The History of Pac-land Arcade console documentary

wakka wakka wakka in 1980 a gaming revolution was unleashed upon the world this revolution ushered in the golden age of arcades and along with it spawned many classic arcade franchises that are still remembered fondly to this day the revolution of course was pac-man and is still going strong over 40 years later after generating over 15 billion dollars in revenue and spanning everything from t-shirts to board games to toys and even a hit single by the name of pac-man fever we're not here to talk about the original dot gobbling pac-man though we are also not here to talk about the lipstick wearing beauty mark bearing ms pac-man we're not even here to talk about the perpetually sucking baby pac-man we are going to talk about the entire pac-man family who just happened to reside in a little place called pacland what world famous video game designer was inspired by the creation of this game what famous sports game influenced the design of this game let's find out as we check out the history of pacland the year is 1984 and namco was still riding high from the success of not only the original pac-man but ms pac-man as well we can't go any further until i talk about the creation of the original pac-man the game was designed by toru iwatani who was a veteran game designer with arcade manufacturer namco towards the end of 1979 mr iwatani had wanted to broaden the appeal of his games to appeal to everyone and not just a male demographic he set out to create a game that females could also enjoy with cute colorful pastel graphics at the time arcades were seen as a seedy type of environment and he thought a bright colorful cheerful game might change that perception the iconic image of pacman was said to have been visualized when mr iwatani was eating a pizza and had removed one slice from the full pie the power pellets that pacman uses to take care of the ghost was inspired by popeye and his spinach inky blinky pinky and clyde those dastardly ghosts from the game were inspired by casper the friendly ghost and his cousins the game was an average success in japan but it really exploded when it released in north america and europe as i mentioned the pac-man brand was on just about everything and it was even a successful cartoon on saturday mornings on abc [Music] oh i must have those [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] which brings us back to 1984. after a couple of average additions to the pac-man franchise including pac-man plus and super pac-man of which i was always big fans of they had wanted to try something different namco development division one director yoshihiro kishimoto had noticed how popular the pac-man cartoon was on saturday mornings in north america he loved the family aspect of the series and felt that a game based around this concept would bring in even more gamers he didn't want to create another maze game though but instead flip it on its side creating a platform title with everything you loved about pac-man from the ghosts to the power pellets to the chase he also wanted to include lots of secrets for the players to find which would increase the replay volume it was his goal from day one to have the graphics match the cartoon as closely as possible mr kishimoto had said at the time most arcade games used between three to four frames of animation per character but this was very unconvincing for what he wanted to do his goal was for everything from the character sprites to the backgrounds to be vibrant and colorful just like the cartoon the pac-man sprite himself included 24 frames of animation with multiple costume changes and several facial expressions to allow that two-player lovely sexy parallax scrolling the development team created a brand new board called the namco packland arcadeboard mr kishimoto had loved the arcade game track and field and thought it was a novel concept for a pac-man game to not use a joystick but buttons instead the control layout is one button for running left one button for running right and one button for jumping the main goal of the game is to run from left to right or right to left avoiding all the obstacles and prep falls that the numerous ghosts have to offer you have to do all this while transporting a fairy back to fairyland under your hat one part in particular is exactly like track and field while other times it feels like the old arcade game hunchback which i used to play a lot back in the day the following year shigeru miyamoto would go on to rock the video gaming world even more by releasing super mario brothers he has said in interviews that he was influenced by this game but later said that it was only the color of the sky and pacland that influenced his own backgrounds in super mario at the very least the game design can be seen to be influential in the creation of other platform games such as ghosts and goblins and wonderboy packland was released into the arcades in 1984. you take on the role of pac-man in this early side-scrolling adventure in which you have to transport a fairy under your hat back to fairyland the game is divided into trips of which you have eight and four sections in each for a total of 32 levels it won't be easy though as you have to traverse over mountains towns and castles your evil rogues gallery of inky blinky pinky and clyde are hot on your tail so you have to avoid them along with plenty of other obstacles that are in your way in certain versions of the game the ghost sue is renamed to doris for some odd reason perhaps she was adopted the ghosts have obviously gone back to school because now they drive cars pilot airplanes pilot flying saucers and even bounce on pogo sticks to take you out these ghosts are so ruthless now that they will even throw their offspring out of the plane to take you down various obstacles will also obliterate paths such as cacti quicksand and fire hydrants you also will encounter a springboard over a large pool of water which was the bane of my existence when i first started playing this game back in the day because i just couldn't figure it out you have to run and jump on the springboard and tap both run buttons in succession just like track and field to make it across the watery grave as i mentioned the game is littered with hidden secrets and power for example by pushing various fire hydrants in the correct order you could unlock a hat for pac-man to wear which protects him from all of the deadly falling baby ghosts also hidden is the invisibility up which not only turns you crystal clear but the ghosts are no longer harmful to the touch thankfully you do have power pellets which turns the tables on those evil no-good fandoms allowing you to munch the night away at the end of each round you earn bonus points by jumping depending on how far off the ground you are speaking of bonuses it wouldn't be a pac-man game if you couldn't collect fruit so we have our usual assortment of cherries strawberries peaches apples and grapes various other power-ups include lucky pack which gives you a time bonus special pack which will give you an extra life a galaxy inn which will give you a 7650 point bonus and balloons which will also have varying point bonuses since there are 32 levels in the game each one only takes about a minute or so to complete and there is a time limit so you have to be on your toes and get through each level as fast as you can a running pacman can jump a lot higher allowing you to access bonus items you ordinarily wouldn't be able to reach once you reach fairyland you are granted a magic pair of boots that lets pac-man jump in mid-air which means even more bonuses as you jump above water and avoid a lot of the obstacles including ghosts you are also on your return trip home so you are running to the left instead of the right once you get back home your entire pack family is waiting for you including your faithful dog chomp chomp and your cat sour puss the various levels that you have to traverse are the town [Music] the forest [Music] mountains [Music] the desert [Music] a bridge [Music] and a castle [Music] on the bridge and castle levels there are keys to locate and other puzzle solving elements that are to be used to complete the level the graphics are really well done especially for an early 1984 title they are reminiscent of the abc saturday morning cartoon and how about that music a nice little rendition of the cartoon theme song plays in the background and it still sounds great 37 years later it did go through a couple of changes when it was released in north america the characters were modified to look more like the saturday morning cartoon by adding whites to pac-man's eyes and also changing his hat ever so slightly the designs for ms pac-man and baby pac-man were changed completely they also added chomp chomp and sour posts to the pack family when you have your pack reunion instead of the ferry floating by on the trip screen they instead show either chomp chomp or sourpuss running by certain versions of the game also show a church in the background complete with a cross on top of the steeple at the end of the level this was censored for the north american release but it does show up in certain home computer ports as well as the japanese version pacland was a massive hit when it was released back in 1984 and it holds the distinction of being a video game based on a cartoon based on a video game it was so popular in japan it received its own board game as well as a handheld lcd game but unfortunately it was released only in japan it received its very own stage in super smash brothers for the wii u as you can see it's a faithful recreation of the original backgrounds and it's such a nice little treat for any fan of packland [Music] packland was released for a number of home systems including the geochronoducie which was a hybrid personal translator gaming device only eight games were released and pacland was one of them it is very similar to the standalone pacland lcd but there are some differences the game was ported to a number of home computers and systems with varying degrees of success let's start this off by taking a look at the rarely seen nec pc 8000 version which was an 8-bit computer released only in japan there weren't a whole lot of games released for the system with many of those being arcade conversions visually pac-lan doesn't look too bad with large colorful sprites and fairly detailed backgrounds what really lets it down is the extremely choppy scrolling i swear i had three seizures trying to play this game it's a pity because it does control very well and the music is fantastic if you don't mind fat chunky scrolling then you just might like this version [Music] the famicom version is up next and this game should come with a pair of glasses because the sprites are extremely small with pac-man especially looking like a gumball with feet the colors are also very washed out and dull with uninspired backgrounds the music though is very good with that catchy little pac-man theme we all know and love the control scheme is a bit odd having to use the fire buttons to run and the d-pad to jump there is no other option either if you don't mind sitting an inch from your screen just to see what's going on then be sure and check this version out [Music] let's go from the smallest of smalls to the highest of highs and check out the pc engine version this is extremely faithful to the source material with not only the same cartoon visuals as found in the arcade original but also it sounds great too there are even extras in this version such as cut scenes and unlimited continues which you will definitely need almost everything from the arcade game is here including all of the secrets this was definitely one of the best home versions you could get on a home system back in 1989 [Music] when it comes to the powerful 16-bit amiga computer you would think it would be able to handle a decent conversion of pack land graphically it looks very similar although not quite as colorful but the big letdown is the scrolling while nowhere near as bad as the pc8000 it is jittery and nowhere near as smooth as the arcade game it's not bad but just not what could have been if more time had been taken with this conversion it appears to have been just the port of the atari st which would explain a lot the music is really good but the playability is only average at best the collision detection is not the greatest but the controls seem just a bit off [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a prototype surfaced recently of an earlier version for the amiga that was scrapped for some reason this one is much better with very smooth scrolling along with music and sound effects as you can see it's leaves and bounds ahead of the original version hey [Music] the atari st version is very similar to the amiga although it is a bit slower in game speed the scrolling is also a bit more jittery which is a shame because everything else looks pretty good the music and sound effects are decent although not quite as good as on the amiga control wise it's pretty much the same with the same collision detection problems presented in this version as well one [Music] let's stick with the atari line and look at the fantastic atari lynx version this one is very good with the same cartoon visuals as found in the arcade game the colors are nice and vibrant and the sprites are large and in charge which you will need especially if you're playing it on a real atari lynx and its small screen even the multi-layered parallax scrolling makes it over and it looks great sound effects and music are perfect for that same familiar pac-lan jingle playing in the background the controls are nice and tight but it is rather difficult with only three lives and no continues if you ever needed a little pack on the go then this is the game for you [Music] the amstrad version looks pretty good and surprisingly it's not a spectrum port which means we get loads of color and really good music unfortunately the screen doesn't scroll instead using a flick screen method which does hurt the playability just a bit it actually runs a little bit too slow when compared to the arcade game but that doesn't make it unplayable the music is really good and the controls feel fine if you can get used to the slower gameplay speed [Music] speaking of the spectrum let's go ahead and take a look at it if you don't mind your games being a member of the urination domination then i'm sure you'll enjoy the colors in this one the backgrounds are fairly detailed although the sprites do look really nice similar to the amstrad the screen does not scroll but at least the gameplay is a bit faster putting it more in line with the arcade game you also needed 128k of memory just for music in the background while we play but if you had it it sounds great the controls are good although the collision detection once again rears its ugly head [Music] let's stick with the monochromes just a little bit longer and take a look at the msx version this was clearly a port of the spectrum only running a little bit slower which means the controls are once again just a tad bit off [Music] the good old commodore 64 version is up next and this is absolutely the best 8-bit computer port everything from the arcade game has been included although obviously scaled back the graphics are a little bit chunkier and the colors are a little bit more washed out but don't let that stop you gameplay-wise it feels like the arcade game and that's what's important the scrolling is nice and smooth and the speed of the game is what you would expect if you are a fan of pacland the music and sound effects are fantastic and that tune will be jingling around in your head for days if not years another stellar conversion for the commodore 64. [Music] the cream of the crop would have to be the x 68 000 version this is pretty much arcade perfect with spot-on visuals sounds and controls which can be modified to your liking this is not running under emulation but is an actual conversion this was an expensive machine back in the day but if you were able to afford one and loved paclan then this game was a no-brainer [Music] the game was also released as part of damn go museum volume 4 which was released for the original playstation this is running under emulation so it's arcade perfect also in 2014 the famicom version was released on the wii u e shop 2014 must have been the year of the pack because pac-man museum was released for playstation 3 xbox 360 and pc it was also released as part of the namco arcade for ios and android platforms pack land was another mega hit in the pac-man franchise for namco they tried something new with the gameplay and it turned out fabulous here we are 37 years later and still talking about what a perfect game this is if you've never had a chance to bounce around pacland be sure and give this game a shot you'll be glad you did if you like this video be sure to like share comment and subscribe also if you would like to support me on patreon please click the link below thank you all so much for watching you

Channel: PatmanQC - History of arcade game documentaries

Views: 32,241

Keywords: NES, arcade, SNES, amputee, Xbox, PlayStation, Sony, Nintendo, Sega, Microsoft, retro, video, gamesAtari, Colecovision, Intellivision, Jaguar, entertainment, system, Game, Boy, Genesis, Mega, drive, CD, X68000, Amstrad, spectrum, MSX, 2600, 5200, 7800, 400, 800, 1200, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, 360, one, switch, GameCube, wii, wii-u, namco, Ms. Pac-Man, baby Pac-Man, super Pac-Man, Pac-Man, Midway, ABC, cartoon, iwatani, shigeru miyamoto, Inky, pinky, blInky, Clyde, prototype

Id: xaOZeVTdmCI

Length: 24min 7sec (1447 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 16 2021