Weirdness in Namco 50th Ms. Pac Man

Accutron · Post by **Accutron** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 9:06 pm

I was just watching my wife play Ms. Pac Man, and something really weird happened...

She was on the second screen, moving to the right, near the center right side of the maze. There were two ghosts moving to the left, and she passed through the first ghost, touched the second ghost, reversed direction and passed back through the first ghost a second time, and still didn't die. She said "what the hell?", reversed again, back into the same ghosts and died normally. Has anybody experienced something similar?

Moogs · Post by **Moogs** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 9:41 pm

There was a glitch in the original Pac-Man that would allow you to pass thru a ghost every once in a blue moon. It wasn't something you could do willingly, it would just happen.

Don't know of that happening in Ms. Pac-Man, though.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 10:10 pm

As far as I can tell, a ghost can only affect you if it is looking in your direction, and you can pass through a ghost if it is looking the other way. Not that I could ever repro the bahavior...

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 5:40 am

I saw it once in 1992. Happens once in a blue moon alright. Here. Have a master ball for teh win.

Accutron · Post by **Accutron** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 6:00 am

Thanks for the responses. I never played much Ms. Pac Man, but my wife lived on it when she was a kid, and says she's never seen it do that before. I remember it happening to me once while playing Pac Man in mame, but I chalked it up to an emulation glitch.

PC Engine Fan X! · Post by **PC Engine Fan X!** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 10:44 pm

It happens more often than not, that one can indeed "pass through" a ghost on the full-sized arcade game version of Ms. Pac-Man. It is just that the ghost has to have it's eyes looking elsewhere for you to pass through. If you watch the demo on the actual Ms. Pac-Man arcade cabinet, the CPU controlled Ms. Pac-Man does indeed pass through a ghost (which is of course looking in a different direction).

I've played some very different versions of Ms. Pac-Man (in one version, there was a built-in speed up button that upon pressed actually sped up the entire game with the ghosts & Ms. Pac-Man characters moving very fast...not a fun way to play it IMO).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 11:15 pm

I played a version of ms. pacman once that replaced the cherries with a joint. The levels after that were just food bonus items of course.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 11:45 pm

Yeah, I noticed lots of different versions of Ms. Pac-Man and Pac-Man. I played a version of Pac-Man with circles on one of the boards and one level that has no walls. There's a dentist version of Pac-Man that I have actually seen at an arcade. I have also played the official Ms. Pac-Man Plus and Pac-Man Plus versions with ghosts that have a leaf on their heads and alternate boards for Ms. Pac-Man. One version of Ms. Pac-Man I played had a turbo button where the high speed could be turned on or off. I like how the Tengen home versions of Ms. Pac-Man have a turbo on or off option like some of the arcade hacks.

superhitachi4 · Post by **superhitachi4** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 11:58 pm

Hmm, something similar in the original Pac Man. You can go through the entire center part of the maze if you go up, and down really quick repeatedly. Doesn't work all the time though.

Accutron · Post by **Accutron** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 12:19 am

Ms. Pac Man started out as an aftermarket Pac Man enhancement called Crazy Otto, developed by the same guys who designed the Atari 7800. It had different non-Pac sprites, but was otherwise Ms. Pac Man. Namco did a deal with them, replaced the sprites and Ms. Pac Man was born.

Moogs · Post by **Moogs** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 12:28 am

Accutron wrote:Ms. Pac Man started out as an aftermarket Pac Man enhancement called Crazy Otto, developed by the same guys who designed the Atari 7800. It had different non-Pac sprites, but was otherwise Ms. Pac Man. Namco did a deal with them, replaced the sprites and Ms. Pac Man was born.

And apparently it was because Namco's Japanese division was taking too long in getting out an "official" Pac-Man sequel, which was, in fact, Super Pac-Man.

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 3:48 am

BrianC wrote:Yeah, I noticed lots of different versions of Ms. Pac-Man and Pac-Man. I played a version of Pac-Man with circles on one of the boards and one level that has no walls. There's a dentist version of Pac-Man that I have actually seen at an arcade. I have also played the official Ms. Pac-Man Plus and Pac-Man Plus versions with ghosts that have a leaf on their heads and alternate boards for Ms. Pac-Man. One version of Ms. Pac-Man I played had a turbo button where the high speed could be turned on or off. I like how the Tengen home versions of Ms. Pac-Man have a turbo on or off option like some of the arcade hacks.

The one with the turbo button is "Deluxe Ms. Pac-Man". Hitting it makes the whole game faster- even the ghosts. AFAIR this one is also an official Midway release.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 3:56 am

Accutron wrote:Ms. Pac Man started out as an aftermarket Pac Man enhancement called Crazy Otto, developed by the same guys who designed the Atari 7800. It had different non-Pac sprites, but was otherwise Ms. Pac Man. Namco did a deal with them, replaced the sprites and Ms. Pac Man was born.

Actually, it was Midway that made the deal, not Namco. I'm also not sure if the guys who made the deal with midway made the 7800, but they did make other arcade games. I think they were called something like General Computing Corp. Namco got the rights to Ms. Pac-Man through a lawsuit. They originally had nothing to do with the game.

Accutron · Post by **Accutron** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 4:05 am

BrianC wrote:
Accutron wrote:Ms. Pac Man started out as an aftermarket Pac Man enhancement called Crazy Otto, developed by the same guys who designed the Atari 7800. It had different non-Pac sprites, but was otherwise Ms. Pac Man. Namco did a deal with them, replaced the sprites and Ms. Pac Man was born.
Actually, it was Midway that made the deal, not Namco. I'm also not sure if the guys who made the deal with midway made the 7800, but they did make other arcade games. I think they were called something like General Computing Crop. Namco got the rights to Ms. Pac-Man through a lawsuit. They originally had nothing to do with the game.

Right...it was Midway, not Namco. GCC is definitely the team that made the 7800 though.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 4:09 am

Accutron wrote:
BrianC wrote:
Accutron wrote:Ms. Pac Man started out as an aftermarket Pac Man enhancement called Crazy Otto, developed by the same guys who designed the Atari 7800. It had different non-Pac sprites, but was otherwise Ms. Pac Man. Namco did a deal with them, replaced the sprites and Ms. Pac Man was born.
Actually, it was Midway that made the deal, not Namco. I'm also not sure if the guys who made the deal with midway made the 7800, but they did make other arcade games. I think they were called something like General Computing Crop. Namco got the rights to Ms. Pac-Man through a lawsuit. They originally had nothing to do with the game.
Right...it was Midway, not Namco. GCC is definitely the team that made the 7800 though.

cool. I like the 7800, though I mainly use it for 2600 games. It has a good port of Ballblazer.

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Weirdness in Namco 50th Ms. Pac Man

Weirdness in Namco 50th Ms. Pac Man

Passing through the ghosts in Ms. Pac-Man arcade game...