How did you feel the day you got 2600 Pac Man?

[tcv]

I remember it very well. My Mom surprised me with it, which was rare because those games were expensive for the family. I went home and got the neighborhood friends together to play it. I do remember some disappointment at how it didn't really look like the real game but, overall, it excited me quite a bit.

 

I can't say it lasted long in the Current pile, though.

[Christophero Sly]

Initially, I was very excited, but then confused and disappointed.

[diggs130]

I never had the displeasure of owning it back in the day!

[Mezrabad]

Betrayed.

[+Wonder007]

I was just happy having it....although I was looking forward to eating something resembling a fruit like a cherry or something...not some blocky thing that looks like a square egg....

[ATARIPITBULL]

Sick too my stomach that Atari would make and release this piece of crap.

 

[Brian R.]

As best I can remember, we were just thrilled to death at being able to play Pac-Man at home, without needing to beg mom and dad for quarters. I don't think the realization that there was something off about it set in until we saw something like, oh, Dig Dug, IIRC. Once we saw what could be done with that game, it made us start wondering just what happened with Pac-Man. And then newer consoles like the Colecovision came along... well, you know how that went.

[SeaGtGruff]

I'd never played the Pac-Man coin-op, so I wasn't disappointed at all by the 2600 version (although my friends who came over to play Atari-- because they didn't have one of their own-- wouldn't stop griping about how awful it was).

 

I remember that it was advertised in the newspaper, and it was supposed to be on sale, so I had my father drive me down to the store that night. When we got there, the salesperson said that the sale didn't start until the following day, but they sold it to us at the sale price, anyway.

 

One thing I remember about the game is how much my father took to it; he even learned some winning patterns on his own!

 

MR

[+atari2600land]

The Atari 2600's heyday was before I was born. I was a baby at the time of the crash, so the first system I ever had was an NES. The first time I loaded it into an emulator was about a year and a half ago and I said to myself "Yes, this is awful as everyone says it is." (I had been reading up on the subject of pre-NES games. Now I have an Atari 2600 and 70+ games!)

Edited October 29, 2006 by atari2600land

[NE146]

As best I can remember, we were just thrilled to death at being able to play Pac-Man at home, without needing to beg mom and dad for quarters. I don't think the realization that there was something off about it set in until we saw something like, oh, Dig Dug

 

Almost the same.. I was thrilled to death at being able to play Pac-Man at home. Although, I was very much cognizant of the differences right off the bat since I was very familiar with the arcade game.

 

I guess I was happy. But I knew it was much less than I was hoping it would be (I had fantasized about trying the patterns at home before the game was released, well that obviously never could happen ) . HOWEVER, I knew it was my Atari and ports of my favorite games always ended up much less than the arcade to varying degrees.. so I pretty much notched it up to that.

Edited October 29, 2006 by NE146

[Uzumaki]

Pac man was big at my old school then. When I got Pac Man for Easter, I had the bragging right of being the first in my class to own it. Today? I'd lie about having one because it really stinks compared to arcade version.

[snorlaxnut]

Before that day=

After that day=

[Gregory DG]

I was happy with it. Like other posters, I didn't have much playtime with the arcade version. Besides, I never once thought that the game's deficiencies were a problem with the hardware. I thought they intentionally made all the changes.

 

Anyway, I was happy to get a genre of game, not necessarily a perfect clone. My 2600 Pac-Man article explains it all.

Edited October 29, 2006 by Gregory DG

[godzillajoe]

I never bought it but a kid up the street got the first copy in our school and boy was he popular for a while. I remember everyone was slobbering all over him to come over and play it. And we liked it. I was 11. I wasn't concerned with flicker or how many "k" they used. It was the closest thing to arcade pac-man at the time and we played the hell out of it.

[kirin jensen]

It was the closest thing to arcade pac-man at the time

 

Unless you owned an Odyssey2... |

[Brian R.]

Pac-Man was among those games that gave me a false idea of how "good" I was at a game. I'd play at home and score big points and have a long game. Then I'd go to the arcade and get my butt kicked.

 

It was probably the difficulty difference I noticed before the graphics. The home versions were easier, it seemed.

 

 

An aside... I know we've had some attempts at a better 2600 Pac-Man, like Pac-Man Arcade and that conversion of Pesco. That's all I seem to be aware of. Could be others, if you know, point them out. But has anyone tried homebrewing a 2600 Pac-Man? I'd like to see what a homebrewer could come up with today, without the limitations Frye was saddled with back in the day, instead of a hack.

Edited October 29, 2006 by Brian R.

[tcv]

That's a good point about the difference between being good at the home game versus the arcade game. I remember always having been pretty good at 2600 Asteroids. I just played it again today after all these years and somehow my memory seemed to exclude the fact that the smaller asteroids still moved the same line as the bigger ones. This made the game infinitely easier than the arcade version.

[NE146]

I just played it again today after all these years and somehow my memory seemed to exclude the fact that the smaller asteroids still moved the same line as the bigger ones. This made the game infinitely easier than the arcade version.

 

You're playing the wrong variation then. Play the even numbered ones (the misnamed "fast" variation).. that will make the smaller ones move diagonally Oh and while you're at it, put the difficulty switch on "A" to turn on the UFO's if you haven't already. I cant count the number of times I've seen people playing 2600 Asteroids without the UFO's and without the fast variation. What a travesty!

 

But has anyone tried homebrewing a 2600 Pac-Man? I'd like to see what a homebrewer could come up with today, without the limitations Frye was saddled with back in the day, instead of a hack.

 

Wasn't DEBRO starting work on one? I'm sure you can find the thread here..

Edited October 29, 2006 by NE146

[godzillajoe]

Wanna get your ass kicked in Asteroids? Play game 32 with difficulty "A" and see how far you get

Edited October 29, 2006 by godzillajoe

[Cheese007]

The first time I loaded it into an emulator was about a year and a half ago and I said to myself "Yes, this is awful as everyone says it is."

Soon after I loaded a game of Mr.s Pac-man, I got stuck in a wall.

[jpfalcon2003]

I never had the displeasure of owning it back in the day!

Same here. Saw screenshots when I learned about here. Somebody is giving me a free one, and it's on it's way. I'm actually excited to get it.

[Foxsolo2000]

I remember seeing it being displayed in my local store and being very excited about its release. My friend Jerry who got every new release had it bought for his birthday and I was so jealous that he owned it. I remember playing it and thinking that something was wrong for it looked and played wrong to the arcade but as the arcade was so damn hard I wasn't that bothered. It wasn't until Ms Pacman turned up that I realised how bad Pac Man actualy was

[accousticguitar]

Ripped off.

[ntavio]

So horrible when I played it at a friend's house. I never bought it.

 

Pacman for the 5200.......Real gem of a game.

[tcv]

Hmmmm... I wonder if age plays any factor in the way folks felt. As far as I know, Pac Man 2600 was released in 1981, which would put me at 10 or 11, depending upon the month. In any case, I'm not sure I was mature enough to care.