9 replies to this topic

[7800Lover]

Who here remembers the 1984 side-scrolling game, Pac-Land? This predated Super Mario Brothers by at least a year! However, the game itself doesn't have hidden places to explore unlike SMB. There's no vines that take you into the clouds or pipes that lead to underground rooms.

Still though, it's quite fun. You play Pac-Man himself. Your mission in this game is to help a fairy get out of Pac-Land and back to her home. After getting the fairy back, you're given special boots and have to get back to your own home. The ghosts however are out to get you. You either have to avoid them or eat them if you can get a power pellet.

Depending on what version of the game you played, the character sprites were different. The Japanese version had a more Japanese Pac-Man with a long nose, different eyes, and a feathered hat. The USA version had Pac-Man and his family resembling their counterparts in the Hanna Barbera cartoon, plus the addition of Pac-Man's pet from said cartoon, Chomp Chomp the dog and Sourpuss the cat.

It wasn't exactly Super Mario Brothers, but I had fun with it either ways. I played it on emulator, but also played it at least once in the arcade at a Sears mini-arcade down south. Also I saw it throughout many arcades in the early-to-mid 1990s. It did have ports to some computers as well as the TG-16 and the Atari Lynx (IMHO, a port to the Atari 7800 would have been awesome).

Anyone else here play Pac-Land?

[Cynicaster]

Played it on Lynx and thought it was pretty dull, to be honest. Maybe I'll check it out in MAME, but I really feel that Pac-man belongs in a maze.

Oh, and he doesn't have legs.

[Kurt_Woloch]

I played it some days ago. I think it was actually inspired by the Hanna-Barbera cartoon as a whole since the background melody is a tune you can hear quite often on the cartoon series. And there are some secrets to explore... if you jump on the hydrants, fruits appear in the windows, and you can push some of the hydrants, cactii and tree stumps to the left in order to reveal some extras.

[schuwalker]

Dare I say Pac-Land is my favorite of the series?

I used to play it quite a bit at Great America amusement park in Gurnee, Il.

Finally found a cab recently w/ sideart still intact (very rare)! And yep, still suck at it! I could never get used to the button
layout for movement....

[racerx]

schuwalker, on Fri Feb 10, 2012 6:39 AM, said:

I used to play it quite a bit at Great America amusement park in Gurnee, Il.

The one by the Rue le Dodge bumper cars or the Eagle? The one by the Eagle isn't even there anymore...it's a kids area.

[Inky]

I could never make it over the jump bpard

[simbalion]

I think a guy I know got a Pac-Land for his party game room. It wasn't working yet when I saw it, now I have to try it!

[schuwalker]

racerx, on Fri Feb 10, 2012 8:30 PM, said:

schuwalker, on Fri Feb 10, 2012 6:39 AM, said:

I used to play it quite a bit at Great America amusement park in Gurnee, Il.

The one by the Rue le Dodge bumper cars or the Eagle? The one by the Eagle isn't even there anymore...it's a kids area.

I'm thinking it was not by the Eagle coaster. But the last time I played Pac-Land there was around '86ish.

I was there recently (meaning 4 years ago) and don't remember an arcade even there anymore....

[Crimefighter]

I couldn't make it past the jump board either...until I read a walkthrough on how to use it correctly. Jump on the board then button mash the run button until you land.

[Dauber]

I've posted before about how my favorite arcade was Bally's Aladdin's Castle at the Lincoln Mall in Matteson, IL. One thing I loved about it was over time they had ALL the Pac-Man games, and always had the latest. Of course as long as I had been going to that arcade they had Pac-Man and several Ms. Pac-Mans, including the cocktail table. I remember playing Baby Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man there when they were new. Never did play Professor Pac-Man, though; that would have been a waste of a token. And they even had Pac Man & Chomp-Chomp -- which many years later I found out was really a different came called Pac-n-Pal, customized so that the "pal" was Chomp-Chomp from the cartoon.

Having said that, when the Pac-Man cartoon was on on Saturdays, I watched it religiously. So when Pac-Land came to Aladdin's Castle, I freakin' LOVED it. For the longest time it was my favorite of all the Pac-Man games. Always saved it for my last token at Aladdin's Castle.

I haven't seen a good home conversion of it, though; all the ones I've seen suck...too slow, choppy graphics...

One secret I'm surprised I didn't see mentioned....depending on how the DIP switches are set, there's a certain fire hydrant or cactus or something that will warp you straight to the end of the level, coming back home to Pepper and Pac-Baby...