Pac-Man Collection

For other uses of Pac-Man Collection, see Pac-Man Collection (disambiguation).

Pac-Man Collection (パックマンコレクション Pakkuman Korekushon) is a compilation of four Pac-Man games, developed by Mass Media and released in 2001 by Namco Hometek for the Game Boy Advance. It was released as a counterpart to the Game Boy Advance version of Namco Museum.

Games[]

The featured games in Pac-Man Collection include:

Pac-Man (1980)
Pac-Mania (1987) (Japanese version)
Pac-Attack (1993) (Namco Anthology 2 “Classic” version)
Pac-Man Arrangement (1996)

The games included in Pac-Man Collection appear to be custom ports rather than using emulation. It is unknown if the games were ported via some form or source code, or if they were recreated from scratch. Some of the games feature heavily cut down music tracks in order to save space (particularly in Pac-Mania). The titles themselves play closely to the originals, albeit using washed-out colors and having altered graphics for some, notably the original Pac-Man.

The included version of Pac-Man is based on the common "Namco Museum" port of the game, which originates from Namco Museum Vol. 1. Similarly to the original Game Boy/Game Boy Color versions of the game, Pac-Man can be played either in a full-screen view with rather small graphics, or across a scrolling screen with full-size graphics.

The compilation has options for changing the difficulty of the games (with the exception of Pac-Attack), such as increasing/decreasing the number of lives. Hints and tips are also included for each game. Unlike some earlier handheld releases, two-player modes are not included.

Trivia[]

Pac-Man Collection was seemingly first announced under the name of "Pac-Man Advanced", alongside a Ms. Pac-Man Advanced and Namco Museum Advanced. It seems that this set of three announced titles were consolidated into two releases instead, being Pac-Man Collection and Namco Museum for the GBA.
- Additionally, some early news coverage of the game states its title to be "Pac-Man Fever";^[1] this may have been confusion with the later 2002 game.
This game was the ninth best-selling game for the Game Boy Advance, and the sixth best-selling in North America. It sold an estimated 3 million copies worldwide. Namco Museum for Game Boy Advance would sell in similarly high numbers.
Pac-Man Collection was re-released on the Wii U Virtual Console in 2014. The Virtual Console release was released shortly following the cancellation of the Wii U port of Pac-Man Museum, and its release was likely for this reason.
- The Virtual Console release was delisted alongside the closure of the Nintendo eShop for Wii U in 2023.
The Pac-Mania logo in the menu is different between the Japanese and American versions; with the Japanese release using the proper Namco version, and the American release using a logo resembling that of the Sega Genesis Pac-Mania port.
Unused code in the game files indicate the collection was intended to have 2 player support for Pac-Man Arrangement and Pac-Attack, notably having nearly-complete functionality for both games.^[2]
The American box art for the game is seemingly based on the posing of the 3D "master model" of Pac-Man, a wax sculpture created internally by Namco in 1998.
Some text headings in the U.S. and European instruction manuals are written in Crackman, a fan-made Pac-Man font.
Despite not being labeled as a developer or publisher of the game, the company Majesco was reportedly involved with Pac-Man Collection's (U.S.) production, possibly for later reprints of the game. This is only verifiable through Majesco's 2005 tax filings,^[3] and several internet listings labeling the game "Majesco Pac-Man Collection".

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

Artwork[]

References[]

[1] ttps://web.archive.org/web/20020815091418/pocket.ign.com/articles/093/093731p1.html

[2] ttps://twitter.com/nensondubois_/status/1525915111105380352

[3] ttps://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1076682/0000950136-05-000489.txt

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