The Ms. Pac-Man Coleco Tabletop is a tabletop arcade machine released by Coleco in 1983. It is based on VFD technology (similar to a handheld LCD game), and was intended for home use. It is the follow-up to Coleco's Pac-Man tabletop.
Gameplay[]
The system features two gameplay modes: Ms. Pac-Man and Head-to-Head Pac-Man, in addition to a "demo" mode. Each mode is accessed by moving the righthand joystick in a specified direction after powering the system on. Additionally, the machine features two "Skill" settings, which are accessed via the two directions on the power switch.
The game features a very limited graphic display (even compared to other LCD and VFD adaptions of Ms. Pac-Man), resulting in a rather strange appearance visually. Most apparently, the Ghosts are shown to have Ms. Pac-Men inside of their heads; the Ms. Pac-Men are blanked out after Ms. Pac-Man eats a Power Pellet (to indicate they became vulnerable).
Ms. Pac-Man[]
Accessed by moving left on the righthand joystick. A port of the original Ms. Pac-Man arcade game. It is a rather close port for the time period, especially given the hardware capabilities. Unlike the Pac-Man tabletop, Fruits appear in the game; due to graphical limitations, they are shown as flashing, moving dots (with the level counter displaying them as fruit icons). The port features multiple maze layouts, though the differences between them are very slight (e.g. the second maze changes the positions of two parallel walls compared to the first maze).
Head-to-Head Ms. Pac-Man[]
Accessed by moving down on the righthand joystick. A two player co-op mode, with two Ms. Pac-Men on screen at once. Gameplay is otherwise the same as the first mode.
Demo[]
Accessed by moving down on the righthand joystick. Plays a basic video demo of the standard Ms. Pac-Man mode.
Trivia[]
- The control panel and top machine artwork colors in Ms. Pac-Man's eyeshadow and eye whites compared to the original assets (which were solid yellow). Coincidentally, this would also be done on later print runs of the original Bally Midway arcade machines (which likely postdate the release of the Coleco Tabletop).
Gallery[]
