Pac-Man Museum is a compilation of Pac-Man games, developed by Mine Loader Software and published by Bandai Namco Games in 2014.
The game was delisted from digital retailers on July 20, 2020, though it was later followed by a sequel titled Pac-Man Museum +, featuring most of this game's titles.
Games[]
Pac-Man Museum features 9 (10 if Ms. Pac-Man is counted) games from the Pac-Man series. All games except Pac-Man Championship Edition have borders added to each of their displays. Most games featured within the collection are based on their original releases.
- Pac-Man (1980)
- Ms. Pac-Man (1982) (Namco Museum Battle Collection version)
- Ms. Pac-Man was first released as free DLC until March 31, 2014; it later became an additional $4.99 purchase.
- Super Pac-Man (1982)
- Pac & Pal (1983)
- Pac-Land (1984) (Japanese version)
- Pac-Mania (1987)
- Pac-Attack (1993) (Namco Anthology 2 “Classic” version)
- Pac-Man Arrangement (2005)
- Pac-Man Championship Edition (2007)
- Pac-Man Battle Royale (2011)
Upon finishing a game or getting a game over in one of the games, the game will present a player with a newly added results screen detailing the player's statistics throughout their play session. In addition to the results screen, the player is able to change game options for all games (minus Pac-Attack and Pac-Man Championship Edition, which have no game options) and view online rankings of other players' scores between each game. To qualify in a game's ranking board, the player must play the games under the default settings for each game.
Stamps[]
Pac-Man Museum features an achievement system in the form of stamps. For each of the games (minus Ms. Pac-Man), there are 8 different stamps that can be unlocked. When the player earns a stamp, an item or character will be unlocked and will be displayed in the Pac Room. For completing a game's full stamp set, the player will earn a medal for said game, appearing in the Pac Room.
Pac Room[]
Screenshot of the Pac Room mode.
Through the main menu, a peek of the Pac Room is seen, taking place in one of the Maze High School dorms in Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures. The camera can be rotated across the room while in the main menu, though the player can view the room in full screen by selecting the Pac Room option in the main menu. Features in the Pac Room are unlocked by earning stamps within the games. The player can view their full list of unlocked items and characters via the Item List.
Pals[]
Trivia[]
- Pac-Man Museum features several changes made to the original games:
- With the exception of Pac-Attack and Pac-Man Battle Royale, all games lose their multiplayer functionality.
- As with other Bandai Namco re-releases at the time, the copyright disclaimers for each game are revised to reflect the name of "Namco Bandai Games Inc.".
- Because of the presentation, the attract sequences for Pac-Man, Super Pac-Man, Pac-Land and Pac-Mania cannot be seen during regular gameplay.
- Ms. Pac-Man, which features a different presentation compared to the other games in the collection, is the only arcade Pac-Man title in the compilation to retain the attract sequence.
- Ms. Pac-Man features the following differences:
- Ms. Pac-Man's start sequence features a starting menu that is similar to the one seen in various Namco collections released within the 2000s such as Namco Museum Battle Collection and the Xbox Live Arcade release of the game for Xbox 360.
- The attract sequence's lightboard flashes slower than the original.
- The game features a significant amount of differences within the audio; the audio is sampled rather than emulated. The sound also features lower tones for jingles, unusually louder ghost ambience noise (which remains at a fixed state instead of changing as the game progresses) and Power Pellet/ghost eye sound effects that loop earlier than they do in the original version.
- Ms. Pac-Man's copyright date is listed as 2005 instead of 1981/1982, seemingly as it is based on the port featured in Namco Museum Battle Collection (which was also released in 2005).
- In Pac-Land, the cross on top of the church building seen next to the "BREAK TIME" sign is removed, similar to the previous international releases of the game.
- Pac-Man Arrangement, while being based on the port of the game featured in Namco Museum Virtual Arcade, features several changes:
- Similar to previous ports of the game, the title screen is static and does not feature animated Pac-Man and Ghost frames.
- The
- The Pac-Man Museum version of Pac-Man Arrangement notably removes many save features, increasing the difficulty and streamlining the presentation to an arcade-like presentation:
- The ability to save the current game upon exiting the game or getting a game over is removed. Exiting the game or getting a Game Over will not save the player's progress and force them to restart the game from the first round.
- The ability to continue the game is removed; a Game Over will result instantly upon losing all lives.
- The Free Play mode is removed entirely.
- Like previous ports of the game, the credits sequence is absent from this version.
- Pac-Man Championship Edition erroneously features the Clyde and Blinky error, despite the original release never having featured the naming error. The game also features audio balancing that is different from the original version.
- Because of the presentation of the menus and features within Pac-Man Museum, all title screen options (with the exception of the Play Game option) are removed to accommodate the changes.
- Pac-Man Museum is one of the last Pac-Man games to use the Namco publishing label. Following Bandai Namco Games' restructuring to Bandai Namco Entertainment later in 2014, the Namco label was retired and all future Pac-Man games would then exclusively use the Bandai Namco Entertainment branding.
- Versions of Pac-Man Museum for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS were in development, but were later cancelled due to "delayed development".[1]
- Pac-Man Collection and Namco Museum for the Game Boy Advance saw Virtual Console re-releases on Wii U days prior to the release of Pac-Man Museum, likely intended as an alternative for the cancellation of the ports.
- The game's scheduled release date was February 26, 2014, but it released one day earlier on Steam and the North American PlayStation Store.
- The game was delisted from digital stores on July 20, 2020, alongside several Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures games. No official reason was given to the delisting.
- Though the game is delisted on all platforms, the Ms. Pac-Man DLC remains available for purchase on the Xbox Store.
- It is assumed that Ms. Pac-Man was made a separate DLC due to the ongoing legal issues regarding the game.
- One of the items in the Pac Room, the Arcade Machine, is modeled after the Pac-Man's Arcade Party cabinet as it appears in the Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures TV series.
- The Pac-Man's Arcade Party machine is referred to in-game as "a historic arcade cabinet". Strangely, as Pac-Man's Arcade Party was only around four years old when Pac-Man Museum was released, it is believed the labeling of "historic" was to imply that the Ghostly Adventures series takes place in the future.
- Several items that can be obtained for the Pac Room are figures that are modeled after the Space Fighter and aliens from Galaga. Their appearance is similar to how they appear in Pac-Man's dorm within the Ghostly Adventures TV series.
- As the player earns stamps, the music in the Pac Room gradually extends with new segments, based on other Pac-Man games. These include the main theme from Pac-Land, the Beginner and Novice mode theme from the Namco Anthology 2 "enhanced" version of Pac-Attack, and the World 1 theme from the 1996 version of Pac-Man Arrangement, despite the latter two games not appearing in the collection at all.
