Pac-Man's Arcade Corner was a mobile ringtone service operated by Namco-America. The service was launched in July of 2005 as the successor to Pactones, a similar service from 2004. It was available through multiple phone carriers (whereas Pactones was exclusive to Verizon Wireless). The service seemingly went defunct around 2008-2009.
Overview[]
Pac-Man's Arcade Corner featured downloadable ringtones of songs from Namco's video games (from the early '80s and beyond), in addition to classical songs and music from popular artists at the time. In September of 2005, additional ringtones from Sega franchises (such as Sonic the Hedgehog) were added to the service.[1]
The ringtones themselves had to be purchased individually using "credits". Credits were sold (in USD) for $1.99 each, with discounts for purchasing in bulk (i.e. $5.99 for 4 credits, $9.99 for 8 credits).
Game That Tone![]
Game That Tone! title screen (Adobe Flash version).
Pac-Man's Arcade Corner also featured a Game That Tone! minigame. The game is a parody of the game show "Name That Tune" where the player, assuming the role of Pac-Man, competes against the Ghosts to guess the names of ringtones available through the Arcade Corner service. The minigame could be played both on the website (as an Adobe Flash game)[2] and on the mobile app.
Trivia[]
- Pac-Man's Arcade Corner uses Namco-America's custom designs of the Ghosts, which lack mouths and have nonstandard glove colors. These designs were likely created due to the Ghosts not being present in the 1999 Pac-Man Character Manual; they were also used on the "clubNAMCO" website and Pac-Man Casino Slots Pack.
- A rendition of the Super Mario Bros. theme was available on the service, though it was not directly licensed though Nintendo; instead being sourced from the 1993 live-action film.
References[]
Related articles[]
External links[]
- Official website (archive.org, partially broken)
- Section on the Namco Games website (archive.org)