One here for the aficionados of the pill popping, ghost busting beachball with
a mouth. Personally I always preferred Amidar, but hey that's just me and I'm
clearly in the minority.
Question: Can I play arcade original Pac-Man on the Sony PS1?
Answer: Yup, you sure can. Not surprising really as Namco and the Sony
PS1 had a great gaming relationship back in the day and as Bandai Namco own
the rights to Pac-Man, he was bound to turn up on the PS1 platform in
one form or the other, or as it turns out, many different forms.
It's worth noting from a technical aspect that the screen resolution for any
Pac-Man game ported to the PS1 will not be correct vertically. The
arcade original Pac-Man used a rotate screen to give a resolution of
224 x 288. The PS1 outputted a video signal at 240p which means 240 vertical
lines. You can see where I'm going here... 288 pixels into 240 lines just
doesn't go, so the resolution of the games has to have been adjusted somewhere
in the port.
This post will cover both Official Releases and the very limited Homebrew
options for modded consoles, but as that would be a short post, I have also
compiled a list of other official Pac-Man related releases available
for the PS1.
OFFICIAL RELEASES
The Sony PS1 is a bit thin on the ground for official Pac-Man releases with just two
options for playing arcade original Pac-Man on this platform available and only as part of a
compilation or as a "Classic Mode" extra.
Namco Museum: Volume 1
PAL SCES-00243
NTSC-U SLUS-00215
NTSC-J SLPS-00107 / SLPS-91158
A collection of 6 arcade original ports including Toy Pop, Rally-X and New
Rally-X, Pole Position, Bosconian, Galaga and.. PAC-MAN!
All of these games have been ported over to run natively on the Sony PS1 CPU and do not use any emulation, although some areas of t'internet would suggest otherwise.The ports are pretty accurate with most of the bugs and quirks still in place.
All of these games have been ported over to run natively on the Sony PS1 CPU and do not use any emulation, although some areas of t'internet would suggest otherwise.The ports are pretty accurate with most of the bugs and quirks still in place.
Namco Museum Vol 1 - Cover, Manual and Disc
Namco Museum Vol 1 - Start Screen
Namco Museum Vol 1 - Game Menu
Namco Museum Vol 1 - Pac-Man In Game Screen
Pac-Man World: 20th Anniversary
PAL SCES-00934 / SCES-02277 / SCES-02278 / SCES-02279 / SCES-02280
NTSC-U SLUS-00439
NTSC-J SCPS-45445 / SLPS-02345
Whilst Pac-Man World develops the original arcade maze game into a full
3D world adventure, this release by default also contains a "Classic Mode"
option that doesn't need unlocking on the main menu which is the original
Pac-Man arcade game in all its glory.
It's essentially the exact same port of the original Pac-Man included on Namco Museum Volume 1 but it's a nice extra thrown in alongside the main game.
It's essentially the exact same port of the original Pac-Man included on Namco Museum Volume 1 but it's a nice extra thrown in alongside the main game.
Pac-Man World: 20th Anniversary - Cover, Manual and Disc
Pac-Man World: 20th Anniversary - Loading Screen
Pac-Man World: 20th Anniversary - Game Select Screen
Pac-Man World: 20th Anniversary - In Game Screen
HOMEBREW
Again, the Sony PS1 is a bit thin on the ground on options for playing homebrew releases of arcade original Pac-Man. There are a couple of possibilities but how practical they are remains to be seen.
On top of this, there are official releases above that are almost arcade perfect so the titles below may have interest for some, but they probably aren't the most viable options.
On top of this, there are official releases above that are almost arcade perfect so the titles below may have interest for some, but they probably aren't the most viable options.
PS1 MAME
If you enjoy playing games in slow motion, you could try playing the original
rom set on PS1 MAME.
Expect it to run at about quarter of the original speed though.
Unfortunately PS1 MAME is a port of MAME4ALL, which has no platform specific optimisations. It rely's on the platform having enough grunt to run a generic emulator, and this is where the PS1 is lacking.
Its an impressive feat, but not very practical in gaming terms.
Expect it to run at about quarter of the original speed though.
Unfortunately PS1 MAME is a port of MAME4ALL, which has no platform specific optimisations. It rely's on the platform having enough grunt to run a generic emulator, and this is where the PS1 is lacking.
Its an impressive feat, but not very practical in gaming terms.
PS1 IMBNES
It Might Be NES (IMBNES) is a fully featured NES emulator for the Sony PS1. The NES had an official Pac-Man release and a whole host of ROM hacks and unofficial Pac-Man related homebrew releases and these may be worth investigating.
OTHER OFFICIAL PAC-MAN RELATED RELEASES
Ok, so we've run out of options on how to play arcade original Pac-Man on the Sony PS1, so lets look at other Pac-Man related official releases that still allow you to get a taset of that sweet Pac-Man goodness...
Namco Museum: Volume 2 - Super Pac-Man On PAL and US releases only.
PAL SCES-00267
NTSC-U SLUS-00216
Namco Museum Volume 2 was kind of an odd release in that the games included differed depending on what region you bought the collecton in. All regions had Gaplus, Xevious, Mappy, Grobda, and Dragon Buster included but the PAL and NTSC-U releases also had Super Pac-Man which the NTSC-J version didn't, but the NTSC-J version had Cutie Q as an alternative to Super Pac-Man and also included a hidden game, Bomb Bee which the PAL and NTSC-U versions didn't.
I am guessing that this was due to the popularity of the original arcade counterparts in the above mentioned regions.
I am guessing that this was due to the popularity of the original arcade counterparts in the above mentioned regions.
Namco Museum Volume 2 - Cover
Namco Museum Volume 2 - Game Select Menu
Namco Museum Volume 2 - In Game Screen
Namco Museum: Volume 3 - Ms. Pac-Man
PAL SCES-00268
NTSC-U SLUS-00398
NTSC-J SLPS-00390 / SLPS-91160
No regional game changes or hidden games for certain people in this collection. The whole world gets to enjoy some Pac-Man related retroness.
Namco Museum: Volume 4 - Pac-Land
PAL SCES-00701
NTSC-U SLUS-00416
NTSC-J SLPS-00540 / SLPS-91161
And again, the same game line up for all regions and also a hidden game for all, Assault Plus.
Namco Museum 4 - Front Cover
|
Namco Museum 4 - Game Select Menu
|
Namco Museum 4 - In Game Screen 1
|
Namco Museum 4 - In Game Screen 2
|
Namco Museum: Volume 5 - Pac-Mania
PAL SCES-00702
NTSC-U SLUS-00417
NTSC-J SLPS-00705 / SLPS-91162
No regional changes. No hidden games. It does what it says on the cover and that is isometric Pac-Man for all.
Ms. Pac-Man: Maze Madness
Contains a "Classic Mode" option on the main menu, allowing you to play Arcade Original Ms. Pac-Man.
This port is exactly the same port as what is available on Namco Museum Volume 3.
Contains a "Classic Mode" option on the main menu, allowing you to play Arcade Original Ms. Pac-Man.
This port is exactly the same port as what is available on Namco Museum Volume 3.
Namco Anthology 2 - Pac-Attack
Ok so we are getting a bit further away from the source material... but it's still a Pac-Man related game.
Ok so we are getting a bit further away from the source material... but it's still a Pac-Man related game.
AND FINALLY...
Have I missed one? Probably... If I have then please let me know, and I'll add
it to the post.
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