******************************************************************************* Pac-Man for Atari 8-bit Computers FAQ by BHodges Version 1.0 Created 11/16/03 This document Copyright 2003 by Brian Hodges. This FAQ is not to be posted without explicit permission by me. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. ******************************************************************************* Table of Contents I. Introduction II. Pac-Man Strategy School III. Getting Started IV. Basic Gameplay A. Playing the Game B. Scoring V. Mazes A. Maze Map B. Maze Information Chart VI. Goblin Guide A. Shadow / Blinky B. Speedy / Pinky C. Bashful / Inky D. Pokey / Clyde VII. Advanced Strategies VIII. My Top Score IX. Game Review X. Version History XI. Contact Information ******************************************************************************* I. Introduction This is a FAQ for the Atari 8-bit computer game Pac-Man. It contains information on how to play the game and a mini-review, as well as some nuggets from the instruction book. ******************************************************************************* II. Pac-Man Strategy School The following is taken from the instruction book. It is sort of like a background story and a tip guide rolled into one. At the time I thought it was pretty cool (then again I was only four), but besides the cartoon, it is the closest thing I have ever seen to a background story for Pac-Man. Picture: There are over a dozen Pac-Men and one Pac-Woman (NOT Ms. Pac-Man) crowded around a miniature of the maze. On the maze are models of Pac-Man and the goblins. One of the cadets is moving the Pac-Man around while the two instructors give tips and encouragement. Dialogue: "At ease, Cadets. Welcome to Pac-Man strategy school. Cadets, I'll be honest. Your chances aren't good. Some of you won't be coming back after today. So listen up and you'll be a lot safer." "When they leave the goblin house, the goblins go to a particular corner. They search for you with a pattern. Learn their patterns. And keep your eyes peeled after the second maze; the patterns change and the goblins search for you harder and faster." "Once the goblins get your scent, you better get moving. You can gain a bit on a goblin by turning a corner. Use the exits to gain a bit or evade them. Try to make them lose your scent by changing direction rapidly." "If they are onto you, stop munching and run down an empty corridor. You go 20% slower when you're munching dots." "The survivors tell me it's tough to get away from the goblins. But stay far enough away from them for 20 seconds, and they'll give up and go back to the goblin house. Better watch out, though. When you're munching the last ten dots, the goblins team up and sniff you out like bloodhounds." "One last word, Cadets. Use your energizers wisely. Lure all the goblins into an energizer, then gobble'em all down. Gobbling the first one is worth a measly 200 points, but the fourth adds a whopping 1,600 points to your score." "Be careful with your energizers after the second maze: the goblins stay blue for less and less time." "Good gobbling and good luck." ******************************************************************************* III. Getting Started You can change the starting level of the game by pressing the Option key. There are 8 in all with cherry being the easiest and the key being the hardest. Press the Select key to toggle between a one or two player game. Press the Start key or the joystick button to start the game. Press the Spacebar during the game to pause. ******************************************************************************* IV. Basic Gameplay ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A. Playing the Game The object of the game is to eat all of the dots in the maze while avoiding the goblins. You start the game with three lives, you lose a life when you are caught by a goblin. You get a new life if you score 10,000 points. In the corners of the maze are large dots. These are called Energizer Dots. When Pac-Man eats one of these, he becomes "energized" for a short time. During this time the goblins turn blue and you can eat them. If you manage to eat a goblin, its eyes will travel back to the goblin house and it will regenerate. The ghosts will start to flash when your energized time is almost up. When they turn back to their normal colors, you can no longer eat them. After every 85 dots you eat, a bonus nugget will appear in the center of the screen. You have eight seconds to eat this nugget before it disappears. The number of points you get for eating the nugget depends on its type (see chart in Mazes section). On the right and left sides of the maze are the exits. When you enter through one, you will come out on the opposite side. Just make sure that a goblin isn't coming through the other side when you enter. Pac-Man CANNOT enter the goblin house. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B. Scoring Each dot you munch is worth 10 points. Energizer dots are worth 50 points. During any single energized time, the first goblin you eat is worth 200 points, the second 400, the third 800, and the fourth 1600. The points received from a bonus nugget depend on its type (see chart in Mazes section). ******************************************************************************* V. Mazes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A. Maze Map All of the mazes in Pac-Man look the same: ####################################################################### # . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ### . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # # . ######### . ############### . ### . ############### . ######### . # # * ######### . ############### . ### . ############### . ######### * # # . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # # . ######### . ##### . ####################### . ##### . ######### . # # . . . . . . . ##### . . . . . . ### . . . . . . ##### . . . . . . . # ############# . ############### ### ############### . ############# ############# . ##### B ##### . ############# ############# . ##### #########-----######### ##### . ############# L . # I P C # . R ############# . ##### ####################### ##### . ############# ############# . ##### N ##### . ############# ############# . ##### ####################### ##### . ############# # . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ### . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # # .########## . ############### . ### . ############### . ######### . # # * . . . ### . . . . . . . . . . P . . . . . . . . . . ### . . . * # ####### . ### . ##### . ####################### . ##### . ### . ####### # . . . . . . . ##### . . . . . . ### . . . . . . ##### . . . . . . . # # . ############################. ### . ########################### . # # . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # ####################################################################### Key # = Wall - = Door to goblin house . = Dot * = Energizer Dot L = Left exit R = Right exit N = Bonus Nugget P = Pac-Man's starting position B = Blinky's starting position P = Pinky's starting position C = Clyde's starting position ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B. Maze Information Chart Here is the maze information chart from the back of the Pac-man instruction book: ---------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | |Other |Goblins|Blue | |Maze |Bonus |Nugget |Pac-Man's|Blinky's|Goblin's|Are |Goblins| |# |Nugget|Value |Speed |Speed |Speed |Blue |Flash | |-----|------|-------|---------|--------|--------|-------|-------| | 1|Cherry| 100| 50| 40| 40| 4| 5| | | | | | | | sec| times| |-----|------|-------|---------|--------|--------|-------|-------| | 2|Straw-| 300| 50| 40| 40| 3| 5| | |berry | | | | | sec| times| |-----|------|-------|---------|--------|--------|-------|-------| | 3|Orange| 500| 50| 50| 50| 2| 5| | | | | | | | sec| times| |-----|------|-------|---------|--------|--------|-------|-------| | 4|Orange| 500| 60| 50| 50| 1| 5| | | | | | | | sec| times| |-----|------|-------|---------|--------|--------|-------|-------| | 5| Apple| 700| 70| 70| 60| 0| 5| | | | | | | | sec| times| |-----|------|-------|---------|--------|--------|-------|-------| | 6| Apple| 700| 70| 70| 60| 3| 5| | | | | | | | sec| times| |-----|------|-------|---------|--------|--------|-------|-------| | 7| Lemon| 1000| 70| 70| 60| 0| 5| | | | | | | | sec| times| |-----|------|-------|---------|--------|--------|-------|-------| | 8| Lemon| 1000| 70| 70| 60| 0| 5| | | | | | | | sec| times| |-----|------|-------|---------|--------|--------|-------|-------| | 9| Atari| 2000| 70| 70| 60| 0| 3| | | Logo| | | | | sec| times| |-----|------|-------|---------|--------|--------|-------|-------| | 10| Atari| 2000| 70| 70| 60| 3| 5| | | Logo| | | | | sec| times| |-----|------|-------|---------|--------|--------|-------|-------| | 11| Bell| 3000| 70| 70| 60| 0| 5| | | | | | | | sec| times| |-----|------|-------|---------|--------|--------|-------|-------| | 12| Bell| 3000| 70| 70| 60| 0| 3| | | | | | | | sec| times| |-----|------|-------|---------|--------|--------|-------|-------| | 13| Key| 5000| 70| 70| 60| 0| 3| | | | | | | | sec| times| |-----|------|-------|---------|--------|--------|-------|-------| | 14| Key| 5000| 70| 70| 60| 1| 3| | | | | | | | sec| times| |-----|------|-------|---------|--------|--------|-------|-------| | 15| Key| 5000| 70| 70| 60| 0| 5| | | | | | | | sec| times| |-----|------|-------|---------|--------|--------|-------|-------| | 16| Key| 5000| 70| 70| 60| 0| 3| | | | | | | | sec| times| |-----|------|-------|---------|--------|--------|-------|-------| | 17| Key| 5000| 70| 70| 60| 0| 0| | | | | | | | sec| times| |-----|------|-------|---------|--------|--------|-------|-------| | 18| Key| 5000| 70| 70| 60| 0| 3| | | | | | | | sec| times| |-----|------|-------|---------|--------|--------|-------|-------| | 19| Key| 5000| 70| 70| 60| 0| 0| | & up| | | | | | sec| times| ---------------------------------------------------------------- ******************************************************************************* VI. Goblin Guide ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A. Shadow / Blinky Blinky is red. Blinky is the fastest goblin, he starts outside the door to the goblin house. He will always start out by heading left, then up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B. Speedy / Pinky Pinky is pink. Pinky is the second goblin to leave the goblin house. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- C. Bashful / Inky Inky is green. Inky is the third goblin to leave the goblin house. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- D. Pokey / Clyde Clyde is orange. Clyde is the last goblin to leave the goblin house. ******************************************************************************* VII. Advanced Strategies - Clear out the bottom row of dots first since this is the easiest section of the maze to become trapped in. - Try clearing the maze in quarters, focused around the energizers. Once you eat the energizer finish eating the remaining dots in the quarter. - Instead of looking at Pac-man, keep your eyes on the goblin house and use your peripheral vision to keep track of the goblins. Once you get used to it, this makes evading them much easier. - If you get cornered by two goblins, don't give up, try to stay between them and alive as long as possible. Sometimes they will suddenly change direction and give you an opening to escape. - Make sure that when eating two energizer dots in succession that any goblins that you ate on the first dot have regenerated before eating the second. Otherwise they will not be affected by the energizer and you won't have a chance at the 1200 point bonus. - Make good use of the exits. You move faster through them than the goblins. Lure all four towards the exit on one side, then go through. You will now be free to eat dots on the other side. - According to the instruction book, if you stay far enough away from the goblins for 20 seconds they will give up and go back to the goblin house. I have been playing this game for over twenty years and have never once had this happen, but I guess you can still try. ******************************************************************************* VIII. My Top Score My top score is 77,770 points. ******************************************************************************* IX. Game Review This is an excellent port of the arcade game, much better than the one for the 2600. I would definitely recommend that anyone with an Atari 8-bit computer get this game. Pros - Fun and fast-paced. - Good controls. - High replay value. I have been playing this game since 1983 and I still love it. - Overall an excellent port of the arcade game. Cons - The only thing keeping this from being a perfect port of the arcade game are the goblins' eyes. In the arcade version the goblins would look in the direction they were going to go next so you could anticipate their movements better. ******************************************************************************* X. Version History 1.0 11/16/03 Created FAQ. ******************************************************************************* XI. Contact Information You can contact me at Bhodges080@aol.com I would appreciate hearing what you thought of this guide and any thoughts you have for improving it. Be sure to let me know if I have missed anything. ******************************************************************************* End