Pacmania

Pacmania

Game No.	157
Voting	6.82 points, 17 votes
Company	Mr. Chip Software
Release	1983
Platform	C64, Plus/4
Genre	Arcade
Gamemode	Single player 2 players (in turns)
Operation
Media
Language

Description[edit | edit source]

Through the fame of the arcade game Pac-Man, you did not have to wait long for the first Pac-Man variants. For the C64 this version named Pacmania is rather well-known. This Pac-Man clone is rather close to the arcade original. However, there are the following differences:

The bonus fruits appear randomly somewhere in the labyrinth
All ghosts have the same speed
An eaten ghost regenerates immediately as soon as he has reached the middle of the game area.
Next to the energy pills there are H-fields, which make Pac-Man invisible for some seconds and let him reappear at another randomly chosen place of the labyrinth.
The labyrinths change in every level (there are 8 different labyrinths), also the placement and number of tunnels.

Design[edit | edit source]

... Pac Man in level 1 doing his favourite occupation ...

... all of the 8 possible labyrinths (levels 1-8) ...

Hints[edit | edit source]

Keyboard controls at the start of the game:

1 start game for one player
2 start game for two players

Displays:

Upper border of the screen: points player 1, topscore, points player 2
Lower border of the screen: one fruit = one level done, one star = 8 levels done

Points:

The points that can be reached are lower than in the original.
For each trapped ghost you get 100, 200, 400, max. 800 points.
For fruit you get 100 - 800 points.
For each power-pill you get 25 points.
For each dot you get 5 points.

Solution[edit | edit source]

As the "blue phase" of the ghosts is relatively long and an eaten ghost regenerates rather fast, it is sometimes better to avoid the ghost during this phase and busily eat dots instead.

Cheats[edit | edit source]

The version by "ASS" offers unlimited lives (adjustable for each player) and the choice of the starting level (1-10) as cheat modes. So you can learn each of the 8 possible labyrinths unhurriedly.

Voting[edit | edit source]

Voting of the C64-Wiki users (10=the best vote):
6.82 points at 17 votes (rank 505). You need to be logged in to cast a vote.
C64Games	7	16th September 2007 - "very good" 981 downs
Lemon64	7,5	04th January 2011 - 15 votes

Reviews[edit | edit source]

Werner: "One of the better Pac-Man versions. 8 points."

Shakermaker303: "For me not the thriller, at most average."

H.T.W: "As all ghosts have the same speed - which is already at the beginning rather fast - and there are also 8 different labyrinths, the difficulty grade is a lot higher than with the original. The Hyper-jumps are more a difficulty, as you often materialise directly in front of a ghost and so you are an easy victim. But as everything that looks like Pac-Man and eats dots has a bonus, I also like this version.