Ms. Pac-Man

Platforms: Apple II, Arcade, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, Commodore VIC-20, Game Boy, IBM PC/Compatibles, NES / Famicom, Super NES, TI-99/4A

Genres

Main Genre:
Action
Perspective:
3rd-Person
Gameplay Style:
Maze
Visual Presentation:
Fixed / Flip Screen

Overview

Arcade version of Ms. Pac-Man
Arcade version of Ms. Pac-Man
Ms. Pac-Man is an action game originally released in arcades in 1982 and was also ported to numerous home computers and game consoles. It is the sequel to Pac-Man and the gameplay remains almost identical, however a few new features and changes were added. Ms. Pac-Man was enormously successful and is often considered the most popular video game of all time.

Gameplay

Like in the original Pac-Man, the goal of the game is to eat all of the dots in a maze while avoiding the four ghosts; if one of the ghosts catches Ms. Pac-Man, a life is lost and the game ends when the player has no more remaining lives. In each corner of the maze are power pellets; when Ms. Pac-Man eats one of these, the ghosts temporarily turn blue and are no longer a threat (the player can earn bonus points for eating ghosts while blue). On some sides of the screen are warp tunnels which transport the player to the opposite side of the screen; if a ghost follows through the tunnel they are unable to move as fast allowing the player to use them to escape. Once all of the dots in the maze have been eaten, the player continues to the next level. As the levels progress, the difficulty is increased by increasing the overall game speed and the duration the ghosts remain blue after eating a power pellet is shortened (eventually disappearing altogether). While overall gameplay remains the same as Pac-man, there are some differences added to Ms. Pac-Man; some of the more notable changes include the following:
  • The maze layout has changed; additionally, there are four different mazes instead of just one which repeats. Each maze is a different color, and the mazes alternate after each of the games intermission scenes.
  • The logic for the four ghosts has been updated. Some random movements are also included to prevent the ghosts from following predictable patterns like in the original Pac-Man.
  • The fruit and other bonus items do not remain stationary in the middle of the maze; instead, they bounce around the maze in random directions. Once all of the fruits have been encountered, they reappear in random order for the remainder of the game.
  • Three of the four mazes have two sets of warp tunnels instead of just one.
  • The opening musical theme and the sounds effects have been updated.
Ms. Pac-Man Characters

Credits

Platform: Atari 2600
Project Lead: Mark Ackerman
Programmed by: Mike Horowitz, Josh Littlefield
Cover Artwork by: Gus Allen
Platform: Atari 5200
Cover artwork by: Gus Allen
Platform: TI-99/4A
Programmed by: Howard E. Scheer

Pictures

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Arcade Version
Arcade Version
Cocktail table version
Arcade Version
Mini cabinet version

Documentation

Instruction Manual
Atari 2600
1988 North American version
Instruction Manual
Atari 7800
Instruction Manual
Commodore 64
Instruction Manual
IBM PC/Compatibles

Marketing

Product catalogs, magazines, flyers, or other documentation Ms. Pac-Man has appeared in.
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Arcade Flyers
Magazine Advertisements

Related Games

Packaging/Label Styles

This game has releases with the following standardized packaging styles:

Game Features

This game has been tagged with the following features: