Pacman On E's

Pac-Man? Again? Yawn... boring!!

Yes, there are already lots of cracking Pacman games for the best 16-Bit computer on the planet, so how does Pacman On E's differ? Well, it's been developed specifically for the enhanced Atari STe and, unlike so many lost shareware titles, this is actually the registered version that comes with lots of cool gameplay/aesthetic extras which will impress!

The Pacman game is timeless but this version takes the familiar genre to a whole new level thanks to its furious speeds. There are 100 levels, zany visuals, funky music and a range of stereo sound effects: like the Road Runner's "meep meep" and the buzzer from Family Fortunes. Digital Dreams has made use of the STe's extra colours, Blitter and DMA Audio. Interestingly, the Function Keys can be used to change the bass, treble and volume (and more).

Credit:

Stuart Innes - Programming/Graphics

Robert Thompson - Graphics/Sfx

Alasdair Macmillan - Graphics

Come on, play the game

PacMan On E's can be enjoyed solo and you'll find it to be the most hilariously-challenging take on the original concept. It's tripped out and stuffed with colourful visuals and a bucket load of whacky sound effects. The action and fast and exciting so never gets boring, which is kinda how the original does get after a while...

Best of all is the simultaneous two-player support especially when everyone is hunting for the power-ups. These offer a wide variety of silly effects and my video recording shows both myself and my daughter playing it together in coop. Absolutely superb fun - but - when she died she decided to cheat by covering my eyes with her hands. Hmm!

Download me!

You can grab this belting Pac-Man game from most ST websites but Peter, aka 8BitChip, has adapted the registered version which you can download from my Dropbox (whilst his website is currently offline as I type). My personal greetings to Stuart Innes, Robert Thomson and Alasdair Macmillan for this wonderful game - awesome work fellas!!

Crackman In The Search For His Dealer

What a belting name!!

Crackman was released for the Atari STe by Teenage [Pung] and has one of the most idiotic storylines I've ever heard - make sure you read the docs. Okay, I'm sure you've already guessed, Crackman is a PacMan clone but is also one of the most challenging I have ever played. Well, that's an understatement actually...

The maps are huge with a crafty design but it's the ghosts themselves that cannot fail to impress with insanely intelligent AI. This dictates practice before considering matching wits as their AI isn't like previously seen, it's more like Lode Runner. My first game almost ended in tears - I needed many more attempts before recording a video.

Along with the crazy storyline are a few surprises like mines, hidden walls and power pad support. I love the ghosts and our little pill-popper has a full set of teeth but my favourite is when he dies and turns into a puddle of gore. The Atari STe is used to great effect with silky smooth 50fps hardware scrolling and superb DMA audio.

Everyone knows Pac-Man but if you thought it was boring then take a look at this - I dare you!! Is it better than Crapman? I don't know... but what I do know is that we have yet another excellent Pac-Man game!!

CRAPMAN

Crapman was originally featured within the Synergy megademo and later released as a standalone product in 1993. Most Atarians rate this as one of the best Pac-Man and it's obvious why with spot-on perfect gameplay: those pesky ghosts are clever and a cunning level design help make this extremely challenging.

The graphics are marvellous and the Scavenger music is just perfect - gorgeous and timeless! Crapman may indeed have a silly name but it's a fantastic twist on the original idea and immensely addictive. Right, I cannot stress this enough, stop what you're doing and play this game right now. Quite possibly the best Pacman clone ever?

LINKS

 - Download Crapman game from the Demozoo website.
 - The Synergy Megademo is one of the best Atari ST demos so download it.

 - I also recorded a few more videos from the superb Synergy:

1. Unfinished Demo
2. Megademo Music Disk
3. DBA #6 Intro
4. Megademo - Symbiosys
5. Megademo - Credits Screen

Mac Pan

Mac Pac, err, Pac-Man? What?

After yesterday's awesome (but mind-blowing!) technical flight sim I needed something a little less taxing on my old brain cells. So, I'm taking an easier route today and playing a Pac-Man clone called Mac Pan. Weird name and there are already lots of PacMan games but this one is more vanilla, so let's get pill-popping and ghost munching!

Mac Pan was released in 1987 by Richard Beith and works in ST High resolution. There are a few integrated features that I really liked: hold down the fire button and you can temporally increase the yellow guy's speed. Hang on, he's not yellow anymore! Anyhow, the game's speed can be tinkered with in the preference. The graphics and sounds are pretty good plus there is support for simultaneous 2-players.

It's not the best PacMan game I've played but I still enjoyed it and being able to choose the game's speed is a superb idea. It's easy to imagine German office workers in the 80s playing Mac Pan during their lunch break. Monochrome users should jump up & down with excitement because this is an excellent clone of the classic.

Downloads are available using Old Games Finder.

Video Games 1

Andrei Ellman, Wacko Software, created a game made from three classics: Pong, Space Invaders and Pac-Man. But this release is different as all three games are playable at the same time. Yep, you heard correctly!

Pong is controlled by holding the fire button and moving up/down.
Pac Man is initially quite confusing so read the docs within the download!
Space Invaders is easy, left/right moves and pushing up/down fires the gun.

The controls are odd and things get weird when all running everything at once! However, there's only so much my tiny brain could cope with and I found that I could play two games at once. I had no chance with three! Visually, it kinda works well but if you're struggling then you can alter each game's appearance using the numeric pad. Also, there's an option to invert colours which makes everything look ugly but it's much better on the eyes.

I think Andrei was one crazy, mixed-up kid who had a good laugh when coding this. Don't take it too seriously and practice with the controls because Video Games 1 is ridiculously entertaining. You will love this maddening game(s)!!!

PacMania

Let's pop pills & chase ghosts!

Pac-Mania was released in 1989 by Grandslam and is based on the arcade classic which was a nice conversion and generally well-received at the time. This new "3D" game saw our pill-popper change from an overhead 2D perspective to a fancy isometric viewpoint and, because the play area was so large, it now scrolled.

Pacman himself had an upgrade too by having the ability to jump - even though he has no legs! Sadly, the Atari ST version suffered a smaller screen because it lacked hardware scrolling and featured a status panel as a result. Don't get me wrong, something had to give but the game came with smooth scrolling and wasn't a lame port.

Here is a screenshot of the original ST game (note, I've left the top/bottom borders in for a reason) ...

Gee, I wonder how an Atari STe would have coped?

Well, I'm glad you asked! Entering into the 16-Bit arena is Samuel (aka Zamuel_A) with a new upgrade that is specifically designed to make maximum use of the Atari STe and its lovely enhanced hardware. First of all, the gameplay now takes place in overscan and flows along at 50fps thanks to the hardware scrolling.

But that's not all, the Blitter co-processor handles all the sprites and the DMA audio hardware plays the sampled sound effects with our sweet YM2149 banging out chiptunes - better than Tracker MODs any day of the week!! Technically, this is far beyond impressive and I'm sure Samuel has utilised every part of the computer?

So now, take a look at the screenshot above and then check out the Atari STe game below...

The CryptO'pinion?

PacMania was a good game and decent conversion that is both impressive and enjoyable. However, having said that Samuel has completely blown away the original with his upgrade and transformed our yellow friend for the 21st-century retro gamer. It's impossible not to be impressed by Samuel's dedication and hard work.

A fascinating revamp of the arcade favourite and more enjoyable than it ever was. Absolutely superb!!

Downloads are available on Atari-Forum! and here's another video I recorded.

H-Mec II

H Mec II carries on from where the first game nicely Jon and Sally Garry and appears to be a version of Pac-Man for the Atari STe. However, it's very different thanks to the monster AI which makes this more of a game of chase. The graphics are excellent and make use of the hardware scrolling, Blitter, and all those extra colours. Music is by a whole host of famous people like Tao, Big Alec, Count Zero and more. Timeless and utterly stunning tunes.

I could say that this is one of the better PacMan games out there but it's not. Sure, H-Mec 2 looks like PacMan and there are pills to nosh, but it actually plays differently when being chased around a maze by angry monsters. It's more like Lode Runner and pretty darn addictive too. You will love every second of this - it's a cracker!!

So waste no more idle time and get this downloaded from Atari Mania right now!