PrinceWatercress plays Pac-Man (Atari 2600) - Part 1 of 8

It's now time for one of the most infamous Atari 2600 games ever made. 

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It's Pac-Man...almost. This game is not quite like the arcade game, and while the gist of the gameplay is the same, the experience is a bit different. The ghosts flash in order for all four of them to be seen at any time, and they also act a little differently. They even leave their box from the right side, not the top. The tunnel that takes you from one side of the screen to the other is only at the top and bottom center. The sounds in the game are nothing like those in the original arcade hit. Instead of dots, you have "digital wafers," and instead of fruits, you have Vitamins. (Yes, the game calls those things by those names.) The dots aren't even dots, they're lines, hence why they're called digital wafers. The scoring system is different and everything only gives you a tenth of the amount of points it would give you in the arcade. The screen is much wider than in the arcade mode. The game itself was also made with extreme memory limitations due to Atari skimping on the manufacturing costs in order to ensure they make the most money, and while Atari did just that, the game is infamous for being the way that it is. Even the commercial for the Atari 2600 port is infamous for being Atari's famous jingle as well as having no gameplay, and was more Atari blowing their own horn than anything else. (Subsequent and international commercials have gameplay, however.)

The joystick allows you to move Pac-Man, while the fire button does nothing. You have to eat all of the digital wafers as well as the Power Pills, which weaken the ghosts and allow you to eat them as long as they are blue, to continue to the next screen. Whenever you complete a level, you also get an extra life. The game select switch allows you to switch between sixteen different game modes. While there are eight, you switch between the one- and two-player variations of a game mode before going to the next one. With the difficulty switches, A/Expert makes the Power Pills last half as long as they would on B/Novice.

For Game Mode 1, Pac-Man moves fast, while the ghosts start at a jogging speed. As you clear levels, the ghosts will slowly get faster and faster, even on the easiest game modes. Different game modes have Pac-Man moving either slowly or quickly, while there are four starting speed variations for the ghosts.

When playing, watch the ghosts closely, and be ready to eat a Power Pill if you move into a corner, as the ghosts can trap you in the circle-like corridors that make up the maze easily and can easily get around. Also, eating all of the digital wafers around the ghosts' lair is essential, as they can be the hardest ones to get.