Pac & Pal (パック＆パル Pakku ando Paru) is an maze game in the Pac-Man series, originally developed and manufactured by Namco and released in 1983.
Unlike other Pac-Man games, Pac & Pal expands on the gameplay of Super Pac-Man. Outside of a location testing phase by Bally Midway, the game did not see an official release in the United States until 2006.
Pac & Pal is a maze game where the player controls Pac-Man as he eats all the items in a maze while avoiding GhostsBlinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde. Unlike previous Pac-Man titles, Pac & Pal follows a similar gameplay formula to Super Pac-Man rather than the original Pac-Man.
Pac-Man's goal is to eat all the items within the maze to complete the level. Unlike previous titles, Pac-Man does not eat Pac-Dots, but rather a variety of fruits and items. At the beginning of a round, all the items are sealed behind several walls. By running over one of the several cards placed in the maze, the card will flip over and it will unlock the walls of the indicated item within the maze, allowing Pac-Man to eat the item. The point values for each item vary, depending on the type. Pac-Man can flip over three cards simultaneously; Pac-Man can not flip other cards unless the other items are collected. Pac-Man must also once again avoid ghosts attempting to catch him. If a ghost catches Pac-Man, he loses one life. The game ends when the player has no lives remaining by the time a ghost catches Pac-Man. Extra Pac-Man are awarded at 30,000 and 80,000 points (though the thresholds will alter depending on the arcade cabinet's DIP switch settings).
Alongside the ghosts returning with their previous behaviors in this game, Pac & Pal introduces Pac-Man's "pal", Miru. Miru wanders around the maze and collects available items. When Miru comes across an item, she will carry it with her and circle around the ghost maze. When Miru enters the Ghost House with an item, she will collect the item from the maze and it will disappear. Miru also slows down while carrying an item. While the player can have Miru collect items and help Pac-Man finish the level faster, having Miru collect an item will reduce the point bonus awarded at the end of each round. In order to obtain the perfect bonus for a round, Pac-Man must eat all items within the round before Miru collects an item.
Unlike previous titles, the maze in Pac & Pal features no Warp Tunnels. Below the Ghost House is an orange tunnel that obscures the view of Pac-Man and the Ghosts, though this path slows down any Ghosts that enter it. The Ghosts are able to enter the tunnel, though they will never proceed through the north path of the tunnel.
In place of Power Pellets are now a variety of different Power-Up items that allow Pac-Man to attack the ghosts. Though the Power-Ups vary (see the Power-Ups section below), each Power-Up functions identically and are always placed between the sides of the Ghose House. Power-Up items have S symbols marked on their card rather than a miniature version of the item. When Pac-Man collects a Power-Up item, he will turn Cyan and will gain the ability to shoot an attack projectile by using the Attack button; if a ghost is hit by the attack range, an increasing amount of bonus points are awarded and the ghost will be stunned in-place for a few seconds, allowing Pac-Man to pass by them without harm. Stunned ghosts will flash white when they are about to return to normal. Though Pac-Man can attack ghosts in his powered-up state, he is still vulnerable to ghost attacks in this state and will lose a life if caught. A warning sound with Pac-Man flashing back to his yellow color indicates the effects of the Power-Up about to wear off. If Pac-Man collects another Power-Up while he is still under the Power-Up effects, the effect is prolonged and the player will not lose their consecutive ghost scores.
At the third round and every fourth round following, a "Rest" bonus round occurs where Pac-Man must flip cards with various dollar signs before unveiling a Blinky card. Revealing dollar signs ($) from cards will increase the bonus value awarded by 100 points, displayed inside the Ghost House. If a Miru card is revealed, the value of the bonus points awarded at the end is doubled. The bonus round ends if a Blinky card is revealed (though this will also count as a dollar sign card). The player can earn up to 10,000 bonus if all cards are revealed. The bonus rounds' Miru and Blinky cards are determined based on the player's score.
Compared to previous Pac-Man titles, Pac & Pal features several background themes in place of the ghost ambience from previous games.
The game ends when all of Pac-Man's lives are lost by the time a ghost catches Pac-Man. The game displays the records of the top 5 highest scores on the attract screen. If the player's score reaches the top 5 highest scores, they will be asked to enter their initials at the end of a game.
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 an attack projectile or beam out of his mouth to stun Ghosts. Two are found in each stage, which are both the same as each other. Depending on the round, there are five different versions of the power-ups:
Galaxian Boss - Pac-Man shoots microwave beams, and makes the ghosts spin out of control.
Gives Pac-Man the ability to temporarily stun the ghosts. A reference to the "capture" mechanic from Galaga.
Rally-X Race Car - Pac-Man spits out smoke, which makes the ghosts' eyes water. A reference to the carsmoke from Rally-X and New Rally-X.
Trumpet - Pac-Man emits musical notes which make the ghosts dance.
Snowman - Pac-Man shoots out freezing mist, which traps the ghost in a block of ice.
Pac-Replica - Pac-Man spits out a group of micro Pac-Men, which nibble on the top of ghosts' heads.
Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp as seen in a sales flyer from Namco America, featuring several screenshots and a game logo.
In October 1983, Bally Midway intended to distribute a modified version of Pac & Pal under the name of Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp. While the gameplay of Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp remains unchanged from Pac & Pal, Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp replaces the graphics of Miru with Pac-Man's pet dog, Chomp-Chomp; a character originally introduced in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series.
Rare photo of a Bally Midway Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp arcade cabinet as seen in Namco Community Magazine NG (Quarterly Issue No. 3, October 1983).
Midway test-marketed Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp at several arcades in the US, but ultimately canceled full production of the machine; likely caused by the game earning underwhelming profit. Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp was also released in several European countries, being published by Sidam; oddly, the European release was titled "Pac-Man Chomp & Chomp". The European-distributed machine(s) possibly entered full/larger production compared to North America; however, there is very little information on these variants.[1][2]
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.[3]
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. Pac-Man and Chomp-Chomp has not seen any form of re-release outside of its arcade run.
Development[]
An early design plan for Pac & Pal was shown on an Arcade Archives livestream in 2022; it was hosted by Yasunori Yamashita and Yuriko Keino, two members of the original development staff, alongside Bandai Namco developer Kazuhito Udetsu.[4] In the livestream, early concept sketches for Pac & Pal are shown, which showcase the following:
Early designs for Miru, from "誰がパックマン を描いたのか 山下正 / Who Illustrated Pac-Man? Tadashi Yamashita"
Seemingly as the game did not have a proper title yet, the documents start with a page reading "Namennayo" (なめんなよ); a somewhat vulgar term akin to "don't screw with me". This name was also used for a brand of parodic cat images around this same time period.
In the earliest design sketches, Miru is shown to just be a regular ghost sprite with a bow (lacking her final design changes), and is named "Midori-chan". A later set of designs (not shown in the aforementioned livestream) were created by female designers Mayumi Akiyama and Chizuru Taga, which led to the final look of the Miru character.[5]
There are numerous concepts for 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).[6]
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.
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. This was also the game's first proper non-Japanese release.
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 +.
Unlike other Pac-Man games, Pac & Pal did not see a re-release until the Japan-exclusive Namco History Volume 3 compilation for Microsoft Windows in 1998. The game was released for the first time in the United States via Jakks Pacific's Super Pac-Man CollectionPlug & Play in 2006.
Trivia[]
Pac & Pal uses the modified sprites of Pac-Man and the Ghosts previously used in Pac-Man Plus, which was released one year before this game.
The maze has five paths where the ghosts can only move in one direction, as seen in the Arcade Archives stream.
Similar to the original Pac-Man, the maze in Pac & Pal has five one-way paths where the ghosts can only travel in one direction.
The Blinky card's location within the "Rest" bonus rounds is determined by the player's last two digits of their current score, as seen in the Arcade Archives stream.
In the "Rest" bonus rounds, the Blinky card's location is determined by the second-to-last digit of the player's current score. For each card, each card is assigned its own value in a numbered order (the numbered order is 10, 20, 30 and so on, with the last one being 00). Cards' values are placed in the determined order with cards placed from the top left to bottom right. Depending on the player's last two digits of the score, the Blinky card will be assigned to the associated card's value.
Unlike other Pac-Man titles, Pac & Pal's original arcade run did not see wide distribution outside of Japan.
The 1st-place high score theme is an arrangement of the music from Sweet Licks, a Whac-A-Mole-like game released by Namco in 1981.
Pac & Pal was originally released in standalone tabletop cabinets, though the game was also distributed as a conversion kit for Super Pac-Man boards.[7]
Though Pac & Pal did not see release in the United States until 2006, Miru would appear in some localized games such as Namco Museum Vol. 4.
The game was also mentioned in the history sections of all Namco Museum games released for the PlayStation.
Artwork originally created for the flyer of Pac & Pal was later repurposed as general promotional artwork for the Pac-Man series of games, most notably being used on the Famciom, MSX and Game Boy ports of the original Pac-Man in Japan.
Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp was mentioned in the booklet from the soundtrack Namco Arcade 80's; much like the Sidam release, it was mislabeled Pac-Man Chomp & Chomp in its description.
Pac & Pal is listed in the "history" section of Pac-Man World 3; despite using the Pac & Pal game name, the section mentions Chomp-Chomp as the companion character instead of Miru.
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 relevant detail that he appeared in the American version of Pac-Land.
The "Rest" theme was later remixed for the mobile port of Pac-Man Plus.
Though upright cabinet models for Pac & Pal were never produced in the game's original arcade release, Pac-Man Museum + features a newly created upright cabinet model, with a form similar to that of the original Pac-Man cabinet.
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.
European Pac-Man & Chomp-Chomp machine, alongside Galaga (the marquee was replaced, but the control panel is intact).
Galaxian Boss: 1000 points
