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Pac & Pal (パック&パル Pakku ando Paru) is an arcade game in the Pac-Man series, released in Japan by Namco in 1983.

Gameplay[]

Rather than building on the foundation of Pac-Man like previous sequels, Pac & Pal moreso follows the Super Pac-Man gameplay formula. The player must flip over Cards to unlock gates, which hold trapped Fruit inside. Unlike previous games, multiple types of fruit appear locked away in each level, ranging in point value from 50 to 5000 points.

New to this game is Pac-Man's "pal", Miru. She helps Pac-Man by collecting fruit alongside him. While this can be considered helpful for simply completing the level, every time Miru collects something instead of Pac-Man, the final level score decreases. For more skilled players, it is best to collect as much fruit as possible for the highest amount of points.

There is a large orange box in the maze's center, which Pac-Man can go in to hide from ghosts; though they can still enter through the sides. As with previous games, hitting a ghost will lose a life, and the game is over when all lives are lost.

Occasionally there are bonus rounds (referred to as "Rest" in-game), in which Pac-Man must flip over as many cards as possible without flipping over the one Blinky is hiding under. Miru will appear under a card as well, which will multiply the round's final score if she is touched. Blinky's card is determined by the second-to-last digit of your score (the last digit is always 0), and it's always in the order of 1 to 0, top to bottom, left to right. Currently it's unknown how Miru's card is determined.

The game is also the first Pac-Man title to feature music during gameplay, as previous games just had a never-ending siren playing in the background. The bonus rounds and high-score table have their own music tracks as well.

Power-Ups[]

This game ditches Power Pellets in exchange for five brand-new power-ups (or rather, 1 power-up with 5 looks), none of which were in previous installments. Every ability turns Pac-Man light blue when eaten, and allows him to shoot something out of his mouth. Two are found in each stage, which are both the same as each other. They include:

  • Galaxian Boss - Gives Pac-Man the ability to temporarily stun the ghosts. A direct reference to the "capture" mechanic from Galaga.
  • Rally-X - Pac-Man spits out smoke, which makes the ghosts' eyes water. A direct reference to the carsmoke from Rally-X and New Rally-X.
  • Trumpet - Pac-Man's trumpet-playing makes the ghosts dance.
  • Snowman - Ice shoots out from Pac-Man's mouth, which traps the ghost in a block of ice.
  • Pac-Replica - Pac-Man sends out a bunch of micro Pac-Men, which nibble on the top of ghosts' heads.
Pacpal shot

Scoring System[]

  • Vulnerable Ghosts:
    • #1 in succession - 200 points.
    • #2 in succession - 400 points.
    • #3 in succession - 800 points.
    • #4 in succession - 1600 points.
  • Power-Ups:
    • PM Galaxian Galaxian Boss: 1000 points
    • 🏎️ Rally X: 1000 points
    • 🎺 Trumpet: 1000 points
    • ⛄ Snowman: 1000 points
    • PM Pacman Pac-Replica: 1000 points
  • Fruit:
    • 🍒 Cherry: 50 points.
    • 🍓 Strawberry: 100 points
    • 🍊 Orange: 150 points
    • 🍎 Apple: 200 points
    • 🍈 Melon: 300 points
    • 🍋 Lemon: 400 points
    • 🍍 Pineapple: 500 points
    • 🔑 Key: 700-5000 points

Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp[]

Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp

Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp

In October 1983, Bally Midway planned to bring Pac & Pal stateside, renamed Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp. This version was identical to the regular game, but replaced Miru with Chomp-Chomp, Pac-Man's pet dog. It is unclear why the character was changed, but it may have just been to appeal more to American audiences.

Midway test-marketed Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp at several arcades in the US, but ultimately canceled full production of the machine; likely caused by the game earning underwhelming profit. Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp was also released in several European countries, being published by Sidam; oddly, the European release was titled "Pac-Man Chomp & Chomp". The European-distributed machine(s) possibly entered full/larger production compared to North America; however, there is very little information on these variants.[1][2]

While only released (or planned for release) in overseas markets, Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp was seemingly developed by Namco of Japan; this is evident by unused graphics data in the ROM. The graphics credit Yasunori Yamashita, who worked on the original Pac & Pal; however, the credit graphics are exclusively in Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp, implying he produced both versions.[3]

While no machines have surfaced, the game's ROM was dumped and is playable in emulators such as MAME. The dumped ROM is likely of a European version, due to it featuring Namco copyrights at the bottom instead of Midway's.

Home Ports[]

  • Arcade1UP Machines
    • Many Arcade1UPs featuring Pac & Pal have been released (see this page for full list). The game has only been included as an extra on other Pac-Man cabinets, with no directly Pac & Pal-themed machine released so far.
  • Nintendo Switch
  • PlayStation 3
  • PlayStation 4
    • Included in Pac-Man Museum +.
  • Plug & Play TV Games
    • Many different Plug & Plays featuring Pac & Pal have been released (see this page for full list), the earliest being the Super Pac-Man Collection from 2006. This was also the game's first proper non-Japanese release.
  • Wii
  • Windows PC
    • Three versions were released. The game was included in Namco History Volume 3, and would later be featured in Pac-Man Museum and Pac-Man Museum +.
  • Xbox 360
    • Included in Pac-Man Museum.
  • Xbox One/Xbox Series
    • Included in Pac-Man Museum +.

No home versions were released in the 1980s, possibly due to the game being less successful than the other Pac-Man titles (particularly its poor overseas distribution). However, artwork of the game was used on the front covers of the NES, MSX and Game Boy ports of Pac-Man in Japan.

The first re-release of the game was in Namco History Volume 3, a Japan-exclusive PC compilation from 1998. The first American release of the game was on the Super Pac-Man Collection Plug & Play from 2006. All ports are based on the original Pac & Pal, with none being based on Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp.

Trivia[]

  • Early concept sketches for Pac & Pal feature power-ups that do not appear in the final game. Some examples include a watermelon (that would let Pac-Man shoot out watermelon seeds), a banana (in which Pac-Man would spit out the banana peel), and an oil canister (which would grant Pac-Man flame breath, literally setting the ghosts on fire).[4]
    • Additionally in these documents, Miru is shown to just be a regular ghost sprite with a bow (lacking her final design changes), and is named “Midori-chan”.[4]
  • Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp was mentioned in the booklet from the soundtrack Namco Arcade 80's; much like the Sidam release, it was mislabeled Pac-Man Chomp & Chomp in its description.
  • Pac & Pal is listed in the "history" section of Pac-Man World 3; despite using the Pac & Pal game name, the section mentions Chomp-Chomp as the companion character instead of Miru.
  • In the instruction manual for the Pac-Land Fantasy Board Game, Chomp-Chomp is shown and is identified as "Pac & Pal's American character"; bizarrely, not mentioning the more relevant detail that he appeared in the American version of Pac-Land.
  • The 1st-place high score theme seems to be a remix of the music from Sweet Licks, a Whac-A-Mole-like game released by Namco in 1981.
  • The "Rest" theme was later remixed for the mobile port of Pac-Man Plus.

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

Machine and Box Art[]

Character Artwork[]

Concept Artwork[]

References[]

  1. "We add, even if without photos, Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp (thanking Vernimark)." http://arcade.retrocampus.com/?p=163
  2. Warranty sticker: http://arcarc.xmission.com/Arcade%20by%20Title/Pacman%20&%20Chomp%20Chomp/pac%20man%20&%20chomp%20chomp.jpg
  3. https://tcrf.net/Pac_%26_Pal
  4. 4.0 4.1 ”376th Arcade Archives Pac & Pal Special!” (https://youtu.be/1gWysSevtEo)
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