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Well, if you're going to play it, why not play the officially licensed version. It came a bit late in the day (4 years after the arcade original), but all the original features are here: power pills, ghosts and tunnels. A classic.

PAC-MAN
Atarisoft / £9.95
The Pac-man, as usual, scores points by eating all the dots in the maze while avoiding the pursuing ghosts. There are four flashing power pills, located one in each corner of the screen.
Owen It's totally unoriginal, but that doesn't make a bit of difference to the playability. The speed increases as you progress and the colour is just right.

Ian Atari has Spectrumised its old favourite - it's just as good as the original and is not likely to be equalled. It's also nice that all the sound effects have been included.

Frank Technically it's as good as most other Pacman type games and no doubt some people will go for it. However, there must be better similar games now available, even though the speed gets quite challenging.

Pac Man is probably one of the most famous arcade games ever, and this conversion by Atarisoft was released for the ZX Spectrum in 1984. The arcade game had first hit Japan in 1980, with units popping up in the USA shortly after. For the ZX Spectrum (and general home gamers) the 1984 release was probably a little too late.

Almost everyone in the known galaxy knows Pac Man, but for those of you who have been living on Dantooine for the last thirty years, here is a quick rundown:

ZX Spectrum Games Pac Man
The player controlled Pac-Man through a maze eating pac-dots. If you managed to eat all of the dots Pac-Man was taken to the next stage. All the while, four ghosts (Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde) roamed the maze trying to catch Pac-Man. If a ghost touched Pac-Man, a life was lost. Once all lives had been lost the game was over. Pac-Man could be awarded a single bonus life at 10,000 points - if you were a competent player.

Near the four corners of the maze were larger flashing dots known as power pills. These pills empowered Pac-Man with a temporary ability to eat the ghosts. When this was active the ghosts would turn a light blue (cyan) colour, reverse direction, and usually move more slowly.

Pac Man ZX Spectrum
When a ghost was eaten, its eyes returned to the 'ghost home' (in the centre of the maze) where it was regenerated. Blue ghosts flashed white before they turned dangerous again and the amount of time the ghosts remained vulnerable varied from one level to the next. The time period generally became shorter as you progressed through the game.

In addition to Pac-dots and power pills, bonus fruits appeared near the center of the maze which could be munched for extra bonus points. These items increased in points value throughout the game.

On Release:
When Pac Man was released for the ZX Spectrum, the arcade game had already been on the go for around four years. Whist still popular, arcade goers and Speccy gamers had been treated to far more advanced offerings, and Pac Man was unfortunately a little bit 'old hat'. Still, it was nice to have an official conversion of the game - (there had been blatant copies of Pac Man such as Munchman) it's just a shame that the ZX Spectrum could not quite capture the magic of the original game. The famous Pac tune and sound effects could not be reproduced which was (and still is) part of Pac Man's charm.

The test of time:
Unfortunately old father time has not been kind to the ZX Spectrum version of Pac Man. Here in the land of ZX Spectrum games we acknowledge that Pac Man is a landmark in gaming history - but this version here is not a landmark in ZX Spectrum gaming history. The version was barely adequate at the time, and these days it really does not hold up. Worth a go purely for nostalgia.

GENRE: Arcade Game
RELEASE DATE: 1984
RELEASED BY: AtariSoft
DEVELOPER(S): AtariSoft
PRICE:?