Collection essentials #14: Pac-Man (2600)

 

Pac-Man, as you probably know, is one of the most iconic of the early video game greats. So, naturally, people highly anticipated a port on the Atari 2600 to bring the game home. While the Atari version did sell several million copies, this significantly helped contribute to Atari’s downfall. Bringing Pac-Man to Atari 2600 was already going to be an uphill climb, as the low-powered console was becoming more and more outdated and there was no way they were going to 100% faithfully recreate the arcade game as the system lacked the capability to do so. And it turns out that this version didn’t even live up to its already-limited potential (which will be demonstrated by the game I’ll be talking about tomorrow). Some of the charm of the arcade game is gone, for example, the collectible fruit is replaced by a generic rectangle. Perhaps the worst part is that the ghosts constantly flicker in a way that is visually very unappealing (notice how you can only see one ghost in the image here, that’s because the other ones flickered at the moment I snapped the photo). The gameplay is not as good either, though not completely terrible; in a vacuum this is certainly not the worst Atari game. But the millions who bought this version of Pac-Man were left quite disappointed, and it contributed to the souring of public opinion and faith in Atari which snowballed thanks to other bad games at the time. This eventually led to the “video game crash of 1983” in which home video game consoles were seen as a fad on its way out and no retailers wanted to carry them anymore until Nintendo changed all that a couple years later. I love Pac-Man (who doesn’t?), and this is certainly never going to be a go-to version of it for me, but the history and significance behind Atari Pac-Man are what make it essential to my collection.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Collection essentials #390: Valkyrie Profile (PS1)

Image
Here we have a truly marvelous and totally unique RPG from developer “tri-Ace”, whose founders first worked on Tales of Phantasia on the Super Famicom and then went on to form their own studio. Valkyrie Profile probably technically qualifies as a JRPG, but it’s so incredibly unique that saying so doesn’t give you a good idea at all of what the game is actually like, and even future games in its own series don’t even truly resemble it.  As you may guess, this game is loosely based on Norse mythology. The main character Lenneth is a valkyrie, who serves Odin and recruits newly-deceased warriors to fight in a war waged by the gods with the ultimate goal of saving their home Asgard from destruction.  The basic gameplay loop of Valkyrie Profile involves a limited schedule. There are a limited number of “Periods” in the game until the final battle (something the game makes very clear), and performing certain actions such as entering a dungeon or recruiting a warrior take up one or m...
Read more

Intro

Image
  I'm about to start a long-term personal project relating to my video game collection. It's actually something I'm doing mostly for myself, but sharing it with others is certainly a nice little side perk. As you probably already know, I have a large video game collection that would make many nerds jealous! I did the bulk of my collecting from roughly 2012-2018. Now I don't buy nearly as many games as I used to. In fact, in 2021 my collection actually had a net shrinkage because I sold more than I bought. Does that mean I've just been a hoarder all this time and I'm slowly growing to regret my life decisions? HECK no. I feel quite satisfied and vindicated with the legion of games into which I've invested time, energy and resources to assemble and I've merely reached a point of satiation. I scratched all the most important stuff from my bucket list. I purposefully was liberal in my choice of buying stuff because I knew how to find deals and I knew that th...
Read more

Collection essentials #411: The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (N64)

Image
Sometimes Nintendo consoles are only graced with a single Zelda game. But after the success of Ocarina of Time, Nintendo decided that the Nintendo 64 needed a second one, to be developed in much less time, under two years. To help save time, many assets from Ocarina of Time were reused. The basic gameplay elements and physics are all the same, too. And so, at a brief glance, this game may seem like an Ocarina of Time clone. But guess what? Majora’s Mask is actually one of the most unique and creatively-designed games in the series.  The story begins not long after the events of Ocarina of Time. Link is ambushed by a Skull Kid, a type of forest-dwelling humanoid first introduced in the previous game. This Skull Kid is wearing a strange mask. This mask grants special powers, and the Skull Kid places a curse on Link, turning him into a creature called a Deku Scrub. Link then travels to the game’s central location, Clock Town in the land of Termina, and meets a mask salesman there who ...
Read more