]

Atari appointed a bad programmer who turned out the heap of trash you see here.

[@GenXGrownUp]

Tod Frye wasn't a poor developer. There's almost always more to the story.

[@Dinosaurprince]

The creator of the game has come out a multitude of times explaining why the game was, what it was. This video is irrelevant.

[@GenXGrownUp]

I disagree.

[@sandal_thong]

There were 8 million Pac-Man sold, 4 million Donkey Kong sold, and 2+ million E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial sold for the 2600. These are successful numbers but games that are considered disappointments. Videos of interviews with the designers show them justifying their products (perhaps not willing to take the blame). But independent videos are needed to show or ask what might have been. Like what if they used an 8K ROM? Designer for Donkey Kong said, "I still wouldn't have had time" and "We couldn't have manufactured more than 4 million." Really? What if they had help by a graphics artist and a sound/music specialist, and a "senior" programmer that knew some coding tricks?