4K Pacman

4KB Legacy

When Pac-Man isn't actually Pac-Man? But it's only 4Kb in size, so you'd be an idiot to demand more. 4k Pacman was released in 1995 by The Chaos Warriors and programmed by Edge, possibly around 1995 (my estimate). You know, I remember first seeing this "game" and wasn't too impressed, so I guess I was that idiot(!).

Use the cursor keys, not a joystick, to control our little Pac-Man. They are very sensitive, and you (ahem) may find real hardware is better. You get three lives, and hitting the space bar quits to the desktop. From the start, you will see how the ghosts try to get you. The AI is more like H-Mec than Pac-Man because the ghosts don't wander; instead, they blindly mirror your XY position. It's best to try to trap the ghosts rather than having them free to chase, but don't worry too much because it's really tough and (IMHO) quite impossible.

What a curious oddity, a tiny game compressed into the size of something a Vic-20 would run. An incredible achievement, and it might be worthwhile checking out the source. A programmer could easily alter the ghost AI and more. However, that guy isn't me, so I'll shut up and hope someone takes a stab at it.

• The game and source are included in the download via Atarimania and Demozoo.
• Of course, because 4K Pacman uses the Blitter, it goes straight into this list of Enhanced Games!

You've no idea how impressed I was with my performance here!!

This is the best I could do. Can you beat me?