Ms. Pac Attack

Arcade Video game published 44 years ago:

Ms. Pac Attack (c) 1981.

Basically this game is "Pac-Man", with a few minor differences. The major difference is that the ghosts have fewer restrictions on their movement, making them more formidable. Also adding to the challenge are the different mazes and the fact that the fruit no longer stays in one place, but moves in, out and around the maze. Fortunately there is a power pellet in each corner that (usually) turns the ghosts blue for a period of time, allowing you to eat them for points.

The main difference being the order of levels has been changed. As in the regular "Ms. Pac-Man" game, the maze turns invisible at a certain point. However, in Ms. Pac Attacks, this point is reached much earlier - at about the 144th screen instead of the 255th.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3.072 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Namco 3-channel WSG (@ 96 Khz)

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 224 x 288 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.61 Hz
Palette colors : 16

Players : 2
Control : 4-way joystick
Buttons : 1

- TRIVIA -

Ms. Pac Attack seems to be a hack of "Ms. Pac-Man Plus", as while the mazes are the same as Ms. Pac-Man Plus, they come out in a different order.

While the Ms. Pac-Man hacks are creative with the mazes, they have trouble dealing with other aspects of play. One problem the Ms. Pac-Man hacks have is that the fruit walks along the routes of the original mazes, making the fruit unreachable during part of its walk to and from the center. Also, the ghosts slow down at odd places during the first three racks. Such slowing down only makes sense by looking at the original mazes and seeing where the tunnels would be.

Unlike the Pac-Man hacks, the Ms. Pac-Man hacks don't mess with the scores you get from eating dots, fruit and ghosts.

- SCORING -

Dot : 10 points
Energizer : 50 points
Ghosts : 200, 400, 800, 1600 points
Cherry : 100 points
Strawberry : 200 points
Peach : 500 points
Pretzel : 700 points
Apple : 1000 points
Pear : 2000 points
Banana : 5000 points

- CONTRIBUTE -

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