It is a modification of the original Pac-Man by Namco that adds several new features. Unlike other Pac-Man games, Pac-Man Plus was released as a modification kit for Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man cabinets and was never released as a standalone cabinet.
Pac-Man Plus follows the same regular gameplay as the regular Pac-Man with new features. Like the original, the game follows Pac-Man as he tries to eat all the dots in the maze while avoiding the Ghosts: Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde.
Though the game follows regular Pac-Man gameplay, the game begins with higher difficulty, similar to the later rounds in Pac-Man; beginning with faster moving speed and shorter Energizer effects. Eating Energizers and Bonus Fruits will also cause different effects to occur within the maze, among other changes.
Differences from Pac-Man[]
Gameplay differences[]
The gameplay begins with what's similar to Pac-Man's fifth round difficulty, starting with shorter Energizer effects and faster moving game speeds.
Eating an Energizer will cause one of the following effects to occur:
The regular Energizer effects occur, where all four ghosts become scared.
Only three of the ghosts will become scared, while the fourth remains unaffected; although that ghost will reverse direction.
The maze walls and all the remaining Dots will become invisible until the effect of the Energizer wears off.
When a fruit is eaten, the ghosts become vulnerable similar to Energizer effects, but will turn invisible until they begin to flash white. Vulnerable ghosts turned blue through eating fruit use their normal duration times from the original Pac-Man and have their point values doubled.
Visual differences[]
The maze color was changed from blue to teal.
The appearance of Pac-Man and the Ghosts have been modified:
Pac-Man's mouth has been made smaller. The changes also apply to his large sprites during Coffee Breaks and life indicators, with the latter having a rounder body shape.
When moving sideways, the ghosts' eyes were moved a pixel closer together, and when moving up, their eyes were moved a pixel downwards.
Vulnerable Ghosts are now smaller in size and have leaves sticking out of their heads. When flashing, their eyes and mouth remain the same color instead of flashing red.
The bonus fruits' appearances were changed, but remain at the same point values:
Starting in 1981, many bootleg hacks and modifications of Pac-Man were being released. These were easily installed into arcade machines, and altered various functions of the game (different mazes, faster speeds, etc). Many of these were incredibly difficult to play to the point of being borderline unplayable, and could potentially have hurt the Pac-Man brand if wide distribution continued.
To combat this, Midway decided to release their own "official" modified Pac-Man kit, in hopes that arcade operators would see it as a cheap, less shady option to install into Pac-Man machines. This strategy seems to have been moderately successful, but ultimately the bootleg "fast speed" hack was still the most popular Pac-Man modification. (Midway eventually began selling their own version of the speedup kit, which was identical to the bootleg.)
While Pac-Man Plus was initially only released in North America, the game was actually developed by Namco of Japan. The game was produced by Yasunori Yamashita;[1] who, among other Pac-Man titles, also produced the unreleased Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp for overseas markets.
Home Ports[]
Arcade1UP Machine
Many Arcade1UPs featuring Pac-Man Plus have been released (see this page for full list). There have been two directly Pac-Man Plus-themed machines produced, both being full-size models. The game has also been included as an extra on other Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man cabinets.
Mobile
Features enhanced graphics.
More varied and fair twists, like the bonus items having more than one effect, and the power pellets not affecting the ghost that matches the color of the maze.
The intermission music is replaced with a remix of the bonus round theme from Pac & Pal.
Plug & Play TV Games
Many different Plug & Plays featuring Pac-Man Plus have been released (see this page for full list), the earliest being the Super Pac-Man Collection from 2006.
Play Online[]
These versions of Pac-Man Plus are either listed in the public domain or are considered abandonware. Clicking the game title will lead you to a playable online version of it from archive.org (mobile compatibility may vary).
The graphical change for Pac-Man and the ghosts in this game would later be featured in Pac & Pal.
The Cola Can bonus fruit resembles the Coca-Cola can in appearance.
The versions of Pac-Man Plus in Arcade1UP releases modify the appearances of the Cola Can sprites to remove similarities to the Coca-Cola can, presumably to avoid legal issues.
The revision found in the first Arcade1UP release changes the "COL" text and sprite to the words "PAC". The line swirl is also removed.
The revision found in all subsequent releases remove all labels from the can, leaving it completely red.
A game titled Ms. Pac-Man Plus was released around 1983; as its name implies, it is a "plus" version of Ms. Pac-Man. It is currently unconfirmed if the game was actually licensed by Bally Midway, or just an odd bootleg release (see the "rumors" page for more information).
A design document for the original Pac-Man, dated June 1980, shows the Pac-Man Plus vulnerable ghost style (with the leaves in their heads) as a potential alternate option for the Ghosts' design.[2] This document seemingly relates to overseas distribution; this may imply that, for unclear reasons, early licensees were allowed to use either the regular Ghosts or the "Plus" Ghosts in the game.
Cola Can: 100 points.
