This product is like new. At NexWave Games, like new means:
Additionally, all discs at NexWave Games are carefully inspected and assessed for quality. When discs arrive, we do not accept any that are so badly damaged that they are unlikely to work. We only accept discs with light scratches at most. Discs with scratches are then treated in our professional disc repair machine. By warming the disc and polishing it with soft brushes, these machines can remove a very thin layer from the disc. This removes the layer containing surface scratches and improves the disc’s readability. This ensures the disc works properly, even on consoles with ageing lasers that have difficulty reading games! Great news for the player.
Pac-Man for Nintendo NES
Pac-Man for Nintendo NES is a maze game in which you eat all the dots while four ghosts chase you. You see the entire playing field from above, with narrow corridors, junctions and a passage connecting the left and right edges. Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde do not all move in the same way. You therefore need to watch more than the nearest pursuer and think ahead to your next turn. A neglected corner containing a few dots can become difficult to reach later.
The four large Power Pellets temporarily reverse the chase. The ghosts become vulnerable and award increasing points when you eat several in succession. Their eyes then return to the centre of the maze. Fruit appearing along the way gives extra points, but taking a detour to reach it can put you in danger. The same corridors keep returning, while you have less and less time to follow a safe route calmly and find another open corner.
You control Pac-Man with the directional pad of a standard controller; the A and B buttons have no function during play. You can play alone or take turns with two players competing for the highest score. Two Pac-Mans never move through the same maze simultaneously. Each player has a separate score and lives. The original NES cartridge has no battery-backed saving or passwords for resuming an attempt after switching off. Each new session begins with another high score to aim for.
Region and language
Our Nintendo NES games are PAL editions, unless stated otherwise. This product contains a loose cartridge for the European market. A box is only included if explicitly stated in the product details. We note any different region in the product details. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
With Pac-Man for Nintendo NES, you receive a loose cartridge. A box and manual are not included unless we explicitly state otherwise in the product details. This is the standard way we supply this copy.
The history of Pac-Man
Namco introduced Pac-Man to Japanese arcades in 1980. Toru Iwatani devised the game, Shigeo Funaki handled the programming and Toshio Kai the sound. The first public test took place on 22 May, followed by the Japanese release in July. The game reached the United States in October. Its maze of dots and ghosts offered a different approach to arcade gaming from the spaceships and shooting battles filling many screens at the time.
The round yellow character soon developed a life outside the arcade. Hanna-Barbera made a television series and Buckner & Garcia released the song Pac-Man Fever. Meanwhile, the game series also grew. Ms. Pac-Man used changing mazes, while Super Pac-Man added features including large edible objects and a more powerful form. These sequels changed the rules in different ways, but the original chase remained a separate game and appeared on various home computers and consoles.
The NES release adapts that original gameplay to a television screen and a standard controller. The 1993 Namco edition displays the maze beside the score, lives and round information. This gives the screen a different layout from the tall monitor of an arcade cabinet. Later Pac-Man games also added jumping and platform adventures. This cartridge sticks to choosing junctions, saving Power Pellets and repeatedly trying to survive a longer sequence of mazes.
Similar games for Nintendo NES
Trog! for Nintendo NES also has you clear a playing field while enemies pursue you. You collect eggs instead of dots, and a pineapple temporarily turns you into a dinosaur capable of eating pursuers. Unlike Pac-Man, two players can move around the field simultaneously. You must also run home after collecting everything, so the route to the exit matters as much as the final item.
Clu Clu Land on Nintendo NES also involves exploring a maze and avoiding dangerous pursuers. Bubbles reveals hidden gold bars by moving between posts. Rather than steering directly at each junction as in Pac-Man, you grab posts to swing around them. The challenge therefore centres more on releasing at the right moment. An electric wave replaces Power Pellets as a way of temporarily neutralising enemies.
Like Pac-Man, Bomberman for Nintendo NES uses an overhead view with corridors and enemies restricting your movement. However, you use bombs to break open walls and defeat opponents before taking the exit. Pac-Man leaves the walls unchanged and offers only temporary resistance through Power Pellets. In Bomberman you must also avoid your own explosions; in Pac-Man a trap mainly arises when several ghosts block different entrances simultaneously.
Lode Runner on Nintendo NES combines collecting with evading pursuers, just like Pac-Man. Its gold is scattered across floors reached using ladders and overhead bars. You dig holes to delay guards, whereas Pac-Man can eat pursuers using Power Pellets. The side view means you also need to consider which height you will reach in Lode Runner. Pac-Man instead brings all its routes together on a single plane.
Wrecking Crew for Nintendo NES also asks you to work through a field without being hit by wandering enemies. Mario removes walls with his hammer instead of eating dots. This changes the ways of reaching the rest of the building, so choosing the wrong order can cause problems. Pac-Man leaves the corridors intact and focuses on chases. Both games reward checking awkward corners and escape routes in advance.
