The Pac-Man Coleco Tabletop is a tabletop arcade machine released by Coleco in 1981. It is based on VFD technology (similar to a handheld LCD game), and was intended for home use. It was released in Japan as Super Puck Monster. It was followed by a Ms. Pac-Man Coleco tabletop.
Gameplay[]
The system features three gameplay modes: Pac-Man, Head-to-Head Pac-Man, and Eat & Run, in addition to a "demo" mode. Each mode is accessed by moving the lefthand 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 Pac-Man), resulting in a rather strange appearance visually. Most apparently, the Ghosts are shown to have Pac-Men inside of their heads; the Pac-Men are blanked out after Pac-Man eats a Power Pellet (to indicate they became vulnerable).
Pac-Man[]
Accessed by moving right on the lefthand joystick. A port of the original Pac-Man arcade game. It is a rather close port for the time period, especially given the hardware capabilities; some key features of the original game are missing, however, most notably Fruits.
Head-to-Head Pac-Man[]
Accessed by moving left on the lefthand joystick. A two player co-op mode, with two Pac-Men on screen at once. Gameplay is otherwise the same as the first mode.
Eat & Run[]
Accessed by moving up on the lefthand joystick. A unique mode designed exclusively for the Coleco Tabletop. The player starts inside of the center Ghost Box, with the ghosts appearing in the far corners of the maze; the player must guide Pac-Man to collect the four Power Pellets and bring them to the Ghost Box. No Pac-Dots are present in this mode.
Demo[]
Accessed by moving down on the lefthand joystick. Plays a basic video demo of the standard Pac-Man mode.
Trivia[]
- The Eat & Run mode was later remade and featured in the Arcade Classics: Pac-Man handheld by Basic Fun (referred to as "Chase Mode" in the instruction manual), which was originally released in 2016.
- The Japanese release, Super Puck Monster, is sold as the "sequel" to Puck Monster, another handheld released by Gakken.
- Despite Super Puck Monster's "generic" branding, this variant of the game was officially licensed; as shown by it stating "© 1980 Namco Ltd." (in Japanese) on the front of the box. The game's name may have been changed due to complications with Tomy; which, due to different agreements in the region, did not apply in North America.
- The tabletop's side artwork is flipped in orientation on the left and right sides of the machine. The actual Bally Midway arcade machine merely uses the same facing side artwork on both sides of the cabinet.
- The machine's art assets solely show Pac-Man with red eyes and Inky with yellow eyes; the original machine uses inconsistent eye coloring in comparison.
- The Pac-Man Coleco Tabletop is one of the most popular pieces of 1980s U.S. Pac-Man merchandise, both at-the-time and with modern-day collectors.
Gallery[]
External links[]
- Playable emulated version of the game (Rev. 29) (archive.org)