Not to be confused with Pac-In-Time.
Pac-Man: Adventures In Time (パックマン アドベンチャー イン タイム Pakkuman Adobenchā in Taimu) is a PC game released in 2000, published by Hasbro Interactive and developed by Creative Asylum and Mind's Eye Productions.
Plot Synopsis[]
The game begins with Inky and Clyde (hesitantly) giving the main villain, Mollusc, a golden Power Pellet known as the Artifact. Mollusc destroys the Artifact, scattering its pieces into five key periods of time itself. To prevent the Artifact from ever being destroyed, Pac-Man journeys, via time machine, through the Prehistoric Era, Egyptian Times, Medieval Times, the Wild West, and the Future.
Gameplay[]
Quest Mode[]
Adventures in Time follows the same gameplay formula from the original Pac-Man. The player must collect all of the Pac-Dots in each maze, whilst avoiding Ghosts and other obstacles. Pac-Man also has the ability to jump, but there is a few seconds of delay after each jump, so they must be timed carefully.
The main "gimmick" of this release lies in the mazes themselves. Being rendered in 3D, they can feature slopes, "natural" obstacles like rolling boulders, and even second-stories hovering above the lower maze. Some mazes take the shapes of cubes, spheres, and cylinders, rather than just being flat. The levels can be played in either an overhead view (much like the original arcade games) or a fully 3D display, which better exaggerates the features and environments surrounding Pac-Man. The "3D" display is enabled by default; pressing the spacebar will change to the overhead view, though some levels are only playable in the 3D mode.
The ghosts are similar to their appearance in previous Pac-Man games, but each ghost's appearance is altered depending on what location they are in. If the player takes too long in a level, a warning siren plays and the message "Blinky Approaching" appears (followed by warnings for the other Ghosts); upon this warning, the Ghosts will change out of their level-centric outfits, and will become faster and more aggressive.
Minigames[]
Many minigames are included in the game as well in between levels. They include:
- Cannibal Dash - Pac-Man slides through a long path in order to reach the goal, with Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde in pursuit.
- Cobra Challenge - basic "ball in a cup" game.
- Pharaoh's Challenge - basic card-matching game.
- Wine and Dinosaur - Throw Pac-Dots at the hungry baby dinosaurs.
- Log Larks - Pac-Man must navigate through a river inside of a logboat, while being chased by an alligator.
- Hog Dash - Same as "Cannibal Dash" but camera is at a different angle, and Pac-Man is riding a pig.
- Ghost Target - Carnival-style shooting game with cardboard cut-out ghost targets.
- Bowled Over - Pac-Man runs from the oncoming giant boulder.
- Barrel Ballistics - Hit the fruit with Power Pellets while avoiding hitting bombs.
- Rail Cart Rush - Get to the finish line before time runs out.
- Cannon Capers - Same as "Barrel Ballistics" but with a different visual style.
- Canoe Chase - Harder version of "Log Larks".
- Mine Cart Madness - A large maze with Pac-Man inside of a minecart, where all dots must be eaten before time runs out.
- Memory Screens - Same as "Pharaoh's Challenge" but with a different visual style.
- Asteroid Antics - Pac-Man rides across a starfield on top of an asteroid, and must avoid a giant incoming asteroid while getting to the end goal.
- Space Surf - Get to end goal before time runs out.
Cheats[]
Adventures in Time features many cheat codes, which can be entered by pausing the game and typing them out on the keyboard, usually in Caps Lock. Some notable codes include:
- BEINGPACMANOVICH - Game is switched to a first-person perspective.
- GETALIFE - Player is given one extra life.
- HONEYIBLEWUPPACMAN - Pac-Man becomes giant.
- HONEYISHRUNKPACMAN - Pac-Man becomes tiny.
- IAINTSCARED - Pac-Man becomes invincible, and can run through ghosts (although he cannot eat them either)
- ihavenohonour - Player now has infinite lives.
- senselesswaste - One life is lost.
- SHOWMETHEMAZES - Game profile is 100% completed; all mazes are unlocked and can be played in Mazes Mode.
Maze Mode[]
Maze Mode allows the player to replay through single mazes after they are unlocked in the Quest Mode. Several mazes are exclusive to the Maze Mode; five "bonus" mazes are available by default, while another six "super bonus" mazes require unlocking. The final level in Maze Mode is a close recreation of the original Pac-Man maze; to act closer to the original game, the player cannot jump in this level.
Multiplayer[]
The game also features a multiplayer mode, which is similar to the one found in Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness, on slightly different boards. Originally the release featured both local and distant online play as well, but the servers are long gone. The playable characters are Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Baby Pac-Man and Professor Pac-Man.
Scoring System[]
- Pac-Dot – 10 points
- Power Pellet – 50 points
- Vulnerable Ghosts:
- #1 in succession – 200 points
- #2 in succession – 400 points
- #3 in succession – 800 points
- #4 in succession – 1600 points
- Cherry – 100 points
- Strawberry – 200 points
- Peach – 300 points
- Orange – 400 points
- Banana – 500 points
- Apple – 600 points
- Melon – 700 points
- Lemon – 800 points
- Pretzel – 900 points
- Jam Cookie – 1000 points
- Clover – 1100 points
- Corn – 1200 points
- Candy Cane – 1300 points
- Candy – 1400 points
- Ice Cream – 1500 points
- Cake – 1600 points
- Doughnut – 1700 points
- Soda – 1800 points
- Rubber Duck – 1900 points
- Popsicle – 2000 points
- Sundae – 2100 points
- Coffee – 2200 points
- Crown – 2500 points
Trivia[]
- Hasbro Interactive was sold to Infogrames immediately after the game's release, due to the Y2K dot-com bubble. This led to a gap where copies of the game were not produced for about a year, until Infogrames reissued the title in North America.
- During the gap where the game was not on store shelves, leftover Adventures in Time stock was given away in Kellogg's cereal boxes, after Infogrames' rebranding to Atari.
- The second level, Prehistoric Peril, features a maze based on the layout of New Puck-X, a bootleg hack of the original Pac-Man game.
- One of the "bonus" levels, Boulder Run, appears to be based on the original Donkey Kong arcade game; featuring a large structure of slanted platforms, with boulders sliding down like Donkey Kong's barrels.
- This is the second game where Pac-Man goes back in time, the first being Pac-In-Time.
- Early 1.0 copies of Adventures in Time are stated to feature a somewhat vulgar cheat code - "imabitch" - that allows the player to control Ms. Pac-Man. Despite the rumor circulating in the early 2000s, it is still yet to be verified, and 1.0 versions of the game are very difficult to find. The claim has since been denied by several developers.
- This was the final game in Hasbro Interactive's series of "arcade revival" games, which was comprised of new entries in franchises such as Q*Bert, Frogger, and Centipede, although this title wasn't released under the Atari brand name that Hasbro owned (although it was originally planned to, alongside Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge). The aforementioned Infogrames continued to release new arcade-based titles, such as Ms. Pac-Man: Quest for the Golden Maze.
- Hasbro Interactive's contract with Namco had one notable restriction that affected Adventures in Time: Hasbro's Pac-Man games could only be produced for personal computers, and could not be released on home video game consoles. This regulation seemingly related to the release of Pac-Man World, though the exact reasoning behind the rule is unclear.[2]
- It appears that Adventures in Time was planned to feature a unique character design for Pac-Man; the design uses a Pac-Mania-like "sphere" form, but with floating hands and feet (lacking arms and legs). The final game uses the standardized arms-and-legs design.
- The game was released in Taiwan under the name "3D Pac-Man", or "3D Elf" (3D小精靈); Ms. Pac-Man: Quest for the Golden Made was released as "3D Elf 2" in the region. It was also included as part of the Elf Stars Club compilation, alongside Pac-Man All-Stars (named "Gathering of the Elves") and Smurf Racer (named "Blue Elf").
Gallery[]
Screenshots[]
Cutscene Stills[]
Artwork[]
Concept Artwork[]
References[]
- ↑ https://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20010822/neci.htm
- ↑ "Hasbro Interactive Acquires Rights to 11 Namco Titles" (https://www.atariarchives.org/cfn/12/03/0062.php)