Pac & Pal

Pac & Pal
Japanese flyer for the game.
Developer	Namco
Publisher	Namco (JP) Bally Midway (US, canceled) Sidam (France/Italy [?])
Series	Pac-Man series
Genres	Maze, Puzzle
Release date(s)	JP: July 30, 1983 US: 2006
Arcade system	Namco Super Pac-Man
Number of players	1-2 players
Input methods	4-way joystick, button

Pac & Pal (パック＆パル Pakku ando Paru) is an arcade game released exclusively in Japan by Namco. It is the fifth installment in the Pac-Man series.

Gameplay

Rather than building on the foundation of Pac-Man like previous sequels, Pac & Pal moreso follows the Super Pac-Man gameplay formula. The player must flip over Cards to unlock gates, which hold trapped Fruit inside. Unlike previous games, multiple types of fruit appear locked away in each level, ranging in point value from 50 to 5000 points.

New to this game is Pac-Man's "pal", Miru. She helps Pac-Man by collecting fruit alongside him. While this can be considered helpful for simply completing the level, every time Miru collects something instead of Pac-Man, the final level score decreases. For more skilled players, it is best to collect as much fruit as possible for the highest amount of points.

There is a large orange box in the maze's center, which Pac-Man can go in to hide from ghosts; nothing is really stopping the ghosts from going in themselves however, and they will follow him in if he is in their line of sight. As with previous games, hitting a ghost will lose a life, and the game is over when all lives are lost.

Occasionally there are bonus rounds (referred to as "Rest" in-game), in which Pac-Man must flip over as many cards as possible without flipping over the one Blinky is hiding under. Miru will appear under a card as well, which will multiply the round's final score if she is touched. These are completely randomized, and getting a perfect score is all a matter of luck.

The game is also the first Pac-Man title to feature music during gameplay, as previous games just had a never-ending siren playing in the background. The bonus rounds and high-score table have their own music tracks as well.

Power-Ups

This game ditches Power Pellets in exchange for five brand-new power-ups (or rather, 1 power-up with 5 looks), none of which were in previous installments. Every ability turns Pac-Man light blue when eaten, and allows him to shoot something out of his mouth. Two are found in each stage, which are both the same as each other. They include:

• Galaxian Boss - Gives Pac-Man the ability to temporarily stun the ghosts. A direct reference to the "capture" mechanic from Galaga.
• Rally-X - Pac-Man spits out smoke, which makes the ghosts' eyes water. A direct reference to the carsmoke from Rally-X and New Rally-X.
• Trumpet - Pac-Man's awful trumpet-playing makes the ghosts dizzy.
• Snowman - Ice shoots out from Pac-Man's mouth, which freezes the ghost.
• Pac-Replica - Pac-Man sends out a bunch of micro Pac-Men, which nibble on the top of ghosts' heads.

Scoring System

• Vulnerable Ghosts:
  • #1 in succession - 200 points.
  • #2 in succession - 400 points.
  • #3 in succession - 800 points.
  • #4 in succession - 1600 points.
• Power-Ups:
  • Galaxian Boss: 1000 points
  • 🏎️ Rally X: 1000 points
  • 🎺 Trumpet: 1000 points
  • ⛄ Snowman: 1000 points
  • Pac-Replica: 1000 points
• Fruit:
  • 🍒 Cherry: 50 points.
  • 🍓 Strawberry: 100 points
  • 🍊 Orange: 150 points
  • 🍎 Apple: 200 points
  • 🍈 Melon: 300 points
  • 🍋 Lemon: 400 points
  • 🍍 Pineapple: 500 points
  • 🔑 Key: 700-5000 points

Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp

Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp

In October 1983, Bally Midway planned to bring Pac & Pal stateside, renamed Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp. This version was identical to the regular game, but replaced Miru with Chomp-Chomp, Pac-Man's pet dog. It is unclear why the character was changed, but it may have just been to appeal more to American audiences.

The game was test marketed at several arcades, but ultimately was canceled after earning underwhelming profit. Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp was also planned for release in several European countries, and possibly entered full/larger production in the region, but there is very little information on these variants.

While only released (or planned for release) in overseas markets, Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp was seemingly developed by Namco of Japan; this is evident by unused graphics data in the ROM. The graphics credit Yasunori Yamashita, who worked on the original Pac & Pal; however, the credit graphics are exclusively in Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp, implying he produced both versions.

While no machines have surfaced, the game's ROM was dumped and is playable in emulators such as MAME. The dumped ROM is likely of a European version, due to it featuring Namco copyrights at the bottom instead of Midway's.

Home Ports

• Arcade1UP Machines
  • Many Arcade1UPs featuring Pac & Pal have been released (see this page for full list). The game has only been included as an extra on other Pac-Man cabinets, with no directly Pac & Pal-themed machine released so far.
• Nintendo Switch
  • Included in Pac-Man Museum +.
• PlayStation 3
  • Included in Pac-Man Museum.
• PlayStation 4
  • Included in Pac-Man Museum +.
• Plug & Play TV Games
  • Many different Plug & Plays featuring Pac & Pal have been released (see this page for full list), the earliest being the Super Pac-Man Collection from 2006.
• Wii
  • Included in Namco Museum Remix and Namco Museum Megamix.
• Windows PC
  • Three versions were released. The game was included in Namco History Volume 3, and would later be featured in Pac-Man Museum and Pac-Man Museum +.
• Xbox 360
  • Included in Pac-Man Museum.
• Xbox One/Xbox Series
  • Included in Pac-Man Museum +.

No home versions were released in the 1980s, possibly due to the game being more advanced than the other Pac-Man titles, making it harder to port. However, artwork of the game was used on the front covers of the NES, MSX and Game Boy ports of Pac-Man in Japan.

The first re-release of the game was in Namco History Volume 3, a Japan-exclusive PC compilation from 1998. The first American release of the game was on the Super Pac-Man Collection Plug & Play from 2006. All ports are based on the original Pac & Pal, with none being based on Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp.

Trivia

• Early concept sketches for Pac & Pal feature power-ups that do not appear in the final game. Some examples include a watermelon (that would let Pac-Man shoot out watermelon seeds), a banana (in which Pac-Man would spit out the banana peel), and an oil canister (which would grant Pac-Man flame breath, literally setting the ghosts on fire).
  • Additionally in these documents, Miru is shown to just be a regular ghost sprite with a bow (lacking her final design changes), and is named “Midori-chan”.
• Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp was mentioned in the booklet from the soundtrack Namco Arcade 80's, where it was misnamed as Pac-Man Chomp & Chomp in its description.
• Strangely, this game is listed in the history section of Pac-Man World 3, but Pac-Man's pal was named Chomp-Chomp after the unreleased Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp.
• In the instruction manual for the Pac-Land Fantasy Board Game, Chomp-Chomp is shown and is identified as "Pac & Pal’s American character"; bizarrely, not mentioning the more important detail that he appeared in the American version of Pac-Land.
• The high score theme from Pac & Pal seems to be a remix of the music from Sweet Licks, a Whac-A-Mole-like game released by Namco in 1981.
• The "Rest" theme was later remixed for the mobile port of Pac-Man Plus.

Gallery

Screenshots

Arcade (Pac & Pal)

Arcade (Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp)

Plug 'N Play (Jakks Pacific 4-in-1, 2006)

Wii (Namco Museum Remix)

Xbox 360 (Pac-Man Museum)

PC (Pac-Man Museum+)

Machine and Box Art

Pac & Pal Japanese tabletop machine.

Italian Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp machine, alongside Galaga (the marquee was replaced, but the control panel is intact).

Japanese Pac & Pal marquee.

U.S. Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp marquee.

Character Artwork

Pac-Man

Miru

Miru

Concept Artwork

Master copy of the Pac & Pal and Pac-Man (Famicom) promotional artwork

References

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