I actually had no idea the ghosts had different AI personalities, that broke my brain! It's also impressive to think about how Namco ported Pac-Man Championship Edition to the NES in 2020, which is much more technically impressive than this. It's interesting how we learn development tips and tricks and develop new tools for consoles which can really push hardware over the years.
Always interesting hearing the history of game and their companies as well as your journey to complete those. You bring an interesting twist on these types of completion challenges and it shows you put in the effort for quality content. Also a fun dose of nostalgia for the older generation of gamers. Keep up the good work, looking forward for your next one!
I bought my NES in 1987 and I recall thinking how weird it was that Pac-Man wasn't available yet. I knew the NES had been out since October '85 and my thought was that Pac-Man would have been one of the first games out of the gate. When Pac-Man finally showed up on the NES in October '88 it felt so late in the game, gaming culture wasn't embracing older arcade titles in those days. And then it wasn't long before the Nintendo approved Pac-Man vanished from stores and you wouldn't see a Nintendo sanctioned version appear until late in '93! I bought the Namco edition of NES Pac-Man in '93 for about $40!
The bonus fruits spawn twice per level when you've eaten a certain amount of pellets. So if you're aiming for a high score, you can keep count to make sure they spawn when you're close to them.
I believe that the ghosts were supposed to be goblins or something like that, but since their sprites looked like ghosts, that piece of Pac-Man lore got retconned out very quickly.
JJ McCullough has a video on this, seems like the Japanese concept of what a ghost is doesn't always line up with what Americans thought of. Like they do look like stereotypical Western ghosts but as illustrated by the cutscenes they're still physical beings.
Lol, it is! you can look it up. Basically, a small group of programmers were making a clone called Hungry Otto. They knew they wouldn't make much off the game alone, so they called up namco, and lied! They said they were a huge company that developed a conversion kit for pac man that is so good, everyone will chang their cabs over. But if Namco made a deal with them, they'd turn the kit into a sequel instead so they could sell it as a new cab. Namco bit, and thus they got the original code, and were able to developed Mrs. Pac Man as part of Namco.
Ok, as far as what's up with naked Blinky, here's my theory. The ghosts are actually pre-chewed bubble gum. No, really! In a follow up game, Pacman 2 The New Adventures we meet a character called the Ghost Witch. As expected she leads the ghosts. Her grand scheme is to steal the towns chewed gum and create a Bubble Gum monster. The Witch and the Monster both reappear in a further game, Pac in Time. With this in mind, reexamine Blinky once he loses his sheet. (wrapper?) He looks like a wad of gum, doesn't he? My guess is the eyes represent the spiritual energy infused into the gum, and the ghost house is where they go for a fresh wad. Now think of all the gum Pacman must be chewing. No wonder his mouth never stops that chomping action!
The funny thing with the AI in Pac-Man is this, In Japan the Personally Traits are Chaser, Ambusher, Fickle and Stupid. I don't need to say who is who, anybody watching the video can work that out, when they reworded the core traits in their translation they lost out on a key easy to understand game.
I’m pretty sure that whole lawsuit with TENGEN caused Nintendo and Namco’s relationship to sour for at least a decade. Before, Namco had special privileges from Nintendo. But it changed after that. Namco started to be less involved with Nintendo home consoles after that, and it only seemed like they came back around the early 2000’s and the relationship improved. Now, Nintendo has Monolith Soft (A former Namco division), and now has a dedicated Nintendo division. How times change.
While that could be part of it, from what I can tell there was an even bigger reason for the fallout between the two. Initially, Nintendo and Namco had a special deal that gave Namco more preferential terms than most third parties, such as the ability to make their own cartridges. However, once their 5-year contract ran out, Namco wanted to extend the contract but Nintendo refused, telling Namco that they needed to follow all the same restrictions as everyone else. This made Nakamura pretty unhappy and he started to openly speaking out against Nintendo afterwards. Either way, it's all related to how strict Nintendo was with third parties during this era. But yeah, it's pretty interesting how things have sort of come full circle with how much they work together again.
There were various interviews from Yamauchi and Nakamura about the whole thing, and even a lawsuit against Nintendo from Namco, that are summarized in David Sheff's "Game Over, Press Start to Continue: How Nintendo Conquered the World", on pages 73-75. Here's also an article summarizing some of it too: www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/01/namco_founder_masaya_nakamura_dies_aged_91 I mostly just found the info by hunting through Wikipedia's sources on the Namco page.
@@shmoopshybobI love the FC Namco cart style and the fact they they included 3 sticker options. I have the "Namco 18" in my collection. It's crazy Nintendo didn't wanna bring a lot of those arcade classics to the West. I was annoyedthat I could only play Space Invaders and Dig Dug on my 2600, and until Tengen put out Pac-Man there was only that rough Atari version. Also, for whatever reason we could never find any of the original "Arcade Classic Series" games locally, so I had to play those on Atari too. I never once saw a copy of NES Donkey Kong or Mario Bros. in a store...yet I had a copy of DK Jr Math for some reason lol
This interesting RUclips video I found (ruclips.net/video/S8nIcujT2b4/видео.html) explores whether or not the Pacman enemies. It looks like the west mistook what were originally monsters as ghosts and Namco just went with it.
Huh, I have not deleted any comments. I see one that you sent under the reply chain from turboDrowsy, but that's it. Is that the one, or was there another one?
@@shmoopshybobyeah man, I said... This is the one of the best gaming videos I have ever seen. The history was thorough and interesting. The analysis of the game's mechanics was amazing, I have never seen such an in-depth take. The fact that you know that Nintendo published Pac-Man in PAL regions put me over the moon...even the NES wiki doesn't get that right. And I admire your spirit in soldiering on to th 17th round. I asked if you were going to take on Ginga no Sanin with the online English tutorials. I hope so! You have easily earned a lik and subscribe, and I can't wait to watch all your videos!
Well, thank you for the kind words! No idea why the comment vanished. I don't even see it in my notifications, so it almost seems like it never went through. Anyway, yes, I will be making a video on Ginga no Sannin! I've already beaten it actually, but the stream is almost 200 games ahead right now since these videos take a while to make.
4:31 Oh dear, was there a whole «video games cause violence» complex back then too?? Also, it seems like this challange is indirectly a type of «Complete History of Video Games», which is great!
I actually had no idea the ghosts had different AI personalities, that broke my brain! It's also impressive to think about how Namco ported Pac-Man Championship Edition to the NES in 2020, which is much more technically impressive than this. It's interesting how we learn development tips and tricks and develop new tools for consoles which can really push hardware over the years.
Always interesting hearing the history of game and their companies as well as your journey to complete those. You bring an interesting twist on these types of completion challenges and it shows you put in the effort for quality content.
Also a fun dose of nostalgia for the older generation of gamers. Keep up the good work, looking forward for your next one!
Wow! This is a great video and I learned stuff I did not know. Thanks! Let's get you some more subscribers!
I bought my NES in 1987 and I recall thinking how weird it was that Pac-Man wasn't available yet. I knew the NES had been out since October '85 and my thought was that Pac-Man would have been one of the first games out of the gate. When Pac-Man finally showed up on the NES in October '88 it felt so late in the game, gaming culture wasn't embracing older arcade titles in those days. And then it wasn't long before the Nintendo approved Pac-Man vanished from stores and you wouldn't see a Nintendo sanctioned version appear until late in '93! I bought the Namco edition of NES Pac-Man in '93 for about $40!
I grew up with the Atari 5200 and it's version of Pac-Man. I just felt compelled to share that. Carry on
The bonus fruits spawn twice per level when you've eaten a certain amount of pellets. So if you're aiming for a high score, you can keep count to make sure they spawn when you're close to them.
You caught me wondering whether that part of the background music sounded more like "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" or "Teeny Little Super Guy"!
I believe that the ghosts were supposed to be goblins or something like that, but since their sprites looked like ghosts, that piece of Pac-Man lore got retconned out very quickly.
JJ McCullough has a video on this, seems like the Japanese concept of what a ghost is doesn't always line up with what Americans thought of. Like they do look like stereotypical Western ghosts but as illustrated by the cutscenes they're still physical beings.
Hope you liked talking about all that Pac-Man legal drama, because Ms. Pac-Man's gonna be a whole mess of its own!
Lol, it is! you can look it up. Basically, a small group of programmers were making a clone called Hungry Otto. They knew they wouldn't make much off the game alone, so they called up namco, and lied! They said they were a huge company that developed a conversion kit for pac man that is so good, everyone will chang their cabs over. But if Namco made a deal with them, they'd turn the kit into a sequel instead so they could sell it as a new cab. Namco bit, and thus they got the original code, and were able to developed Mrs. Pac Man as part of Namco.
Ok, as far as what's up with naked Blinky, here's my theory. The ghosts are actually pre-chewed bubble gum. No, really! In a follow up game, Pacman 2 The New Adventures we meet a character called the Ghost Witch. As expected she leads the ghosts. Her grand scheme is to steal the towns chewed gum and create a Bubble Gum monster. The Witch and the Monster both reappear in a further game, Pac in Time. With this in mind, reexamine Blinky once he loses his sheet. (wrapper?) He looks like a wad of gum, doesn't he? My guess is the eyes represent the spiritual energy infused into the gum, and the ghost house is where they go for a fresh wad. Now think of all the gum Pacman must be chewing. No wonder his mouth never stops that chomping action!
This challenge is crazy bro good luck
The funny thing with the AI in Pac-Man is this, In Japan the Personally Traits are Chaser, Ambusher, Fickle and Stupid. I don't need to say who is who, anybody watching the video can work that out, when they reworded the core traits in their translation they lost out on a key easy to understand game.
Thanks again for video
I’m pretty sure that whole lawsuit with TENGEN caused Nintendo and Namco’s relationship to sour for at least a decade.
Before, Namco had special privileges from Nintendo. But it changed after that. Namco started to be less involved with Nintendo home consoles after that, and it only seemed like they came back around the early 2000’s and the relationship improved.
Now, Nintendo has Monolith Soft (A former Namco division), and now has a dedicated Nintendo division. How times change.
While that could be part of it, from what I can tell there was an even bigger reason for the fallout between the two. Initially, Nintendo and Namco had a special deal that gave Namco more preferential terms than most third parties, such as the ability to make their own cartridges. However, once their 5-year contract ran out, Namco wanted to extend the contract but Nintendo refused, telling Namco that they needed to follow all the same restrictions as everyone else. This made Nakamura pretty unhappy and he started to openly speaking out against Nintendo afterwards. Either way, it's all related to how strict Nintendo was with third parties during this era.
But yeah, it's pretty interesting how things have sort of come full circle with how much they work together again.
@@shmoopshybob Whoa. Where did you get that information? Did turtle find this?
There were various interviews from Yamauchi and Nakamura about the whole thing, and even a lawsuit against Nintendo from Namco, that are summarized in David Sheff's "Game Over, Press Start to Continue: How Nintendo Conquered the World", on pages 73-75. Here's also an article summarizing some of it too: www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/01/namco_founder_masaya_nakamura_dies_aged_91
I mostly just found the info by hunting through Wikipedia's sources on the Namco page.
@@shmoopshybobI love the FC Namco cart style and the fact they they included 3 sticker options. I have the "Namco 18" in my collection. It's crazy Nintendo didn't wanna bring a lot of those arcade classics to the West. I was annoyedthat I could only play Space Invaders and Dig Dug on my 2600, and until Tengen put out Pac-Man there was only that rough Atari version. Also, for whatever reason we could never find any of the original "Arcade Classic Series" games locally, so I had to play those on Atari too.
I never once saw a copy of NES Donkey Kong or Mario Bros. in a store...yet I had a copy of DK Jr Math for some reason lol
pinky looks grey in the playback videos
This is why they're called monsters the game is called ghost
so warner caused all the problems to start with whats changed.
This interesting RUclips video I found (ruclips.net/video/S8nIcujT2b4/видео.html) explores whether or not the Pacman enemies. It looks like the west mistook what were originally monsters as ghosts and Namco just went with it.
*are ghosts.
Nope, not ghosts, technically they are Ghost Monsters.
Why was my comment deleted? I was singing the praises of this video from The Mountains of The Moon!
What did I say?
Huh, I have not deleted any comments. I see one that you sent under the reply chain from turboDrowsy, but that's it. Is that the one, or was there another one?
@@shmoopshybobyeah man, I said...
This is the one of the best gaming videos I have ever seen.
The history was thorough and interesting.
The analysis of the game's mechanics was amazing, I have never seen such an in-depth take.
The fact that you know that Nintendo published Pac-Man in PAL regions put me over the moon...even the NES wiki doesn't get that right.
And I admire your spirit in soldiering on to th 17th round.
I asked if you were going to take on Ginga no Sanin with the online English tutorials.
I hope so!
You have easily earned a lik and subscribe, and I can't wait to watch all your videos!
Well, thank you for the kind words! No idea why the comment vanished. I don't even see it in my notifications, so it almost seems like it never went through.
Anyway, yes, I will be making a video on Ginga no Sannin! I've already beaten it actually, but the stream is almost 200 games ahead right now since these videos take a while to make.
@@shmoopshybobthanks for your work!
4:31 Oh dear, was there a whole «video games cause violence» complex back then too??
Also, it seems like this challange is indirectly a type of «Complete History of Video Games», which is great!