Jr. Pac-Man (game)

Jr. Pac-Man
Artwork from the arcade machine (marquee).
Developer	General Computer Corp., Bally Midway
Publisher	Bally Midway
Series	Pac-Man series
Genres	Maze
Release date(s)	US: August 13, 1983
Arcade system	Namco Pac-Man
Number of players	1-2 players
Input methods	4-way joystick

Jr. Pac-Man is an arcade game released in 1983 by Bally Midway. It could be considered the follow-up to Ms. Pac-Man.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Jr. Pac-Man is similar to that of its predecessors with a few differences. The maze is now two times the width of the display, and a virtual camera pans left and right along the maze to follow Jr. Pac-Man, sometimes resulting in the ghosts being off-screen. A total of seven mazes appear throughout the game, and unlike previous Pac-Man games, none of the mazes have tunnels that wrap around from one side of the screen to the other. Most mazes also have six energizers instead of four.

As in prior games, bonus items appear in each level, but they are now toys instead of fruit. They appear in the middle of the maze and bounce around for a while, but as a prize encounters dots, it changes them into larger dots that slow Jr. Pac-Man down (but are worth more points). If not eaten beforehand, a prize self-destructs when it encounters a Power Pellet and destroys them both.

There are also a few cosmetic differences: the main character is now Jr. Pac-Man; the orange ghost, called "Clyde" in Pac-Man and "Sue" in Ms. Pac-Man, is now named "Tim"; and the game's graphics and sound have been updated, including a lower-case anti-aliased font for scores and game text.

The original maze, which would normally scroll.

Scoring System

• Pac-Dot - 10 points.
• "Large" Dot - 50 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.
• Bonus Items:
  • 🚲 Bike: 100 Points
  • 🪁 Kite: 200 Points
  • 🥁 Drum: 500 Points
  • 🎈 Balloon: 700 Points
  • 🚂 Train: 1000 Points
  • 🐈 Cat: 2000 Points
  • 🍺 Root Beer: 5000 Points

Intermissions / Acts

The game's intermissions center around the developing relationship between Jr. Pac-Man and Yum-Yum (the daughter of Blinky). This game features 3 intermissions, which are similar to the ones found in Ms. Pac-Man:

• Jr Meets Yum-Yum: Jr. Pac-Man gets out of his house to play, and he sees Blinky alongside his daughter, Yum-Yum. He gets out of the yard to see Yum-Yum; Blinky, not accepting the potential relationship, tries to chase Jr. away. Ms. Pac-Man arrives to protect him by eating a Power Pellet, turning Blinky and Yum-Yum into blue ghosts, and Ms. and Jr. Pac go back in their house.
• The Gift: Junior finds Yum-Yum standing on a bridge, and gives her a balloon as a gift. Yum-Yum politely accepts the balloon, but unbeknownst to them, Blinky is secretly spying on them through a nearby bush.
• They Escape: Blinky gets out of the bush. As Yum-Yum quickly releases the balloon, Blinky tries to catch Jr. - but just as he is about to, Ms. Pac-Man comes again to protect her child by distracting Blinky, who starts chasing Ms. Pac-Man, while Jr. and Yum-Yum escape. They fall in love, surrounded by hearts.

Home Ports

• Atari 2600
  • Was planned to release in 1984, but didn't come out until 1986.
  • Mazes are completely different, and scroll vertically instead of horizontally.
  • The music for the cutscenes plays after the level they normally appear on, but there are no actual cutscenes.
• Atari 400/800/XL/XE
  • Retail release was canceled. A prototype has been found and dumped.
  • Cutscenes are removed.
• Atari 5200
  • Another canceled port, with a dumped prototype.
  • Nearly identical to the Atari 400/800/XL/XE version.
• Commodore 64
  • Mazes are smaller, and fit on one screen.
  • Every cutscene is titled "They Escape" for unknown reasons.
• IBM PC
  • Two separate versions were released: an CGA version and an EGA version (the latter having more colors).
  • Nearly identical to the Commodore 64 version, but a loop of strange music is played instead of the traditional siren; the same music was used in the IBM PC port of Super Pac-Man.
• Plug & Play TV Game
  • Canceled port from 2006, which was planned to be included on the Super Pac-Man Collection system by Jakks Pacific. It was presumably removed from the final product due to the complications with General Computer Corporation regarding Ms. Pac-Man, which first took place the same year.
  • Additionally, the game's soundtrack can be found in the debug menu of Retro Arcade featuring Pac-Man. It likely appears in the Super Pac-Man Collection's data as well, but its debug menu is inaccessible due to the console's lack of a B button.

Unlike Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, which have both been ported to practically everything, Jr. Pac-Man has only received three home console releases to date (with two additional canceled versions). This is most likely due to both Atari going bankrupt in 1984, and Namco failing to secure the game's rights.

In Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures, there is an unlockable game titled "Pac-Jr."; however, this is actually a modified version of Ms. Pac-Man starring Jr. Pac-Man, rather than an actual Jr. Pac-Man port.

There are also homebrew versions for the Atari 7800 and Intellivision.

Play Online

These versions of Jr. Pac-Man are either listed in the public domain or are considered abandonware. Clicking the game title will lead you to a playable online version of it from archive.org (mobile compatibility may vary).

• Recommended: Jr. Pac-Man (Atari 5200, 1984)
• Jr. Pac-Man (IBM PC, 1988)

Trivia

• According to both the U.S. Copyright Office and legal papers from the Namco-AtGames lawsuit, Jr. Pac-Man was initially developed under the title of "Pac-Baby". The name and character were presumably changed to avoid confusion with the already released Baby Pac-Man.
• Several unused bonus items are present in the game's graphics data; these include a skateboard, a cowboy hat, a pogo stick, a rattle, a baby bottle, and a pacifier. The latter three may indicate that these were the items used in its initial "Pac-Baby" form.
• Both the larger dots caused by bonus items, and the "Blast" graphic when a bonus item explodes, are based on unused material from the code of the original Pac-Man game. However, it is unclear if they perform the same functions in Jr. Pac-Man as they were planned to in Pac-Man, as the only remnant of them in Pac-Man's code are the graphics themselves.
• Presumably to reduce costs, dedicated Jr. Pac-Man arcade machines were actually repurposed Mappy cabinets, with cheaply made stickers covering the original artwork; if said stickers are ripped, the Mappy characters can be seen underneath.

Gallery

Screenshots

Arcade

Atari 2600

Atari 5200 (prototype)

Commodore 64

IBM PC (CGA version)

Plug & Play (unreleased)

Atari 7800 (homebrew)

Machine and Box Art

Original arcade machine; notice the Mappy characters on the side from the sticker being ripped.

Original side art.

Atari 2600 box art.

Commodore 64 box art.

Character Artwork

Jr. Pac-Man

Jr. Pac-Man

Jr. Pac-Man

References

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