The Disappearance of Ms. Pac-Man
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- Опубликовано: 14 май 2024
- Warning: this is an older video and I say bad words in it.
Ms. Pac-Man is perhaps one of the most famous arcade games of all time and the titular Ms. Pac-Man has become one of Namco's most recognizable characters. But, after a series of lawsuits and legal battles involving GCC, the original creators of the title, Namco has seemed very reluctant to use the character in any capacity. I'm Jonii and I'm here to tell you why!
If you like this video, consider supporting me on Patreon: / joniivee
Crazy Otto marquee at 2:33 designed by NintendoAtariGuy
www.pacificarcades.com/crazy-o...
Crazy Otto recreation footage courtesy of Scott Lawerence. www.wintergroundfairlands.com/...
Written, edited, and voiced by Jonii
Script edited by Joe from Same Name, Different Game 
Игры
I actually worked at Namco (Namco Networks, Inc.) and was brought in to do two depositions regarding Ms. Pac-Man during the arbitration, where I sat in the room with the judge and the GCC guys. I was in charge of porting the games to mobile devices, so I was brought in to discuss some of the technical aspects, presumably because they wanted to clarify certain terms. I was not privy to the contract proper, but I remember there were issues about antiquated language like "CRT" and whatnot. "coin-op" was probably in there, too, but I wasn't asked about that. Anyway, I never knew the terms of the final settlement, and I left the company shortly thereafter. When I came back to Bandai Namco mobile in 2013, where I was put in charge of producing what became Pac-Man + Tournaments, and I had to beg the legal dept, to tell me where the tripwires were as regards Ms. Pac-Man, because we in modifying Pac-Man didn't want to run afoul of Ms. and end up owing royalties on a game that wasn't Ms. Pac-Man. So they gave me a list of no-nos, like not to use any of the maze layouts, the bouncing bonus items or the ones unique to Ms., and to steer away from anything like how GCC randomized the ghost behavior. I also was in charge of updating the Ms. Pac-Man ports for iOS and Android, and my recollection was by this point Pac-Man typically outsold Ms. by a large margin, so perhaps Pac-Man being an established icon managed to still draw players who didn't grow up with it but Ms. Pac-Man did not. That's just a guess.
That’s really neat.
Thank you for your insight
Thanks for that
...so that would make you Pac-Marice?
It's such a privilege to hear stories like this. Thank you!
Pac-Ma'am.... HOW HAS THIS NEVER COME UP?
LMAO FR
Genius
You should work at Bandai Namco
*tips pac-fedora
@@joercagu2 THis comment made my day😭
Pac-Marie's name is so funny to me. I can't tell if it's brilliance or sheer laziness. The name is based in katakana wordplay: if you take the two strokes of the the "n" katakana (ン) and rotate each of them until they're standing vertically, it looks kinda like the katakana for "ri" (リ), turning "Pac-Man" into "Pac-Mari"
Glad I finally watched this video, it's been in my recommended feed for a while. Very informative!
Glad to see that English isn't the only language that is sometimes butchered and that the writing mistakes of Katakana can sometimes correlate with the poor handwriting of some English letters.
That is interesting, but also i wouldn't say ms. Pacman was really original either, but what u said sounds genius imo lol
Imagine walking down the street and seeing a Ms. Pacman Arcade machine to celebrate 20 years of pacman, and you're first thought is "Where the fuck is my money?"
absolute fucking greed swallowed this character from day one and as a result we got fucking weird ass pac-mom and no chance of a remake for maze madness
I personally, have always preferred Pac-Man's characterization as a 40-something year old dad.
Even when the IP was only about 20 years old or so, the general public already viewed Pac-Man as an "old school game".
Pac-Man is timelessly cool. I really don't get why Namco feels they need to "youth-up" the Pac every once in a blue ghost moon.
I'm inclined to agree. I think it works in a very meta sort-of way in that Pac-Man feels like an old guard sort of character in a way that even characters like Mario and Sonic don't. Portraying him as a little older is more fun, I think.
Pac Man in Pac Man World was prolly 20 but he feels younger
Pac Man in Pac Man World 2 was prolly 23 but he feels younger
Pac Man in Pac Man World 3 was 25, they even say it in the game
@@joniivee I played Pac-Man World 2 and World 3 since World 2 was so hard lol but World 3 it was fun and to play when I saw Pac-Man and the ghostly adventures Pac-Man and Ms Pac-Man didn't ment lol
@@rikustorm13 i played Pac-Man World 2 & Pac-Man World 3 😁
@@joniivee I thought the Red Ghost is Clyde; it's more of a leader name than Blinky. I can't take it seriously when the Red Ghost is Blinky, especially when you say "Don't let Blinky Win!" out loud. Like you're bullying someone with a name that's cute sounding. 2:46: Also, she's called Ms. Pac-Man because she wants to view herself as independent.
This is probably the most real a video game couple divorce can get.
Rip
She definitely took the kids
@@lukeandconner2900 Yeah obviously we haven’t seen the kids in years
"She took the kids"
Yeah, it's right up there with ken's divorce (street fighter)
they announced a remake of Pac-Man World, Ms Pac-Man is dead, she was replaced with Pac-Mom. also i think her kid changed.
If this is about changing things up to appeal to the new generations, then the modern solution that would 100% work is to bring Ms. Pacman back as Pacmilf.
**EXPAND DONG** 🦍🍌
Nice
Oh my
You've heard of Clussy, now get ready for: Pacmussy
That's the best thing I've ever heard, lmao
19:39 Breaking News: 40 year old man abandons his family to go hang out with "cool teens".
*He didn’t take the divorce that well*
Apparently he’s in his 20’s in the series.
@@cupio-stardust ok. Lemme change that.
Breaking News: 20 year old iconic figure dates 17 year old that is 1 month away of being 18!
Twitter is planning his cancelation!
You can date people a few years older than you
@@cupio-stardust he’s 41
Ms pac man relationship with pac man: good
Ms pac man relationship with the franchise: complex
Japh urtecho I actually met a substitute teacher who had no idea what Pac-Man even was a couple of years ago
Oof
@@SoshiTheYoshi oof
Why must legal shinanz keep the happy pac family apart. :-:
Ok, not to kill anyone’s hopes, but
Ms Pac-Man is officially dead.
Namco just revealed PAC World Repac, and she is replaced with PAC-Mom.
RIP Ms Pac-Man.
1981-2022
Unless AT games goes under or accept that they lost and give her back
But didn't pac-mom first appear in the arcade archives version of pac land?
@@CaptainWackyLaterNamedHomer yep, as a trophy
@@AbstractS04 you mean like a smash bros trophy or a playstation trophy?
Man, hearing about this whole situation that happened with Ms.PacMan, Namco, and At Games almost reminds me of the legal fiasco with Sonic between ArchieComics, Sega and Ken Penders and how Ken basically screwed the legal system in his favor to own the almost all the comic characters. Kind of depressing that Ms.Pac won't be back.
Well unless AtGames goes under or comes to an agreement to give Ms.Pac-Man back to Namco/GCC or decides to share with them, shes kinda dead for now
I was legit just thinking of that too! And Archie comics' major middle finger to him by rewriting the timeline after the Sonic/ Mega Man crossover so none of Penders' characters existed anymore. God, that whole situation was so messy...
@@pikapower_kirbywhile Pender's weren't all winners by any stretch, the fact got banished to the null zone still bites. Granted many have spiritual successors in the IDW version, but it still bites in and of itself.
I wish she was brought back to the franchise. Not because she's a particularly good character (although Ms. Pac-Man is probably a better game than the original) but because she's probably video gaming's first female protagonist ever -- or at least, the first one that had any kind of longevity. I think that alone is worth respecting.
I mean Maze Madness was gonna get a sequel but that got canned
Without Ms. Pac-Man (especially in Maze Madness) there wouldn’t be Lara Croft, which everyone loves, including me (most if not all people), even though Pac-Man deserves *WAY* more love and respect for being an influence towards more popular gaming franchises like Mario with Pac-Land and Pac-Man World 1 & 2 (plus Pac-Man also got influences from Sonic and Crash Bandicoot in the Pac-Man World games, especially 3).
Not just Pac-Man and his franchise, but also his wife (she was very well-voiced by Regina Reagan, but in the end, she was flanderized because she gave him the brilliant idea to eat the ghosts gangs even though they reformed, at least here, in Pac-Man All-Stars, Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures and in Pac-Man World Rally), their child (Jr. Pac-Man) and their grandchild (Pac-Ghost)!
Well, thanks for the 10+ likes, peace!
@@kieranstark7213w e e
Metroid released on 1986
I think Samus Aran has better longevity
While Pac-Marie is kinda adorable with that ponytail, and I can understand them wanting to keep the series more modern, "cuter," (cute stuff is popular in Japan) and contemporary. Still, part of Pac-Man's charm is how retro, and old fashioned he is.
It's a shame there's so much legal problems with the original Ms. Pac-Man, and such. Wonder if that will effect the Arcade1up cabinets.
What's the relationship between Pac-Man and Pac-Marie? If brother and sister or even cousins, then my fan theory is that the Pac-Man of today is actually the son or grandson of the original Pac-Man (Much like how Donkey Kong's Grandfather Cranky Kong is the original Donkey Kong). It was established after all that the original Pac-Man had kids. It would also provide a good reason why we don't see Ms. Pac-Man around much anymore.
Pac-Marie gives me girlboss vibes
@@SupergamerX Adding that to the theory that that Mario and modern Pauline are Jump Man and classic Pauline's kids, this whole thing is starting to sound plausible!
@@EternalTheMandarinGoddess & Then Nintendo Modernized Pauline as a Mayor of Not-New York City in Oddessy.
What about Super Impulse and their Tiny Arcade version of Ms. Pac-Man?
With the soon to release PAC-Man Museum + and seeing Ms. Pac-Man being censored or replaced in some of the classic games, I was wondering why this was happening and found this video. And I have to say, great video! But it is unfortunate that Bandai Namco has to pay AtGames to use Ms. Pac-Man, hoping we can see her return in the future
27:05
Looks like you've predicted the future here. With the Arcade Archives re-release of Pac-Land, Bandai Namco is starting to outright rewrite history by replacing Ms. Pac-Man with her own mother (Pac-Mom), while Baby Pac-Man has been retained, only receiving a minor sprite change to reflect the Pac-Master's wife's appearance in Museum+. So yeah, outside of the Arcade1Up machines, Ms. Pac-Man has completely disappeared forever, and now we have to deal with her mother. This means that we won't be seeing Ms. Pac-Man anytime soon, just her mother.
Fuck AssGames.
There's a bit of a correction I wanted to add.
It's confirmed that the Pac-Man from Ghostly Adventures is the son of the OG Pac-Man. Yes, Pac-Man has lore.
wait
PAC MAN HAD HAIR?!
So that means Pac-Man Jr is all grown up
Wait so how about the ghosts? Are they still the same ones or…?
@@okayokey That was never explained. But, I'm assuming cause they are ghosts, they are probably just long-time rivals to the Pac-Man family.
Pac-Lore
so there's actually a good reason she isn't an alternate skin for pac-man in smash bros... god damn
Bro Ms. Pac-Man would have hands-down been my fav alt in the game too. I love the Koopalings, but Ms. Pac-Man’s game is a perfected version of the original, and her design is too iconic. RIP
@@nick-cepticon782 yeah
Oddly enough, Ms. Pac-Man is still in the Pac-Land stage in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and the game is released in 2018.
@@apollorock3r244 Now that is super weird. She prob remained in the stage bc it’s a easy-to-miss cameo…?
@@nick-cepticon782 Probably as an easy way to not pay AssGames any royalties for the character.
Who is here after seeing the redesign for Ms.Pac-Man for the Pac-Man World Re-make 😭
I actually wake up every day hoping to hear about the complex, rich, and dark lore of Pac man
“No Pac-Man character has a truly defined personality” BRUH literally EVERY character has their own personality, the ghost gang literally were designed with unique gameplay personalities to effect how the players would play around with them.
Dammit this is literally true.
What have I done?
@@joniivee fake gamer confirmed
Pac-Marie's design is appealing, sure. But Ms. Pac-Man's design works well both as an in-game sprite and as a full-body character. Pac-Marie was clearly designed with full body character first, so she doesn't look like she'd apply well as a sprite. Also, at the end of the day, I don't care too much about the characters, Ms. Pac-Man is just a fun game that I wish was easier to play.
Straight facts
Actually, the difficulty made that game more fun to play in a way
I can't get over Pac-Marie's flesh hair
Too bad Nampo was too lazy/slow to realize how popular Pac-Man truly was and hadn’t waited for some
College kids to come out with additional games..... ie: Ms Pac-Man and Jr Pac-Man,had that happened, they would actually own the characters!!
I wonder if Ms. Pac-Man is the first ever bootleg character in videogame history to become official, it's sad what happened to her afterwards
Pac-Man: she took the freaking kids MegaMan
MegaMan: that's rough buddy
Numskull managed to license the rights from both GCE and Namco for their quarter scale Ms. Pac-Man arcade cabinet just before it was sold to AtGames, so it's looking like that could be the final ever official merchandise.
finsl
There's also the Ms. Pac-Man and Class of '81 cabinets from Arcade1up, which I'm assuming are also licensed by both Namco and GHE
Actually I think it was GCC not GCE
@@lubby9438 not really, since the video states that GCC don't make royalties for at home use arcade cabinets.
It's like an Update of KOF '02 known as Unlimited Match, where they Removed K9999 for Nameless to Avoid Legal Troubles with the Creator of Akira.
Here's the fun fact about Pacman Ghosts:
Blinky, the red ghost represents as the leader of the ghosts and is the most aggressive ghost in the original Pacman Arcade, who is always chasing Pacman.
Pinky, the pink ghost is the most beautiful and the only female ghost who tries to ambush. She chases in front of Pacman while Blinky chases him behind.
Inky, the cyan Ghost, is the goofy ghost who is unpredictable. Sometimes he can also chase Pacman aggressively like Blinky.
Clyde, the orange ghost, is the least intelligent ghost, who moves in random directions. When he sees Pacman ahead, he will retreat not trying to chase Pacman.
Clyde doesn't move randomly. He follows Pac-Man relentlessly, the same as Blinky... until he gets too close (within 8 spaces), at which point he retargets to a space outside the maze, below the bottom-left corner.
And Inky isn't unpredictable, just complex. Inky targets a spot almost exactly opposite to Blinky. (Draw a line from Blinky's position to a spot two spaces in front of Pac-Man. Now double the length of that line, that's where Inky targets). The closer Blinky gets to Pac-Man, the closer Inky's target spot gets.
@@zazelby, you forgot about Pinky. She instantly ambushes Pacman while Blinky follows him behind.
@@kingtrophyguide4362 I didn't "forget" them, you already mentioned them and how they work. Blinky targets Pac-Man's square, Pinky targets four spaces ahead of Pac-Man. (And, also, Pinky wasn't made female until recently. Sue, Miru, and Yum-Yum were the only female monsters until a few years ago. Also, "beautiful" is a bit of a stretch. Like the other monsters, Pinky is a slug-like beast hidden under a colorful cloak)
@@kingtrophyguide4362 haha nice
Pinky was originally described as he. Sue was the first female ghost monster, in Ms. Pac Man's game. Also, Pac Man mentions nicknames like "Shadow", though they weren't mentioned later
To clarify, Miss and Ms. are two different things, the latter being pronounced more like "miz". This was an important title for women in the early feminist movement, and denotes a woman who is unattached, but still deserving of the respect adults ought to have. "Miss" is traditionally associated with very young women and little girls, and can feel a bit insulting for a grown, independent woman,. Particularly an unmarried one, but there are also married women who choose to use the title.
Giving Ms. Pac-Man that title makes her sound less like Pac-Man's inferior (Miss) or a character defined by being Pac-Man's wife (Mrs.) Using Ms. is a passive way to make her seem more like a character in her own right. This has been done before iirc, with Ms. Marvel's first introduction into the Marvel comics.
No, Ms. means any woman, unmarried or not. Miss specifically means unmarried woman.
@@abum4595 Did you miss (pun intended) the part of the comment that said "but there are also married women who choose to use this title?"
I've never heard as Ms. and Miss as different things. Ms. is pronounced as Miss in my state, which doesn't specifically say anything about marital status. This is how everyone in my circle and people I've met use it at least.
@@drumman22 Where I grew up Miss and Ms are clearly 2 different words. with Ms pronounced like "miz".
I believe Dolly Keane of "Family Circus" said it best...
"'Mrs.' means she's married, 'Miss' means she's not, and 'Ms' means it's a secret"
(Quoted from memory, so precision of accuracy may be in question but meaning is not.)
The good thing for Namco, but bad for Atgames is that Atgames is shady business and could very well dig themselves a hole over time opening them up to be bought out and/or liquidated. Either way, Namco may finally acquire the rights and don't be surprised if we finally get an official Ms. Pac-man fever era that is greatly over due.
I had no idea Ms. Pacman was a ticking time bomb when it came to lawsuits. My Mom would play her game all the time, whether through the plug&play or Namco's PS2 collection. I took it for granted.
How unfortunate. As gaming's first female character and an all around (no pun intended) icon of a bygone era of gaming, Ms. Pac Man deserves better. I hoped she would appear as an echo fighter in Smash Bros alongside her husband, probably faster and lighter. But it seems that’s only a pipe dream at the moment.
If Namco bought the rights back, we’d have one of the best Echo Fighters ever.
@@walkerphillips2818 probably not since she's be as bad as daisy, they'd probably just make her the exact same since, she sthe exact same. She had one game so there no real lore and she's not a Namco character. If you ask me she's a Midway character
Idk her legs just kind of turned me on but besides that I never really thought of her.
@@bungiecrimes7247 Please say to me if this is a joke
I grew up with an NES at home and the only PacMan game we owned (and thus the only one I was ever truly familiar with) WAS Ms. PacMan. I was so used to Inky/Blinky/Pinky/Sue that as a kid it just never occured to me that Clyde was... a thing. Sue was always "the fourth one" to me so everything else was quite the mini culture shock once I found out LOL. I only really learned about "canon" stuff later on, so I enjoyed this video essay delving into the character and all her weird legal complications haha.
10:24 Thinking like that is why we can't have nice things
It's a darn shame if Ms. Pac-Man's being downplayed because of worries that she's not appealing to modern audiences. She's one of the oldest and most famous characters in gaming and deserves more respect.
I see no reason why they can't update her design and personality to fit the modern era. Absolutely no one cares cares about "Pac-Man canon", so just modernize her like they've done to so many other video game characters. It's the best way to carry over her already existing fame while letting her get new fans.
Come on at least one person must care about the pac-man canon (I can’t believe I just typed the words pac-man canon)
nah, it's completely because of rights issues with GCC and @tGames
I’m honestly more surprised they replaced the 4 iconic ghosts at the Pac-Store
No offence, but even though Pac-Man, like Spyro and Mega Man, has a multitude of canons, I actually think Ms. Pac-Man’a character design in the Ms. Pac-Man: Maze Madness duology and Pac-Man World Series holds up very well along with her recent design as shown in the right of the thumbnail.
Its not her look
Its just the legal issiues
I am currently working on a history piece for Pacman and this video was a fantastic resource... great work | SUBSCRIBED!
Oh my goodness, I've been a fan of your content for a while (Your Super Monkey Ball video in particular is indirectly responsible for me starting the channel because it reminded me that the franchise existed and taught me how many of the sequels I'd never heard of), so this means a lot. I'm happy to hear that this video was helpful, I noticed there was a gap in info on this particular topic so I thought it would be good to fill it. Eager to see that history piece!
@@joniivee cheers buddy :D / its a long way off as I'm doing the complete history of pacman and I'm only at the Ms Pacman stage lol / but it will come eventually
Baby Pac Man 2???
@Ruby Williams Relax, he just grew up with Sega so he enjoys it more. Doesn't mean he HATES Nintendo, he loves F-Zero. I grew up with both companies so I have a soft spot for both. Both have some great games in their history.
instablaster.
This was an amazing history lesson. I’ve always wondered why Ms. PAC Man disappeared. The use of the legal segments and factory videos plus the humor really made it cool. Would love to see more history videos like these.
19:12 "no defined personality" I could hear the four ghosts cry. They are the only ones that always had distinct personalities from the beginning, and those personalities even reflected on how they pursued Pac-Man (with one of them being shy and not even pursuing at all or barely pursuing, I'm not the Pac-xpert, you are).
Awesome video! Didn't knew about the whole lawsuit and "semi-legal knockoffs" of the arcade era. Wow.
It’s just a maze,
It’s just a neon maze... Without you....
Soshi The Yoshi hey!
*points out* THERE YOU ARE!
Hey soshi whats up
@@NitroExists did you miss ms Pac-Man
But I miss her 😔😔😔
@@NitroExists Yes you re right man
She need to return to Pac-Man, se life
Forget Lara Croft and Samus Aran. I think it's pretty clear that Ms. Pac-Man was the *real* first strong female protagonist in gaming!
You got a point
She wasn't, however, independent.
Before those two and after Ms. P, Sega released their own - the legendary SEGA Ninja, Kurumi-hime.
@Keith Courage RX-78-2 Truly some underground icons
@@KidPrarchord95 You say that, but she sure as heck independently devoured the ghosts like no tomorrow in the arcade game I'll tell ya that much.
My sister who is seven has only watched the Pac-Man tv show on netflix and when my mom and I where reminessing about the game the other day she said oh I know Pac-Man its a show I watch that made me sad she doesn't even know about the game and its iconic. Im a bit salty about the show because of that
Ms.Pacman Maze Madness is the best of its franchise, period. its a cold hard fact like the sky being blue, or the inevitability of death.
As much as I dislike big corps, it seems like GCC unfairly sued over NAMCO in the 2000s. According to this vid, GCC lucked into a very favorable contract. Considering GCC developed Crazy Otto, it doesn’t seem right that they ended up with rights to the character Ms. Pac-Man (as a derivative work of NAMCO intellectual property, Pac-Man) which was created by NAMCO after the game Crazy Otto was purchased from GCC.
Technically Ms. PAC-MAN (by our standards today) would be a fan character that Namco liked, but the fan sells the rights to a jerk-wad company who doesn’t give a [BIG SHOT]
@@walkerphillips2818 Oh no, [[Little Sponge]], it seems like you have Spamton-itis
@@walkerphillips2818 [BIG SHOT]? More like [BIG $#$@]
I agree. After seeing this, GCC is kinda like the bad guy here. They got lucky on their aggreement with Namco, and also on getting rights to Ms. Pac-Man character. And to think that all they did is do a mod on the original Pac-man game using a female counterpart of the main character. Afterwards, all they were shown to do is chase Namco for $$$. They went as far as expressing their regrets on the contract wordings which hindered them from squeezing more $$$ out of the agreement.
@@OptionalRain Not to mention, that once everything was said and done, they sold to AtGames rather than any more reasonable company
So today Pacman 99 was released and Ms. Pacman is completely absent.
RIP Ms. Pac Man I guess
So I guess this means we won’t have Ms. Pac-Man become a playable DLC character in SSBU?
insert sad music
@@calebproductions1264 She cameos on the PAC-LAND stage, which is very strange. Maybe she can appear without her name being shown?
Hamster released Pac-Land as part of their Arcade Archives series today.
They had to modify Ms. Pac-Man's sprite.
Great video. Today, June 28th 2022, Pac Man World remake was announced and Ms. Pacman was changed into someone else with a pink hat!
Wait what why do they still screwing over ms pac man
@@imcooliguess5759 did u not watch the video or?
@@EXFrost no I did watch it I just didn’t realize that they changed her
@@imcooliguess5759 no this video. This video explains why they keep screwing her over
What a tragic ending, I almost cried.
Ms. isn't an abbreviation of Miss. Ms. is pronounced "mizz", and is used to denote a woman who may or may not be married.
Other than that, this was a great video!
That pronunciation is something I used to hear a lot from older folks. I always wondered why they insisted on zz, must have been taught as etiquette back then.
THANK YOU. Great video but this bugged me the whole time.
Ms. is definitely an abbreviation of miss... are you conflating those with Mrs./missus?
@@GaryDelgado It's because "Ms." (pronounced as "mizz") was very different than "Miss" back in the day. Since "Mrs." was used for married women, "Miss" was almost exclusively used for young women, leading to a somewhat patronizing tone- especially when used to refer to older women or women in professional settings.
During the Women's Lib movement in the late 60's/early 70's, feminists revived the out-of-date "Ms." to provide a neutral honorific for women no matter their marital status, and specifically changed the pronunciation to "mizz" to make the distinction clearer. Hence we ended up with the feminist magazine "Ms." and professional women fighting hard to be called "Ms." in the workplace.
So when Ms. Pac-Man was released, the title was a cheeky bit of social commentary that is completely lost on people under the age of 50. In fact, I didn't even know about this difference until recently.
@@Encyclopedia_Brown97 Thank you, I appreciate that you provided the historical context.
This is just as bad as Microsoft buying Rareware from Nintendo in 2002.😢
I really like Pac-Marie's design, I wish there was more of them
I hope Namco gets the rights for Ms. Pac-man. I honestly was looking forward to seeing what a Modern version of Ms. Pac-Man (the Pac-Man Party Version not the Ghostly Adventures look. Difference is Pac-Man still has boxing gloves and no teeth and the ghosts didnt have blue pupils and were still pretty antagonistic to Pac-man as should be expected) I always liked the redesigns they had in Pac-Man Party.
Small thing missing from your video: Bandai Namco actually released TWO ports of Ms. Pac-Man on Steam. One is the version in Pac-Man museum, and the other is a standalone port in their "Arcade Game Series" collection that was released in 2016. You may want to update your video to reflect that.
(In both ports, neither GCC nor Atgames is mentioned in the copyrights, so them owning anything is turning out to be legally vague at best so far)
Yeah, from the sounds of it, it's this super weird royalty thing, rather than any actual degree of ownership.
@@nyahnyahson523 royalties don’t require attribution with music, so it might be a similar thing here
Ok but real talk though, Jr. Pac-Man is the most forgotten of them all, even when Ms. was still around, not even getting a single game port after the 1980’s. This treatment is completely undeserved…
it's 2022, and I've been brought here from Nitro Rad, also part of why Namco has made 'Pac-Man World RE-PAC' just to erase our mind that Ms. Pac-Man exists. I would never think how a single 25 years old fictional character would be dragged into this such a legal case. The world is wild!
Also Ms.Pac-Man doesn’t appear in the new Minecraft map (she is “replaced” by Miru which is a female ghost that appeared in Pac & Pal)
Not a ghost; she has feet. It was a pleasant surprise to see her in the Minecraft map actuallu
@@lexanderrussell8200 she is ghost doh
@@lexanderrussell8200 she’s a ghost she’s a different type
@@JimmieJon at least Ms. Pac Man appeared in Mario and Sonic, so there’s that
Honestly Miru is even deeper in video game purgatory so I'm glad she's getting attention
I can’t believe GCC sold the rights to atgames
this is just pure bullshit
Should of sold to Namco/Bandai. Seems like they almost wanted to spite Namco, and instead spited every Ms. Pac-Man fan.
Right? Like at first I was kind of on their side, but I lost all respect for them after that point. Out of any company they could've sold her to, it had to be fucking Atgames?!?!
Damn that sucks
@@rumblebird9888 I know :(
I'm so glad that I discovered this channel today, there's just so much great content! I hope we'll get even more amazing videos like this in the future.
I have DEFINITELY seen the model 2 Galaga Ms. Pac Man anniversary arcade machine with a coin slot. Probably added after, but still. Edit: I think I know why. The place I played the game at uses tokens, not coins. So nice loophole there
Wow as a fan of Ms Pac-Man this is pretty tragic to hear all of this,although I’m glad you made this video,I feel this should be talked about more given the status of such a character
Just finished rewatching all of Ghostly Adventures so I'll touch on that (SPOILERS, I guess lol).
While Pac-Man is the only yellow one left, his parents are hinted at being alive several times without the show. The Pointy Head Aliens say that Pac is just as troublesome as his parents, leading Pac to believe they might be on their planet. The final episode of the series involves the President's niece-- Elly --visiting Pacopolis. She reveals that she saw Pac-Man's parents when her mother took her "on a trip" somewhere.
The episode ends on a cliffhanger implying that Pac-Man & Co. are going to be travelling to that location to learn more.
Another episode in the series involves "The Pac-inator", who reveals that he "iced" every yellow one for a client. The client isn't revealed but he's apparently more evil than Betrayus. This hints that all of the Yellow ones are still technically alive, just frozen in ice and held captive in some unknown location.
Pac-Man would've likely found his parents if they ever made a 3rd season, but I feel it's possible that they would've located and freed other yellow ones as well. Perhaps the mysterious client would be revealed, and Pac would unfreeze all of the other yellow ones.
Ms. Pac-Man could've theoretically shown up, although I doubt that she would.
In fact, Elly was also introduced as a love interest for Pac-Man.
While Cylindria is sometimes seen as a love interest, I'd say they are usually just depicted as close friends. Pac-Man is never shown to have a thing for Cyli, and Cyli rarely ever hints that she loves Pac. Pinky hints that Cyli might like him, but she's mostly just jealous that she's closer to him.
Elly is different because Pac actually has a crush on her, and they probably would've explored that more in a 3rd season.
Anyways, that was a whole lot of information for a simple explanation lol
What if Ms. Pac IS the client, wanting a pure, yellow master race of her offspring with his superior genes, him, the perfect specimen of their kind.
O___O ... ... ... ...ok, I need to get sleep...
Based on that, I'm beginning to wonder if Ghostly Aventures' Pac-Man is in fact a teenage, amnesiac Junior, and his parents are the OG Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man. That sounds like a plot twist they'd do.
@@MisterVercetti
The main problem with this are Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde.
All the ghosts in the show were part of Betrayus's army and fought a war against the good guys (which include Pac's Parents). After they lost the war, they had their bodies taken away from them, and their souls were banished to the Nether realm.
Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde's motivation for helping Pac initially is that they were promised their bodies back if they helped him.
Unless there were other ghosts roaming around prior to the war, I don't think it's likely that Pac's father could've fought ghosts. And they'd have to be entirely separate Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clydes, probably unrelated to the ones we see in Ghostly Adventures.
Yeah, Elly being a thing in this series makes me thing Ms. Pac-Man wouldn't have been introduced had they made a third season. No point in introducing another love interest when you already have one.
Idk why but I really liked that show
Rest in peace ms pac man
Thank you, there was actually so many questions had about this when it came to Ms Pac-Man not being re-released on namco museum compilations
Trying to Poochy-up Pac-Man instead of making him a legit family man who's biggest moments in the spotlight have long since passed, but hes ok with that like Pac2 and World games set him up as, is such a scummy and soulless corporate take. Having him as the older, more grounded family man during the 90s in an age of snarky mascot newcomers, was such a great direction to give the character some more personality.
Interesting how even though Ms Pac man isn’t official, Namco tried making female characters to be a way to indirectly make her theirs.
Seeing Ms Pac Man now owned by At Games was an absolute gut puncher to hear.
Wow pacman's divorce has been painfull
Interestingly, before Ms. Pac-Man made her Japanese debut in Pac-Land, Miru the Ghost was being built up as Pac's girlfriend in Japan.
18:35 I actually rather like the redesign for Ms. Pac-Man/Pac-Marie. She's drawn less like some older supermodel and more like a youthful Kirby/Minnie Mouse/fun-loving sort of character.
I definitely like both Ms. Pac-Man's redesigned iteration and Pac-Marie way better than the original artwork from back in the day. I agree that it makes her look a lot more like the characters you described, definitely more cutesy and happy looking.
I feel like pac Marie is Ms. Pac man young self
Woke up to this and wasn’t expecting this wow! Great video and very informative. Had no idea about any of this.
In Pacman and the ghostly adventure it is said that pacman had parent before they were killed and if you think about it you would start to think that maybe Pacman's parents are probably the original Pacman and Ms Pacman of the video games after all in the games they do have a child which could mean that the Pacman from the tv show could be Pacman jr in this case.
That is a very good theory and could even be the canon to PAC-MAN.
All in all, interesting watch all around. Given that she's one of the very first female video game characters, it's sad to see what has become of Ms. Pac-Man. She truly deserves better if you ask me.
Oddly enough, Ms. Pac-Man saw a release on April 19, 2016, as part of the Arcade Game Series, some months before Championship Edition 2 came out.
God, I love your energy. This entire video is ICONIC.
Namco Museum Virtual Arcade is a great compilation that includes Ms. Pac-Man and was released physically on Xbox 360 in late 2008. The compilation includes a whopping 34 games; 6 of which are Pac-Man. It's currently being sold on eBay for around $20.
Bandai Namco deserves the rights to Ms. Pac-Man. That was a bad move from GCC to sell the rights to AtGames. #justiceformspacman
I read the hashtag as Justice Form Spacman
@@arty217 LMAO
I really hate defending Bandai Namco, but this kinda amazes me. Ms.Pac Man is clearly a derivative character and that goes double for the game.
It sounds like GCC were lucky thsy were not sued.
Derivative, sure...but probably also a big reason for the brand's continued legacy. Ms Pac-Man played like such a full sequel rather than a map-pac; the randomized ghost A.I., the bouncing bonus fruit, and the maze designs (I'm guessing including the warps) are all features owed to GCC's original code.
Also...all things considered, Japanese publishers are kinda low on asshole-mountain...except for 80s Nintendo (successfully banned game rentals in Japan, tried to in the states).
Honestly this whole mess could have been avoided if Namco would have just bought Ms Pac-Man. I think it's likely GCC would have given up the rights as they said at the end of the 1980's Ms. Pac-Man arcades weren't exactly money printing machines anymore.
Low-key, Cylindria and Pac-Marie are both kind of appealing as female Pac-People (?) in their own rights. I think if Namco-Bandai gets together and really capitalizes on merging some of the aspects of Ghostly Adventures and some of their newer content featuring Pac-Marie and the like, they could potentially start a new and fresh modern take on Pac-Man as a series (especially if they return to their roots with the maze gameplay and/or the World games). The characters from these more recent takes all have far more personality overall than the original cast did and I think they could potentially carry a new wave of Pac-Man content if the modern day customer expected quality bar is met.
Ending actually made my jaw drop and fist slam on the desk. Amazing video, great work done.
Arcade1UP announced a Ms. Pac-Man machine with no mention of AtGames anywhere. Could this be a sign?
:O I wonder if they reached some kind of agreement?
Maybe Bandai Namco now owns Ms. Pac-Man?
Alaina Anderson Lets hope
And it's out now...but still no sign of jr. Pacman
I miss her
I really miss Ms. Pac-man, she is one of my favorite video game characters and I like that game more than the original Pac-man.
Pac man world remake...
Good video, funny, engaging and entertaining. Well edited, I see a bright future in you.
🤔 The part about using GCC’s code is interesting. I bet that’s why the mini arcade games and handhelds use the Namco NES version or modern rewrites of the game. Excellent video!
I hadn't thought about that but it's a very good point! And thank you. :D
Woah, can you believe the YT algorithm did me a favor for once?! So I loved the video--can tell you did your homework without parroting sources directly, and I can tell you that extra effort goes a long way. Also, it's a small touch, but speaking as a VGM curator I appreciated the selection of background music from storied Pac-Man and Namco history (Pac-Man World series, Namco Museum PSX, Dragon Spirit).
Your channel has a ton of promise and I'm excited to see where you'll go from here!
Wow, I really appreciate this comment, thank you! Glad the algorithm helped us both out. :D And I'm especially happy you noticed the music selection! No one's pointed that out yet but I tried to represent nearly every era of the franchise.
Thanks so much for the nice comment and I hope that you enjoy what I've got coming up!
Super entertaining! I also found it really refreshing to see theories being presented as theories, rather than fact. Love to see that sweet journalistic integrity! Great work!
Glad RUclips managed to recommend me an intriguing and entertaining channel, been a while since I’ve gotten one and this fills a nice void I’ve been missing since PatMac’s hiatus lol
I can't wait until they end up pulling a Crash 4 and make a Pac Man World 4, but not only does it contain Ms. Pac, but also has Pac-Mary and Pac-little hailing from an 'alternate' dimension to the PMWorld universe.
If they could work out legal kinks (or maybe they already did and i'm just slow), they could even poke fun at the whole situation with some witty dialogue between Ms. and Mary (and maybe some between Junior and Little).
I recommend annalynn as a Pac-man platfomer successor.
I always wondered why there was absolutely no mention of Ms. Pac-Man in Smash Bros.
As a Pac-Man main in Smash, I appreciate that intro.
7:06 Saving this for future me. Best bit of the video.
Honestly, I'd be willing to accept "Marie" as Ms. Pac-Man's first name and/or she's a reboot equivalent of the character if it means keeping the character alive. As you said, she certainly looks cooler!
In the Hanna-Barberra cartoon, Ms. Pac-Man's first name is Pepper.
Great informative video and definitely explains a lot about where Ms Packie has been. Hopefully they’ll be reunited one day… I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Love that use the Namaco museum Ms Pac-Man song at the end!!!
I thought I was going insane because I've seen those two characters somewhere a few years ago but couldn't find them again. Thanks for making a video on it since I'm sure this has never been addressed on RUclips before.
I know this video's about a year old, but I have to say it: Ms. is not just an abbreviation for Miss. Ms., which is pronounced "Miz" is a sort of neutral prefix that can be applied to women who are either married or single. Basically, a way of addressing women who think it's no one else's business whether they're married or not.
I lived in puerto rico, and I used to go to this resort, that had a restaurant we loved called melao, and in the melao restaurant, they had a ms.pacman arcade machine.
*Excellent!!! This rabbit hole of a video kept me watching until the end! Now my coffee is cold!* ⭐😃👍
I knew there were always murky details around copyright. But it's so weird that she doesn't get hardly any references in 2 Smash Brothers games despite Pac-Man having a decent amount of stuff he comes with. Shame she only appears as a background cameo in the Pac Land stage. No spirit, costume, trophy or anything. It's almost like they pretend she doesn't exist
Definitely using "I wanna pac you" on my girlfriend tomorrow
It's really a tagline for the ages. It's a shame it's only on a wallet, imagine the potential for Valentine's gifts.
Did it work?
Lol
This is the first “Jonii” video to ever pop into my recommendations. Not sure if I’ll be a regular viewer right away, but this was definitely an interesting dive into the history of one of the most iconic characters of one of the MOST iconic video game franchises. So, I’ll keep an eye out for more.
I had a "dream" that I received credit and royalties from Namco every time my music from Ms Pacman Maze Madness was played. :) Great video.
- Jon Holland (Ms Pac-Man Maze Madness - Composer/Sound Designer)
Holy crap, your music was too insanely good for that game. Made my childhood, honestly. I wonder if you were in consideration to compose the music for the sequel before it was canned.
Love your work, cheers!
@@baldigang7034 Thank You! :)
@@baldigang7034 lol....Thank you very much B! :)
@@BlueAizu_ Thank you very much! :)
This was really well made. Can tell a lot of work went into it, and a whole lot of deep cut information on the history of Ms. Pac-Man. Heck, even to mention a game like Pac n' Roll shows dedication. Looking forward to what you'll cover next!
Thanks a ton! I had a great (and long) time making it and I'm thrilled to have finally learned more about it myself. It also seriously reinvigorated my interest in the series. Glad you enjoyed and stay tuned! :D
@@joniivee Pac n roll has a remix.
Now mentioning Pac Pix is for the hardcore
What I'd like to know is what happened to Yum-Yum? (I do actually know she's also gone due to legal reasons.) 1, who names their daughter 'Yum-Yum' and 2, why don't we see this concept again? Oh right, I guess we kinda do through Pac-Man(Pacster as his actual name is in Ghostly Adventures) and Pinky, but it doesn't feel the same.
I think the relationship between Pac-Man and Pinky referencing Pac-Man Jr. and Yum Yum makes a lot of sense.
(Not the first time it happened since Pinky had a crush with Pacs for years.)
Same reason for Ms. Pac-Man, because Yum Yum was an original character by Midway, she’s stuck in legal Limbo
I knew about the legal Limbo however I didn't remember what company she wa from so that clears that gap up.
What if we just combined ideas.
Pac Man, the dude in his mid 40's, left his family due to a divorce. He had to move to a new world (Japan), and met old friends. His friends are around his age, and very unimportant. The important thing is that THEIR kids are Mary and Little. So in the Pac Store, we're seeing 40 year old PMan being the cool group dad to his friend's kids, practically his nephew and niece, Mary and Little. We could get a TV show with this plot, a new game, heck, even a movie.
And then a separate but continuous plot can start where Pasely (Formerly Mrs Pacman, she went back to her maiden name), also leaves home because Junior was kidnapped. So she has her own hero plot that eventually will meet up with the Pac-Store timeline in Avengers Endgame 2
And now 2 years later she returns in the Pac-Man World remake. How ironic.
I don't think "Pac Mom" is exactly a return of Ms, more like a cheap replacement.