Pac-Man (Atari 2600 video game)

Atari 2600 version of Pac Man

Pac Man is a 1982 maze video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. under official license by Namco, and an adaptation of the 1980 hit arcade game of the same name. The player controls the title character, who attempts to consume all of the wafers in a maze while avoiding four ghosts that pursue him. Eating flashing wafers at the corners of the screen causes the ghosts to temporarily turn blue and flee, allowing Pac Man to eat them for bonus points. Once eaten, a ghost is reduced to a pair of eyes, which return to the center of the maze to be restored. Programmed by Tod Frye, Pac Man took six months to complete. Expecting high sales, Atari produced over a million copies of the highly anticipated game and held a "National Pac Man Day" on April 3, 1982 to promote its release. It remains the best selling Atari 2600 game of all time, selling over 8 million copies, and was the all time best selling video game for several years. Despite its commercial success, Pac Man was panned by critics for poor graphics and sound, and for bearing little resemblance to the original game. It has been considered one of the worst video games ever made and one of the worst arcade game ports released on the system.

The player uses a joystick to control Pac Man, navigating him through a maze of consumable dashes called video wafers, opposed by a quartet of multi colored ghosts. The goal of the game is to earn a high score by having Pac Man eat video wafers, power pills, vitamins and ghosts. Every time Pac Man eats all the video wafers in the maze, he earns an extra life and a new maze full of wafers. A group of ghosts roam the maze, trying to eat Pac Man. If one touches Pac Man, he loses a life. Near the corners of the maze are four larger, flashing consumables known as Power Pills that turn the ghosts into a blue transparent colour Pac Man with the temporary ability to eat the ghosts and earn points. Setting the console's A–B difficulty switches can also handicap one or both players. If the switch is set to A, position, the power pills' effects do not last as long. Pac Man for the Atari 2600 has various changes from the original game. The game no longers features collectible items such as fruits or the key, which are now replaced by the and orange box called the vitamin. The game also lacks the cut scenes and sounds from the arcade version. The game has a different maze than the arcade game. The maze in this version of the game is simplified in structure and appearance, lacking the rounded edges lacking the more intricate passages of the arcade and changes the escape passages from the sides to the top and bottom of the screen.

Anticipation for the game was high. Goldman Sachs analyst Richard Simon predicted the sale of 9 million units during 1982, which would yield a profit of $200 million. It was the best selling home video game of 1982, with over 7.2 million cartridges sold that year and over $200 million ( adjusted for inflation) in gross revenue. It replaced Space Invaders as the best selling Atari 2600 title and also became the overall best selling video game up until then (a title it held for several years until eventually being surpassed by Super Mario Bros). Pac Man also propelled Atari VCS sales to 12 million units by 1982. Frye reportedly received $0.10 in royalties per copy. Purchases had slowed by the summer of 1982, with unsold copies available in large quantities. for a total of over cartridges sold by 1990. By 2004, the cartridges were still very common among collectors and enthusiasts—though the Sears versions were rarer—and priced lower. Electronic Games gave the game a rating of four out of ten. Video Games Player magazine gave the graphics and sound its lowest rating of C, while giving the game an overall B− rating. Electronic Fun with Computers & Games
gave it an overall B− rating, with a C rating for graphics. In 1983, Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games reviewer Danny Goodman commented that the game fails as a replica of its arcade form: "Atari stated clearly in its description of the cartridge that Atari's Pac Man 'differs slightly from the original'. That, perhaps, was an understatement." Conversely, he stated that such criticism was unfair because the hardware could not properly emulate the arcade game. Goodman further said that the port is a challenging maze game in its own right, and it would have been a success if fans had not expected to play a game closer to the original. while Softline questioned why Atari opposed Pac Man clones when the 2600 version was less like the original "than any of the pack of imitators". The game has remained poorly rated. Computer and Video Games magazine rated the game 57% in 1989. Next Generation magazine editors in 1998 called it the "worst coin op conversion of all time", and attributed the mass dissatisfaction to its poor quality. Another IGN editor, Levi Buchanan, described it as a "disastrous port", citing the color scheme and flickering ghosts. Skyler Miller of AllGame said that although the game was only a passing resemblance to the original, it was charming despite its many differences and faults.

Initially, the excitement generated by Pac Mans home release prompted retail stores to expand their inventory to sell video games. Drugstores began stocking video game cartridges, and toy retailers vied for new releases. Kmart and J. C. Penney competed against Sears to become the largest vendor of video games. In retrospect, however, critics often cite Atari's Pac Man as a major factor in the drop of consumer confidence in the company, which contributed to the video game crash of 1983. Bill Loguidice and Matt Barton of Gamasutra stated that the game's poor quality damaged the company's reputation. Former Next Generation editor in chief Neil West attributes his longtime skepticism of Atari's quality to the disappointment he had from buying the game as a child. Montfort and Bogost stated that the game's negative reception seeded mistrust in retailers, which was reinforced by later factors that culminated in the crash. Immediately following the announcement, the company's stock value dropped by around 35%—from $54 to $35—amounting to a loss of $1.3 billion in the company's market valuation. Warner admitted that Pac Mans good sales despite poor quality made Atari overconfident about E. T. and Raiders of the Lost Ark, which did not sell well. In 1983, the company decreased its workforce by 30% and lost $356 million. The port was followed by conversions of Pac Mans arcade sequels, Ms. Pac Man and Jr. Pac Man, for the Atari 2600. These used 8 KB ROM cartridges instead of Pac Man'''s 4 KB and dispensed with two player games. They were better received than Atari's first Pac Man title and addressed many critics' complaints of Pac Man''.