ATARI 2600 PAC-MAN 4K Homebrew Review | Dennis Debro's Masterpiece!
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- Join us as we dive into the impressive Pac-Man 4K for the ATARI 2600! Discover the version of Pac-Man we deserved back in 1982, masterfully programmed by Dennis Debro. Compare the original ATARI 2600 release with this revitalized 4K version and explore whether this game could have averted the infamous video game crash of 1983. Is this the game that could have changed history?
Watch now and share your thoughts on this remarkable transformation!
I finally got this after waiting almost exactly a year from ordering from AtariAge's “Last Chance” sale from June of 2023.
You can access the ROMs for the three versions of Pac-Man mentioned in this video here...
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I put this in my Retron 77 (in Wired-Up Retro episode 77) and was astounded by Pac-Man 4K. It's absolutely amazing- and that's cool you have the box, manual, and actual cartridge. Congrats!
Yeah, it’s amazing. It actually has made me bitter about Pac-Man 2600! Tod Frye and Atari owe me $164.62 factoring inflation for the Pac-Man imposter they sold me. I’m not charging interest, cause that’s the stand up kinda guy I am!😀
@@RetroBlissGaming $40 back then? At least there was Ms Pacman to help make up for it.
@@wiredupretro Lol… by the time Ms Pac-Man came out, I was already jaded. I gave away my 2600 to a needy family in the church and bought an Atari 800XL. Never played Ms. Pac-Man until much later!
Imagine if Atari gave us this back in 82.
Right!
It woulda been the best-selling Atari game of all time! Oh, right, it was...
Atarisoft’s looked awesome on my 800, though.
that would have kicked butt
I went from 2600 (Sears light sixer version) to 5200 in 1983. Pac-Man was the pack-in. Wow! People should have tried it out. Maybe if it was more popular there’d be more 3rd party joysticks (I had the Wico that looked like the Wico for IBM PC). Maybe there wouldn’t have been a crash or not as bad.
Christmas ’84 : Santa brings an 800XL (had to wait for the 1050). Console games became a distant memory. But if the XEGS had come out in 1982 (it wasn’t any newer technology in 1987.. just packaging of XL/XE into consumer palatable form) then that definitely would have been impactful.
Consider the splash the Coleco Adam made. People wanted a do-it-all console. But Adam was clunky and Intellivision was spinning it’s wheels for years and barely got something lame out just before the crash. I’m of the opinion that those two clowns contributed to the crash. This is from my perspective as a kid back then. With an 800XL I didn’t need an XEGS but a few years earlier before I got the 800XL the Adam intrigued me. I didn’t know that the 5200 was sooooo close to being a 400/800 but I could see they had had the same graphics and sound.
Oh well.
Yeah, I actually gave away my 2600 and bought an Atari 800XL, although I didn't use it to play games with as much as I did to program with. But, yes, it's basically the same as the 5200 graphically. I agree. There were a number of things that led to the video game crash. This game wasn't the "thing" that caused it. But it contributed to it. People like me were losing faith in the quality of games that were coming out for the 2600, and expectations were higher as technology changed. Thanks for sharing!
this version is hard but in a good way. keeps you on your toes! i love it. wish I had bought the box with mine. been following your channel here and there. subscribed for more fun
Yeah, this is actually a little tough. I have the ROMs of the other versions that I mention in the video, and they are not as tough. But, as I said, this version was the one that started it all and is the first one that I wanted to get from the AtariAge’s Last Chance sale. I’m very glad to have this now in my collection!
The 1982 version was hard too in its own way. TRY NOT TO FALL ASLEEP 😴 🤪
Excellent video. If only they had done this version back in the day. I remember playing the original 2600 version and thinking there must be something wrong with the cartridge 😁. Keep up the good work, I’ve just subscribed to you and greetings from London, UK
Thanks for the sub, Bill! Yeah, it was something to play back then, but definitely not Pac-Man!!
@RetroBlissGaming I subbed too ill liked Paxman 8k better ;)
Yep, it's really the best of the bunch!
Thanks for the sub, Rusty Mixer!
@RetroBlissGaming no problem you make great videos
You know I never really thought about it but there was no reason for the colors to be wrong in Pac-Man. It was probably because it needed to be more visible on really crappy TVs back in the day
The colors were because Atari had this dumb rule that only space games could have a black background. Yeah… it was dumb.
@@RetroBlissGamingI’ve heard that too. Wonder how Breakout slipped through the cracks. Or was that early title before the color rule? Or did Atari’s own home conventions get a pass?
I almost forgot that Breakout existed because my memories are of Super Breakout - that’s what I had. And the cover art on the box clearly shows an astronaut.
😏 very clever of marketing or whoever
Hey, Bliss! I totally agree with you! If this version of Pac-Man from Dennis Debro had been what Atari released back in 1982, then Atari would have continued to reign as the masters of home video gaming and anything they released afterwards that was really good would have just pushed them over the top! 😊👍👍✨ Instead, what we got was incredibly disappointing, so most of us really did lose faith in Atari's ability to port faithful arcade titles to the 2600. 😕 I think Atari and its programmers somewhat vindicated themselves with the release of some of their arcade and original game titles that followed the 1982 Pac-Man that were pretty amazing, but it was then too late for Atari to reclaim its glory as the number one home video game company. Looking back, I remember coming home with my new cartridge of the 1982 Pac-Man, and my overwhelmingly excited neighborhood friends rushing over to my house to check it out, and everyone was so shocked at what we saw on the television screen when I popped it into my 2600. My friends were saying, "that doesn't look anything like Pac-Man," "that's terrible," and "those sound effects are horrible!" Yes, I definitely think the Atari 2600 Pac-Man from 1982 helped kick off the video game crash of 1983! 😏
Well said, Guitar Robb. I agree that Atari did make some good ports. They actually did a nice job with Ms. Pac-Man. But by that time, I was older and had given away my 2600, which was around or soon after the 1983 video game crash. Some people still live this game, but I think it’s because they may have been younger when they played it. I was a late teenager at the time, so my expectations were higher. Thanks for sharing!
@RetroBlissGaming Thanks, my friend! Loving your channel! Keep sending us the great news updates and terrific content about all things retro gaming! 😁
Will do, GR!!
Gotcha covered, my friend!
Very cool ! Great video !
Thank you, Tom!
This would have been brilliant to have back then,the old version was bad but i was not one to complain.great video, your lucky to have this on cartridge
Yeah, the old version was all that we could play on our 2600s back then. And I didn’t have the wherewithal to return it to the store. It’s a playable game. I just don’t think it’s worthy to be called Pac-Man. Yes, I snatched this one up as soon as I saw it available!!
Honestly I think 1080p is enough for Pac-Man
lol. Actually the 4K refers to the number of characters that were available to be used in the programming of the game. It had nothing to do with the resolution! The resolution is the same as any other Atari 2600 game! Fun fact for today!
Someone converted this into a Supercharger load. It plays nicely. 👍😆✔
Wow, that's sweet. So they just loaded the ROM onto the cassette and it worked? I'm sure that it took some tweaking. That's amazing. I have the cart, obviously. But while I was waiting for my cart, I added the ROM to my Harmony cart and played it that way on my 2600.
After having just played the original 2600 pacman a couple hours for the retro bliss ninja contest, yeah this one looks and sounds so good!
Yes, I wish that this had been the original Pac-Man 2600!!! We would be playing this version in the contest instead!!
Very cool. Thanks for posting this.
Absolutely!!
They messed up the sound and that kills it for me. It plays the siren noise constantly even when you're eating dots. In the Atari 8-bit computer version / arcade version, that noise only plays when you're not eating dots.
Yeah, I can see that. It’s a volume thing. If they could have reduced the volume of the sirens the game might be better off. For me, it’s still better than the 2600 version’s sounds. It still isn’t arcade perfect, obviously! I appreciate your input!
So I was told to check you out by Cals Glorycorner and Uncle Flip. Cool stuff looks right up my alley!
Excellent! Love your channel, by the way! Long live Atari!!!
@@RetroBlissGaming thank you! And long live Atari! I'm enjoying your stuff I'm glad they told me to look you up!
Thanks, Bro! Been watching your channel for a while! Glad you stumbled over here!!!
Wasn't the original PacMan just supposed to be a demo, but got released to meet the hype demand and because it was small enough to fit on the minimum size cartridge? I think I remember seeing an interview where the coder mentioned he'd wanted to work on it more but the decision was taken away from him
I’ve not heard that story. What I’ve heard is that Atari gave this job to Tod Frye with a short window to program with a number of restrictions, including a small cartridge size and color limitations. It was supposed to be done before Christmas 1982. If anyone else knows anymore than I about that, please chime in!
Not sure if this would have stopped The Crash... But I'd bet good money that THIS wouldn't have been sent to a landfill in Alamogordo.
You can bet on that!!! Absolutely not!! lol😁
Retro Bliss Gaming,
If we got this version back in the day, I don't think there would've been a video game crash, or it would've been delayed for a few more years. I don't blame E.T. for the crash, I blame Atari 2600 Pac-Man. Atari 2600 Pac-Man, still to this day, remains one of the biggest video game disappointments of all time to me.
vgv
Very disappointing! Pac-Man 2600 contributed to my lack of faith in the quality of games that I was buying. No internet or magazines for reviews to rely on. So bad for what I paid for…
This is a good one. I enjoy playing it.
Yes sir, Mr. Bassman!
I like the box art.
It’s pretty sweet! I like it also… very nice!
Well, if you want a better 2600 Pac-Man in cartridge format you can always get Ms Pac-Man.
No doubt about that. Ms. Pac-Man was definitely a step up from the 2600 Pac-Man, for sure!!!
In my opinion, the video game crash was caused by consoles not improving their graphics significantly for several years. Why would someone go out and buy a console, or a console game, when their computer had better or equal graphics? Then the NES came along that rivaled the arcade games, and almost doubled the graphics detail most home systems could produce.
I think there were a number of factors involved. NES hadn’t come to market yet. ColecoVision, later Atari consoles, and other consoles did have better graphics. But third party devs were cranking out some really bad stuff. Atari didn’t help with some games(like Atari 2600 Pac-Man). I just know for me personally that I had lost faith in the quality of the games in general. I agree that the 2600 could only do so much. Some parents also didn’t want to keep buying different consoles. I just think there were a number of bad things that led to the crash. Thank god Nintendo rescued the industry!
That's ridiculous you had to wait that long
It really was. Sad part is, there have been probably hundreds of customers waiting that long. But, I am confident that everyone will get their order. Albert is just overwhelmed. He didn’t realize so many would order so many games all at once.
Why can’t the VCS do dots instead of dashes?
Great question. I’m not a programmer, but it has something to do with the limitations of the VCS. Not really sure😔
The VCS does dots! Look at Asteroids and Missile Command.
Oh… you want *both* TINY -and- round dots. Yeah …….
I forget who did a video using E. T. splash screen as an example but using the concept of “racing the beam” it was shown how the limited horsepower of the 6507 and need to dedicate all code execution and instruction timing (and memory fetch time) to drawing the screen placed limits. All game logic had to happen during electron beam blanking.
Also I highly recommend the book Racing The Beam. I have had it but need to seriously read it end to end. There are other books in the “platform studies” series and I have many of those but I seem to be distracted and wander from book to book. I AM ERROR is good too.
Many cheesy games and/or ports could have been avoided had the Atari 2600 come with 4K or 8K onboard. Rather than adding the expense of RAM chips to the cartridges.
Yeah, it really wasn’t financially possible at the first. Chips were way too expensive, and Nolan Bushnel did what he had to do to get the console produced.
@@RetroBlissGaming - I have a TI-99/4A. 16K with 32K add-on depending on your hardware setup. All the AtariSoft titles were so much better than the Atari 2600. Just better power and more RAM. ColecoVision used the same (or similar) graphics chip. The architecture difference gave better speed and performance.
Well of course, it was released two years after the 2600 and cost $1,150. Might as well compare it to a PS2.
wait a minute.... do my eyes deceive me?! 😀 😀
Just some brief journalistic game footage.. that’s all!!!
Sorry to break it to you, but this _could not_ have been done in 1982. Hypothetically, sure, but there have been _so_ many advances in programming, since 1982, which these folks have built upon, and _again,_ considering Pac-Man _was_ the best-selling game on the Atari 2600, it had no direct effect on the “Crash of ‘83,” which I _loved,_ as a kid-and don’t know why you didn’t-getting games for a buck off the table at the front of Kay-Bee. Oh, and “4K” hadn’t been invented, in 1982, doc. Corporations sure lost a lot, though...
"4K," as it's used here, isn't referring to screen resolution, but to the amount of memory on the cartridge. (The creator mentions an "8k" version as well, indicating that cart has twice as much memory.)
Well, I do agree that there have been some advances in programming since then. But Atari rushed it and put limitations on Tod Frye to begin with. Secondly, Tod Frye’s mindset wasn’t to port the game correctly to begin with. He has been quoted as not understanding why it was such a big deal that the tunnels were at the top and bottom, rather than left or right. That alone tells me that he didn’t care to make it even close to the arcade version. Just cause you put a name on something doesn’t make it what you call it.
As far as it being the best selling game. Yeah it was. Based on the lie that it was Pac-Man and that they made more copies than there were actual consoles. There wasn’t an internet or magazines to tell us differently as to what we were getting.
I respect that you loved the game, and don’t want to take that away. But I bet you didn’t have to pay $40 for your copy like I did. You probably got it included with a later console or someone gifted it to you. I was older, and expected better regardless of how you got yours.
So you never actually played the Atari version then? That's the way it should be. That was the Atari version. The first video.
I actually played the 2600 Pac-Man a lot back in those days. It’s all we had. But I’m very disappointed in how it was programmed.
@@RetroBlissGaming you said it's wrong but it looks the same to me. True I had the same as well. We went all the way to the 7200. Till I was almost 8.